THE WITCHLING: Tierra Firme Book Two

PROLOGUE

I WAS DEAD.

As I slowly regained my consciousness, I could smell again the stink in the air caused by several weeks of imprisonment and torture, the heaviness of it stemming from dark, painful emotions. This smell was so familiar now, the last I would remember of a glorious life... was what I was thinking before I thought I died.

I felt thirsty, but not as gravely as before I lost consciousness. Pero... may mas mahalaga akong napansin sa aking sarili.

Bakit tumitibok pa rin ang puso ko?

Something was wrong. I was dead. My heart couldn't be beating anymore.

I slowly opened my eyes. I realized what the iron-taste on my dry mouth was. My heart thudded faster, and my sluggish brain started piecing things together to form a bitter-sweet picture.

The blurred image of a petite, young woman standing by the collapsed entrance of the cave.

I thought I was dreaming then.

*Noooo!*

Too weak... too weak still to speak. But not dying. Not dying anymore.

My eyes were not almost blind any longer. I could clearly see the inside of the steel cage where me and my brothers lay dying before the queen, who now lay slumped beside me, pulverized the cave door and the cell's chains to rescue us.

The image of her standing there, so little yet so powerful... and the most beautiful vision I had ever seen, had blurred before I lost my sight.

Before I lost all else.

I thought I died when everything turned black.

Pero nililibot ko ang aking tingin at nakikita ko ang bakas ng dugo sa mga labi ng aking mga kapatid na nasa mga labi ko rin.

Ang natitikman kong bakal na lasa sa aking bibig ay dugo ni Rosa Mia.

*What have you done?* I sent out to her. She was still aware. I could feel her. I could hear her breathing – shallow and labored. I was scared. And I didn't get scared... not by anything.

Except of my sweet queen dying.

*Rosa Mia, what have you done?* I repeated. Through the ring, I felt her life dwindle. For the first time in my long life, I didn't truly know what to do.

I moved when I could finally move, gritting my teeth at the excruciating pain, to get to her. I didn't care to wait for my shoulders to reconstruct and the joints to come back together. She needed me.

No.

I needed to hold my queen.

The others were stirring. I heard a cry from Saleem. He had, as I, became aware of what Rosa Mia did.

"Rosa Mia... why?" I asked her in a whisper that barely passed my bloody, cracked lips, when I was finally holding her hand.

Her long and thick eyelashes fluttered, but she could barely open her eyes now. She was so weak.

"Rosa Mia... how could you do it?" tanong ni Saleem sa tabi ko. His face had regained its color, and tears were flowing freely down his dirty cheeks. I was crying as heavily. The others were stirring, too, still stunned, but they would know in a moment. There would be a lot of tears once they knew we were all forced to drink our queen's blood to stay alive, in exchange of her life.

And soon as I thought that, the other Lords started to cry as they tried to crawl towards us, too.

She was still aware. Sadness was creeping from her to us.