season avatars 01 - seasons beginnings (20 page)

slipped away before she could strike him.

“He means no harm, Galia,” Spring said. “I know you’re all won-

dering the same thing, even if you don’t voice it out loud.”

Galia’s cheeks reddened.

Spring’s smile faded. “I cannot tell you much, dear Avatars, since

what delayed Our appearance was a matter not for mortals.” She

avoided looking anywhere near Kron.

Salth?
He thought as hard as he could at Her.
Is she gone for good?

Please say so....

“Strangely enough, there are some things mortals can resolve better

than gods and goddesses,” Spring continued. “And one of them is Our

most unpleasant neighbor. If you destroy her, the consequences would

be less severe than if We do it.”

The Avatars stared at her for a few heartbeats. “But Spring, how can

we kill a goddess?” Janno asked.

“You must destroy her crystal house. Salth is not a goddess the way

Fall and I are. She needs the crystal house for power to appear close to

Our level. Without it, she will still be strong, but not impossibly strong.”

Spring lowered her voice. “But you will need to take great care, dear

Avatars. If she looks into the future, then she will discover your plans

before you can conceive them. Fortunately for Us, she prefers to beat a

door to the past. No matter how clever or powerful she is, she will not

be able to answer that riddle.”

Spring obviously didn’t know Salth very well if She believed that.

“How do we hide our plans from her then, Spring?” Galia asked.

“The less magic you use in her domain, the less likely she is to notice

you. So you shouldn’t portal to her house. You will have to sail up the

Chikasi instead.” Spring smiled, and some color returned to her cheeks.

1 4 0
·
S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n

“You should do so anyway to see more of Our domain. We selected

Avatars from Vistichia so you would all be able to assemble together,

but eventually We plan to have you take care of a much bigger area.”

Several of the Avatars murmured to each other. Maybe they were

excited by the notion of travel. Kron would have been happier to remain

in the city. There was nothing of interest on the river besides several

scattered villages, all of which had looked at him and his artifacts with

suspicion. His trip from Montedge at the origin of the Chikasi to

Vistichia had been relatively quick because he’d sailed with the current

in the middle of summer. No matter what season they traveled now, it

would be against the current and would take twice as long—plenty of

time for Salth to spy on them and figure out their true destination.

If only there was an artifact I could make that would hide us from

her. But there’s no way to hide from time. The only way I could manage

it would be to disguise the entire group as non-magical people.

Kron mulled over possible designs and materials while the Goddess

of Spring gave more instructions to the Avatars. He could start with the

gold hourglasses to protect them from the effects of time, but then he

needed something to conceal the Avatars’ true natures. Perhaps a mirror

of polished metal? Dirt, or something else so ordinary Salth would ig-

nore it?

Bella poked him in the ribs, and he realized the courtyard was silent.

All of the other Avatars stared at him. Spring watched him too with a

wry smile on Her face.

You must be able to focus extremely well if you can tune out My

voice. But pay attention now, as I don’t know when I will return.

“What?”

She raised an eyebrow. Her gaze was still obscured even though no

hair fell over Her face.
Think what you want to say, Kron, and I’ll hear

you. This conversation is best kept between ourselves, so don’t tell the

Avatars, not even Bella.

A pit formed in his stomach.
Is the news that bad?

Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs
·
1 4 1

When We chose the seasons as Our theme, We didn’t expect a dem-

igoddess of time would be able to tap into Our power.
Spring scowled.

Even though he knew it wasn’t directed at him, Kron still flinched.

Every time We appear in the mortal realm, it gives Salth an opportunity

to steal more power from Us, power she will twist for her own ends,

against Our own domain. The only way Time will leave Us alone is if

We take Our protections from you and your wife. This We will not do.

Kron shifted his feet. Bella needed and deserved such protection, but

him too?
You don’t need to protect me. I can take care of myself.

You’re more important than you realize, Kron. We’d planned to

spend more time with the Avatars, but We must not. Their training is all

on your shoulders.

His shoulders already felt weighed down with this burden.
Then tell

me what I should teach them. How I can teach them when their magic

is so different from my own?

Encourage them to practice as much as they can. The more they

learn, the more they’ll remember later.

Well, what about Salth? Can you tell me anything that will help us

defeat her?

Your artifact magic will be useful, but you’ll need to find some way

to have all twelve Avatars present when you attempt to break her house.

Kron eyed the Avatars doubtfully. How could he manage that if

some needed to stay behind in Vistichia? Was their combined strength

really that important? All of them put together still couldn’t equal Salth.

“All of you must be present in some way when you attempt to break

into Salth’s house,” Spring said out loud. Her gaze swept across the

group. “Remember it, dear Avatars. Remember it well. Even if you

don’t see Us, We will always look after you and Our domain. Farewell.”

She vanished slowly, as if She knew the sight of Her would have to

keep the Avatars inspired for a long time to come. Some of the Avatars,

especially the ones bound to Her, watched closely, while others

searched the courtyard as if wondering when the rest of the Four would

appear. Kron observed them instead. Galia seemed to have been given

1 4 2
·
S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n

Head Avatar status by the others, perhaps because of her age. But if she

let herself become downcast by the disappearance of the Four, then he

might have to encourage her privately. That would be better than lead-

ing this group himself. They would always view him as someone

different, someone who didn’t belong and was only tolerated for the

sake of his wife.

He clapped his hands to get the Avatars’ attention. “Spring and the

rest of the Four wouldn’t want you to stop working just because They’re

no longer here in the flesh.” He waited for someone to comment, but

amazingly, no one did. “Let’s continue testing what you can do and not

do with your magic. Then we’ll figure out how to face Salth.”

C H A P T E R S I X T E E N

The Summer Avatars

Kron crouched and spread out his hands. In front of him he held an

unglazed dinner plate. “Try it again.”

Domina frowned and curled her fingers. A bolt of lightning shot out,

but it fizzled before Kron had to worry about deflecting it. Magstrom,

one of the Spring Avatars, put his hand on her cheek. With his other

hand, he held on to Sylva, who was connected to one of the Summer

Avatars. The three of them became still. Domina straightened and re-

leased more lightning. The bolt struck the plate with enough force to

send Kron back a step. The plate glowed as it absorbed the lightning.

“Better,” Kron said, “but still weak.”

“Weak!” Domina shook her hair away from her face. “I knocked

you backward, old man!”

“Kron’s not old!” Bella said from the corner of the courtyard, where

she gathered loose feathers from her new flock of geese.

“If you think I’m so feeble,” Kron said to Domina, “then you’ll have

no problem handling this.”

He threw the glowing plate back at Domina. She flung up her hands

again, trying to direct it away with the wind. Although the breeze she

summoned blew Bella’s feathers out of her hand, it couldn’t stop the

plate. As it flew toward her chest, Kron wondered if he should summon

it back. It wouldn’t do to kill one of the Avatars during training, even

1 4 4
·
S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n

Domina. Then she stopped flailing and held out her hands, guiding the

plate to her. Once it landed, its glow disappeared.

Galia came over to inspect Domina’s hands. “You should be more

careful, Domina. I could feel the sparks in that thing back there.” She

gestured at the spot where she had been standing.

“I had it under control,” Domina said, rolling her eyes.

“Not at the beginning.”

“Well, I still managed it.”

“Enough, both of you.” Kron had earned his name “Evenhanded”

for his sense of fairness, not just his ability to use both of his hands with

equal skill. But living with twelve other strong-minded magicians was

enough to fray any temper. “I sent that plate to you at a snail’s pace.

How quickly can you react in a fight?”

Without waiting for Domina to answer, Kron enchanted a pebble

and hurled it at her. She spread her hands to catch it, but it bounced off

her fingers and headed straight for Bella.
She can’t handle that type of

magic!
Kron ran toward her, even though he knew he couldn’t outrace

the pebble. Then a goose fluttered up to intercept it. The bird honked in

surprise and pain as the pebble scorched its wings. As the goose fell,

Bella ran to catch it, murmuring soothingly and stroking the foul-smell-

ing feathers. Had the goose willingly sacrificed itself for Bella, or had

she commanded it to do so? Kron found it hard to believe his tender-

hearted wife would do such a thing, though he’d rather let ten thousand

geese perish than her. But all the geese in the world wouldn’t be of use

against Salth.

“I think we’ve settled it, then,” he said. “The Winters are the ones

with the best magic to face Salth. The rest of you will simply be extra

sources of power for the Springs to feed into the Winters.”

Domina smirked, as if she expected that this declaration made her a

hero. Caye stared at her hands as if she feared seeing lightning burst out

of her fingertips. Ocul, the only male Winter, didn’t even look up from

a puddle he was freezing and thawing over and over. The Four might as

well have picked field mice to face an eagle.

Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs
·
1 4 5

Janno stepped forward with an oak staff. “That’s all we are, just an

extra source of magic? Cattle dung!”

Galia released Domina. “Janno....”

“But I have this. See how tough this staff is?” He smashed the end

of the staff several times on the stone paving. No bark or splinters

chipped off. “All I have to do is get close enough to Salth, and I can

bash her skull in!”

“Janno....”

“What would you do, Mother? Make her sick? Age her?”

Galia glared at her son until he dropped his gaze and shuffled back

to the courtyard wall. Then she addressed Kron. “What do you think?

Are we ready for our trip?”

“After only a moon of training? Of course not. You haven’t even

managed a complete link among all twelve of you. You’ll need that to

face Salth.”

As they formed friendships, alliances, and even animosities with

each other, the Avatars had sorted themselves into three groups of four.

Each group had one Avatar representing one of the Four. The Spring

Avatars could link with the others in their group but not with each other,

and Kron couldn’t figure out how to help them manage that.

He glanced up as the sun broke through the clouds and the air grew

as warm as summertime in a few heartbeats. A week of hard rain had

ruined the last of the harvest and flooded the homes closest to the

Chikasi River. Ordinary people in the marketplace had grumbled that

the Avatars weren’t as good as the Four at managing the weather or

regrowing crops after a storm. To Kron, that was more evidence the

Avatars should focus on clearing up the chaotic seasons here. But if the

magical storm was widespread, banishing it here wouldn’t be enough.

Perhaps that was another reason why they had to travel over land in-

stead of portaling....

Kron suddenly straightened. “That’s it!”

“That’s it? What do you mean?” Bella asked.

1 4 6
·
S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n

He gestured at the entire group of twelve. “The Four want you to

travel up the Chikasi River. But if we all go at once, the city of Vistichia

will be left unprotected, right?”

They nodded.

“So, what if we leave one group of four behind, and the rest travel

with me? I can create a portal right before we enter Salth’s territory so