season avatars 01 - seasons beginnings
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unlined like a maiden’s, showed signs of strain under Her eyes. Kron
couldn’t smell the spring flowers the Goddess used as perfume. But Her
smile was as warm as ever as She greeted each Avatar by name. She
saved him for last.
Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 1 3 9
“And thank you, Kron Evenhanded, for leading the Avatars during
Our absence.”
“What happened?” Janno asked. “Why didn’t You return to us
sooner?”
Galia raised her hand as if she meant to chastise her son, but he
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.
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“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
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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’ attenti
on. “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
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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.
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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
she doesn’t detect it. That way I can fetch the final group.”
The Avatars gathered in their groups, exchanging glances with each
other as if each eyebrow lift or slight frown was a word in a language
Kron couldn’t hear. Occasionally the Springs looked at each other, but
most of their attention was for their group members. What did that en-
tail for the Avatars’ confrontation with Salth? Would all of them be able
to work together, or would their union fall apart?
Galia seemed to be their spokesperson to Kron. She was the only
one who seemed able to read everyone else, and she was the one to face
him and say, “That doesn’t seem to be what the Four intended for us to
do.”
“They didn’t speci
fy all twelve of you had to journey up the river,”
Kron said. “Besides, it would be much easier for you to portal to Salth’s
territory than traveling on the river, especially in winter.”
By now, he should know better than to point out any weakness to an
Avatar. Galia straightened to her full height, though she still had to tilt
her head to glare at him. “I may be old, but I’m not frail. What about
your wife? Would you ask her to stay behind too?”
To keep her safe, I’d do that and a thousand other things. Kron could
feel non-magical heat in Bella’s stare and chose not to argue with her
in front of the other Avatars. Instead, he pressed his attack on Galia.
“Does that mean you agree to my plan?”
“I said nothing of the sort!”
Janno grinned. “Mother, if this plan means we can leave now, I say
we should do it.”
Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 1 4 7
“By the Four, Janno, you’re not ready to face Salth.” Kron feigned
tossing another pebble at the Summer Avatar, and Janno flinched. “The
overland journey will give you more time to develop your magic.”
“How much more do I need to develop?” Janno flexed an arm. “I’m
plenty developed in all ways that matter.”
His mother turned her head away from him and made a disgusted
face. Kron wondered if Janno was married, and if so, how his wife put
up with him. Then he worried if Bella found him so difficult.
Janno smirked at Kron. “I bet I can beat you in a fight, old man.”
All of the Avatars’ attention was on him again. Kron shook his head
as he stared at Janno. The woodsman was half a head taller than him
and nearly twice as broad, but Kron felt no fear, only annoyance.
“How many times do I have to tell you this fight won’t be physical?”
he asked.
“If I can stop you from using magic, you’re nothing.”
“Nothing? Really?” Kron choked down memories of the magic-us-
ers who had seen him as just a handy tool. “Did nothing stop Salth and
her son from trying to sacrifice Bella? Would the Four have asked me
to mentor you if I was nothing?”
Janno snorted. “My mother would be a better mentor! If she was the
leader, we’d be halfway to Salth’s by now.”
She shook her head and said softly, “Janno, that’s not true.” But he
didn’t seem to hear her. Instead, he took a deliberate step toward Kron,