“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.
1 5 6 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n
“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.”
Sea so n s’ Be gin n in gs · 1 5 7
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.
1 5 8 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n
“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.
1 6 2 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n
“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.
1 6 4 · S a n d r a U l b r i c h A l m a z a n
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-
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