Since Esmera was abandoned on a stranger's doorstep as a baby, the only person who has looked out for her is herself.
Until a lark starts visiting her, leaving behind exotic flowers and iridescent pebbles that the internet doesn't recognise.
Esmera...
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The air dropped by a few degrees around Esmera. There was no sunlight to melt the frosty breaths of the snow capping the mountains, no walls to shield her from it.
Esmera shivered as she opened her eyes to find herself, her friends and their familiars standing at the edge of Parnakshi as Anjarah had requested, looking out at a vague outline of mountains against the darkening heavens. The sky was bare of jewellery now that the sun had set, but soon the stars would arrive to embellish it.
Tauram's arm tightened around Esmera, as steady and solid as their footing was precipitous. He must be as nervous about the valley gaping below them as she was, so deep that all that could be seen of it was darkness. With just one wrong step, it would swallow them.
"Come." Anjarah beckoned them after her.
Tauram released Esmera, but she grabbed his hand. He raised his eyebrows. She needed to hold onto something to anchor her to the earth rather than the air, but that wasn't the full truth.
The full truth was that she liked the solid warmth of Tauram Morghis's hand in hers for a reason she couldn't explain.
She said nothing to answer the question in his eyes, only pulled him after Anjarah.
The town buzzed with life and sound. Little of the festivities could be seen from the outskirts, but Esmera could hear the townspeople as if she was among them. She could hear the plates and glasses clinking against tables. She could hear feet thudding and hands clapping as people danced. She could even hear voices murmuring stories to sleepy-eyed children before the sounds drowned her, engulfing all her senses until she broke free of them.
She and Tauram followed Anjarah along the city's rim, beyond where Parnakshi's light reached. Lundas bounded after them while Samier led the way as he usually did. They came to a set of steep stone stairs leading down the mountainside and into the infinite darkness.
Anjarah started down them, her feet steady as if she had descended these stairs at least a hundred times before. Maybe she had, and maybe the habit had made her fearless. Esmera gulped, but with Tauram behind her, with all the questions they both needed answers to, she had no choice but to follow Anjarah into the gloom. This was no place for fear, not when the alternative was the destruction of a kingdom.
They arrived on solid ground that was walled off from the sheer drop into the valley. It felt almost like Esmera was inside a cup. She let out a breath now that she didn't see her life flash before her eyes with every step.
Anjarah retreated into the shadow of a rocky ledge, fumbling about at her feet until she snatched up a lantern. She took a matchstick from her pocket and struck it against the rocky wall. When it illuminated to life, she lit the lantern's wick. It was browned as if it had been used before. Maybe Anjarah did come here as often as Esmera expected.
Without a word, she slipped into the cave mouth that stretched open behind her, dark and endless. Esmera and Tauram took the cue and trailed after her.
Now there was no light, just a halo of brightness around the lantern that turned Anjarah into a silhouette Esmera could follow. She started as a pair of silver eyes stared out at her. She blinked, and they disappeared like a hallucination or a quick-footed creature.
