season avatars 03 - chaos season (8 page)

Jenna nodded. “She realized it after dancing with you.”

“Eagle’s Talons. That may affect the alliance War and your Four need.” He glared at Jenna. “Ava, you should not have borne this child. Frankly, I’m astonished your Gods haven’t punished you yet for your audacity.”

Jenna clutched her child to her chest. “First of all, Your Royal Avatarness, Gwen wouldn’t marry you even if all of the Four asked her to. She still remembers the Fip Annexation from a previous life, and it wasn’t as glorious as the ballads say.”

“Has your country been at war since?” he snapped.

“It might as well be, when you take our farmers and harvests from us!” she countered. “And second, what’s this about an alliance between our gods and yours? They haven’t told us anything about that.”
If Spring wants to treat with War, why wouldn’t She marry Him Herself? Or is this why Gwen’s engagement is in trouble?

By All Four, would They expect Gwen to marry Lex? How could either of them stand that? How could Jenna stand by and watch two lovers, one from this life, the other from a previous one, make each other miserable?

I would pledge myself a Fallswoman if I thought Gwen would do the same for me, so we could be together in this life, just like all the others we’ve shared. But she’s determined to marry, even if she hasn’t decided who the lucky groom will be. I’m a better match for Lex than she is. All I have to do is make him realize that.

The crowd suddenly quieted. Jenna glanced up to the open space at the top of the Temple stairs. Gwen, Ysabel, Kron, and Kay crept down toward Jenna. Four low notes rang out from the bell tower. As the last one faded away, Sophia entered from the left, while her husband entered from the right.

Jenna grabbed Lex’s arm and whispered, “The soltrans is starting. We should clear the stairs.”

He nodded. “Are you going up to the boxes?” The building straight across from the Temple boasted large windows at the same level as the Temple stage. The Fip royals had a private room reserved for their use, and nobles squabbled for seats near the windows so they could watch the soltrans in comfort.

Jenna gestured toward a shaded section in front of the Temple marked off by green ribbons. Dorian already stood there, arms crossed as he scowled at Sophia.

“We prefer to stay outside,” Jenna told Lex. “We feel closer to the Four that way.”

“As you will, Ava.” He bowed, though not as deeply as her rank required. “You have given me much to think about. Enjoy the solstice.”

He could have at least wished me a happy birthday too. Even if he follows the Fip God of War, he should know all Avatars celebrate their birthdays on the first day of their seasons.

Sophia waited until Jenna’s quartet joined Dorian before beginning her praise chant to the Goddess of Spring:

Thank You, yellow-haired Mother of Us all,

Thank You for the blessings You have let fall;

We praise You for the sunshine and the warmth,

We thank You for the new life from the Earth….

“We should update the words so they rhyme again, the way they did a long time ago,” Ysabel whispered.

“We’d best establish ourselves as Season Avatars before we challenge tradition,” Gwen whispered back. “Our quartet already breaks several traditions as it is.”

Ysabel blushed. Half Selathen, with a twin brother born the day before the fall equinox, she was the last person anyone would think of as a Season Avatar. Gwen turned her head to study Jenna, who met Gwen’s gaze without flinching. Maybe as a widowed mother, she was unusual for an Avatar too. Gwen would probably be just as happy to see Jenna remarried to someone else.
To Lex, or to anyone?
Jenna hoped Gwen wouldn’t change her mind and want Lex after all. They had enough issues from their last life without introducing jealousy in this one.

Then again, if the Four did want Their Avatars to ally themselves with Lex, or if Robbie was destined to become a War Avatar, what did that mean for Challen?

The sun continued to shine as Charles challenged Sophia and they tapped their staves together in ritual combat. Even so, Jenna felt cold inside.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Question of Kron

To Jenna’s disappointment, Lex didn’t attend the special dinner later that evening at the Season Avatars’ house in Wistica. There wasn’t enough room to hold a dance, but Ysabel’s mother, after several protests that she was hopelessly out of practice, consented to perform a private concert for the Avatars and select guests after the dinner. Several unattached nobles and wealthy businessmen stopped in to introduce themselves to Jenna and the rest of her quartet. Jenna smiled and flirted with all of them, but none of them appealed to her more than Lex did. She hoped Gwen, Ysabel, and Kay would have better luck. After the concert, the four of them gathered in Gwen and Jenna’s room with leftover cake and wine to compare notes. Gwen also linked with Ysabel and Kay so they would be less drawn to deathbushes in the future.

“Found a more suitable fiancé yet, Gwen?” Jenna asked as she poured four glasses of a fine red, taking care not to spill on the bed quilt.

Gwen shrugged and unpinned her chignon, spilling blonde hair down her back. Gold hairpins clinked as she dropped them in a glass jar on the nightstand. “I’ve met some of the guests already on previous trips to Wistica. Most of them too old or too conceited or too foolish for my tastes, if I were to choose for myself.”

“You should choose for yourself!” Jenna insisted.

“You don’t have to worry about your family’s estate,” Gwen retorted. “Someone needs to manage it for me. I’ll be spending most of my time at the One Oak or here in Wistica or on a Grand Tour with you three, so I need someone I can trust.”

“But then your husband will have to live apart from you.” Ysabel tucked her feet under her skirt.

“True. I think most of these men have enough to do managing their own interests, though some of the newly rich seek the prestige of an alliance with the lo Havils—or the One Oak. Gold diggers, Aunt Gabri would call them.” Gwen sipped her wine thoughtfully.

Jenna shook her head. That wasn’t what she wanted for Gwen—or for any of her sister Avatars. Surely there had to be enough handsome young noblemen for all of them. At thirty-eight, Lex wasn’t young, but his royal rank and Avatar status—not to mention his broad shoulders and arms—more than made up for that.

“I never told Jon I was an Avatar.” Kay stared out the window, as if he might be waiting beneath it. “I wonder how he reacted to the letter I left him. I haven’t heard back from him yet.”

“How long have you known him?” Ysabel asked.

“Nearly four years. I met him while I was trying to leave Wistica, right after I gained control of my magic and the nightmares started.” Kay clutched a pillow to herself. “I tried hiding aboard a locomotive to escape, but he found me. Instead of throwing me off the train, he let me stay and even shared his meals with me.” Her eyes shone bright. “I’m not looking for a nobleman. Jon is prince enough for me.”

Jenna admitted it was a romantic story, though Kay could do better than a train engineer if she chose. “At least Ysabel’s unattached. All the young men will court her.”

“Mama only married because Fall came to her in a dream and asked her to.” Ysabel deftly moved her cake plate before Pouncer could steal a bite. “She told me I shouldn’t marry unless it was my choice. But I never wanted to be a Fallswoman like her. I want lots of children.”

Even after your own sister wanted nothing to do with you?
Jenna had an older sister and two younger brothers, but she didn’t want many children, only one or two more.

Gwen drained her glass. “Kron has a unique aura—whitish-yellow. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Given that he came forward hundreds of years through time, I should probably make sure he’s still…vigorous before the two of you get marriage tattoos.”

Ysabel sat upright. “I never said I was going to marry him! By All Four Gods and Goddesses, I don’t remember marrying him at all.”

“I wonder if I married Jon before,” Kay said wistfully. “Sometimes when you meet someone, it feels like you knew them in a previous life. But we Avatars are the only ones who can be certain about it.”

“That’s the oddest part of it all.” Despite the warm summer night, Ysabel shivered. “I’ve never met anyone other than an Avatar who remembers so much about our previous lives. He claims he was there when the Four gifted us with our magic. Not even we remember that far back.” She glanced at each of them, her flecked eyes holding a mute appeal. “He frightens me a little with his persistence.”

Kay put her hand over Ysabel’s. “Have faith in the Four. Fall won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“And neither will we,” Jenna said.

Surprisingly, Gwen didn’t add her support. She played with the bracelet of live violets she still wore as protection from the frozen shard in her wrist. “Ysabel, I didn’t know what to think of Kron either when we first met. That’s why Summer gave him this to give to me, as a sign we could trust him.”

Ysabel let out a shaky laugh. “Then where’s my bouquet from Kron and the Four?”

“Be grateful you don’t need one.”

“If the Four trust him, that alone should be enough reason for us to accept him,” Kay said. “Besides, wasn’t he our first teacher? It seems a shame to turn him away, especially if he wasn’t born into this time or place. Where else would he go?”

“Back to the University where we found him, I suppose.” Jenna poured the last of the wine for herself. “We don’t need a teacher anymore. We have more experience with our magic from our previous lives. All we need to do is practice, and our skills will bloom like flowers.”

“He has a type of magic we’ll never have.” Gwen finished her cake and set the plate aside. “Maybe it would be helpful for us to have him at the One Oak.”

Ysabel’s eyes widened.

“We won’t try to link with him,” Gwen said, “but he could be helpful in other ways. I’m not saying you have to let him court you, Ysabel, but we shouldn’t be too quick to send him away.”

We might not be able to send him away.
Jenna remembered how he’d made it to Tradetown before they could. He might choose to move to Midpoint and call on the One Oak daily until Ysabel either accepted him or told every animal in the area to harass him in turn.

“If everyone thinks that’s the best thing to do…”

“By the Four, it’s not what we want, Bel, it should be what you want,” Jenna said. “Do you really want a skinny man old enough to be your father for a suitor when there are plenty of nobles to choose from?”

Ysabel blushed, but she said, “What about the War Avatar, Jenna? Isn’t he too old for you too?”

“He’s got rank and muscles. That makes up for it.” She sighed as she remembered a hot summer day beneath the biggest rose bush in Challen.

“Is it true his weapon is magic?” Kay asked, pale blue eyes gleaming.

“Which one?”

Ysabel and Kay laughed. Even proper Gwen smiled knowingly. Pouncer took advantage of the moment to steal the last of the cake. By the time Ysabel took it away from him, everyone else had settled down.

Ysabel took a deep breath. “I’ve decided. Kron can stay at the One Oak, but not in the Fall Wing. And…and he has to stop talking about a life I don’t remember.”

“That’s reasonable,” Gwen said.

“It does seem a shame not to let him tell us about the Four, though.” Kay turned to Ysabel. “I think in his way, Kron is devoted to you.”

“He doesn’t love me! He loves Bella. I haven’t been Bella in eight hundred years.” Ysabel chewed on her lip. “Maybe he won’t love me now that I’m Ysabel.”

“If he wants to court you, he should start over,” Jenna said. “He’s acting as if you’ve been waltzing with your bodies pressed close together for an entire evening when you’ve barely been introduced to him. Someone should tell him that.”

Three pairs of eyes stared at her.

“An excellent idea, Jenna.” Gwen beamed at her, making her heart sing. “You should do it.”

“Me?”

“It was your idea.”

“Could you, Jenna?” Ysabel looked at her with eyes as irresistible as a kitten’s. “It would make things so much easier for me.”

How could she refuse? She had the most experience with men, so it shouldn’t be too hard persuading Kron to be more subtle with his pursuit of Ysabel.

“I will,” Jenna promised. “I should talk to him anyway about the strange plants I found here and in Tradetown. Maybe he knows something about them.”

“Thank you, Jenna.” Gwen raised her glass. “A toast to Jenna, our sister Summer Avatar, on her birthday! May the Four favor her in every season and grant her many more.”

“Hail!” Ysabel and Kay toasted her as well. Kay covered up a yawn with her glass.

“We should all get some rest,” Gwen said. “Tomorrow’s going to be a long day of travel.”

The last time Jenna had traveled from Wistica to the One Oak, she had sailed northwest up the Chikasi River on a steamboat. This time, the Avatars’ schedule coincided with one of the locomotives traveling from the capital city to Midpoint. They would have to get up at dawn, but they would arrive at Midpoint in time for a late supper. They might even be able to reach the One Oak tomorrow night if the weather and horses cooperated. With two Fall and two Winter Avatars along, they shouldn’t have any problems—unless Dorian and Kay quarreled. Jenna hoped they would be able to avoid each other on the crowded locomotive.

Ysabel and Kay said goodnight and left for the room they were sharing. Gwen and Jenna were sharing not just the room, but the bed. If they bumped into each other in the middle of the night, would they link and share dreams? Would Gwen learn the truth about their last marriage?

“I don’t need a blanket in this warm weather. Here, you can have it.” Jenna pushed the comforter into the middle of the bed.

Gwen disappeared behind a screen and returned a few moments later in a silk nightgown—pale yellow, of course. “I certainly don’t need it either. Ready for bed?”