season avatars 01 - seasons beginnings
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Kron? We don’t know anything about these people.”
“I know they were exposed to Salth’s time magic but didn’t die.” He
hauled a jar of beer closer to the entrance. “If I can learn how they man-
aged that, I could get some new ideas how to protect us—and others.”
“Are you sure they don’t have magic of their own?”
“I’ll know for certain once I go on shore. The magic finder isn’t
reacting to them, but I might have to get closer if their magic is weak.”
He frowned as he thought about what he’d said. How could weak magic
survive an encounter with Salth’s strength? It couldn’t. Perhaps they
had some way to counter or neutralize magic. If so, he—and the Ava-
tars—would have to be even warier than they were now.
Galia tapped her fingers on the cabin wall. “I wonder if I should go
with you. Perhaps if I offer my magic healing for barter, we could obtain
more supplies. We’ll need lots of food before we face Salth, and it
sounds like we won’t be able to find anything when we get close to her
home. Besides, what if these people have been affected by Salth’s
magic but don’t know it yet?” She pushed herself off of the hammock.
“It’s my duty to make sure they’re healthy before letting them get too
close to Vistichia.”
A few moments ago, Kron would have welcomed her assistance
with the Mount Clan. Now, he wondered if it would be safer for her to
remain behind. But how could he convince her of that?
He checked his pouch for defensive objects. Yarn would work, even
though it was short. “Galia, Salth’s curse isn’t subtle. If she was drain-
ing these people of their remaining time, they’d already be dead.”
2 0 0 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n
Her forehead furrowed. “I suppose the Four wouldn’t permit Salth’s
curse to extend too close to Vistichia. But these people could still carry
a plague. I’d best check.”
Kron bit back a sigh. If she wouldn’t stay behind, they should bring
another Avatar with them to help defend themselves. Should it be Janno
or Caye? He refused to consider Bella. Maybe he wanted to protect her
too much, but unless there were more wild animals about than was nor-
mal in winter, Bella wouldn’t be able to do much else than make the
draft horses run off. Janno could damage any wooden weapons or the
wagons, while Caye’s magic was the most flexible. But when Kron ap-
proached her seat and found her slumped over, sleeping, he decided it
was more important to let her rest. He beckoned Janno over and ex-
plained the situation to him in a whisper so Galia wouldn’t overhear
them. Janno stared at his mother with so much worry in his expression
Kron feared Galia would suspect something.
“Here. Take this.” Kron piled magic-finders and a few semiprecious
gems into a basket, then handed it to Janno. “Don’t tell the strangers
that you’re an Avatar, not until we know what their intentions are.”
Janno scowled. “So, I’m just there to be a porter?”
“Well, you can show off your strength and flirt with the women too.
Maybe you’ll learn something useful from them.”
Janno’s expression lightened at the idea.
Kron descended first from the Avatar so he could hold the rope lad-
der steady for Galia and then catch the basket that Janno lowered. Janno
brought down a second basket full of fish by strapping the basket to his
back. Lammar strode forward to welcome them. “What have you
brought to trade? Fish?” He laughed. “That’s the last thing we need so
close to a river!”
“Ah, but these are saltwater fish, not from the river,” Galia told him.
“We brought these from Vistichia, but they’re smoked so well they’ll
last for moons. Go on, try a sample.”
While she distracted Lammar, Kron tucked a magic-finder into his
pouch and wandered around. Some of the other travelers had started
Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 2 0 1
fires for cooking, while others tended to their beasts. He didn’t recog-
nize the tools they used, but his magic-finder didn’t glow or grow warm.
He stopped by one of the men. “What is that artifact you’re using to
start the fire? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It’s not an artifact.” The man spat out the word. “And it’s not some-
thing I can share with an outsider.”
Maybe not, but I can make some guesses. The device appeared to be
metal, but although it was silver-colored, it didn’t gleam. Kron’s fingers
twitched, aching to touch the object and decipher its secrets. He needed
another distraction. Could Janno provide one?
Kron circled back to where Janno was attempting to flirt with a
young woman who didn’t know their language. “Could you come with
me?”
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Janno countered, stepping closer to the
woman. She retreated.
“I need your help to investigate something.”
“You want my help? Well, in that case….”
Janno set his baskets down, grunting as if they were heavier than
they actually were, and followed Kron back to where he’d seen the man
with the metal tool. The man was coaxing kindling to catch fire, but the
metal tool he’d used before wasn’t visible.
“What do you want me to do?” Janno asked.
Kron winced. “Whisper so they don’t hear you,” he said, suiting the
action to the word.
“Is that it?”
“No. There’s a special tool I want to examine. I need you to cause a
distraction so I can find it.”
“Humm...” Janno stared at the wood, and a flame roared up so high
it nearly scorched off the eyebrows off the man who was feeding the
fire. He rocked backward on his heels, swearing.
“Actually, it would be better if the fire went out,” Kron murmured.
“Maybe he’ll use his metal tool again.”
“Now you tell me.”
2 0 2 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n
The fire died as abruptly as if Janno had dumped a bucket of water
on it.
The stranger shook his head. “First too much fire, now none...this
isn’t right. Wood doesn’t behave like this.” He swiveled his head to
stare at Kron and Janno. “At least, it never did—until you two came to
our caravan.”
Kron bowed, hoping to hide any telltale changes in his expression.
“We are but strangers passing through.” He stepped back a couple of
paces as if to give the man more space to work. He could still study an
artifact from this distance, hopefully without being obvious.
The man rose, took a few steps toward one of the wagons, then
turned his head to glare at Kron. “Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you
be bargaining with Lammar?”
“Galia can handle bargaining for the fish.” What would make this
man willing to share his knowledge with him? “I’d rather bargain with
secrets.”
The man halted. After a couple of heartbeats, he said, “Some secrets
are meant to be kept that way.”
“Why?”
“Because they
don’t belong to just a single person, but a clan.”
Did he mean this whole clan was made up of artificers? Kron hadn’t
encountered so many tinkerers since his days in Delns. He studied the
man more closely. The patterns embroidered on his tunic did remind
him a little of clothes from his homeland, but they would have been
worked in different materials. His accent was harsher than Delns’s lan-
guage too. Still, maybe there was a link here Kron could exploit.
He switched to his native language. “Can you still understand me?”
Several long heartbeats passed before the man reluctantly nodded.
“You speak like my grandfather did when I was a youth. I haven’t heard
such words in a long time. Where did you learn them?”
“In my home country of Delns, east of here and across the sea. Have
you heard of it?”
The man shook his head.
Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 2 0 3
Kron tried another tactic. “Have your people always lived in the
mountains?”
“You’d have to ask Lammar, or one of the elders. If they’ll well
enough to talk.” The man spat on the ground. “The curse on the land
affected them more than the rest of us. Only two are left who’ve known
more than seventy winters, and their minds wander.”
“A pity.” Why would Salth target the elders? They had little time
left in this life. Did that make their few heartbeats more precious, or did
they know something that might be useful when facing Salth? Kron
hoped it was the latter.
Inspiration drove him to bargain, “I think I may know where your
ancestors came from. If I tell you about my home country of Delns,
would you show me the metal artifact that makes fire?”
Interest flickered in the man’s eyes for a couple of heartbeats, but he
concealed it under a sneer. “You’re still an outsider.”
“Even if we once hailed from the same land?”
“You can’t prove that.”
“What about the link between our languages?”
The man shrugged, then turned away and entered the covered
wagon. As soon as he disappeared, Janno sidled up to Kron. “Here,” he
whispered, pressing a cold object into Kron’s hand.
Kron raised his eyebrows as he studied the fire-starter. “How did
you get this?”
“I just...borrowed it.”
“Borrowed?” Even Kron winced when his voice sounded too loud
in the clearing. “Janno, I can’t believe you would do something like
this. Have you done this before?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted, though? I thought you kept talking to
that man to keep him busy.”
Kron sighed. “Well, see if you can distract him some more.”
He headed toward the pile of kindling to examine the fire starter.
This metal was harder than anything he’d ever seen before. No bronze
or rock could scratch it. However, the magic-finder didn’t react to it.
2 0 4 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n
Kron turned his own magic onto the artifact, but he still didn’t recognize
the metal or figure out what made it so hard. However, he did identify
a piece of flint that had been bonded to the metal. The metal was joined
with a screw so that the flint could be scraped against the metal. Kron
tried it a couple of times. He thought he saw a spark. As he struck it
again, he heard the man from the caravan arguing with Janno. His first
impulse was to drop the fire starter near the pile of kindling and walk
away as if it had been there all along. But how could he leave this new
artifact behind without figuring out its mystery? If it wasn’t magical, it
was still a material he’d never seen before—and that meant Salth hadn’t
either.
The man’s face grew red as he approached Kron. “You had it all
along! Thief!”
“I’m no thief. You can have it back.” Kron extended the fire starter
toward the man. “But I do want to barter for it. Will your clan allow
that?”
A sly look came into the man’s eyes. “Maybe for its weight in gold.”
Kron’s heart clenched. Did these people know how much gold he’d
brought from Vistichia? But he needed it all for his artifacts. He
couldn’t afford to give away a single speck.
“I can’t offer you gold, but I might have a gem.”
“What kind of gem?”
Kron showed the man turquoise, quartz, and citrine, but he refused
them all. “I’ll have to fetch more trade goods from our boat. Do you
want to come with me while I get it?”
“No.” The man called out using words Kron didn’t understand.
Three more men approached, all wearing swords made from the same
material as the fire starter. “But I want your friend here—” the armed
men surrounded Janno–“to wait with us. Don’t tarry.” The man grinned.
“Your friend is annoying, and we get bored easily.”
Kron exchanged glances with Janno. Janno scowled, but for once he
didn’t speak. Instead, he studied the trees around him as if wondering
how he could persuade them to drop branches on the clansmen.
Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 2 0 5
Trusting Janno to figure out a way to defend himself—or attack—
with magic, Kron nodded. But before the men could demand their fire
starter back, he sprinted for the boat, calling behind him, “If you want
a hostage, then I’m claiming this!”
Galia was still bargaining with Lammar by the riverbank. They
stopped talking as Kron passed them to ascend the ladder.
“What are you doing, Kron?” Galia asked. “Do you need something
else to trade? Where’s Janno?”
He didn’t answer.
Bella met him as he climbed back on deck. “What’s wrong?”
“No time to explain. Take this and hide it somewhere.” He passed
the fire starter to her, then kissed her cheek. “Can you control their an-
imals from here?”
“I think so. Why, what do you want me to do?”
As he darted into the cabin, he said, “Wait until I return to their
camp, then have their draft animals stampede.”
She frowned. “But what if they get hurt? What if people get hurt?”
Kron opened a wooden box, enchanted to respond only to him or
Bella. Several gems lay inside. Which one could he part with but was
still valuable enough to appease the travelers?
“What happens if Janno gets hurt?” he countered. “Or Galia? These
people have swords made of the hardest metal I’ve ever encountered.”
He shook the box until he found a couple of pearls. They were
slightly misshapen, which limited their usefulness in artifacts. Kron
hoped the clansmen wouldn’t object to the pearls’ imperfection, but in
case they did, he selected a topaz and an opal as well. They wouldn’t
be useful for the artifact he intended to construct around Salth’s house.
Shouts rose from outside. Bella followed Kron as he ran to the lad-
der. “Let me come with you so I can link with Galia. I’ll have more
control over my magic.”
“They already have Janno surrounded by swords. Galia’s down
there too.” Kron put his hand over hers. “I
don’t want you to become
another hostage.”
2 0 6 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n
Her mouth hardened. “I won’t be.”
He took a couple of steps down the ladder, and despite everything
he’d said, she followed him. Although Galia’s furious voice urged him
onward, he halted, blocking his wife. Why wouldn’t she listen to him?
Didn’t she know what the other men might do to her if they caught her?
Not that he would let that happen—they’d have to kill him first—but
didn’t all women want to hide from strange armed men?
“Kron, hurry!” Galia screamed.
The panic coming from a normally level-headed woman spurred him
into action. He scrambled down, dropping past the last two rungs to
land in the dirty snow. He turned around to check the situation.
Galia knelt next to Lammar, sprawled on the ground as if he were
asleep—or worse. Surrounding her were Lammar’s people, displaying
fear, grief, and anger. Janno’s guards had brought him to the riverbank.
One of them held his sword so close to Janno’s throat Kron thought he
saw a thin line of blood trickling down.
“What happened?” he asked. He chided himself for just grabbing
gems, not an artifact he could make into a weapon. He should have
guessed the confrontation might go beyond threats to actual violence.
“It’s their fault!” “It’s her fault!” Galia and the man with the fire
starter shouted at the same time.
It’s my fault for being so obsessed with a fire starter. I’m as bad as
Salth. Maybe I should give it back. But the travelers were too worked
up to calm down now, even if he returned the fire starter.
“Kron Evenhanded, why didn’t you tell me about Janno?” Galia
said. “How could you abandon him like that?”
“That’s no call for killing our leader!” one of the guards retorted.
“I told you before, he’s not dead, just stunned. See, he breathes.”
Galia drew herself to her full height and spread out her hands. “And my
son better keep breathing, or no one else will.”
As the crowd murmured, Bella plopped into the snow next to Kron.
He glanced at her to tell her to climb back up, but she kept a grip on the
ladder. He stepped partly in front of her to shield her.
Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 2 0 7
“This was all a misunderstanding.” Kron projected his voice to carry