season avatars 03 - chaos season (20 page)

“We don’t know the Selathens are actually assembling into an army,” Gwen said to Lex. “So far, it seems that it’s just a few discontents who are helping Salth.”

“It doesn’t matter if they have one man or ten thousand on their side. We must be prepared to engage with them.” He stalked angrily back and forth, as if trying to find a battle plan hidden among paintings and vases of preserved flowers.

Kay looked up from her workbasket of rags and sewing supplies. Setting aside the dress that she planned to rework into a child’s garment for the poor, she said in a quiet voice, “Begging your pardon, Your Royal Highness, but the men aren’t the real problem. I’m more concerned about the way deathbushes make Chaos Season worse.”

“That’s my point, Ava.” She flinched as he shook a finger at her. “The Selathens have seeds of those strange plants. I’m sure they mean to turn them into a weapon.”

Freeze it, did Lex always have to think like a War Avatar? Jenna had to admit he was right about the deathbushes, though. Even without their connection to Chaos Season, they still stole the life from other plants and threatened humans and creatures with their poisonous thorns. She couldn’t find a single use for them. She needed to banish them from Challen.

A chunk of ice dropped off the sculpture. Jenna touched it to her forehead and neck. “Let’s figure out how to destroy the deathbushes, then.”

“Burn them,” Ysabel suggested.

“These plants have long roots that can survive fire. They’ll just resprout. Besides, fire has its own dangers. Do you really want to risk setting your family house on fire?”

Ysabel glumly shook her head.

“We could send burrowing animals to gnaw through the roots,” Sophia said. “If they chew them up thoroughly enough, they won’t grow back.”

Charles nodded, his face for once intent on the conversation. “All we have to do is find them.”

Kron turned away from a cabinet of specimens. “I used to specialize in creating magical finders. If I can attune one to the deathbushes, then the Ava Falls can track them down.”

“Ysabel needs to stay with her quartet. We don’t know when the next Chaos Season will happen, but the next quartet is responsible for taming it. Humm.” Sophia glanced at her husband. “Dear, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I never know what you’re thinking.”

She continued, “You and I would make the perfect team to handle the deathbushes.”

“What!” He blinked at her. “What do you mean? I thought I was supposed to stay here and help Jenna study the deathbushes.”

“She has the Summer Archives and the atrium. She can handle it on her own.”

Jenna swelled with pride at Sophia’s praise.

Sophia patted her husband’s hand. “It would be nice to do something that’s just the two of us, don’t you think?”

“Then I should stay at the One Oak and help the girls manage it,” Dorian said.

Gwen stiffened at his words.

“What about me?” Lex asked. “As general, I can oversee—”

Sophia dismissed him with a hand wave. “We can manage ourselves, Your Royal Highness.” She turned to Kron. “Could you tell us more about these finders?”

As Kron explained how they worked, Dorian slipped out of the room. Lex, frowning, stalked out a few moments later. Jenna hesitated, wondering if she was being disloyal to the Season Avatars, before following him.

Although candles burned in the Summer Study, Lex retreated down the hall toward the stairs. Jenna hurried to catch up to him. “Your Royal Highness—” it was safer to use his title where servants might overhear— “is something the matter?”

He turned, glanced at her, and looked around as if he also worried about eavesdroppers. “Ava, how exactly is one supposed to command your troops?”

She blinked. “You mean, our quartets? Usually, the Ava or Avi Spring makes the final decisions, but everyone else has a say.”

“So…Lady lo Havil is your leader? And the older three Season Avatars have no leader?”

She nodded.

“What about Kron? How does he fit into your magic system?”

That was harder to explain, especially since he didn’t belong. “Gwen and I met him after a lecture he gave at the University. He claims he was our first teacher in magic, but instead of being reborn the way we are, he came forward in time inside a magic water clock.”

Lex nodded. “I remember reading about the pre-Annexation find, but Court duties kept me away from the lecture.”

Jenna wondered if they would have become reacquainted then. Probably not, as Gwen would have ignored Lex in favor of Kron. “Kron doesn’t serve the Four the way we do, and he claims his magic is his own, not a gift from a god. Nonetheless, he supports the Four and is Salth’s enemy. Or she’s his enemy, I’m not sure. He’s our ally, just as you are.”

Lex scowled again and ascended a couple of steps. “Do you consider him your primary ally?”

“By All Four, Lex, what do you mean?”

He stared down at her. “I have far more leadership experience than Kron or Lady lo Havil. Why don’t you and the other Avatars listen to me?”

He thinks he should be in charge? Gwen would have a fit—or give him a fit.
“Gwen has more experience than you realize,” she said, her loyalty automatically going to her Ava Spring. “Lifetimes of it.”

Lex’s eyes darkened, not with anger, but with another emotion she wasn’t sure of. “Jenna, I had hoped…I had thought…we were allies.”

“Of course we are!” She smiled, hoping to appease him. “But Gwen’s my Ava Spring. She’ll always come first for me.”

He gave her an odd look. “Are you both…Fallswomen, then?”

I wish.
Jenna herself ultimately planned to follow the traditional route with another marriage, but she wouldn’t turn down a tryst of any type along the way. Gwen, on the other hand, had always preferred one lifetime partner of the opposite sex. Jenna was disqualified in this life, perhaps for all their future lives too.

“Gwen has always believed that as a Spring Avatar, she can’t honor Fall in that way,” Jenna replied to Lex.

He narrowed his eyes. “And you?”

By All Four, why did his question make her feel like they were warring with each other?
It doesn’t have to be this way.
She still gulped as she stared up at him. He’d stepped in to save her earlier that day. At the very least, she owed him honesty. If she trusted him with her secrets, maybe he would do the same with his.

“Summer is like Fall, more accepting of those who don’t always fit in the normal order of things.”

Lex raised an eyebrow. “I will admit we took affairs out of their proper order, but that doesn’t seem like reason to consider yourself a Fallswoman.”

“I’ve only been with men in this life,” Jenna said quickly. “And I do want to remarry.” She lowered her eyelashes and peeked out from under them, shifting to show off her cleavage.

His gaze dropped exactly where she wanted it to go and lingered there appreciatively. “My first wife died over a decade ago of illness. We were back in Fip at the time, where we have no healing Avatars.”

“Did you love her?” Maybe he still did.

“Not at first. It took time for us to become accustomed to each other. Lady lo Havil reminds me of her. Both she and Quilla are very proper noblewomen, but Quilla never hated me the way the Spring Avatar does. Since then, I’ve have women pursue me for my magic or rank or both. Very few of them, if any, were interested in Lex, not the War Avatar or the king’s brother.”

He took a step down toward her. “Jenna, I thought perhaps you were the exception. But if there’s even the slightest suspicion…” Lex sighed. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. Eagle’s Talons, the longer I stay here, the more I wonder why War wants me to. I still don’t see how this alliance between different types of Avatars can work. I must commune with Him tonight.” He stared at her intently, enough to make her warm in ways that had nothing to do with the weather. He nodded his head at her. “Good night, Ava.”

He ascended the stairs rapidly and turned toward his quarters. Jenna watched his muscles flowing beneath his clothes. She wished she dared follow him and show him he was the man she wanted most. It wasn’t his fault Jenna couldn’t have Gwen, after all.

Was he beginning to have feelings for her the way she did for him? Did she have a chance with him? If only she could forget about Gwen. Loving one felt like a betrayal of the other.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Jacob’s Journal

As Jenna rose the next morning, she didn’t need weather magic to tell her today would be hot enough to roast corncobs while they were still on the stalk. Her nightgown, damp with sweat, clung to her. A maid had left a tray with covered dishes on the table next to her fireplace. Bread, cheese, a couple of boiled eggs, and a pot of chocolate—everything at the same temperature. Why had food been left at all? Normally she would have breakfast downstairs with the other Avatars. She devoured her meal, then summoned Clover to help her wash and dress—and maybe share the latest news.

“Are the other Avatars in my quartet up yet?” she asked. She hoped Gwen wouldn’t insist on them practicing linking today. Lex dominated her thoughts, and she didn’t want to share him with the others.

“I’m afraid I don’t know, Ava.”

“Well, what about the older Season Avatars?”

Clover held out a lightweight morning dress for Jenna’s inspection. “The older Ava Fall has the whole house turned upside down. Apparently she and her husband have to go on a journey.” She glanced up at Jenna. “Is the Ava Spring forcing them to leave?”

“No, nothing like that. They’re helping us destroy some nasty weeds invading the country.”

“That’s all? They’ll be back?”

“They’ll return when all the deathbushes are gone,” Jenna said. She wondered how many seasons that would take.

Clover’s worried expression eased a little, but she fussed with the buttons on Jenna’s dress longer than necessary. “It’s just that the Ava Spring seemed a bit upset herself,” she said as she assisted Jenna into her dress. “She didn’t finish her breakfast, and she cancelled her daily visit to Midpoint. Said she still wanted her mare, though.”

A sick feeling rose in Jenna’s own stomach. Maybe she should have demanded something else to eat. “And no one knows what upset her?”

Clover shook her head, somehow managing to continue doing up the buttons.

“Do you know if Gwen already went out?” Gwen was a much better rider than Jenna, so she’d never catch her. Best to find out what had happened so she could figure out how to soothe Gwen’s temper.

“She’s probably long gone by now, Ava.”

Thank the Four for small mercies. “Then let me visit my son. Better yet, have him brought down here. It’s too hot for an infant in the nursery.”

Thinking of Robbie should have made her breasts swell with milk, but they felt empty. When Callie brought him down, Jenna tried to nurse him, but he refused. “He must know I’ve lost my milk.” She clutched him close to her anyway, no matter how he squirmed.

“Perhaps it’s for the best, Ava,” Callie said. “I can feed him, but only you can provide plant magic to Challen.”

That wasn’t a consolation. Jenna held her son for several more minutes until his fussing reached a critical pitch, then handed him back. If Gwen was here and in a better mood, she could ask her to restore her milk. Perhaps Jenna should talk to Ysabel or Kay instead. They would know what was bothering Gwen.

“Thank you,” she said to the servants. “That will be all.”

She gave Robbie a kiss for luck before leaving.

Kay accosted Jenna before she could go downstairs to the main floor. “I’m sorry, but I can’t make it cooler. This is appropriate for the season, and we’re due for a storm in the next couple of days.”

Seeing Kay look as fresh as spring when sweat was already beading on Jenna’s scalp made her more irritated. “Oh, By All Four, Kay, this is my season. I know what to expect.” She wiped her forehead. “Is the heat getting to Gwen too?”

Kay looked down. “I hear it was a book.”

“A book?”
By All Four Gods and Goddesses, it can’t be that one…

“Someone left an old journal in the breakfast nook, right where Gwen normally sits. She couldn’t help but page through it. Suddenly, she gasped and started to choke.” Kay shook her head. “Before I could do anything, she coughed out a piece of sausage. She said something, but I couldn’t make out the words. Then she flushed and ran out of the room.”

“The journal. Whose was it? Where is it?”

“It’s probably still in the nook. I think the first name started with ‘J,’ like your name, but the last name ended with ‘th’…”

“By All Four!” Jenna turned and ran out of the room, cutting through the central atrium. The door to the seed vault hung open, but she had no time to close it. Charles was probably looking for supplies for his trip. He could take care of it later.

In the breakfast nook, the maids had already cleared the dirty dishes and the food from the sideboard. However, they’d left the journal out. Jenna recognized it immediately; it was the one she’d tried to hide. Worse yet, a silver fork held the book open at a page near the end. Jenna didn’t need to read it to recall the words:
I’ve killed her. By All Four Gods and Goddesses, I killed Glory. How could I have been so selfish as to hurt the most important person in my life?

“Freeze you!” she yelled at the book. She ripped out the accusing page and threw it into the fireplace, even though no fire burned. She wanted to send the journal after it, but lifetimes of memories held her back. Someday she might need to reference the earlier parts of Jacob’s career, when he’d dealt with various blights and funguses. Besides, what was the point of destroying the book now that Gwen had discovered her secret? The only thing Jenna could do now was follow Gwen and beg forgiveness.

She hurried to the stable and asked a groom to saddle a horse for her. The man wasn’t much older than her, but he looked her up and down as if more interested in her riding ability than her curves. “Have you ever ridden before, Ava?”

“Does it matter? Just mount me on a horse and send me after Gwen!”