Ava's War: Hopeful Young Adult Climate Fiction

By G. E. Nosek

A ruthless leader has seized control of the Ares and will stop at nothing to destroy Ava’s fledgling alliance. The Earth Mother, reeling from the agony of a warming planet, threatens to unleash her fiery rage. The Gaia Elders challenge Ava’s claim to the mantle of Alpha, sowing discord within the Order. Facing danger on all sides, Ava struggles to unlock the puzzle of communing with the Earth Mother. But betrayal lurks where she least expects it.

“Ava and her friends are back, this time with an ancient source of powerful wisdom that was hidden for hundreds of years. A must read if you too want to further engage in the great project of our time—protecting Mother Earth and life as we know it, through love, wisdom, stories, and action. Warning: This is not for the faint of heart!”

—Lindsay Borrows, author of Otter's Journey Through Indigenous Language and Law

• Language: English
• Publisher: G. E. Nosek
• Release date: May 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463464601

G. E. Nosek

G.E. Nosek was born and raised in New Jersey. She graduated from Rice University and Harvard Law School and works in public interest environmental law. She’s never met a dance party she didn’t want to join.

Book preview

Ava’s War

By G.E. Nosek

Copyright 2018 G.E. Nosek

Smashwords Edition

Cover illustration by Sarah Carolan

This book is available in print at most online retailers.

Also by G.E. Nosek:

Ava of the Gaia

Book One in the Ava of the Gaia Series

Ava Rising

Book Two in the Ava of the Gaia Series

For Grandma, who fought for justice.

Chapter 1

Frozen eyelashes are very uncomfortable, Ava reflected, fluttering hers rapidly to dislodge the ice that had crystallized there. She raised a frost-covered index finger, examining its sparkle in the sunlight.

Ava! You’re turning blue, Lucas shouted. He exhaled and a cloud of steam overtook her. She shivered contentedly as the kitchen temporarily became a sauna.

Again please, she whispered, hopefully, but Lucas had already turned away. He crouched warily behind Owen, who was struggling to hold their attacker in a headlock. Taylah’s living room was destroyed. Roots had stabbed through every window in the small home. Shattered glass glittered in the sunlight. A thin layer of ice coated the floor. What had once been a metal side table was now a spider, skittering haphazardly around the kitchen—Taylah’s handiwork no doubt. Every now and then it would crash into a table or an appliance with a shriek of metal scraping against metal.

Ava blinked. Only an hour ago the living room had been in perfect order—cheery, crowded with plants and books—with nary a metal spider to be seen. Part of her wanted to dismiss the scene in front of her as another dream. She’d been asleep for the last three days. Taylah, Lucas’s mom, had done something to make her slumber. Makhai assassins had attacked Ava and Lucas on the Great Ocean Road, just as Ava was facing off against an army of great white sharks—a test from Mother Earth Herself. Without even realizing it, Ava had channeled so much power and so much rage back on the beach that she’d created an ocean vortex to swallow the Makhai assassins whole. She could still taste that rage. It burned on her tongue. Part of it was Ava’s rage; part of it was Gaia’s. But it looked like Gaia no longer hated Lucas. For the first time in months, she and Lucas had been able to touch without sparking fire. They’d been reveling in that fact an hour ago, holding each other’s hands tight, when Owen had arrived with his guest—the girl now trapped in his headlock.

They had both beamed at Ava—Owen’s smile wide and affectionate, the girl’s shy and hopeful. The hope had caused Ava’s heart to stutter. She was the source of that hope. The Alpha. She had wanted to laugh—every bone in her body felt weighted to the ground, and she was the source of someone’s hope. Then the girl’s smile had disappeared. Taylah had just opened her mouth to welcome the new guest when a tree root had slammed through the kitchen window and wrapped around the older woman’s neck. Then—chaos. Nobody had been quite sure who was doing what, or why, but roots and vines and ice daggers had been hurled and slung across the room with the force of a bullet train. After a moment of shock, Owen had jumped on the girl and wrestled her to the ground. He’d spoken frantically to her. She’d snarled back a reply. Amidst the cacophony Ava had heard only one word—sangstones.

Sangstones. The cursed trophies worn by the Makhai, the militant wing of the Order of Ares. The price to become one of the Makhai was steep. Ares warriors seeking entrance had to kill a member of the Gaia. The knife used to strike the killing blow was melted down, hardened into fragments of metal, and then implanted into the wrists, ankles, neck, and heart of the new Makhai warrior. What had once been a murderous honor had been perverted into bondage. The Makhai, led by Lucas’s father, had forced the youngest, most promising Ares members to bear the sangstones as a way to control and manipulate them. The Ares were naturally adept at commanding metal. They could inflict pain, or worse, on those who strayed from their instructions. Ava had heard Lucas’s cries of agony as Makhai assassins had manipulated his sangstones, dragging the metal through his flesh. They hadn’t just wanted to kill Lucas, they’d wanted to kill him slowly. Lucas had committed the ultimate betrayal. He’d killed his own father, the leader of the Makhai, to save Ava. He’d chosen the Alpha witch of the Gaia over his own Order.

From their attacker’s snarled rebuke it was clear that the sangstones had triggered her. The girl must have sensed the sangstones in Lucas and his mother, Taylah. Both traitors to their Order, they had succeeded in removing the sangstones that bound them to their past—all but the single stones lodged in their hearts. If the girl could feel the sangstones, she had to be a member of one of the orders. Given the sniper-tree-branch move—which had been pretty impressive—she must be a Gaia. But why had Owen brought her here?

Ava examined the woman, girl, really, struggling against Owen’s wrestling hold. How had someone so little caused so much destruction? Ava thought. Owen grunted and held on. The girl quieted finally and whispered, I’m sorry.

Owen repeated the phrase, but he was speaking to Taylah, not to his captive. Lucas’s mom glanced around at her home, taking in the dirt, ice, and splintered furniture.

It’s not the first time, she said, with a sigh. Nor, I’m sure, will it be the last.

Occupational hazard of being a resistance leader, Ava thought. Wordlessly, Lucas moved to pull his mom into a sideways hug.

You can let me go now, the girl said, her voice muffled by Owen’s bicep. I won’t fight anymore, I promise.

Ava? Owen asked.

Ava tried not to look surprised. She was the Alpha now, a conduit for the power of Mother Earth Herself. Of course people would start looking to her for leadership.

"Let me go, please," the girl said again, this time with more fire in her voice.

Yes, let her go, Ava said quickly, without conviction.

Owen held Ava’s gaze, raising his eyebrows. Ava looked down, pretending to shake the ice off her shirt.

When she looked up, Owen was pushing himself into a standing position, reluctantly releasing the newcomer. Ava got a proper look at her. She had long black hair, half of it buzzed, strong brows, and a sleeve of tattoos.

Owen broke the silence, Again, I’m so sorry, Lucas, Taylah. I warned Marama that you had defected from the Ares. I told her you were no threat to her. But when she sensed the sangstones, she thought I was leading her into a trap.

Even without reading his emotions, Ava knew how bad Owen felt. The Gaia warrior was loath to disappoint.

I can feel them burning in your hearts; they gloat with violence, the girl, Marama, cut in bitterly.

Lucas looked stricken. As the leader of the Makhai, his father had been responsible for much of the tragedy wrought by the sangstones. He said, I’m sorry.

"So we’re all sorry," Marama spat.

Owen gave her a warning glance. Ignoring him, Marama turned to Ava. You’re really the Alpha?

Would you believe me if I said yes? Ava said dryly, projecting a confidence she didn’t feel. Or are you looking for hurricanes? Earthquakes? Rainbows? Maybe a pot of gold as well?

The girl’s face softened. She didn’t smile. But she looked less like she wanted to murder them all, which was good, especially because Ava was bluffing. She’d barely be able to turn water into ice at the moment. She’d felt paralyzed when the fighting had erupted, shrinking into herself as people and objects flew past her. She needed to impress the girl, to drive away any doubts. Owen had brought her here, so she must be important, and their little group wasn’t exactly flush with allies.

Ava pulled down her shirt to expose the mark Gaia had raked into the skin just above her heart. The scar traced a crude outline of an alliance stone—a symbol of peace between the Ares and Gaia from before the war.

The girl stared at the mark in fascination, creeping towards Ava as if compelled by some invisible force. Her look dared the others to stop her. Owen opened his mouth to speak, but Ava shook her head. When the girl was standing just in front of Ava she reached out a tentative hand and touched the mark. She gasped and drew her hand back as if the flesh were burning hot. Ava’s shoulders sagged in relief; it had worked. She’d never wanted to be the Alpha in the first place, so she hadn’t exactly planned for how to convince others that she was the most powerful member of the Gaia. And now she realized she was going to have to come up with a better Alpha party trick. It would be far too intimate and time-consuming to have every skeptic caress her collarbone.

Ava half-expected Marama to kneel in fealty before her while she knighted her with a sword, or something ridiculous like that. But instead the girl burst into tears. Serious tears. Sobs wracked her body as she crumpled to the floor and Ava felt anguish flooding out of her. She had clearly been sealing in her emotions, making herself look as strong and sure as possible. Ava could feel the emotions—horror, shame, fear, desperation, guilt. Whatever trauma Marama had endured was fresh.

The girl’s emotions slid over Ava, like another layer of ice. Ava fought against the emotional onslaught, struggling to stay in the present, feeling Marama’s emotion dragging her back into her own dark memories. Her eyes flickered closed and she was back—back in the black depths of the Pacific Ocean, facing an angry Mother Earth and Her honor guard of great white sharks. Desperation pummeled her chest, as real as it had been then. Guilt overwhelmed her, sucking the air out of her lungs. She heard Lucas’s shouts of agony as the Makhai warriors on the beach tortured him through his sangstones, fresh and real and cutting and—

A gentle touch on her shoulder. Taylah, observing her with kind eyes. Taylah understood. It was Taylah who had taken away Ava’s pain back on the beach, luring her into sleep after her bloody battle with the Makhai warriors. Maybe the resistance leader could do the same thing for the agonized girl in front of her.

Ava snaked a comforting arm around Marama, pulling her towards the bedroom. Taylah followed. No doubt the perceptive older woman knew what Ava hoped to do.

My God… Ava said.

For a fleeting second Ava thought somebody had unleashed a blizzard in the room during the chaos of the fight. Kira, Lucas’s younger sister, was curled up in the corner of the bedroom. Atop every free space on Kira’s body and around the room were perched hundreds of cockatoos, their white feathers blanketing the space. They’d been chattering soothingly to Lucas’s sister. Now two hundred pairs of eyes turned to stare at them.

Kira, Taylah said. Love, it’s all over. Everyone’s safe.

One cockatoo, sporting a regal yellow crest, chattered angrily in the direction of Marama.

Kira, Taylah said again. Call off your birds. They’re making our guest uncomfortable. When Kira didn’t look up, Taylah turned to the bird, saying, "Enough, Juan, we get it. You’re very brave. Take Kira outside to play. And maybe this time don’t antagonize Gus."

There was silence. Then, with an angry chattering and a shake of feathers, the horde of cockatoos decamped through a shattered window in the bedroom. It took a moment for them to cram through the small space, and in the chaos, Ava felt claws tear into her hand. They were meant for Marama. Ava swore angrily and threw an arm up to block any more covert attacks.

Kira uncurled herself and pushed past her mother, but not before casting a baleful look at Marama. Marama took the abuse, sagging further into Ava’s arms. Ava guided her into the bed. She lay there, quiet sobs wracking her body. Taylah hurried to her side, placing a hand on her forehead, and the girl’s eyes fluttered closed. She was safe from her horror, at least for a little while.

You’re going to have to teach me that one, Ava said.

Sure, if you promise to teach me how to outswim a great white, Taylah said.

Ava grinned. Fair trade. A little sleep magic for a little shark magic.

Taylah smiled in reply and grasped Ava’s forearm affectionately as they walked back to the living room.

There they found Owen hard at work cleaning up the remnants of the scuffle—dirt, stray leaves, and metal shrapnel. Lucas had corralled the metal spider into a corner of the kitchen. He placed a hand on the spider’s body. The creature tried to wiggle away but Lucas’s grip was firm. With a wrenching shriek, the spider’s eight legs fused into four and its abdomen flattened back into a tabletop.

The table was square before, wasn’t it? Lucas asked his mom.

Yes, but I like the circle, Taylah said. Always good to have a change in scenery.

I can take care of those, Owen said, gesturing at the broken windows. I’m good with glass.

Ava shivered, remembering how Owen had turned sand into shards of glass when fighting against the Makhai.

If the girl is who I think she is… Taylah trailed off. She shrugged, as if to suggest the destruction of her house was an easy trade for the girl’s presence.

Lucas turned towards Owen, eyes bright with excitement.

Not this again, Ava thought. She hated feeling like she was the last person in the room to know something important.

Is she one of the others? Ava asked. A target of the Makhai’s second wave of attacks?

Before his death, Lucas’s father had devised a plan to cripple the newest generation of Gaia warriors before they ever grew old enough to pose a threat. Although the Gaia and Ares were now locked in a deadly war, for centuries they had been allies. Both orders kept a secret from their youngest members—there remained an innate attraction between the Ares and the Gaia. That attraction was especially potent for the teenage members of the orders. Knowing this, Lucas’s father had sent a team of young Ares to seduce their Gaia counterparts across the world.

There had been a small, covert first wave where Ares warriors had extracted information from their targets, information on the whereabouts and vulnerabilities of other Gaia teens. Ava had lost her best friend, Isi, to the first wave. The Makhai had planned a second wave, when all of the newest Gaia targets were supposed to be killed on the same night. Thirty-five Gaia targets, thirty-five Ares killers. But the teens had all vanished on that fateful night, including Ava and Lucas. Now there were sixty-eight teens still missing.

Owen nodded. Yes, she’s one of the others.

You found one— Taylah said.

So my father’s plan backfired— Lucas said at the same time.

Owen’s face turned ashen. But I think I messed up.

We’ll get this cleaned up, Ava replied easily, glancing around at the kitchen. Lucas’s table still looked distinctly spider-like.

No…it’s Marama, Owen said. I’d just barely gotten her to trust me…she’d been through so much…and then I forgot to warn her about the sangstones. Of course they would be a trigger for her, after everything she’s seen.

What happened to her, Owen? Taylah asked gently. Who is she?

Marama Jones. She’s a Gaia warrior from a Māori community in New Zealand. Just started her freshman year at college in Auckland.

Owen’s hands trembled as he swept at the dirt embedded in the carpet. It was unnerving to see the stolid warrior so shaken. Something clicked in Ava’s brain. You lived it with her, didn’t you? The night of the second wave of attacks?

Owen nodded. Not that night. But another one. She tried to tell me, but…it was too hard for her. She was insistent that I know the details so I offered to perform a linea and re-live the memory with her.

Ava inhaled sharply. It took a lot of skill and energy, but some Gaia warriors could create a connection, a linea, which allowed them to experience and share the memories of others.

Owen mumbled, I wish I hadn’t.

You saw him then? Lucas asked eagerly. The Ares teen they sent to entrap Marama? Who was it?

Owen’s shoulders sagged. Still mumbling, he continued, "Not him, her. Erin. Erin Davidson. The Ares arranged for her to be Marama’s physics tutor."

Lucas started prowling around the room. Why are you saying it like that? Why is he saying it like that? Lucas asked, turning to his mom.

Erin’s dead, Lucas, Owen said. I’m sorry.

"No, no, no. Erin was so strong. So clever. The cleverest of us all. Did she do it?" he said, gesturing at the bedroom. There was violence in his tone. Taylah put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

No…the opposite actually, Owen replied, his tone rising in response to Lucas’s accusation. Apparently neither had yet shaken old loyalties.

What does that mean? Lucas asked. "The Ares killed her?"

Owen nodded.

Using her sangstones? Lucas said.

Owen nodded again.

Then that decides it, Lucas said. We have to go right now. All the other teens, sixty-six by my count…thirty-three Ares…they’re sitting ducks with the sangstones implanted in their bodies.

But how would we find them? Ava asked. If they’re smart, and they still haven’t been caught, then they’re hunkered down. We’re assuming they’re in pairs, right? One Ares warrior with one Gaia target? So they’ll be mobile. They’ll be invisible.

It took all of my contacts and a lucky break for Owen to find Marama, Taylah said, trying to meet her son’s gaze. And she was the only lead we turned up after working around the clock.

It could take months…years for us to find them, Ava said. And I’m not sure we have that much time at our disposal.

What does that mean? Taylah asked sharply, turning from Lucas to Ava.

Since I’ve woken up, I’m remembering snatches of my fever dreams from the past few days, Ava said. "The same images, over and over. And I can’t seem to focus anymore. I keep drifting off and thinking about fire."

"Fire?" Taylah repeated.

Ava continued, Lava. Craters. Volcanoes. I see them. All over the world. Places I’ve never been.

You don’t think… Taylah said.

Ava nodded. "I do think. I think She, Gaia, is preparing to trigger volcanic eruptions, she said. Huge eruptions. Mount Pinatubo huge. To cool herself down."

My God, Taylah whispered. Owen and Lucas looked stricken. The Earth rumbled ominously, shaking the little house.

Is that Her now? Lucas asked, studying the ground.

Ava nodded. She cursed under her breath and stomped her foot on the floor like a surly tot. Gaia would not control who she spoke to.

When? Taylah asked. The circular metal table behind the resistance leader shivered. Spider legs twisted out of its base and it began to creep along the floor, half-table, half-spider.

Mom, Lucas hissed, gesturing at the spider-table.

Right, sorry, Taylah said. Force of habit.

Trust me, you do not want to antagonize Gaia, Lucas said.

"Point taken. When, Ava?" Taylah repeated.

I’m not sure, Ava said. Soon.

So many would be killed, Owen said. People…animals.

I know. But…She’s so hot, Ava said. Her skin flushed and sweat pooled at her temples. Groaning, she knelt on the floor.

Enough! Lucas shouted, stomping at the ground.

Gaia is showing us how hot She is, Owen said.

By using Ava as a human doll? Lucas spat.

It’s ok. It’s a good reminder, Ava said, pushing herself off the ground. The heat, it’s overwhelming. She needs to shake the yoke of humanity off her back for a little while…to rebalance.

The best way to save Gaia would be to broker a peace between the orders, Lucas said stubbornly. And peace depends on finding the other young warriors who disappeared the night of the second wave.

Ignoring Lucas, Owen said, Do you think you could reason with Her? If you had more control of your powers?

Ava looked doubtful. I could try—

The alliance stone, Lucas interrupted. We could use the alliance stone to draw out the sixty-six. What better use than this? To protect the young people of both orders who have taken the first steps towards peace? Who’ve risked their lives to protect one another?

We can’t, Lucas, Ava said. It’s too dangerous. We still don’t even know how it works.

We could learn, Lucas said. We could figure it out! We’re all here together—it’s the perfect setting to experiment.

Lucas looked between Ava and Owen. Reading the opposition on their faces, he spun on his heel and walked out the door.

Ava started to follow but Taylah put a hand on her arm. Let him go, Taylah said. He’ll see the truth of your words soon enough. Plus, it may be kinder if he doesn’t have to hear all the details of Owen’s report. Taylah sighed, moving towards the kitchen. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the long slog of resistance, it’s that you should never hear bad news on an empty stomach.

Chapter 2

Ava and Owen tried to protest, but Taylah insisted on sitting down to a warm meal. Owen, in turn, insisted on cooking the warm meal.

They ate in silence. Every now and then somebody would strike up a tenuous spark of conversation only to see it sputter and die.

Finally, Ava and Taylah cleared the plates and settled into the comfortable chairs in the living room, waiting for Owen to join them.

Watching Owen wipe down the table, hard enough to make wood shavings fly, Ava sighed internally. Stoic Owen, he was always the bearer of bad news. It had fallen on him to tell Ava her best friend in the Order, Isi, had been killed. He’d had to share with her the memory of the Ares’ terrible assault on the Gaia youngsters going through the Ritual of Fire in Hawai'i. And now he was going to tell them what had caused Marama to break down into uncontrollable sobs.

Owen, Ava called to her friend. I think the table’s clean.

Owen looked up, blinking. Right, of course.

Thank you, Owen, Taylah said, her voice gentle. Will you tell us what you saw in the linea? With as much detail as possible—the smallest thing might be important.

Owen nodded. After a long pause, he said, his jaw clenched, The Makhai were right about one thing. The attraction between the two orders seems just as potent now as it was in the past.

Ava blushed—she and Lucas were living proof of the fact. But apparently it wasn’t just them.

"Marama wanted, needed, me to understand the force of her connection with Erin. She said the two of them used to joke that Romeo and Juliet had nothing on them. They were the real star-crossed lovers, pulled inexorably towards one another…but also trained from birth to kill each other."

"Star Crossed, Taylah said, nodding. That’s what they are, all those Gaia and Ares hiding out across the globe, at war with their orders, at war with the world. Let’s make sure they fare better than Romeo and Juliet…"

Owen held up a hand, quieting Taylah and nodding in the direction of the bedroom.

What kind of details are you looking for? Marama asked Taylah, emerging from the bedroom. Her eyes were red-rimmed but steely.

The older woman frowned in surprise. After a moment she replied, "Anything. The smallest thing might be useful. We thought it might be too painful a story to tell—"

I’ll tell it, Marama said, her voice hard.

Owen offered her a glass of water but she waved it away.

Marama began,