The Ranger of Marzanna (The Goddess War #1) - Jon Skovron Page 0,171

is their own doing,” said the black-haired one. “Mortals insist upon suffering. We must grant them as much pain, misery, and hardship as we can, or they will not be satisfied. It’s in their nature.”

Then the black-haired one turned to the animal who had been watching them and smiled, showing black teeth that gleamed sharply in the moonlight.

“Isn’t that right, my precious Lisitsa?”

Sonya woke with a feeling of deep and nameless dread. She sat up, trying to chase down the details of her dream. But the harder she strained, the more it slipped out of mind until she was left with nothing but the lingering smell of lilies and iron.

The tavern below was silent, and the room was dark. She gazed at Blaine’s scarred, muscular back. The moonlight spilled in through the window to rest upon his long blond hair, giving it an almost otherworldly glow. But his beauty did little to soothe her disquiet.

She looked down at her hands and found they were shaking. It was as if her body remembered something that her mind did not.

The story continues in…

THE QUEEN OF IZMOROZ

Book TWO of The Goddess War

Keep reading for a sneak peek!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book began as research into my ancestral Poland. This shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with the Drowning of Marzanna, an annual ritual still practiced to this day in parts of the country. On the first day of spring, an effigy of Marzanna, goddess of winter, is thrown into a river to symbolize the change of season. I wish I’d had the forethought to ask my grandmother more about our heritage, but she passed away in 2009. To fill in the gaps, I found the book Poland: A History by Adam Zamoyski immensely helpful.

I also used this book to indulge in my love of Russian literature, which began while studying acting at Carnegie Mellon under the guidance of several instructors then on loan from the Moscow Art Theater. The influence of Chekov, Tolstoy, Lermontov, Gogol, and others should be fairly obvious. I also found Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie and Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes quite illuminating. I am also indebted to Natalie Staniford and Maude Meisel for help with Russian translations and usage.

I’m grateful for the enthusiasm and hard work from my editor, Brit Hvide; my publisher, Tim Holman; and the rest of the team at Orbit books. And as always, I would be lost without the support of my agent, Jill Grinberg, and the amazing crew at JGLM.

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meet the author

Photo Credit: Ryan Benyi

JON SKOVRON is the author of the Empire of Storms trilogy from Orbit books, as well as several young adult novels, including Misfit and Man Made Boy. He lives just outside Washington, DC, with his two sons and two cats.

Find out more about Jon Skovron and other Orbit authors by registering for the free monthly newsletter at www.orbitbooks.net.

if you enjoyed

THE RANGER OF MARZANNA

look out for

THE QUEEN OF IZMOROZ

The Goddess War: Book Two

by

Jon Skovron

1

Many people thought of winter as cruel, and spring as gentle. But Sonya Turgenev Portinari, Ranger of Marzanna, knew that wasn’t true.

She gazed at the thawing Great Western Tundra that stretched out around her in all directions. She knew the quiet ferocity it took for those hardy green shoots to reach up toward the sunlight from beneath the muddy slush that now covered much of Izmoroz. And the plants that had at last broken through now risked being eaten by the starving animals that had just woken from hibernation.

Spring was not gentle. It was a desperate and voracious thing that defiantly clawed its way up from the darkest depths of winter to thrive once again, no matter the cost or suffering.

Still, Sonya could not deny spring’s ragged beauty. The sun shone down brightly, and small purple flowers brazenly poked through the patchy, brown snow. Small rivulets of water trickled here and there like tiny, impromptu streams, and the air was alive with insects and birdsong.

She wished Jorge could have seen the tundra’s transformation. But he had remained at the Imperial College of Apothecary in Gogoleth so that he could impress his teachers with the knowledge of plants and herbs he had brought back from the distant country of Uaine. The climate on the other side of the tundra was quite different from Izmoroz, and contained flora not seen anywhere else on the continent.