season avatars 01 - seasons beginnings

by sandra ulbrich almazan

  “Don’t be silly, husband. Why suffer when we have three Spring

  Avatars here?” Bella ushered him into the kitchen. It was so hot in there

  from baking that his hand burned again in sympathy.

  Galia bustled in from a storeroom with a pot. She scowled as she

  peered at Kron. “What did you do now? Is my son all right? Where is

  he?”

  “On the way back with the wood, I hope. After what we went

  through to collect it, it would be a shame to waste the trees.”

  Galia grasped his wrist and shut her eyes. His own skin tingled as

  the redness faded. A few heartbeats later, his hand itched as old skin

  flaked off to reveal shiny tender skin beneath.

  “Well done,” Kron said as he inspected his hand.

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  “Now, tell us what happened,” she said. “And Bella, get me some of

  that grain mush from breakfast. A little honey would be good with it

  too. Magic gives me such an appetite. I haven’t eaten like this in over

  twenty years!”

  Kron related what had happened, pausing occasionally to sip a

  hearty beer Bella prepared for him. The women Avatars who were busy

  cooking and baking drew closer to listen. To spare them worry, Kron

  omitted the lies Salth had told about the Four being under her control.

  “There’s been no sign of Salth trying to portal anywhere close to

  here, has there?” he asked when he was done with his tale—and his

  beer.

  Bella closed her eyes for a moment. “The birds and cats and rats all

  say they’ve noticed nothing like magic – or at least, nothing like our

  magic.”

  “Are the animals to become Avatars next?”

  She gave him a look that was worth a thousand tongue lashings.

  “As long as Janno and the other Avatars weren’t hurt.” Galia helped

  herself to the last of the beer. “When do you think they’ll return?”

  “Is anyone home?” Janno called from the courtyard. “Who’ll help

  us unload? We’re short a man.”

  Kron rubbed his palms together. His skin still tingled, but he sup-

  posed he ought to assist the Summer Avatars. He should make sure

  Salth hadn’t returned to harass them after he’d left. The ox had only

  been able to haul two logs back to the Avatar’s house, so unloading

  them and moving them to a storage area didn’t take long.

  “Can you make a portal to the grove so we can finish fetching the

  logs before dark?” Janno asked. “The sooner we finish, the less likely

  Salth finds us again.”

  “She can’t hurt you here,” Galia said. The way she drew closer to

  her son suggested she thought otherwise. “The Four will protect us.”

  Flilya shuddered. “But she said she controls the Four, since They’re

  aspects of time.”

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  All of the Avatars who’d come out to the courtyard turned to look at

  Kron as if they expected him to know for certain.

  “Salth did claim she controls the Four,” he spoke carefully, weigh-

  ing every word, “but I’m sure she doesn’t. They are eternal in a way

  she’s not, or can ever be. As much as she would like to claim the Four’s

  power, that’s beyond her reach.”

  Most of the Avatars sighed and relaxed at his words. However,

  Flilya still didn’t look convinced. “Then what happened when we be-

  came Avatars?” she asked. “Why haven’t the Four returned to us?”

  “Spring did return,” Galia told her. “And They haven’t returned be-

  cause we’re supposed to take over now.” She scowled at Flilya. “Unless

  you admit you’re not fit for the task Summer gave you…”

  “Enough of that, Galia,” said Tylan, the third Spring Avatar. He

  stepped to Flilya’s side. “If you want to insult a member of my group,

  you insult me too.”

  Galia flushed, but Kron wasn’t sure if it was in anger or shame. Ei-

  ther way, he couldn’t let these emotions run rampant and split this group

  even further.

  “If you think you work best in groups of four, I won’t tell you oth-

  erwise—”

  Domina sniffed. “You don’t fit into any of our groups, Kron.”

  Bella stepped closer to him and said, “He’s my husband, so he be-

  longs in my group.” She glanced at Galia, Janno, and Caye as she spoke,

  as if she sought their agreement. Galia and Caye nodded immediately,

  but Janno hesitated, nodding only after his mother glared at him.

  Kron ground his teeth. He’d meant to establish himself as belonging

  to no group, an outsider who could offer them impartial advice. Bella

  meant well, but she’d inadvertently done the one thing he’d wanted to

  avoid: force him to take sides. Admittedly, he did seem to speak the

  most with Galia and Bella, but Galia had acted as an overall leader for

  the Avatars until now. This divide disturbed him more than he’d ex-

  pected.

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  “All of you shouldn’t be so quick to divide yourselves up.” He

  glared at all of them—except Bella. He didn’t have the heart to do that.

  “The Four have told you over and over again you have to work together

  to defeat Salth. Have you forgotten so soon?”

  A few of the Avatars blushed and lowered their heads. Domina,

  however, had to be defiant. “But we do work better together in the

  smaller groups.”

  “Have you been practicing as a full group, or in smaller ones?”

  Silence answered him.

  Kron shook his head. “You’d better start working as twelve, not

  three groups of four. Otherwise, Salth will drain the magic out of all of

  us before we reach her house.”

  Suddenly fed up with all of them, Kron pushed through the group to

  enter the house. He headed straight to his workshop and shut the door.

  Once alone, he sat on a stool and rubbed his temples. What would it

  take for the Avatars to realize how dangerous Salth was? Perhaps the

  Four would protect the Avatars while they were in Vistichia, but that

  wouldn’t last when they journeyed upriver. Bella knew from experience

  what Salth was capable of. Perhaps he should ask his dearer half to tell

  the rest of the Avatars how close she’d come to losing her life. If they

  knew about that and still insisted on rushing into a battle they couldn’t

  win, then he’d have to try to persuade Bella to stay behind, even if that

  doomed the rest of the Avatars.

  * * *

  Nearly two moons passed while Janno, Carver, and Flilya worked

  with the shipbuilders. In the meantime, Kron experimented with arti-

  facts to protect him and the Avatars from Salth’s soul-trap. He

  wandered around his workshop, touching items—hard, soft, smooth,

  woolly, and cold—and trusting his training and instinct to lead him to

  the proper materials. To protect himself from a magical draining, he

  chose a scrap of wool for blanketing and warmth, a nail to channel

  Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 1 5 9

  magic away from him, a firestone as a symbol of renewal, and a four-

  leaf clover for the blessing of the Four Gods and Goddesses Who had

 
trusted him with this mission. He used magic to fuse the rock and nail,

  then pressed the clover against the rock and wrapped them all in the

  wool. Finally, he fused the wool with a leather cord so he could wear

  the anti-draining device around his neck.

  There. That will work for me, but I don’t have enough four-leaf clo-

  vers for the Avatars. I’ll have to think of a substitute. He sighed as he

  remembered his last trip to Salth’s territory. It was hard enough protect-

  ing a few people, but who knew how many others lived west of the

  mountains, past the Four’s protection? If only Kron knew how to coun-

  ter Salth’s soul-trap with an artifact of his own. He needed to start

  working on an artifact now, while he could still obtain supplies. But

  what should he bring with him, and what type of design should he use?

  I should start with what I know. Kron sketched a drawing of Salth’s

  crystal house, adding estimates as to how long and wide it was. Is it

  actually crystal, or diamond? If it were the latter, it would be impossi-

  ble to shatter. A pity Kron didn’t have a sample to experiment on. If

  Bella could persuade an animal to bring back a piece of the house—that

  is, if it survived the journey--Kron would be able to learn what he faced.

  He left the workshop to search for Bella and was surprised by how

  much time had passed. He’d entered the workshop after breakfast, but

  from the angle of the sun, he’d missed lunch. His stomach immediately

  reminded him of the fact, so Kron headed for the kitchen. If Bella

  wasn’t helping to prepare the evening meal, one of the other women

  would be able to tell him where she’d gone.

  He heard her voice before he saw her. Bella sat in front of the fire,

  peeling root vegetables and singing. Flilya and Caye ground corn for

  flatcakes, and Sylva cleaned fish. All of the women looked at him as he

  entered, and Bella fell silent.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “Bella, would it be possible for you to

  persuade an animal—any kind—to travel to Salth’s crystal house, take

  a piece of it, and bring it back here? I’d like to study it.”

  1 6 0 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n

  She closed her eyes and stopped moving for a few heartbeats, but

  then she shook her head. “Sorry, Kron, all the animals strong enough to

  try attacking Salth’s house are terrified of the area. I don’t have the

  power to force a creature to suppress its fear for so long and over such

  a distance.” She raised an eyebrow. “Not that I would want to.”

  “Even if it would protect us?”

  “But I’m supposed to protect the animals!”

  “We also need to use animals, Bella.” Kron pointed to the fish Sylva

  was cleaning. “Otherwise, what would we eat? How would we plow

  fields and obtain wool? This is the same thing.”

  Bella didn’t respond, but she looked away from him, studying Sylva.

  “What do you think Fall would say?” she asked.

  Before the other Fall Avatar could reply, Domina entered the cook-

  ing area, dressed up in a silk robe and wearing a crystal pendant.

  Obviously she wasn’t there to help with dinner. However, she carried a

  large glass bottle of a design Kron knew well.

  “Is that...is that...” Kron intercepted Domina so he could examine

  the bottle up close. “Wine from Delns? Wherever did you find it?”

  “In the marketplace, of course.” She smirked. “Or didn’t you know

  that a ship from your country arrived yesterday?”

  “It did?” For a moment, Kron wondered how much it would cost to

  book passage for himself and Bella back to Delns. That had to be far

  enough away from Salth for her to leave them alone. Then he glanced

  at the other Avatars. Bella wouldn’t want to leave them, and they

  wouldn’t leave Vistichia except to fight Salth. He touched the bottle

  with great care. This would be the closest he ever came to returning

  home. He gave Domina a warm smile—but not too warm with Bella

  watching both of them. “Thank you for thinking of me.”

  Her eyes opened wide, making her look younger and more innocent

  than she really was. Then her mouth set in a calculated expression. “It’s

  my pleasure to make our teacher as ... comfortable as possible.”

  Bella sang a couple of lines from a song about an unfaithful husband

  who lost all the women he slept with. Kron didn’t need the warning. He

  Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 1 6 1

  stepped backward and said loudly, “We’ll have to share the Delns wine

  with everyone.”

  “Or it could be a reward for the most skilled Avatar,” Domina sug-

  gested.

  “I’d be hard pressed to judge.” Kron retreated to Bella’s side. “And

  I do have a favorite, of course.”

  He leaned over and kissed her. It was only on her cheek, but it was

  enough to make her blush. Flilya and Caye grinned. Domina narrowed

  her eyes.

  Bella returned to her work and shifted to singing a lullaby. Just as

  she began an ascending refrain, her notes became a shriek. She dropped

  her knife and put her hand on her skirt. An ember had jumped from the

  fire and burned a hole through the cloth.

  “Are you all right, dear heart?” Kron asked. Now he wished he knew

  how to make healing artifacts.

  “I’ll fetch Galia,” Flilya said, abandoning her corn. She grabbed the

  wine from Domina before leaving.

  “It’s not so bad.” Bella spoke with indrawn breath that gave the lie

  to her brave words. Kron put an arm over her shoulders for reassurance,

  but she stared first at Domina, then Caye. Caye nodded slightly. She

  and Bella were part of the same quartet, but Kron knew they couldn’t

  exchange thoughts without linking through Galia. So when Bella sang

  again, continuing her interrupted song, Kron wasn’t sure what to expect.

  Bella reached the highest note she could sing and held it. At the same

  time, the air suddenly grew warmer. With a faint pop, the crystal pen-

  dant Domina was wearing split and fell off of its chain.

  She stared at it in confusion for a couple of heartbeats before whirl-

  ing upon Caye. “What did you just do? You clumsy fool! Winter should

  have never picked you!”

  Caye drooped, but Kron hurried over to pick up the crystal pieces.

  Bella and Caye had somehow conspired to damage Domina’s necklace,

  but how? And could it work on a larger crystal, like Salth’s house?

  “Can you fix it, Kron?” Domina asked.

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  “Perhaps,” he replied, “but I’d rather leave it as is for a while so I

  can study it.” He turned over the fragments displayed on his palm. “This

  shattered crystal may be the key to bringing down Salth’s house.”

  C H A P T E R S E V E N T E E N

  Crystal, Gold, and a Shell

  “Do you honestly think Bella’s singing could be the key to defeating

  Salth?” Galia asked that evening after dinner. Bella had the place of

  honor closest to the fire, with everyone gathered around her. Domina

  was the exception; she sat at the table with the empty wine bottle in her

  hands, st
aring at it. The glass sweated or beaded over with frost, chang-

  ing at her whim.

  “If singing’s the key, why didn’t the Four choose more musicians?”

  Bella said. “There were plenty of them at the old city-king’s palace.”

  Kron had to agree that the rest of the Avatars lacked Bella’s talent.

  Janno’s baritone wasn’t half bad, though his taste in songs must have

  been acquired while drunk. But Caye was too timid to speak above a

  whisper, let alone sing, and Carver made donkeys sound musical.

  “Perhaps one singer is enough.” Kron paced back and forth, exam-

  ining every object in the room as a potential part of an artifact. “That,

  and an artifact.” All he had to do was figure out what the artifact was

  supposed to accomplish.

  “Bella couldn’t have done it without Caye’s help.” If Domina still

  resented the loss of her pendant, she hid it well. “Caye made the crystal

  grow warmer. I felt it a heartbeat before it shattered. Watch this.”

  She placed the bottle in the center of the table and backed away,

  hands extended toward it. The frost on the jug melted, then turned to

  steam. The bottle burst with a larger pop, sending shards everywhere.

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  A couple of Avatars grumbled and brushed themselves off, while Galia

  and Magstrom healed minor cuts.

  “Glass and crystal aren’t the same,” Kron said. “They feel different

  when I work with them.”

  “But it’s still the same idea, isn’t it? Maybe what you need are more

  Winter Avatars.”

  “Then why didn’t Winter choose more of you?” Galia asked.

  Domina’s pleased expression slipped a little. “We were the best He

  could find?”

  “One for each moon of a season,” Caye said quietly.

  “I think the Four wanted balance,” Galia continued, speaking over

  Caye. “There are supposed to be equal numbers of us. Adding more

  Winters would throw that off.”

  Domina scowled. “But there’s nothing wrong with saying Springs

  should be first and giving them extra magic?”

  “Peace, all of you.” Kron presented an open palm to each woman,

  but they glared at each other instead of listening to him. He raised his

  voice. “There’s a simple way to solve this problem.”

  Bella gazed at him with a wry expression on her face, as if she al-