season avatars 03 - chaos season (23 page)

Chaos Season returned, this time flipping the season from the end of the year to the beginning. The snow and ice melted. The peaches seemed to melt too as they shrank back toward being flowers again.

Jenna pounced on them.
By All Four, no. Spring is over. If you return to blossoms, you won’t have time to grow properly before the frost returns.
She pulled on whatever magic she could gather to force-grow the fruit to its proper stage. At the same time, Ysabel demanded more magic of her own as a goat bit the human driving it into the barn. Gwen exerted her own magic to heal the wound….

Faster than Jenna thought possible, the Chaos Season ended as summer weather snapped back into place. Kay moaned. A sensation of lightheadness was their only warning as her mind disappeared from the link. 

“Kay!” Gwen cried out loud as she shook herself free of Ysabel and Jenna.

“No, wait!” Just for an instant, Jenna thought she saw a familiar but ugly sprout pop out of the ground in the middle of the orchard. But before she could investigate, the link was gone, along with her vision of the peach farm.

Gwen sprang forward toward Kay, who had slumped to the ground.

“By All Four, is she—” Ysabel didn’t finish her sentence.

Gwen touched Kay’s temple as though she was made of glass. If Kay had been pale before, now she looked as if she’d been coated with a layer of frost. Jenna’s heart thumped. Kay couldn’t possibly be dead, could she? The dreams Salth had sent her couldn’t be real; they were just lies to scare her. Maybe she had let them scare her to death. By All Four, that small Chaos Season couldn’t have killed Kay. She’d handled much stronger ones in their previous lives.

As Jenna muttered a prayer to the Four Gods and Goddesses for Kay, Gwen announced, “She’s not dead. She fainted.” She placed a hand on Kay’s forehead and frowned. “But that shouldn’t have happened.”

“Do you need more magic?” Jenna asked. She’d manage to find extra magic to give Gwen from somewhere.

Gwen shook her head. At the same time, Kay stirred. “What happened?” she whispered.

“I’m not sure. It’s as if the magic holding our link in place just disappeared. It must have been pulled out through you.”

Kay groaned. “I knew it. I’ve lost any weather skills I ever had. I’m not fit to be an Ava Win.”

“By All Four, that’s not true, and you know it.” Gwen offered Kay a hand up before Jenna could. “Maybe it was just a long way for us to reach for our first attempt at taming Chaos Season. Let’s go back to the One Oak. It’s near dinner time, and we’ll all feel better after we eat.” She managed a faint grin. “Though I don’t feel up to dressing for it.”

She and Kay headed back to the house, with Sophia helping to support Kay. Dorian struck off on his own. Charles joined Jenna, with Ysabel and Pouncer bringing up the rear.

“What happened?” Charles asked. “I sensed a little through my own tree, but I couldn’t tell what went wrong at the end.”

It had gone wrong from the start, with the other three denying Jenna the magic she needed to do her duty. Despite that, she didn’t want to share their private issues with anyone else, not even another Avatar. Jenna shrugged. “We weren’t prepared for Chaos to return after it should have been tamed.”

Charles detoured around a stump. “Maybe Dorian’s right. Maybe Kay is too weak. She refused to perform weather magic for several years, didn’t she?”

“She’ll make that up in due time.” Jenna remembered another reason why Kay wasn’t to blame. “Besides, I was sure I saw a deathbush sprout in that orchard, right at the end.”

Charles sighed. “By All Four, how will we ever get rid of them?”

He veered off to one of the greenhouses, leaving Jenna alone with Ysabel and Pouncer. After Ysabel had been so supportive earlier, her current silence felt like an accusation. “I really didn’t have enough magic for the orchard,” Jenna muttered.

“And I didn’t have enough magic for all of the animals either. I hope Chaos Season stopped after we left.” Ysabel chewed her lip. “I’ll send a pigeon in the morning to find out.”

Jenna nodded. She’d expected her first Chaos Season to be a triumph, an easy demonstration of her skill. But just as the current Avatars were in no hurry to return to their own estates, Chaos Season wasn’t going to yield to her.

I can’t tame it on my own. I need all three of them, Kay and Ysabel and Gwen. Especially Gwen. She was still angry with me, and that affected our link.

Jenna had already apologized for her crimes. What could she do to convince Gwen to forgive her?

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Uses of Chocolate

All seven Avatars, plus Kron and Lex, were present for dinner. It was an informal affair, even though the cooks outdid themselves with chilled summer soups, a quartet of ducks, an individual loaf of bread for each Avatar, peas garnished with mint, and berry tarts. Everyone spent more time eating than speaking. Jenna was glad when she could withdraw. Instead of joining the others in the informal parlor where Ysabel played the pianoforte, she climbed all the way up to the nursery.

“Thank the Four you came,” the nurse said, an edge in her normally calm voice. “He’s been fussy all day.”

“Poor thing missed his mama,” Jenna said, reaching for him.

Robbie quieted as she sang him a song about all the flowers in the garden and rocked him by the window, watching the sunset. He fell asleep in her arms, but despite the nurse’s warning that she would spoil him, Jenna continued to hold him. She ought to go to bed herself, but it was too peaceful up here away from the other Avatars. She might encounter Gwen if she returned to her suite too soon.

When steps sounded on the stair, Jenna assumed it was Clover searching for her. The masculine scents of spruce and smoke surprised her. She turned to see Lex stooping as he entered the nursery.

“Eagle’s Talons, why is the ceiling so low?” he complained. “If I stand up, I might break the roof.”

Jenna suppressed a smile. Even she had to duck when she retrieved items from the corners of the room. “Forgive me if I don’t rise and curtsey, Your Highness,” she said. “My arms are full at the moment.”

“No need to be so formal. All I want to do is see my son.” He approached her and peered at their sleeping child for several heartbeats. “I thought he’d be bigger by now. Is he healthy? The Ava Spring hasn’t found any problems, has she?”

Jenna sighed. “No, he’s fine.” She started to lower Robbie into his crib. He stirred as if he was going to wake up, so she continued to hold him.

Lex extended his arms. “May I hold him?”

Maybe he’s becoming more attached to his son after all.
“Of course. Mind Robbie’s head, though. He still can’t hold it up on his own.”

She showed Lex how to cradle an infant. The War Avatar was surprisingly gentle as he handled his son. Jenna watched them and wondered how often Lex would find time for Robbie as the boy grew up. What was she going to tell him when he asked who his father was? She hadn’t thought that far ahead that day under the rosebush.

When Lex set Robbie down a few minutes later, he turned to Jenna and said, “I heard there was another Chaos Season today. Were you able to tame it successfully?”

How had he heard about that but not about her quarrel with Gwen? “We were managing it until the end. Then…we fell apart over how to share the magic.”

“Ah. It must be hard working with so many other Avatars.” Lex strolled over to the shelves of toys, smiling as he found a set of tin soldiers. He set them up on the floor, red-coated soldiers attacking blue. “You have a general, but secretly, all of you must consider yourself equal to her.”

“Equal in magic, certainly,” Jenna said. “Of course, we aren’t all born noble. Some of us can practice our magic better as farmers. Gwen leads us because her Goddess is first among the Four, not because she’s noble.”

“Interesting. And yet you must disagree with her from time to time.”

Jenna’s cheeks grew warm. “It wasn’t her fault. It was mine.”

Lex looked up from the toy soldiers. The air was so still Jenna fancied she could hear clouds rumbling overhead.

Meeting her gaze, he said, “So I’ve heard.”

He knew she’d been Jacob, then. Jenna dug her nails into her palms. “That was another life,” she said desperately. “By All Four Gods and Goddesses, can’t I start over, try to do better by those I love?”

“You’re Summer’s Avatar,” Lex said gently. “He shelters those who are different. Gods sometimes put Their Avatars into difficult positions; I should know.” A vein in his throat throbbed in time with his heart. “Jenna, when we lay together last summer, I thought there would be nothing more between us. I didn’t expect you to come to the One Oak for several years yet, certainly not with our son. Then War directed me to stay in Challen this year and ally myself with your quartet. I thought Gwen would be the most appropriate match for me, but your beauty, charm, and warrior spirit draw me. I wish there could be more between us, but as a Fip, I need a loyal wife I can trust.” He spread his hands. “Perhaps there can be no alliance between our gods, at least not the way I originally pictured it.”

O Four, hard enough to hear she’d come so close to a union with Lex and lost it for crimes from a previous life, but now she’d failed the Four too? She was a failure, a worthless Avatar. She didn’t deserve Gwen or Lex or anyone. If only she could run away from the One Oak. She should crawl back to Bull Rock. Her parents could always use more help on the farm, and she deserved all the disgrace her neighbors would heap on her.

“Jenna, don’t cry.” Lex brushed her cheek with a callused finger. “It will work out.”

She shook her head, afraid to speak. It couldn’t work out. There was no one to replace her as Summer Avatar.

He leaned down to kiss her, a quick taste of his breath on her lips. She wrapped herself around him and opened her mouth to his. He pulled her closer. They kissed fiercely, as if they knew they would both lose this battle. Jenna hoped the moment would never end, but all too soon he pulled away from her and hurried downstairs.

  Jenna sobbed into one of Robbie’s extra blankets, then lay there in the dark until she fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning dawned cloudy, with the promise of a thunderstorm before noon. Jenna hoped it would rain all day. She sipped her morning cup of chocolate as she stared out the window, searching for signs of Chaos Season. The Four knew she and the other Avatars needed time to regroup. Maybe they should find the peach orchard they’d worked on yesterday and find out how much damage still had to be cleaned up. Or she could perform some more tests on deathbush seeds—assuming she could prevent them from sprouting and overtaking the One Oak. It would be a wonder if she could perform at least one of her tasks without causing more problems than she solved.

Jenna checked the sky again. A thunderstorm would mean lightning and possible tree damage. Maybe she ought to check on her tree before the storm started. It was unlikely such a small tree would be hit by lightning, but she could protect it further by setting up a lightning rod. And if she was going to walk about with a lightning rod in the middle of a storm, the best protection she could find would be Kay.

“I’ll take breakfast downstairs,” she told Clover. “I need to speak to Kay.”
I’m sure Gwen wants to avoid me as much as I do her.

Jenna peeked around the corner before entering the breakfast nook. The Four were with her; Kay sat by herself with a bowl of porridge and an equal-sized bowl of berries. Jenna helped herself to the same but also took some toast and slathered it with butter and honey.

“Is it a natural storm, or is Chaos Season involved?” she said, gesturing toward the window.

Kay scraped her porridge bowl clean. “It started as a natural storm, but yesterday’s Chaos Season will make it stronger.”

“When will it start?”

“In another hour.”

“Think we have time to set up a lightning rod near my tree before then?”

Kay mixed cream into her berries. “That depends on how soon we leave. I can hold the storm back for a short while, but we should let it happen as the God of Winter wills. It’s not good to interfere with the weather all of the time.”

Jenna nodded. She summoned the butler and, between bites of her meal, asked him to have a lightning rod brought out from the stable so it would be ready when they were.

The lightning rod featured an arrowhead at one tip. Underneath it was a blue glass globe the size of her hand. A long copper wire ran to the ground rod. Jenna studied the lightning rod, trying to figure out how she would fasten it to her tree. Maybe she could force-grow a branch to hold it in place. If Kron were available, he could manage it with ease, but Jenna didn’t think they had time to find him. The clouds were already getting darker.

“We should hurry,” Kay said. She left without taking the shawl the maid offered her.

Jenna followed Kay. The lightning rod and cable were heavier than she expected. The ground rod dragged after her, catching on tufts of grass until she picked it up. Juggling the entire assembly made it hard to see where she was going.

“Kay, I need some help,” she called.

Kay came back to take the ground rod. She led the way, not speaking until Jenna’s tree came into sight. “I’m sorry for yesterday,” she finally said.

“It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. Well, Gwen’s too.” As soon as Jenna said that, she regretted it. It wasn’t loyal to blame Gwen for problems she had caused. “But she was upset because of something that happened between us in a previous life.”

Kay rolled her eyes. “Many previous lives, Jenna. But last time was the worst. It was quite…shocking, how we had to retire early as Avatars.” She looked away. “It’s almost enough to make me understand what Dorian is going through. It’s no wonder he’s impatient when I’m so horrible with my weather magic.”

“I swear by the Four you do better when he’s not around.”

Even though they were alone, Kay lowered her voice. “Well, he does upset me.”