season avatars 03 - chaos season
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Authors: sandra ulbrich almazan
- Grandmother of Stories
- A Flight of Seeds
- Deathbushes Sprout
- The Other Season Avatars
- A Temple Visit
- The Deathbushes’ New Trick
- A Weapon Test
- The Question of Kron
- The One Oak’s Welcome
- The Atrium
- A Sprout Duel
- An Oak Sprouts
- An Alliance of Avatars
- A Selathen Surprise
- Magic Against Pistols
- Lex’s Study
- Two Books
- Deathbushes and Chaos
- Allies Divided
- Jacob’s Journal
- A Picnic
- Peaches in Chaos
- The Uses of Chocolate
- Deathbush Against Oak
- A Trap in a Tree
- Jenna’s Loyalty
- Chaos Season Over Challen
- A Talk with Lex
- Author’s Note
- The Season Avatars
- Other Works By the Author
- About the Author
Chaos Season
Book Three of the Season Avatars
Sandra Ulbrich Almazan
Copyright © 2016 by
Sandra Ulbrich Almazan
Book Cover Design © 2016 by Maria Zannini (Book Cover Diva)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
Sandra Ulbrich Almazan/Solar Unicorn Publishing
www.sandraulbrichalmazan.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Book Layout © 2014 BookDesignTemplates.com
Chaos Season/Sandra Ulbrich Almazan—1
st
edition, eBook
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
Grandmother of Stories
Grandmother of Stories, Goddess of the Island People, called Her Avatars together. From the youngest child to the oldest matriarch, they sat cross-legged in front of Her, ears and minds trained to catch and hold every syllable She uttered. They would need them. As more and more mortals developed faster and easier ways to travel, they would come across the Hidden Archipelago where the Island People lived. If the Island People were to remain Her people, they would need knowledge of what they faced, both at home and abroad.
Fortunately, as a Goddess, She could see across space and time to find the patterns which would one day affect the Island People.
“Far across the Salt Water,” She began, “is a land much bigger than the Hidden Archipelago. One side is full of life, while nothing lives in the other half. Are you wondering how this came to be? Ages ago, before Gods and Goddesses controlled magic, two powerful magicians lived there. One, an artifact-maker named Kron Evenhanded, wanted to live in peace with ordinary people, while the other, Salth,
saw humans as a source of more magic she could collect.
“As part of her studies, Salth conceived a son using pure magic. This child, named Sal-thaath, encountered Kron, and the two of them entered into an unlikely friendship. But Sal-thaath, like his mother, disdained people, and no one, not even Kron, could convince him otherwise. Finally, in an attempt to discipline Sal-thaath, Kron created an artifact to take away the boy’s magic. This, however, proved deadly for the child. The grieving mother found a way to give Sal-thaath life again, but only by draining it from other creatures.
“In the meantime, Kron wooed and won a lovely young woman named Bella, who was kind to everyone and everything, especially animals. This brought her to the attention of a new goddess named Fall.”
“Where did the goddess come from?” a child asked.
As his parents shushed him, the Grandmother of Stories smiled. She had Ascended at the same time as all the other deities, but like Them, She wouldn’t reveal Her origin to Her worshippers.
“Fall, of course, is one of the Four Gods and Goddesses of Challen,” She said. “In Their country, unlike ours, the weather changes with the time of year. They call these changes ‘seasons,’ and the Four Gods and Goddesses each named Themselves after a season and claimed a unique domain for Their magic. Spring heals people, Summer takes care of plants, Fall tends to animals, and Winter controls both weather and death. Each of them chose three Avatars to serve Them life after life. Together, They planned to give Their worshippers a fertile and prosperous country.
“Unfortunately, Salth had other plans. She still sought revenge on Kron—and now, his new wife—for killing her son. However, Kron’s wife was protected by her Goddess. So Salth, who had mastered some of the magic of Time, crafted an evil spell called a Chaos Season. She twisted all the seasons together so that they would occur at the wrong times, then she sent this spell from her Dead Land into Challen, hoping to use the lives she took for her son’s survival.
“The Avatars cleaned up the damage Salth’s Chaos Season caused, then, despite Kron’s warnings, decided to challenge Salth in her own country. They believed their numbers would be enough to overcome an experienced magician, but they were wrong. To save them, Kron created a portal to send them back to their own country, then offered himself to Salth. Before she could drain his magic, he trapped her son in a giant pot with him. Together, Kron and the undead Sal-thaath traveled forward in time about eight hundred years, to the present day.”
Grandmother paused for effect and studied Her audience. Most of them were rapt under the spell of Her words, but a few—She marked these—seemed to be thinking about what She had told them. A youth stood, bowed before Her, and signaled a request to speak. She nodded Her head at him.
“Grandmother,” he said respectfully, “what do these faraway gods and magicians have to do with our Hidden Archipelago?”
“You may find out soon enough,” She replied. “Kron has been searching for his bride, who died many years ago but was reborn into another life as a Fall Avatar named Ysabel. Sal-thaath found Ysabel first, but Kron and three other Avatars named Gwen, Jenna, and Kay rescued her. Now they must decide if they will attempt to attack Salth and Sal-thaath again and end Chaos Season for good. Oh yes, My children, that magic still rages. It must be stopped before any of you can travel to the Dead Land and bring My stories with you.”
Grandmother gestured at a pool of water. “The Avatars work closely together in groups of four, one from each season. Gwen, Jenna, Ysabel, and Kay are the youngest group, but their quartet is the only one still intact. Watch now, and we will see if they can tame a Chaos Season on their own. If they fail, their country perishes with them.”
CHAPTER ONE
A Flight of Seeds
Jenna Dorshay t’Reve, the next Ava Summer, pressed her arms against her milk-soaked dress and wondered when she would be able to nurse her son. When they’d set off to rescue Ysabel, the next Ava Fall, from the Selathens, she hadn’t expected to travel so far so quickly. Now she was stuck in a hole in the ground—literally—while some ancient Avatar mooned over Ysabel. While it was romantic that they be reunited after so many lives apart, she’d prefer it if they courted someplace more civilized.
“Kron! Kron Evenhanded!” The dirt seemed to absorb her voice. Maybe that was why she had to call the artificer’s name a few more times before he looked at her. “By All Four Gods and Goddesses, how do we get back to Tradetown? And how long will it take? I don’t want Robbie to be weaned before I return.”
Beside her, Gwen, the next Ava Spring, grimaced. Jenna didn’t have to be linked with her to know what she was thinking. Some strange boy with unknown magic had forced Gwen to stretch her healing magic to its limits. She needed a banquet’s worth of food to restore herself. But despite her weariness, she was probably shocked Jenna would mention she was nursing a child in mixed company.
Let her be shocked. Just don’t let her remember what happened in our last life together.
Ysabel drew away from Kron, who turned toward Jenna and gave her a dark look. She hoped he wasn’t going to make her dress fall apart in revenge.
“I can portal us back to Ysabel’s house,” he said. “But not from here. I’ve never created a portal belowground, and I don’t want to risk Ysabel’s safety now that I’ve found her again.”
Jenna wondered if he was willing to risk their own safety instead. If he knew as much about the Season Avatars as he claimed, he should know they always worked as a quartet. She and Gwen had traveled from one end of Challen to the other searching for Ysabel and Kay. Now that all of the Avatars from the same year were reunited, they couldn’t risk being separated. If something happened to one of them, Challen would be defenseless against Chaos Season for a generation.
“Then what are we waiting for, the summer solstice?”
Gwen spoke so quietly Jenna had to lean over to hear her. “The men…”
“What men?” Jenna asked.
“Three of them were waiting for us when we arrived,” Kron said.
Jenna shrugged. “All I saw were bones.”
Gwen and Kron looked at each other in concern. Finally, he said, “Let me go up first and make sure it’s safe. I can come down and assist you if necessary.”