The Raven Lady by Sharon Lynn Fisher

Author:Sharon Lynn Fisher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 2020-08-11T17:34:46+00:00

THE RAVEN LADY

Koli

I woke with a start and then froze, listening. Water dripping onto stone. Small, scurrying movements of birds or mice. My own breath passing in and out of my mouth.

Cold air nipped at my wet skin—nose, cheeks, fingers—but much of my body was numb.

Pushing my shoulders and head up from the rocky ground, I surveyed my surroundings. Another sort of cavern, this one partly filled with stones and loose earth. Directly overhead I saw the sky, suffused with the faintly yellow light of dawn.

Had I returned to Knock Ma after all? Would Doro follow me?

I tried to sit up, and a hot pain exploded between my shoulder blades. My hands lost their purchase, and my knuckles scraped across rough stones as I caught myself. In leaving the castle, I had also left the king’s protective spells—and I had freshly defied my father’s ally. There was something different about this pain, though—it was a pulsing heat, like repeated wasp stings. In the spaces between the stings, my flesh tickled and itched, like there were indeed insects crawling around inside me.

Moaning feebly, I sat up again, noticing my legs were resting in a shallow pool. I still couldn’t feel them. The itching between my shoulders, however, was becoming unbearable. I reached behind my back to scratch the irritated skin. My fingers bumped against something unexpectedly silky, and I recoiled.

Dragging myself free of the pool, I looked around for the creature I’d touched—I saw nothing. The feeling was coming back into my legs, and I slowly stood up.

A wave of vertigo swept over me and I swayed.

Something feels very wrong.

The itching grew worse, and again I reached to scratch. The silky thing was still there! I twisted my other arm around to my back, feeling with both hands. The thing had a rigid form—and it protruded from my own flesh.

I jerked my head to one side, twisting my neck to look over my shoulder.

“Wings!” The gasp I uttered was near bottomless. I fell to my knees, chest heaving, coughing.

It’s a trick of the light. But I knew it wasn’t. I had passed through Doro’s Gap gate. I had undergone transmutation. I was lucky to be alive.

Or was I?

Frantic, I scanned the inside of the cavern. I had to get out of here. I needed light and a mirror—and a fire. I was lost and disoriented, soaked through with no way to get dry, and Freyja help me, what had happened to my body?

This place appeared to be no more than a hole in the ground. To one side there was a larger pile of rubble that I thought I might be able to climb, and I made my way over to it. My wet dress hung on me like a curtain of iron, dragging at my every step. It had also split down the back, and I curled my fingers over the neckline to hold it up. My new appendages—they were no better than dead weights against my back.

I stopped in front of the rock pile.

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