"Highness! Highness!" "What?" Culebra gasped, reaching up to stop her and shove her back. "Is something wrong?" "You were screaming," Cortez said. "It sounded like somebody was murdering or torturing you. It was disturbing, even to me, and I have seen men killed and tortured. Are you all right?" Culebra nodded. "I am fine." "You keep saying that, and I keep not believing you," Cortez said, sounding annoyed and amused all at once. "What are these nightmares that keep plaguing you, highness? What would make a royal prince suffer so much?" His entire life, Culebra thought bitterly, but he knew he was being unreasonable. He did not really mean it. "What would make anyone suffer so much? Bad things happen, whether a person is poor or prince has little bearing." "Spoken like a true prince," Cortez said. "I doubt you know what it is like to starve for days, for weeks, for months. I doubt you know what it's like to have your own mother sell you just to be rid of the burden of you. To never know your father or why he never bothered to stay around and take care of you.
