No, not stung. It'd wounded her. Suddenly light-headed, she touched her ribs where it hurt the most. Sticky blood coated her fingers as the sounds grew louder.
Closer.
They were everywhere now.
She moved as fast as she could, but it was no use. No matter what she tried, she couldn't escape the creatures after her-whatever they were. They continued to toy with her as they whispered over and over, "Give us the stone."
"Shut up!" she snarled. "I don't have it!"
Something slapped her across the face.
She kicked out at it and was happy to hear it groan in response. Good. I hope you feel it for a while.
But that didn't change the fact that she was in serious trouble. Clutching her injury, she limped through the darkness, hoping to find some kind of exit.
I'm going to die.
She knew it. There was no alternative.
Her hand trembling, she applied more pressure to her wound. It wasn't that deep, but it throbbed unmercifully and made it all the harder to breathe. Worse, it was making her extremely dizzy, and if she didn't get it tended, she could bleed out.
Through the darkness, she heard more shrill cries. Different ones this time.
Cries she knew all too well from her dreams.
Raven mockers.
Even more terrified, she fell back further into the shadows, praying they wouldn't find her.
As she felt her way down the wall, she cringed at what was happening. She just didn't want to believe her grandmother's stories were real. They couldn't be.
Because if they were ...
I am not that person. I'm not. I don't believe in magic or spells.
But what other explanation could there be? She wasn't stupid and her denials were bordering on that at this point. No matter how much you believed something-how much something had been proven-part of being a scientist was learning how to accept new findings that completely changed the way people viewed things.
So accept it. Your grandmother was right.
All of it was real.
Yet it was hard because she didn't want to have the responsibilities her grandmother had held. Everyone had depended on her for every little thing. She'd been responsible for people's lives and their immortal souls....
As if her thoughts reached across the worlds, she felt her grandmother's presence in the room with her. Smelled the Jurgen's and peppermint. "Kateri? Help me. I need you, child. My soul will die if you don't come."
She took a step forward instinctively, then caught herself. It wasn't her grandmother calling out to her. Her grandmother had been dead for years and she would be using the name only the two of them knew. They're trying to trick me.
"Help me, child!"
Hoping to put more distance between herself and the things after her, Kateri pressed her back against the cold stone wall and took another step away from the opening.
Someone tsked in her ear. "Where are you going, tidbit? You're not trying to leave us so soon, are you?"
Her vision dimmed as a bony hand sank like a claw into her shoulder, piercing it with pain. Unlike the other things in the cave, she knew this one. It was a raven mocker.
Suddenly, a deep masculine voice thundered, speaking a language she didn't know.
But the raven mocker knew it. She could tell by its sharp, angry intake of breath. Releasing her, it lunged at the voice and shrieked so loudly that it made her ears ring.