season avatars 03 - chaos season (4 page)

“One more time with ice, please.”

“I don’t think I can do much more on my own,” Kay gasped. “I haven’t used so much magic since…since…my last life, I suppose.”

“Make it as cold as you can,” Jenna said, “See if you can freeze these plants on the inside too.”

After a few moments, Jenna worried she might freeze on the inside herself. She didn’t have a cloak, and her fingers and toes went numb in heartbeats. Still, she managed to send a final burst of her own magic through all the deathbushes, making sure they froze all the way through. This time, she was sure they would die and not shoot up again from their roots.

The cold didn’t last long before rain fell again. Jenna abandoned the plants and looked at Kay. She was shaking, something unheard of for a Winter Avatar.

“Come on.” She put an arm around the much shorter woman. “Let’s portal someplace warmer where we can rest and eat.”

Kay guided her back to the dining room. Kron waited by one of the doorways. Through it, Jenna saw the drawing room of the Season Avatars’ house in Wistica. Gwen, already comfortable in a chair and holding another cup of chocolate, beckoned to her with a smile. The older Season Avatars—Sophia, Charles, and Dorian—stood next to her, staring at Jenna with mouths agape.

“We’re the last,” Kron said.

Jenna ran straight through the portal, towing Kay with her.

CHAPTER THREE

The Other Season Avatars

As soon as Jenna crossed the portal, she released Kay and collapsed into the closest vacant seat. Then she scanned the room for Robbie and Callie. They weren’t there. Had they gone upstairs to the nursery, or had Ysabel accidentally brought Jenna’s son to the Temple instead?

“By All Four Gods and Goddesses, what’s going on?” Sophia, the current Ava Fall, said. Her white mourning gown made her complexion pale, especially when compared to her dark brown hair and eyes. Despite her sharp words, there was an edge of fear in her voice.

“How did you even get here?” Charles, Jenna’s counterpart, asked. “I thought you were headed to the western border of Challen. Did you get that far, or did you have to come back?” He blinked a few times, as if just waking up, and stared at Kay. “Say, who is this? And how did you enter the house? I didn’t hear the butler announce you.”

Hadn’t Gwen explained everything to them yet? She’d not only come through the portal first, but as Ava Spring, she was the leader of their quartet. She was supposed to handle everything that affected their entire group. Once she had taken care of that, Jenna could find her son and tell Charles about the strange plants she’d let sprout in Tradetown.

Kron stepped through the portal, and it collapsed behind him. The older Avatars stared at him with suspicious gazes. Brighteyes, Sophia’s crow, fluttered on his perch near the window, but he didn’t attack.

“Fellow Avatars, this is Kron Evenhanded, an artificer who can use magic on manmade objects,” Gwen said. “Kron, this is Charles vin Estcher, the Avi Sum; Sophia vin Estcher, the Ava Fall; and Dorian gran Garnell, the Avi Win.” She gestured at each of them before continuing, “Looks like we’ll need more chocolate. And maybe some bread and cold cuts too. Jenna and Kay had to use their magic so we could escape, so they must be ravenous. Permit me?” She pulled the bell cord without waiting for an answer. Not surprising that a nobly born Ava Spring would make herself at home so quickly.

Kron studied the older Avatars for a heartbeat before smiling. “You three must have been Carver, Sylva, and Domina in the life when I first met you.”

Dorian raised his eyebrows. “Which lifetime was that? I don’t recognize any of those names.”

“And how would you remember another life?” Sophia asked. “Only Avatars remember their previous lives in such detail.”

Jenna bit back a grin. The older Avatars wouldn’t believe the truth: Kron had come forward in time eight hundred years, from the time when the Four had first given Their Avatars magic.

“But where’s Magstrom?” he asked. “The Spring Avatar for your group.”

All three of the other Avatars looked away. They still wore pure white for mourning. Jenna touched her green-and-white striped dress uncomfortably. Technically, she should still be in full mourning for her late husband, even though they’d only been married for a few moons. After wearing half-mourning at the king’s ball, Jenna couldn’t stand going back to all white again, and Gwen had been too distracted to nag her about following proper etiquette.

Kron asked again, “What happened to Magstrom? What’s his—or her—name now?”

No one spoke for several heartbeats. Even when the butler appeared in the doorway, Gwen gestured for food, chocolate, and blankets instead of telling him what she wanted. Sophia finally said, “If you mean Margaret, she’s with the God of Winter now.”

“What? She’s dead?” Kron tugged on his satchel. “How can that be?”

Dorian glared at him. “Wait. You’re the one Gwen told us about, the one who found that old pot and all the shards. How did one of those get to the One Oak to kill my wife?” Ice coated his fist.

Gwen forced herself to her feet. “We have a pair of enemies in the Dead Land,” she announced. “Ancient ones who have been causing Chaos Season for centuries. One of them, a magical but twisted child named Sal-thaath, caused all the evil with the shards. He came forward in time with Kron. Remember how Kron’s water clock disappeared from the University of Wistica, along with the pottery shard that had caused Margaret’s death? Sal-thaath wanted to use the shards as a way to hide himself from the Four so he could move at will in our country.” She shivered as she displayed her hand where the final shard was still embedded. Her palm looked raw and was crisscrossed with more lines than a letter written by a miser. “If he’d been able to take this shard from me, he would have succeeded.”

Everyone frowned as they stared at Gwen’s hand. Spring Avatars never bore such ugly wounds. It would take a lot of magic to remove those scars. Jenna longed to press Gwen’s palm with healing kisses. Perhaps later she could offer to link with Gwen and let her drain Jenna’s reserves to restore herself. Maybe Kay and Ysabel would join them. If they were in the link, Jenna would be less tempted to remember her last life and share her crime with Gwen.

“If all that is true,” Sophia said finally, “What should we do?”

“We must face them in the Dead Land, the way you did in your very first life as Avatars,” Kron replied. “But the Four insisted all twelve of you are needed to defeat Salth and Sal-thaath. With one of you gone—”

“Don’t you mean five?” Charles said.

“Five? Five dead?”

“The twelve of us are never all alive at once. One quartet serves the Four, one quartet replaces them, and one quartet rests with the God of Winter.” Charles spread his hands. “Our predecessors died about thirty years ago.”

“Even if they’ve been reborn, they’d be younger than these girls here,” Dorian said.

Kron collapsed onto the closest chair. “Then by All Four Gods and Goddesses, how are we supposed to face Salth and Sal-thaath without all twelve Avatars? How?” He glared up at the ceiling. “Tell us, Spring!”

Jenna held her breath, but Spring didn’t appear. Nothing happened that could be a sign from the Four.

“The Four never speak directly to us anymore,” Sophia said sadly.

In the corner, Kay bowed her head.

Gwen sat down again. “Are you quite sure the Four said we all have to be incarnated at once?”

“Spring told me to bring all twelve of you to face Salth—and Sal-thaath.”

“Then maybe it’s not the right season for that to happen.” Gwen perked up as the maid brought in hot chocolate and pastries. “Otherwise, I’m sure the Four would have arranged matters differently.”

Kron shook his head at the silent offer of chocolate. “Then why did I come to this time and place, if not to help put an end to Salth’s destruction?”

“Ask the Four.”

Gwen’s tone was dismissive, but he seized her suggestion. “I should go to the Temple anyway and check on Ysabel. Maybe she’s ready to come back here.” He transformed a doorway into a portal and stepped through. The portal faded, leaving an astonished maid on the other side.

Jenna claimed her own cup of chocolate and headed upstairs to check if Robbie was here. After a few false turns, she found him sleeping in a tiny bedroom while Callie watched over him, sewing him a new nightshirt. The one he wore was a bit tight on him. Jenna made a note to send it back home. Her cousin might need it soon for her own child.

Reassured her son was safe, Jenna remembered her other duty. She returned to the parlor for more chocolate and another pastry. Gwen and Kay were gone, so she approached the other Avatar of Summer. A touch of gray appeared at his temples. As a member of the older set of Avatars, he had to be in his fifties, or maybe even sixties. However, he only looked a decade, maybe fifteen years, older than Jenna. Their Spring Avatar had managed to stave off the signs of age while she was still alive, but now they would be sicken and age like anyone else. Charles didn’t seem too concerned about it, though, as he stared out the window at the rain.

Jenna bowed her head. “Avi.”

“Ava.” He studied her for a heartbeat, then glanced away to where Dorian argued with Sophia. Charles lowered his voice. “All ready to take over from our quartet, are you?”

Some Avatars clung to their season of service, unwilling to make way for the next set. Others gladly gave up the role so they could live with their families, in Wistica, or anywhere away from the rest of their quartet. “What will you do when we replace you?” she asked.

“Grow grapes and make wine,” he replied. “My family’s estate is the perfect place for a vineyard.”

“So, you don’t mind stepping down?”

“I can’t say everyone in our quartet—I mean, trio now—feels the same.”

Jenna shrugged. “None of us have a choice about it.”

“That makes it even worse.” Charles finished his drink. “So, are you looking for advice, perhaps?”

“No, memories. I found a strange plant in Tradetown this morning. It helped us get away, but it makes weeds look like slow growers.”

Charles lifted his eyebrow. How seriously was he taking this?

Jenna described everything she remembered about the plant, from the distinctive shape of its seed to the way its leaves felt and smelled. Remembering she had some extra seeds saved, she pulled one out of her reticule and displayed it to him.

Charles took the seed reluctantly and handed it back to her in a few heartbeats. “I’ve never seen this type of seed before.”

“Never? Not even in another life?”

“No. So, this must not be a native plant of Challen.”

“Is that bad?”

He gulped his wine. “With something that grows so quickly, yes.” He grinned. “Thank the Four I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“What? Won’t you and the others stay on to guide us?”

“Are you sure you really want that?”

Jenna hesitated. Even the Spring Avatars couldn’t link across generations, so no matter how closely an Avatar worked with her predecessor or successor, she could never know them as intimately as the others in her quartet. Sometimes Avatars serving the same God or Goddess helped each other, but often they became rivals, each wanting to demonstrate the most skill. Jenna was sure she could hold her own with Charles, but Ysabel and Kay hadn’t practiced using their magic as much as she had. Maybe they could learn a lot from Sophia and Dorian—or maybe the other Avatars would intimidate them.

“Maybe the four of us should talk about it and then decide,” she said.

Sophia wandered over to join them, carrying full glasses of wine for herself and her husband. “At least you returned at a good time,” she said. “It will be good to have your quartet at the soltrans.”

“The soltrans? When is it?”

Charles stared at her as if she’d mixed up sunflower and mustard seeds. “Tomorrow.”

“So soon?” By All Four, how had she lost track of the seasons, especially when her birthday was on the summer solstice? “I suppose that’s why you’re here instead of back at the One Oak.”

Charles nodded.

Jenna leaned forward. “You’ll need Gwen to stand in for Spring, of course. But who’s going to represent Summer? You or me?”

CHAPTER FOUR

A Temple Visit

“We didn’t expect any of you to be here in time for the soltrans,” Sophia said. “So I was going to stand in for Margaret while Charles continued in his normal role for Summer.”

Gwen hadn’t returned yet, but she wouldn’t mind if Jenna spoke for her. At least, Jenna hoped not. After hundreds of years together, she ought to know how Gwen would react.

“Gwen would be more suitable, since she’s an actual Spring Avatar. And since I’m part of her quartet, I should be the one facing her.”

“I don’t mind letting you two take our parts.” Charles looked at his wife. “Better the new Avatars over the old. The sooner we can establish their season, the sooner we can retire.”

Dorian turned his head, glaring at Charles. “Not all of us are in such a rush to give up being Avatars, Charles.”

“But Margaret wouldn’t want—”

“She’s not here, freeze it!”

Jenna’s cup of chocolate frosted over. She hastily set it down before her fingers turned numb.

Sophia sighed. “No, she’s not here, Dorian. That’s why we can’t function as Avatars for much longer. We have to step aside for the next set.”

“But they’re not ready. Their Ava Win’s been a seamstress for the past few years. How can she control the weather when she spends less than an hour a day outside, feeling it? Ha!” Dorian spat into the fireplace. “The first strong wind will carry that slip of a girl into the Salt Waters, and then we’ll need another set of Avatars anyway.”

Gwen and Kay, still in the hall, paused before reentering the parlor. Had Dorian seen them? It didn’t matter; Jenna automatically sprang to the defense of her sister Avatar.

“Kay already has hundreds of years of experience handling the weather,” she said. “Just give her a moon or two to practice, and her memories will strengthen. The same goes for the rest of us. Once we take over, you’ll be free to travel or do anything you want—”