season avatars 03 - chaos season (19 page)

“Jenna, come out of there!” Gwen released Kay to beckon her. “You’ll get trapped!”

Of course I won’t get trapped
. She glanced at the deathbushes anyway. Wherever she looked, the branches wove together to create a deadly fence. “Oh, By All Four Gods and Goddesses, just die already!” She grabbed her branch and attempted to create an opening she could squeeze through. To her surprise, thorns sank into her branch and pulled it away from her.

“Jenna! Stand back!” Lex shifted his grip on his polearm, and it turned into an axe. He chopped up the deathbushes blocking her escape. They fell apart like matchsticks.
How humiliating to have someone else save me from plants. I suppose War can destroy anything, even deathbushes.

It didn’t take long for him to create an opening wide enough for her to pass through without touching a deathbush. He adjusted his grip on his axe and extended his hand to her. She accepted it and let him guide her through the gap to freedom.

She gasped for breath for a few heartbeats before saying, “Lex, you saved me. How—” she was going to say “romantic,” but she didn’t think he would appreciate that—“How kind of you.”

He met her gaze. “Are you unhurt?”

She nodded. Scratches burned her arms and legs, but they were minor. “What about you?”

He grinned wryly. “Unfortunately, I don’t have magic armor, but I do heal rapidly from injuries.” He rubbed his arm where his jacket had been torn. “Eagle’s Talons, the thorns prick like the War Eagle Himself.”

“Allow me to tend that, Avi.” Gwen avoided looking at his face as she healed him.

He nodded at her. “My thanks, Ava.”

“Thank you for saving our sister Avatar.” Gwen watched Jenna as she spoke.

“Should I destroy the rest of the plants?” Lex asked.

Jenna sighed. “Can you dig out their roots too? Otherwise, they’ll return.”

“The War Dagger would flay my own flesh if I tried to turn it into a shovel. I’ll just chop the deathbushes as close to the ground as I can. Perhaps that will give us more time to figure out a more permanent solution.”

He attacked the deathbushes again while Gwen turned her attention to Jenna, checking her for more injuries and thorn pricks. While she worked, Jenna admired how easily Lex handled his weapon. Maybe he cared for her more than he was willing to admit.

By All Four, if he does, you’re welcome to him.

You still don’t like him?

I’m glad he’s on our side, but I can’t bring myself to marry War. I just can’t.

He’s too serious for you,
Jenna agreed.
You need someone who can make you smile.

Gwen raised an eyebrow.
Did you have someone in mind?

Before Jenna could answer, Kay joined the link.
I feel more magic in the air. Chaos Season is about to start
—

A few drops of rain slid down Jenna’s face before clouds released a gale’s worth of water on them.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Allies Divided

“When will Kron and the other Avatars come back with my father?” Ysabel asked. “It seems they’ve been gone a long time.”

After taming Chaos Season—again—Jenna and the rest of the Avatars were hungry. Ysabel didn’t have a key to her house, so Jenna loosened the kitchen door, and Lex burst it open. Most of the food was spoiled, but there was flour, baking powder, and oil. Jenna and Kay prepared fried flatcakes while Gwen sliced cheese and Ysabel mixed chocolate from a tin of powder. Even Lex helped get the stove restarted—though Jenna ultimately had to show him how—and searched for supplies.

Gwen pulled out a watch on a necklace. “We’ve been here less than two hours. Do you think they walked all the way to the center of town, or found a carriage?”

“I thought Kron would portal everyone back here,” Lex said.

“First they have to travel to Father’s shop the normal way. That part could take some time.” Ysabel set plates for everyone at the kitchen table. No one protested at eating where servants normally did.

Gwen frowned. “Even so, they should have been back by now.”

Jenna scraped a burned flatcake out of the frying pan. “Should we try to find them?”

“Send a scout first,” Lex said.

Everyone glanced at Ysabel. She set the chocolate aside, sat at the table, and closed her eyes. At some unseen signal, her anilink jumped into her lap. “I don’t see them in the streets,” she said. “Or the birds don’t, at least. Let me contact the rats and mice in my father’s shop.”

Pouncer rumbled, as if he wanted to hunt mice instead of talking to them.

Ysabel continued, “The mice don’t want to leave their holes. There are four pairs of boots and several places in the room that feel wrong to them. Two pairs of boots wandered into the bad areas and haven’t moved since. The other two pairs are still moving, with one vanishing and reappearing constantly.”

“What does that mean?” Gwen asked. “Who’s stuck, and who’s not?”

“One set of black boots is just like another. Did you think the mice could see people’s faces?”

Gwen sighed and pushed her food away. “Do they hear human speech well enough for you to interpret it?”

Pouncer jumped off of Ysabel’s lap, freeing her to stand. “Mice hear high-pitched sounds better than low ones. They can’t make out male voices very well, so I can’t either.” She resumed preparing chocolate, whipping it so hard the drink splattered everywhere.

“Watch it!” Jenna blotted the chocolate off of her sleeve with a towel.

“Wait. Something’s happening.” Ysabel set down the chocolate pot. “Now the strange spots have vanished, and all of the boots are moving again. But there’s only three pairs of boots. The other pair disappeared, like the strange spots.”

“What does that mean?” Gwen asked. “When will someone come back to tell us what’s happening?”

Kay turned from the window. “Kron just appeared outside. Charles and Dorian are with him.”

“And my father?” Ysabel asked.

“He’s not there.”

Everyone exchanged curious glances, then rushed to the kitchen door. Jenna used her longer legs to get outside first. Kron looked exhausted, as if both he and his satchel were deflated. Charles had his hands clasped together as if he held something in them, and Dorian stared around him with a dazed expression.

Jenna held out her hand in case any of the men needed support. “By All Four, what happened?”

“He somehow knew we were coming,” Kron replied. “He had time traps guarding all the entrances. My wards protected me, but I didn’t think Charles and Dorian would need their own artifacts. Thank the Four all the traps did was suspend them in time.”

“We couldn’t move, but we could see and hear everything,” Charles said.

Gwen shuddered and clenched her scarred hand. “Just like my experience with Sal-thaath.”

“I think he may have made the traps and given them to the Honored Lathatilltin,” Kron said. “They were more difficult to disarm than I expected. By the time I freed Charles and Dorian, the Honored Lathatilltin disappeared through a portal that closed behind him.”

“Were you able to track where it led?” Lex asked.

Kron shook his head. “He could be anywhere in Challen, or even the Dead Land.”

Jenna wished she could thrash the deathbushes again. This trip had been a waste of time. Perhaps they’d trimmed the deathbushes down for now, but the plants would grow back very quickly, perhaps within a couple of days. She couldn’t destroy them with Chaos Season magic; if anything, they seemed to make Chaos Season worse. Now Ysabel’s father had access to Sal-thaath’s magic and had used it to escape? What could possibly be worse?

Charles approached her and opened his hands. “Jenna, are these seeds from the deathbush?”

Once glance was enough to confirm it. After her experience with them in the atrium, she’d remember those seeds for a thousand lifetimes. “Where did you find them?”

“They were in Lathatilltin’s private study.” Charles didn’t bother with the Selathen title. “We searched his apartment after Kron freed us. They were in a tall vase. I took all of them, but how many were there to begin with?” He shrugged.

“By All Four, Papa plans to plant more of those frozen plants?” Ysabel asked. “Weren’t they dreadful enough in our front yard?”

“If he grows enough of them, will they spawn a Chaos Season?” Kay asked. “That’s a bitter harvest.”

“I should take this news to the king,” Lex said. “We must prepare ourselves for a plant invasion.”

Jenna didn’t like the sound of that at all. She beckoned to Charles. “Before we go home, we should make the soil out front as …unfertile as possible, to prevent more deathbushes from growing.”

He frowned. “That’s against everything Summer wants us to do.”

“So is this plant.”

Charles let out a deliberate sigh. “I don’t suppose there’s any food, is there? I didn’t work any magic over there, but I’m still hungry.”

“There’s flatcakes, cheese, and chocolate.” Ysabel swept her hand back toward the kitchen. “We cooked them ourselves.”

Jenna waited for Dorian to make a snide insult, but he said nothing. He still seemed distracted, as if his mind was off somewhere in the clouds.

Gwen approached him and asked softly, “Avi, are you all right? Do you need my assistance?”

He started, then stared down at her and shook his head. “No, child.” He sounded so calm and polite his insult barely registered.

With a raised eyebrow, Gwen silently inquired what Jenna, Ysabel, and Kay thought of Dorian’s behavior. They all responded with shrugs.

There must have been more to those time traps than Kron said. Maybe Charles knows what happened to Dorian. They were both stuck in them.

After a quick meal, Jenna led Charles to the front lawn of Ysabel’s house. Fog hung in the air, making it difficult to judge how quickly the deathbushes were recovering. Mindful of how she’d nearly gotten trapped, Jenna kept one foot on the stone walk as she crouched and rubbed soil between her fingers. Still too many nutrients in it for her comfort. How could she drain them? If she force-grew plants to use them, the deathbushes might use the new plants as fertilizer—or grow back on their own.

“Charles, what happened while you and Dorian were trapped?” she asked. “You said you couldn’t move, but you could still see and hear everything.”

“Nothing worth mentioning. Ysabel’s father kept praising his time goddess and her son. He said they were more powerful than the Four and could turn back time to revive the dead.”

Jenna stared at Charles’ face, shrouded by fog. “Do you think she could do that?” It would be very awkward to have her absent husband return. She’d already had her marriage tattoo altered, though Dorian hadn’t…. She dropped the soil. “What about Dorian? What if Salth could bring Margaret back to life for him?”

Charles laughed. “Of course she can’t do that. Margaret’s soul is safe with the Four. They wouldn’t let Salth bring her back in the wrong season.” As he watched her, his expression became more worried and uncertain. “They wouldn’t, would They?”

“Do you think Dorian is desperate enough to believe Salth?”

“He could be.” Charles raked his fingers through the dirt. “But he’s served the Four as long as any of us. He knows Them. He’s loyal to Them. He has to be.”

Something stirred in the ground beneath Jenna’s hands. “Charles! You’re supposed to be hurting the soil, not making it better!”

“Well, I’ve never had to do that before!” he answered, sounding as peevish as his six decades warranted.

A familiar-looking sprout popped out next to them. Jenna reached for it before it could poke out thorns. “Help me pull!”

Charles put his hands on either side of the sprout, loosening the root. Despite Jenna taking care to pull slowly and steadily, the root still broke before she dragged all of it out. She glared at the white strands and coiled them into a ball. She hesitated to grab it, remembering what had happened the last time. “Let’s get this inside before it wraps around me again.”

“What do you mean?”

Wishing she could recall her words, Jenna sprinted back through the house and into the kitchen. By the time she reached the stove, tendrils poked out between her fingers. Her sister Avatars glanced at her, then sprang into action. Gwen and Ysabel used long forks to scrape the young deathbush off of Jenna, and Kay opened the stove door so they could fling plant pieces into the fire. She poked at it with another fork, protecting her hands with a towel, until the deathbush was no more than smoke and ashes.

Charles nodded at them. “Better salt the yard.”

“I already tried that. It doesn’t work on these plants.”

He frowned. “By All Four, these plants are obviously magical, but they’re not invincible. Find their weakness, Jenna. We’re counting on you.”

Since Sophia wasn’t here, Jenna thrust out her bosom and put on her best smile. “Aren’t you going to help me? You’re the current Avi Summer, after all. It’s your responsibility.”

He shook his head. “I’ve been Avi long enough. I’m ready to retire to my family’s vineyard. This is your task, young Ava.”

Before she could protest, Charles turned to Kron and said, “I think it’s time we head home. We have much to talk about. Where’s this portal of yours?”

“I’ll make another one inside the house,” Kron replied. “We’ve already attracted enough attention.”

Kron used the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room for his latest portal, which led them back to the Summer Study. Jenna trudged through with her head down. It seemed less and less likely she and her quartet would ever tame Chaos Season successfully.

* * *

“It seems our enemy has recruited an army of her own,” Lex said later that evening.

Instead of meeting again in the uncomfortable map room, all of the Season Avatars, plus Lex and Kron, had gathered in the Summer Parlor. To keep the room cool in the summer, it had no direct sun exposure and was shaded by oaks next to the house. Small tables throughout the room held trays for ice sculptures. Dorian had created prancing horses, while most of Kay’s looked more like blocks with a few odd lumps and edges. They wouldn’t last the night, but they did provide relief from the heat. Jenna sat next to one of Kay’s blocks and wished she dared relax enough to sleep. Couldn’t they wait until morning for this meeting? Maybe then her head wouldn’t feel like molasses in Snowmoon.