season avatars 01 - seasons beginnings (33 page)

Winter Avatars’ shoulders. Kron couldn’t see the others, particularly

Bella, but he guessed they brought up the rear. All of them stared ahead

towards Kron’s group, but their faces were slack, as if they didn’t un-

derstand what they saw in front of them.

“Why have you stopped?” a very familiar voice called out. “Keep

attacking, Avatars!”

Kron’s double, identical except for his lighter clothing, positioned

himself directly between Caye and Domina, smirking at Kron.

The candle slipped from Kron’s fingers, distorting his vision. “Who

are you?”

“Can’t you guess?”

The taunting tone gave him the answer: Sal-thaath. But how was he

still alive, let alone disguised so cleverly to fool his own wife?

“What have you done to the other Avatars, Sal-thaath?” Kron asked.

“Domina, Caye, it’s us! Stop attacking!”

Together, they threw more hail, aiming not just at Kron, but at Tylan

and Ocul.

“What are they doing, Kron?” Tylan asked. “It’s like they don’t rec-

ognize us!”

“Maybe they don’t.” Kron directed his will to the candle stub, inten-

sifying its light. Then he studied the Avatars. Was Sal-thaath

controlling them directly? He didn’t think the boy understood people,

even magicians, well enough to manage that. An illusion, then. If he

could figure out how Sal-thaath was creating this illusion, perhaps he

could counter or disrupt it. Could this be related to time? He wasn’t sure

how, but then again, he wasn’t sure if Salth’s powers were just limited

to time or if she could still use the rest of the magic she’d learned. Even

if Salth’s magic was specialized, Sal-thaath’s might not be.

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While Kron considered what to do, Ocul raised an ice barrier be-

tween the two groups of Avatars. At first, Domina’s and Caye’s attacks

actually helped him, but then they changed tactics and blew strong

winds against the still-fragile wall. It toppled over like a pile of badly-

placed jugs.

“If we don’t stop them soon, they’ll hit us with lightning next!” Ty-

lan said. “Maybe I should try to put them to sleep before they kill us.”

“Wait! I have another way to stop them.” Kron turned to Hala and

Flilya. “Bring me the water clock.”

The women rolled it to him through mud, which clung to the jar as

though assisting Sal-thaath. Kron pushed it through the remainder of

Ocul’s ice wall. At least the cold would help keep the water frozen.

Kron had planned to let the water clock roll on its own to the other

group of Avatars, but when he released it, it simply stood there. He gave

it a final push with magic, directing it toward Sal-thaath. If Sal-thaath

was as skilled with time as his mother was, the frozen time wouldn’t

hold him for long. But if it worked, even for a few heartbeats, then the

Avatars might break free from Sal-thaath’s magic. If they didn’t, Kron

might be able to help them.

“Forget the enemy!” The false Kron pointed at the water clock. “De-

stroy the artifact!”

Domina raised her hands, sparks crackling between her fingers. But

before she cast them at the clock, Caye spoke. “The artifact?” She spoke

slowly, as if still waking from a deep sleep. “But Kron, I thought you

were the only magic-user left who could make artifacts.”

“I am!” Sal-thaath’s voice slipped into a childish register. “I mean,

I mean….”

The water clock bumped into him. Kron watched for some sign he’d

been affected by it. But Sal-thaath didn’t stop moving or breathing. In-

stead, he reached down to touch the artifact. With a single tap of his

fingers—Kron’s fingers—the clay shattered, leaving behind a block of

ice. Sa-thaath crouched next to it and pulled it toward his chest as if it

would give him strength and power.

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Well, of course it would, you fool. Salth was obsessed with two

things: her magic and her son. She must have used time somehow to

bring him back to life...

Kron shuddered as he recalled the drained land and the corpses, both

drained and animated, he’d encountered. Perhaps Salth wasn’t draining

life, but time, time she could transfer to her son. If so, then all he’d done

was give this abomination more time he didn’t deserve.

“You...you frozen thief!” he shouted. “I’ve had enough of you and

your mother!”

Sal-thaath smirked and crossed his arms. “Too bad you can’t do an-

ything, you powerless old man. All of your artifacts put together can’t

affect me.”

Rage built in Kron, wakening depths of untapped power. With a tilt

of his head, he saw how to reassemble the broken water clock—and

what to do with it. The golden magic he’d absorbed so long ago flowed

out of his hands and surrounded the pottery shards. They flew back to-

gether, melding smoothly enough to let not a single drop of water

escape. But that wasn’t what it was meant to hold this time. Kron flexed

his fingers, and the pot swung about, its mouth facing Sal-thaath. Time

streaming out of the child and into the jar. Sal-thaath backed away from

it, his face turning pale and shifting back to his own features. He shrank

as well. Domina, Caye, and the other Avatars halted their attack to stare

at him.

“Bella? Galia? It’s me, Kron,” he called. “I’ve brought the other Av-

atars. That other Kron was Sal-thaath, Salth’s son.”

They glanced his way as he spoke, but then turned back to Sal-

thaath. What was going on? Maybe there was another spell or time dis-

tortion affecting them. His magic-finder fizzled out, as if his most recent

effort had been too much for it. He sent more power into the light arti-

fact until he could see all twelve of the Avatars clearly. Then he realized

that when he peered at Caye, Domina, and the rest, their images wa-

vered as if a screen of smoke separated them.

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Maybe we’re looking at each other in different times.
The thought

terrified him. How much time separated him from Bella? Caye and

Domina didn’t appear to have aged much, if any. Perhaps he and the

final quartet of Avatars had aged. No, he was sure his back and knees

would tell him if that had happened. The real question was if he could

destroy this temporal curtain.

“Bella?” he called. “Where are you?”

“Kron? Kron?” She peered around as if she couldn’t see through the

time rift. “Where did you go? You were just here, and now you sound

so far away—” She turned and gasped as she stared at Sal-thaath. Kron

had trouble recognizing the boy. His skin had turned ash white, and he

flickered in and out of view as if he were stuck in the middle of a portal.

Yet he didn’t seem bothered by it. He smiled at Bella, exposing needle-

like teeth. She didn’t flinch or scream as Kron had expected. Instead,

she scowled at Sal-thaath as if he’d stolen the teeth from one of her

favorite animals. Other Avatars were less calm. Domina screeched and

hid behind Magstrom, and Janno jumped in front of his mother.

“By All Four, what’s going on?” Galia pushed herself in front of

Janno but halted when she saw Sal-thaath. “Who are you?”

He pouted and gave her a forlorn look that did nothing to improve

his appearance. “I’m lost. Can you help me find my mother?”

Kron hoped Galia wouldn’t fall for Sal-thaath’s trick. But he also

had to figure out why the other Avatars didn’t seem to know where he

was. If it was a time distortion, how could he correct it? He glanced at

the water clock, but it was out of reach. Unless...he crooked his fingers,

drawing on his connection with the artifact. It rolled toward him. He

slowed it down, testing for resistance. Yes, there was a heartbeat where

the water clock had to push against an unseen surface. He forced the

water clock to halt, then crack. As the jar released the magic he’d

drained from Sal-thaath, the barrier shimmered. More importantly, it

disappeared from Kron’s magical senses, not just his vision.

He beckoned to the four Avatars he’d brought with him. “Hurry!

Follow me!” He ran forward. As he passed the jar, he felt the world

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beneath him shift. The feeling was similar to crossing through a portal,

but less smooth, like running from a well-maintained path onto sand.

He managed to keep his footing, but Ocul staggered as he came up to

Kron. Ocul nudged Kron to the side, where he had a clear view of

Salth’s crystal house, now twice as large as it had been last time.

Salth’s house? How did we get so close to it? I thought we were a

couple of days’ march away!

Kron only had a few heartbeats to stare at the structure before Bella

ran over and threw her arms around him. “Kron! Is it really you?”

“I’d answer yes whether or not I was trying to trick you, wouldn’t

I?”

She laughed. “Only my Kron would say something like that.”

“What happened after I left?” He found it hard to take his gaze away

from Salth’s house. “Why did you follow Sal-thaath? Don’t you know

where he led you?”

“We thought he was you. How did he manage to impersonate you?”

She shuddered, then finally glanced in the direction where Kron was

looking. Her face turned pale. “By the Four, how—”

“The Four had nothing to do with it!” Sal-thaath jumped in front of

them, spreading his arms as if he meant to protect the crystal house. “I

did it all by myself!” He faced Kron. “I found a time when you came

here and captured that heartbeat. Then I had to learn how to play the

heartbeat over and over again so I could live inside of it, inside of your

image.”

Sal-thaath gazed at him as if expecting praise. All Kron could feel

was revulsion. Still, he managed to ask, “And why did you do that?”

Sal-thaath looked down at the ground, drawing a line with his foot

and not saying a word.

“Ah, there you are, Kron, just in time.” Salth herself, looking as

transparent as her crystal house, appeared in front of them. She smiled,

exposing teeth as sharp as Salth’s. “Thank you for bringing Me these

double-strong magicians. They will serve Us well.”

“Serve them?” Hala asked, voice squeaky with fright.

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“Well, not directly, child. All We need from you is that magic the

Foolish Four gave you. It’s for my boy.” Salth’s voice dropped. “It’s

always been for my boy.”

A few of the Avatars pulled away from Kron, muttering and staring

at him suspiciously.

“She’s lying!” he said. His heart sank. After all the moons they’d

spent training together, how could even one of the Avatars believe Salth

over him?

Galia raised her head. “Kron’s right. Salth’s trying to trick us, just

the way her son did.”

“I can’t believe we left the Spring Soltrans for this,” Flilya muttered.

“I want to go home.”

“We can’t leave now, Flilya!” Bella said. “Kron needs us.”

“Yes, we’re all here to work together.” Kron faced Salth and her son,

drawing on his courage and the anger he felt for all of their victims.

“Salth and Sal-thaath, we have you outnumbered.”

“Do you really think that matters, when we have many-magic over

you?”

Kron flexed his fingers, remembering the star magic he held. “I

wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

Salth didn’t answer; instead, she beckoned them. But although the

Avatars trembled, none of them stepped forward.

A furrow appeared on Salth’s forehead. “Your trinkets are stronger

than your far-seer, Kron. But not strong enough.”

She and Sal-thaath stepped closer to each other, moving in unison.

Kron sensed the magic building in each of them. Magic stretched be-

hind Sal-thaath, tethering him to the crystal house.
That must be what’s

restored him to life. All the death Salth has caused to feed one thought-

less, cruel boy who refuses to change.
If Salth and Sal-thaath joined

their magic, they would be able to overwhelm the protective artifacts

he’d given to Avatars, maybe even his own personal protections. Then

they would all be helpless, their magic—their lives—drained away to

give Sal-thaath a life he didn’t deserve.

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“Avatars, link!” he snapped at them. He had an idea for cutting Sal-

thaath off from the magic in the crystal house, but he needed time – the

one thing Salth could deny him – to put it together. Hopefully twelve

Avatars could distract the mother-son pair long enough for him to dodge

them and reach the house.

At his words, the Avatars snapped out of their trance and linked into

three groups of four, with the Winter Avatars facing Salth and Sal-

thaath. The temperature dropped, hail poured down on the pair—then

stopped in mid-air a handspan above their heads.

Salth and Sal-thaath might not be able to freeze the Avatars directly,

but if they could halt time for the weather, would the Avatars be able to