The Gems of Raga-Tor (Elemental Legends Book 1) (20 page)

Eris fell over sideways on the bed catching himself with his elbow. He breathed heavily for his exertion and his heart raced for the unexpectedness of Tivar’s shout. His wild green eyes narrowed as he saw Tivar, followed by Maissa and Hofa quickly entering the room.

“Hofa, the door! Quickly!” Maissa ordered suddenly flustered and concerned. “Let us hope the Sultan is merciful,” she muttered coming toward Eris.

“Is it a crime to want a little dignity in this pampered hell?” Eris demanded unwisely as his temper got the best of him.

“Poor child,” Maissa mumbled pressing her hands together as she looked back to see if the door was closed.

“Let me see if I can repair the damage,” Tivar suggested. She knelt in front of Eris and examined the ends of the chain.

Both women seemed to ignore Eris’ outburst, but Hofa looked pensive. Eris wondered if it was his responsibility to tell the Sultan of his indiscretions, which seemed to be piling up fast.

“We won’t be able to fix the chain well enough to deceive his Excellency,” Tivar said, then sat down with a sigh on the bed next to Eris. “Why did you do it, my Lady?”

“Why? Wouldn’t you do the same?” Eris said looking at her and then at Maissa, but neither of them spoke. “For a night and a day I have been chained like an animal. I can’t dress myself, feed myself, nor sleep comfortably. How many reasons do you need? If the Sultan would treat his wife in such a manner, then how much worse does he treat you?”

Maissa gave him a comforting smile and sat down opposite Tivar.

“It’s not such a bad life, Erisa,” she said taking his hands in hers. “In time you will come to enjoy it. We have beautiful clothes, we don’t have to work and scrounge in meager gardens simply to eat. We lead a life that other women would gladly trade their lives for.”

Eris would have argued, but what was the use? Perhaps they were right in some unfathomable way. His female form in no way gave him all the insight he needed to understand their way of thinking. Seeing and hearing what he had already made him not want to understand further. He only wanted an open road before him and a sturdy sword in hand.

“Excuse me,” Hofa interrupted quietly. “We mustn’t be too late, or his Excellency will be further annoyed.”

“Too late for what?” Eris asked. That same prick of unease came over him. Surely they wouldn’t be performing the ceremony tonight without having informed him sooner.

“The Sultan desires you for his bed,” Tivar answered.

“What!” Eris exclaimed in a voice much too forceful. He glared at Hofa, who was beginning to make preparations.

Eris’ mind recoiled with such intensity at what they were proposing that Raga was startled from his bored doze. Not knowing if it was dream, or just someone shouting down in the streets, he drifted back to sleep.

“Now, child, don’t be afraid,” Maissa comforted, as she wrapped her heavy arm around his shoulder. “We have all survived his Excellency’s attentions.”

“But…but what about the ceremony?” Eris said, and felt at a loss for what to do. Erisa clouded his judgment and his thoughts were not as clear. His mouth went dry and he struggled to find a way out of the predicament. He was a man and the thought of another touching him in that way was revolting. It disgusted him and turned his stomach more than the gore of battle.

“The Sultan has changed his mind about a formal ceremony until after you have borne him a son,” Tivar explained quietly. She led Eris insistently by the hand to a small stool and forced him to sit. Her brush smoothed his raven tresses and she began to braid the length of it. “It seems he has grown weary of the formality, and believes that it somehow jinxes his ability to have a son. You will be his Sultana by his word only. Should your child be a boy, only then, will you be legally recognized.”

“When did he decide all of this?” Eris asked. He seethed with anger and vowed to avenge himself on Raga for having deceived him again.

“Apparently only this morning on the advice of his augur. It seems the divination, which the Sultan always requests, was something quite extraordinary. The whole palace is talking about it,” Tivar explained, as she wrapped the long braid into a coil on the top of his head. She placed a golden circlet around it to hold it in place.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Eris muttered.

“Do you not believe in omens, Erisa?” Maissa asked, laying out a new outfit for him to put on. “Tivar speaks the truth.”

“Omens are nothing but the prattle of old men, who have nothing better to do with their time,” Eris said coldly.

In the small mirror next to him, he saw Maissa smile just a bit and sensed the nervousness in it.

“Are all your people so unrestrained in their words and action?” she asked.

“Most.”

“Then you must learn to guard your tongue around the Sultan. He will not long tolerate such forwardness in a woman,” Tivar warned, but her voice remained friendly. “The omen, though quite unusual, portends of good things to come. As I have said, his Excellency feels that the ceremony will somehow alter the outcome of the augury and he doesn’t wish that to be so. He is quite taken with your beauty. More so than with anyone any of us can remember.”

“All of this is true, Erisa,” Maissa said. “The augur saw no infant as with the others before you. Instead, he saw a strong, proud warrior grown to manhood, a young man capable of doing many great things for Reshan. You should be proud to have a son like that. They say he looked very much like you.”

“No doubt he would,” Eris said quietly and felt shaken. He wondered if for some reason the augur would perform his ritual again to try to discover a deeper meaning to what he saw. Eris wondered if he would be able to discover the truth. That what he saw was him without the guise of the curse, without the veil of Erisa.

“There is also a rumor of twins,” Tivar added. “A boy, as Maissa said, and also a girl with eyes as blue as the sea.”

Just then Eris truly wished he was a woman and had the ability to swoon and faint away. Now would be a good time. Not only did they see him, but the image of Charra-Tir and her essence clinging to the fringes of her spell. Without a doubt, there was no mortal born with eyes as blue as hers.

“Erisa, are you well?” Maissa asked, when she saw the color pale in Eris’ cheeks. She pressed a fleshy hand to his forehead. “Your children will be the pride of all Reshan. It has been many years since we have had a handsome prince.”

“I’m fine,” Eris whispered. Damn Raga for talking him into this absurd scheme.

“Good. Now we’ll dress you in your beautiful dress. The Sultan has truly never had such an enchanting bride,” Maissa said, giving him a squeeze.

Eris said nothing as they dressed him in a gown of the palest pink fabric, a fabric so light and delicate that it rippled with his slightest movement. It was cinched at the waist with a simple cord of spun silk twined with gold filament. His feet were left bare and he was given no jewelry except for the golden circlet on his head. Now that the chain was no longer a barrier, they removed the coiled bracelets from his upper arms.

“Now, you are almost ready,” Maissa said as she smoothed a stray lock of her own hair and inspected Eris’ appearance.

“What else do I need?” Eris asked, thinking he was more than well attired for what lay ahead. How would he ever live down this travesty of his manhood?

“I’m afraid you’ll have to be punished for what you’ve done,” Maissa answered.

“Punished?” Eris said bewildered. “Punished for what? I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve been in this room, alone, for most of the day.”

“Yes, I know, my dear, but your little mistakes have brought this upon you. The first was your stubbornness before the Sultan and his assembled court,” Maissa explained.

“But I thought he would have forgiven that by now. He seemed to then,” Eris said.

“No, Erisa, he has not forgiven nor forgotten. He rarely forgets anything and overlooks even less. Now that you have broken free of your bonds that creates a second great affront to him. You see, child—“

There was that word ‘child’ again. Eris thought he would break the neck of the next person who insisted on calling him that.

“A man’s ego lives on the subservience of others and his power and control over man and woman. For us, as women of his harem, submission to his every whim, to his will, assures us life. Otherwise, we will be driven into the desert to die. Even his Sultana is not immune from his wrath or his will.”

Before Eris could argue that not all men were possessed of such a will, Hofa and Tivar re-entered the room carrying a noisy mass of chains and shackles.

Eris laughed though he was far from amused. His chin lifted in defiance and regarded them all coldly.

“This palace must have a supply of chains greater than all the circuses that travel the summer roads,” he commented without humor.

“My Lady, Erisa, please!” Maissa pleaded, rushing to place a stifling hand over his mouth. “You mustn’t speak this way. You tempt the death spirits much too often.”

“Very well,” Eris acquiesced not wanting to get them in trouble. “Do as you must.”

Hofa held out his hand to indicate that he should come forward to stand on a simple stretcher-like conveyance. The eunuch knelt and fastened a pair of shackles around his ankles, then helped him to kneel as another iron belt was fastened around his waist. The iron rings pressed into the bones of his ankles and he tried to keep his weight lifted to lessen the pain. That was soon made nearly impossible as a collar went around his neck and the chain attached to his feet was threaded through the iron loop at the waist and locked through a loop on the collar pulling his body into a curled position. Once again, his hands were trapped in heavy iron. He tried to lift himself a little straighter, but it was no use. He barely saw Maissa’s thighs and she stood in front of him.

Eris seethed in silence. He felt utterly humiliated as the other three moved about the room finishing their tasks. He didn’t care who the Sultan thought he was; this was not right. Of course he had heard about such things as this. His life in Rennas Baye could hardly have been called genteel, and stories of brothels that catered to these sorts of things filtered about now and then, but this was the last place he would have expected it.

He tried to concentrate on the red stone to take his mind off of the growing pain in his ankles; a subtle punishment added to probably more to come. But once he had that gem, nothing and no one would stand in his way. The charade had gone on long enough.

As soon as a white veil was draped over his head, four eunuchs were summoned to carry him through the corridors to the Sultan’s chambers.

“Raga!”
Eris shouted through the mind-bond to the sleeping sorcerer. “
Raga, damn your eyes, wake up
!”

“What do you want?”
The question returned as a fuzzy whisper.

“If you value whatever life I decide to let you have, then you had better get me out of here.”

“Why are you threatening me now? I haven’t even seen you the entire day?”
Raga asked now fully awake. With the continuing and noticeable decline of his power, he was assigning a measure of intent to Eris’ threats.

“As if you didn’t know. There isn’t going to be a ceremony anytime soon. So much for your plan.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There isn’t going to be a ceremony until after an heir is produced. The gods only know when that stone is likely to show up. Do you know where they are taking me? To spend the evening with his Excellency.”
Eris’ angry sarcasm made the link sag with heaviness.

“This could be interesting.”

Eris knew a broad smile parted the sorcerer’s flaming whiskers. “
I’m not laughing,”
Eris thought furiously. “
You should see what they’ve done to me. I’m chained up like some ravening bear. Trussed like a boar for the fire pit is more like it. Even if I were myself, I’d have trouble getting out of this mess. If, by some stroke of fortune, he gives me that stone tonight, then you have my complete permission to do whatever you need to get me out of here.”

“Sorry, Eris, but you’ll just have to suffer through it.”

“What!”
Eris nearly shouted out loud. His chains rattled noisily in the hall that was silent, but for the padding of slipper-shod feet
. “I thought you had this all planned? That you could get me out of here if an emergency arose?”

“You’re not in any danger as I see it. Besides, even if I had all my gems and full complement of power, it would be very difficult to do as you ask. Why, you might even be scattered in the wind for a thousand years before I could collect all your parts,”
Raga explained with infuriating factuality. “
Maybe I can come up with some sort of diversion to help you out.”

“At this point, anything. We’ve arrived at the chambers.”
Eris saw the bottom half of a set of double doors swing away from him.

The four eunuchs placed him carefully on the floor and discretely left the room. The pain in his ankles grew again as the iron bands pressed deeper into his flesh. The silence in the room was as heavy as the smell of strong, musky incense that filled his nose and made him feel a little light-headed. Eris couldn’t see the Sultan from where he was and finally heard him stir at some distance across the room.

“Well, well, my beautiful Erisa. I see I wasn’t wrong about you. You have much more fire than I thought,” Umar said, coming to a stop in front of the litter.

Eris said nothing and kept his eyes on the beaded slippers that appeared before him. He hadn’t realized before what a deep and resonant voice the man had and wondered why it struck him now.

“They tell me you have been very naughty.” He pulled the veil from Eris’ head. “You must know, my lovely, that everything you do and say will find its way to me. I would rather not see your beautiful neck encircled for months in this iron collar. I would much prefer to watch you dance as the enchanting creature you are.”

The Sultan stepped behind Eris and knelt down. He felt the man’s closeness and he forced himself not to move when the Sultan’s hands slid over the silky fabric covering his back and stopped at his neck. A jingle of tiny keys and the collar was removed, allowing him to straighten and take the weight off of his throbbing ankles.