Chapter One
The moon was barely up when the post carrier arrived, bearing a parcel so large that the driver struggled to lift it. In the graceful, distinctive script of the address, Lady Evastany Glostrum recognised the elegant handwriting of her friend Ynara Sanfaer. She waved the postman inside and signed the paperwork with a smile, though she felt considerably puzzled.
She had recently dispatched a letter to Elder Sanfaer, requesting an urgent meeting. Ynara lived in Glinnery, a Daylands province where darkness never came. Herself a resident of the Darklands, Eva could not comfortably travel to Glinnery; her largely nocturnal eyes could not bear the glare of the sun. As such, she had expected Ynara to come to her.
Instead her friend had sent a parcel. It took Eva some minutes of work
