33
Before the Mother Queen
Petra knelt before the Mother Queen in the hellish, Nightdweller-filled underground chamber, his knees aching after Stin’s shove slammed him to the stone floor. But then, after the nightmarish journey they’d just endured—part of it by daylight—every inch of him ached.
Amlinn must be in agony, he thought. She knelt beside him, but he dared not turn his head to look at her. At least he had been able to walk on his own feet. For the entire trek, she had been slung like fresh kill over the shoulder of one of the Nightdwellers. The memory enraged him even now. He would gladly have gutted Stin and Grul like fish for their rough handling of her.
I love her.
The thought sprang into his mind full-formed, and he realized it had been building for some time. Now, as the
