The Ranger of Marzanna (The Goddess War #1) - Jon Skovron Page 0,49
you seen much of it outside Gogoleth?”
“Well, no…”
“Trust me. It isn’t nice like this. Anyway, if I convince the Uaine to go after Aureum, we could offer to let them use Izmoroz as a staging area for an invasion. Then they would be all set to go after the richest prize on the continent.”
He looked skeptical. “And you could deliver that? The rest of Izmoroz would honor your offer to let them station a force here?”
She tried not to take offense to that. “Look, you’re Raízian, so you don’t really get it. Once we get rid of the empire and the people are allowed to worship the Lady Marzanna again, they’ll look to Rangers for guidance like they did before the empire got here. If I tell them it’s a good idea to help out the Uaine, they will.”
He did not seem convinced. “If you say so…”
“And that’s not all I would offer them,” continued Sonya. “The empire won’t expect them to invade before spring because they think crossing the tundra during winter is impossible.”
“Isn’t it?” asked Jorge.
“Not for a Ranger. I could teach the Uaine how to make a winter crossing, before the empire is ready. Help them launch a surprise attack.”
Jorge still looked skeptical. “Okay, fine. Maybe you convince them. Or maybe since they are blue-skinned, spike-headed demons with an army of the undead, they just decide to kill you.”
“I’m pretty hard to kill,” said Sonya. “And even harder to keep dead.”
“What does that mean?”
“It doesn’t matter. The point is, I have to take that chance.”
“Why?” Jorge looked like he was getting upset, though she had no idea why. He began pacing back and forth, his thick black eyebrows furrowed. “Why do you have to do any of this?”
“Because I swore an oath to the Lady Marzanna, and if I don’t uphold that oath…” Sonya shook her head. She loved the Lady. She truly did. But Mikhail had told her some terrifying stories of the few Rangers who had broken their oaths. “Let’s just say, there are fates far worse than death.”
“Wait. You’re telling me that this Lady Marzanna is… real? Like a real magical entity?”
“Of course. That’s how I’m alive. Your Master Velikhov didn’t actually save me. She did. That moment he thought I might be dead? I was.”
Jorge’s eyes were wide. “You… defied death?”
Sonya shook her head. “I serve Death. That’s who Lady Marzanna is. And she decided I hadn’t adequately fulfilled my oath to her, so she sent me back.” Sonya brushed her hair back to show her ears. “The price for that boon was my human ears. Every time you ask something of her, she takes a part of your humanity and replaces it with something else. Something… well, let’s just say it’s not human.”
Jorge seemed a little overwhelmed by all this. Maybe Sonya should have eased him into it all a little more gently.
“What…” He cleared his throat. “What does your Lady Marzanna do with the human parts?”
Sonya frowned. That question had never occurred to her. “Hell if I know. She never said. Anyway, I appreciate that you care, Jorge, but I swore an oath to get the empire out of Izmoroz so that people can worship the Lady freely again. Can you think of some other way to make that happen?”
“Well… I mean, not right this moment,” he said. “But surely given enough time, we’ll think of something.”
“Nope. Sorry, Jorge. I’m not waiting around for some vague future promise. I found a solution and I’m running with it.”
“You’re leaving now?”
“Well, I thought I might stay with you one last night so I can try those emerald dandies you were talking about. But I’m leaving tomorrow at first light.”
As soon as she said that, she felt a vast weight lift from her shoulders. A weight she hadn’t even realized was there. Yes. She needed to get out of this suffocating, imperial-pandering city and back to the real Izmoroz. She had been here too long.
But Jorge looked at her with a sorrowful expression. “Is there anything I could do or say to convince you not to do this?”
“Nope.”
The two stood there in the courtyard in silence as a gentle snow began to fall.
Finally, Jorge sighed. “Shall we go inside out of the cold?”
She shook her head. “You go on. I’m not ready to go back in there yet.”
He nodded and reached for the front door. Then he paused. “Will you promise to say goodbye before you leave?”