season avatars 01 - seasons beginnings (12 page)

“I mean, of course, I’m not going to tell you to turn a goddess

down.”

“It’s not just a role, it’s a calling.” She beamed. “Fall says once I

pledge myself to Her, I’ll be reborn with magic in each new life. I’ll be

able to help all types of animals, everything that lives in Her domain.

Did you know Vistichia is just a small part of the domain the Four Gods

and Goddesses care for, Kron? Oh!” She popped a couple of peas so

hard they fell on the floor. “Have you heard anything about the Four?

You spend so much time in your workshop I doubt you’ve seen Them

yet.”

Kron would have liked to have asked some more about new lives

and being reborn with magic, but she’d given him the perfect opening

for what he had to tell her. “Actually, I met all Four of Them today.

Two of them appeared in the marketplace and took me to a meadow,

where I met the other two. Then they sent me back to my stall heartbeats

before you arrived.”

She gasped. The basket of peapods fell on the floor. Feeling like it

was his fault, Kron helped her pick them up, then related the whole

story. Bella absently reached for the peas once or twice, but she stared

at him the whole time, opening her mouth as if inviting him to toss peas

between her teeth.

“So, Salth isn’t really...gone?” she asked when he finished. “And

she’s using dead people to threaten you?”

“And you too,” he reminded her. “You need magical protection.”

He’d be the one to provide it, not that timid young girl. How had she

ever found the courage to speak to Bella if she cowered from him?

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Bella shivered, and her face went pale for a few heartbeats. Then she

bit her lip and put a determined expression on her face. “When Fall

grants me my magic, I’ll be able to defend myself.”

“Against Salth? Dearest, I’ve practiced magic for twenty years, and

I’ve come closer to losing against her than I like to admit.”

“But I won’t be alone. I’ll be working with the other eleven Ava-

tars.”

There were only twelve of them? Kron had thought there were more.

“Twelve magicians might have been able to defeat the Salth we

knew,” he agreed, “but remember, she’s gained even more magic since

then. And she seems to have time magic now. I don’t know what that

allows her to do, but she did capture Two of the Four in her time bub-

ble.”

Bella shook her head. “They only let her do that so They could speak

with her, I’m sure of it!”

“I hope you’re right.” The room dimmed as daylight faded. Kron

activated an artifact that gave off heatless light and set it in the center

of the table. “The question is, can I protect us against time? If Salth can

play with time, she could undo anything I do, or prevent me from doing

it. Can she?” He frowned. “I’m not sure what the rules of time magic,

are, or how powerful Salth is now. The Four said she wasn’t as strong

as They are.”

Bella glanced at him through a lock of hair that had fallen over her

face. It made her expression seem guarded. “And...you said They

said...you’re different too, didn’t They?”

“It doesn’t matter if I only have to shave once a moon instead of

once a day.” Kron crossed to her and pulled her into his embrace. “I’m

still the same person I always was.”

Bella let him hold her for a few heartbeats before pulling away. “I

better start supper.”

As she hurried to the fireplace, back turned to him, she brushed her

hand over her stomach for a heartbeat. He knew her well enough to

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guess what she was thinking: would he be able to give her a child if he

wasn’t fully human anymore?

Kron ground his teeth together. His magic dealt with artifacts, not

living things. If their childlessness was his fault, he didn’t know how to

fix it.

If I can’t create a child, at least I can make artifacts.
He left the

house to go to his workroom in the back.
Maybe small sundials can be

enchanted to protect us from Salth....

He busied himself with his artifacts until Bella silently fetched him

for dinner.

* * *

Kron found his services much in demand the next day, as people

brought him items to repair, not just enchant. As he was eating lunch, a

servant came by and promised him a bag of gold if he would enhance

his master’s house so the walls wouldn’t crack or let out heat. That job

took him most of the afternoon. By the time he returned home for din-

ner, the sun had set, leaving him no time to finish the protective artifacts

he’d started.

“I wish there was a way I could test these artifacts before I portal

into Salth’s domain, or even the Magic Institute,” he told Bella over a

meal of flatcakes, baked fish, and roasted vegetables.

“You think the Magic Institute isn’t safe anymore?” she asked.

“It must not be, if Salth was able to murder Pagli and take over his

corpse.”

Bella pushed her plate away. “Maybe that part wasn’t real. Or maybe

she found him outside the Magic Institute. That must be what hap-

pened.” She shook her head. “The Institute seemed like a wonderful

place when you took me there. Wouldn’t they have enough magicians

there to protect the Institute?”

“Normally they do.” Did he dare go there without the artifacts? Kron

considered the matter as he finished the fish, garnished with salt and

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herbs grown near the Chikasi River. It was disturbing enough to think

of Pagli’s fate, but Kron might be in danger if he went there. Worse,

he’d be too far from Bella to protect her if Salth sent another corpse

after her. If the Four had given Bella Their protection, Kron hadn’t de-

tected any signs of it yet.

He activated the light artifact. “I’m going to work on the protective

artifacts some more, Dearest. I won’t be able to sleep well until I know

for certain we’re both protected from Salth—or Time, or whoever she

is now.”

“What about the Four?” she asked. “They promised to protect us.”

He leaned over and kissed her. “I’d feel better if you had one of my

artifacts too.”

“Why?” Her eyes seemed to get even bigger. “Don’t you trust the

Four?”

Why should I, when I know how cunning magicians can be?
He held

his words inside, where they wouldn’t hurt Bella. Instead, he smiled.

“Don’t you think the more protection, the better?”

She studied him for a couple of heartbeats before clearing the meal

off the table. He must not have been convincing. But Kron didn’t know

how else to prove himself to her, so he drank the last of the beer, then

retreated to his workshop.

Kron had assembled his workshop out of driftwood. Inside, baskets,

clay pots, and shelves held goose feathers; wool dyed and undyed,

combed or spun; polished stones; a few carefully guarded bits of gold

and gems; and many other items. None of these seemed suitable for the

sundials that would protect him and Bella from Time. Wood and leather

could rot, clay could crumble, and jewelry could break. Anything that

could shelter him from time had to be made of something that wouldn’t

be easily destroyed by time. But what? Ancient bones? Petrified wood?

How would he obtain such rare materials?

Kron thought longingly for a few heartbeats about all the materials

he would like to use for the sundial, then gathered up the most likely

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materials he had on hand—stone, gold and gems, and a bronze ham-

mer—and added them to sundials. Then he enchanted them to be

stronger, less likely to change, and impervious to magic other than his

own. By the time he was done, no light shone from his house—or any

others. Everyone else must be asleep. But despite all the enchanting

he’d done, Kron wasn’t tired. Maybe Spring was right, but he didn’t

want to think about that. He’d rather test his sundials. He could portal

to Salth’s territory and be back before Bella could worry. But…what if

his sundials didn’t work and he couldn’t make it back? She’d never

know what had happened, and she’d be unprotected herself.

Kron debated on whether he could attach the sundials to wild ani-

mals, portal them to Salth’s realm, and let them test his sundials. But

Bella would never talk to him if she ever found out. Besides, would

Salth bother practicing her magic on animals? She was after him and

Bella; she had no reason to attack a wild deer or fox. Her time magic

might not trigger at all unless she detected him—or what she thought

was him.

Kron snuck into the house and brought out his spare clothing—three

robes. Bella didn’t wake as he kissed her cheek. He knotted a sundial

into each robe, then enchanted some of the spun wool to stick to the

robes so he could throw them through a portal and drag them back.

Next, he created a portal to Salth’s house. At least, he tried to; the portal

didn’t open where he’d planned it to. Instead of showing him her house,

the portal displayed the river bank where he’d played with Sal-thaath.

Even in the moonlight, the river appeared—wrong. Where were the cat-

tails and other tall grasses? Although it was early fall, the ground was

as bare as midwinter. No other signs of life—no mice searching for

seeds, no fish creating ripples in the water or owls flying overhead—

were apparent. Kron frowned. Had Salth done this? If so, why? She’d

never resented nature as much as she did people.

Well, let’s see if she’s awake.
Grabbing the robe with the stone sun-

dial, Kron held the wool string with one hand while tossing the robe

through the portal. It landed in mud. Bella wasn’t going to be happy

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with him the next time she did laundry. Kron waited for a few heart-

beats, then wriggled the string before pulling the robe back toward the

portal, as if he were fishing.

Just as the robe drew close enough for him to reach through the por-

tal and grab it, the knot he’d used to fasten the stone sundial to the robe

came undone. In an instant, the robe ripped, frayed threads pointing in

all directions. The brown dye faded to tan. Kron yanked on the robe,

and it split in half. By the time he dragged the remnant of his robe

through the portal, it was a rag so holey Bella wouldn’t use it for clean-

ing.

“She’s not going to be happy with me in the morning,” Kron mut-

tered as he tested the iron sundial. This time, he made sure to enchant it

so that it magically clung to his robe and wouldn’t fall off. Despite his

precaution, the iron quickly rusted and fell apart, and the second robe

met the same fate as the first.

If Salth breaks down everything, soon there will be nothing left in

her self-appointed realm but dust.
Kron’s hands trembled as he checked

the final robe, the one with a gold sundial, before tossing it through.

Then he waited, still as the portal. A bat swooped through the portal so

quickly he didn’t have time to react. Would it die too? It squeaked and

fell, splashing in the river. Kron shivered, and not from cold. The Salth

he knew hadn’t been so desperate for life that she’d take it from every-

thing.

He waited until the sky started to lighten, but his robe didn’t disin-

tegrate. Then he pulled it back through the portal and inspected the robe.

This one seemed unchanged. Perhaps he could wear it tomorrow night,

when he visited the Magic Institute to find more answers.

***

Although Kron seemed to have more stamina these days than he did

when he was a youth, he realized he still needed a few hours of sleep

when he found himself nodding off in the market that afternoon. A pair

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of boys attempted to snatch some of his artifacts, but they tripped on his

blanket, and their cries roused him. A guard with a dog held tightly on

a leash asked Kron if he wanted the boys arrested, but Kron shook his

head. The last time he’d attempted to correct a child had been a disaster.

Why would this time be any better?

His sales picked up after that, but he trudged home to Bella, reluctant

to portal to the Magic Institute and learn what had happened to Pagli.

Bella’s enthusiastic kiss cheered him up, and they enjoyed a supper of

fresh bread and baked fish stuffed with river greens.

“The Goddess of Fall returned to me this morning,” Bella said as she

poured more beer for both of them. “The day after tomorrow, She and

the rest of the Four want us to pledge ourselves to Them.”

Kron struggled not to spit out the beer. When he could speak, he

asked, “So soon?”

Bella’s eyes were solemn. “She wants us to be ready if Salth—I

mean Time—tries something. Which reminds me.” She leaned forward,

letting her shift gape open at the neck. “The Four think we’ll be safer if

all twelve Avatars remain close together. Kron, dear, would you mind