The Ranger of Marzanna (The Goddess War #1) - Jon Skovron Page 0,37

won’t be so… gentle.”

“Yes, my Lady,” sobbed Sonya as she pressed her forehead into the mud. “I swear!”

“Good. Now go.”

14

Ah. I believe she’s coming around,” said a familiar, kindly old voice. “Welcome back to the land of the living, my child.”

Sonya’s pain was gone. In fact, she felt warm and comfortable, lying on a soft bed beneath a heavy wool blanket. When she opened her eyes, she saw the old apothecary, Velikhov, smiling down at her from one side of the bed, while Jorge looked worriedly down from the other. There was little else in the tiny room besides heaps of books stacked on the floor, and a small table with a number of potions on it.

“How… did I get here?” Her voice was scratchy.

“Your horse brought you back here a few days ago,” said Jorge.

She smiled tiredly. “The apples. He came back for the apples.” Then she paused. “Did you say days?”

“You’ve been unconscious for quite a while,” said Velikhov. “And you were in terrible shape when you arrived. Bringing you back to good health was a challenge even for one of my skill. To be perfectly honest, there was a moment I thought you’d died on us. But I suppose God must still have need of you.”

Someone does, anyway, thought Sonya. The memory of her meeting with the Lady Marzanna was disjointed and blurry, like a dream. She could not even say for certain what the Lady looked like. But she remembered enough.

“Wait…” She lifted up her arm. It was no longer broken. Even her split lip was healed. “Wow, you are good, Master Velikhov.”

Jorge beamed. “He is the best.”

“Now, now.” The old man’s cheeks flushed. “Healing potions just happen to be my specialty. I’m little more than competent in other areas of potion-making.”

“Well, thanks, I—” She sat up, and pain lanced through her body.

“Oh dear, please don’t do that quite yet.” Velikhov and Jorge eased her back down onto the bed. “You sustained a number of internal injuries, and those do take a bit more time to heal, even under my care. With a broken limb, I can apply strong salves directly to the damaged area, but with something inside the body, you have to let the medicines you ingest take their slow course. Be patient.”

Sonya nodded as she rubbed her torso with both hands. “Yeah, I can be patient.”

“Speaking of potions, it’s time for another dose,” said Velikhov. “I’m afraid the side effect is extreme drowsiness, so even though you’ve been sleeping for days, you will likely sleep quite a bit through the next few days as well.”

“Whatever I need to be back to my old self,” she said.

He nodded. “I’m glad I have a patient who is able to see the big picture.”

He reached over and took a small glass vial filled with a thick, emerald-green liquid from the table. He measured out a few drops into a spoon and handed the spoon to her. She appreciated that he wasn’t trying to spoon-feed her while she was awake. She sucked the medicine down. It tasted predictably foul, reminding her of swamp grass mixed with the bitter, dank mushrooms that grew inside dead trees. For all she knew of potions, those might very well be the primary ingredients.

“I’ll check back with you later.” Velikhov slowly stood and left the room.

Sonya turned to Jorge. “I guess we’re even now, huh?”

He smiled and nodded. “Did you…” He hesitated, as if unsure he should bring it up.

“Find my mother and brother?” she guessed.

He nodded.

“I suppose you could say that. I found people who looked like them, but didn’t particularly talk or act like them. Although maybe they did, and I just hadn’t seen who they really were before.” She thought about it a moment. “Or hadn’t wanted to.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” confessed Jorge. “Are they well? Are they safe?”

“They made the safe choice of joining the empire. My brother even enlisted as an officer of the imperial army.”

“Sonya, we already are a part of the empire,” said Jorge. “It’s not like there’s an alternative. What could one person do alone against such a powerful entity? It would be like a fly picking a fight with a horse. The horse might not even notice as it kills the fly with a single blow of its tail.”

“Yeah… I suppose we’d need a lot more flies…” The potion was already taking effect. Her thoughts were beginning to feel as slippery as fish swimming upstream. Without meaning to, she let out a