The Ranger of Marzanna (The Goddess War #1) - Jon Skovron Page 0,139

sure your son is ready to confront his sister directly. No matter how loyal he is to the empire, anyone would have trouble engaging in battle with their sibling.”

“I agree that Sebastian isn’t ready, General,” she said. “But for entirely different reasons. For the sake of all those who might get caught between them, keep my son out of it for as long as possible.”

“Understood, my lady.” He smiled then. “But it’s not all dire news.”

“Oh?”

“The coming conflict will decide Vittorio’s status with the empress one way or the other. He is keenly aware of that, of course, and I fear the strain is already beginning to show.”

“I fail to see how that is happy news, General.”

“If we lose, Vittorio will be disgraced. But even if we are victorious, things will get quite stressful. It is likely that the commander’s true nature will once again reveal itself in all its terrible, abusive glory, along with a few dead soldiers. If that happens, there will be no end to officer complaints and petitions for transfers. The empress will finally be forced to accept that Vittorio is the monster we all know him to be, and she will have to make an example of him. No more banishments or demotions. He’ll be executed.”

“So whether we win or lose, we will be rid of Franko Vittorio.”

“In all likelihood. The man is simply not built for this kind of stressful engagement. Once he’s gone, I will be named commander here in Izmoroz, and naturally I will ensure that Sebastian becomes one of my most trusted generals. Or your son may choose to transfer to a post in Aureum if he likes. After all, once we wipe out the Uaine, there really won’t be much going on in Izmoroz, and while I have learned to appreciate peace, young men do crave action.”

“And what of my daughter, General? What of Sonya Turgenev Portinari?”

“Ah.” His smile faltered. “If I may speak bluntly, my lady, protecting your feral daughter was never part of our arrangement, was it?”

55

Sebastian stood in front of the mirror, as he often did before calling upon his betrothed. His uniform was clean and neatly brushed, and everything was perfectly in place, except…

He yanked out the gray hair. The sharp, fleeting pain was oddly satisfying.

“Another one?” asked Rykov, who sat in a chair nearby, giving Sebastian’s boots a quick polish. “How many is that now?”

“I’ve lost count.” Sebastian released the offending hair and watched it waft slowly to the floor. “You know that book Galina gave me? The Age of Wizards?”

“Not really.”

Sebastian touched the skin around his eyes, which seemed to have lost some of its elasticity in recent months. Beneath the red-rimmed lids, there was a dark tinge to it, almost like a bruise. For a little while now, people had been expressing concern regarding his health. Had he lost weight? Was he sleeping enough? So he had been making a conscious effort to take better care of himself, and when he forgot, Rykov was there to remind him. Still he struggled to keep on weight. Still he struggled with a fatigue that crept up on him a little more each day. Then, not even seventeen years old, he’d begun getting gray hair. He’d been at a loss to explain it all. Until the previous evening.

“Last night I read a passage in the book,” he told Rykov, “that makes reference to… premature aging among wizards.”

“Oh?” Rykov looked up from his boots, his expression uncharacteristically concerned.

“Apparently, channeling the raw forces of Nature through one’s body takes quite a toll. In one legend, a wizard claims to be thirty years of age, but has completely gray hair and appears to everyone as an old man.”

“Is there any way to stop it?” asked Rykov. “Or at least slow it down?”

Sebastian smiled sadly. “Stop using magic, I suppose.”

“Have you told the commander?”

“If he were to inquire, I wouldn’t lie, of course. But I cannot think of a way to broach the subject that doesn’t sound like I’m trying to shirk my duty.”

Rykov nodded, and there was silence except for the rhythmic hiss of his coarse brush swiping back and forth across the toe of Sebastian’s boot.

“You going to tell Galina Odoyevtseva?”

Sebastian continued to stare at himself in the mirror, trying to imagine how old and frail he might look in ten years, when Galina was a stunning woman in her prime. In twenty years…

Power had a cost. He would be a fool to think otherwise, but this cost