The Gems of Raga-Tor (Elemental Legends Book 1) (21 page)

With deliberate slowness the Sultan pulled the gauzy fabric away from Eris’ left shoulder and laid a row of feathery kisses along the curve of his neck. Eris clenched his jaw and willed himself to stillness.

“I would also rather see you in this and nothing else,” Umar said and breathed in deeply the perfume Tivar had rubbed into Eris’ skin. He pushed the fabric from Eris’ other shoulder as his hands came around to the front and held a brilliant red gem set in elegant gold filigree.

Eris took a deep breath. There was no doubt that it was Raga’s. The red stone was of an enormous size and the cut was the same as the green one he had safely stowed in the pouch of his bracer. He wished he could close his eyes and wake to find this one in the other bracer and both of them laced to his wrists as he rode fast away from this place. The touch of the Sultan’s hands caressing the smoothness of his flesh reminded him that it was not to be and sent a shiver up his spine.

“Do you not think it the most beautiful gem you have ever seen?” Umar asked as his fingers caressed the soft part of Eris’ throat.

“Yes, my Lord, I have never seen anything so beautiful,” Eris answered, trying to sound submissive. He fought the rising revulsion as the Sultan was kissing his shoulders again.

“Then I shall put it on for you. My advisors all agree that there is something special about this stone. Let us hope it will bring you good fortune, my dear,” Umar said and fastened the gold chain around Eris’ neck.

“Raga, damn you!”
Eris shouted his thought to the sorcerer. “
Have you thought of something? I have the stone, but I’m still trussed like a boar.”

“No. I can’t even tell for sure where you are. There must be other forces at work there that I can’t penetrate.”

“Don’t give me your excuses, sorcerer! The Sultan isn’t going to stop at my shoulders. Focus on your gem. I’ll send you images. Anything! Just get me out of here.”
He saw the silver connection vibrate wildly with the intensity of his plea.

“You’re on your own, Eris. I can’t do anything until you’re outside. Even if I caused a diversion out in the streets, the Sultan would only send his guards and it would be a useless expenditure of power.”
Raga thought back calmly even though his own thoughts were just as frantic. He was sure Eris would carry out his threats now and certainly try to kill him.

“Erisa, my love, you are not paying attention to what I am telling you,” Umar’s voice broke in over Raga’s thoughts.

“I’m sorry, my Lord, but this is all so new to me. I...I hardly know what to think,” Eris mumbled and let go a sigh.

The situation was going from bad to hopeless. The Sultan would kill him before he could change back and get free of the mass of chains. But if he ever escaped this mess, he swore he would see Raga thrown into Riza’s demonic pit before he himself was hurled there.

“You must remember, Erisa, that I am your world now. Everything you do or think from now on will remind you of me,” Umar said as he removed the golden circlet and began unbraiding his raven tresses. Eris heard him breathe in the heady perfume that Tivar had rubbed on him. “And no one but me will see to your punishments.”

Eris raised his face to the Sultan when he stood and walked around in front of him.

“Why does everyone want to condemn me for being what I am?” Eris asked. Green eyes locked defiantly onto brown ones and the Sultan’s hand shot out and struck Eris a stinging blow to one cheek.

“What in the Seven Hells do you—” Eris started to exclaim then wished he could swallow his tongue. He closed his eyes and braced as the slap struck his other cheek.

Raga felt Eris forcefully suppressing his defiant anger.

“What's happening to you?”
Raga’s voice sounded in Eris’ head.

“I’m being chastised for having committed grievous offenses.”

“Then keep your mouth shut and do whatever he wants. Anger won’t change you back.”
Raga warned.

“Will you still defy me, Erisa?” the Sultan demanded.

Eris jumped as a thin whip snapped only a measure in front of his knees. He hesitated a moment too long in replying. The whip whistled again and sliced through the sheer fabric and brought a stinging, fluid red line to his right knee. The gash was significant and blood quickly stained the fabric around it. He forced the anger from his mind. It was an attack of sorts, but he had to hold his form. He breathed deeply through the stinging pain and looked down to fill his masculine mind with the charms of his own body.

“Will you defy me?” the Sultan asked again.

“No, my lord, I will obey,” Eris said quickly.

The Sultan suddenly laughed and tossed the whip to the floor.

“Somehow, I have the feeling we’ll need to repeat this little exercise,” Umar said, kneeling before Eris. “What, no tears?” He raised Eris’ face by the chin. He looked for a moment at the flawless beauty of his face, and then gently kissed him.

“Cry, Eris.”
Raga encouraged having heard some of the words through the link as Eris was too involved in other matters to turn his thoughts completely away from the path.

“Do it yourself! I’m going to kill this bastard, and then you!”
Eris thought viciously. He forced himself not to pull away, to be submissive. His horror at the situation made it seem to Umar that he was indeed kissing a virgin maid.

“Perhaps that is just as well,” Umar said. Eris didn’t miss the sense of pleasure in his words, or the subtle twist of cruelty in his smile. “It will be interesting to have a strong, yet tamed, woman by my side for a change.”

“As you wish, my lord,” Eris agreed.

“Now, I think we should move on to more pleasant things,” Umar suggested. The little golden keys appeared in his hands and the band at Eris' waist slid noisily to the floor.

The Sultan’s hands were suddenly on Eris’ thighs, then up to his waist and then cupping the fullness of his breasts. Eris closed his eyes and cursed the day he had crossed paths with Charra-Tir. Yet the part of him that was Erisa suddenly, unexpectedly, came to the fore. He felt sensations in his body that he had never felt before. As Umar’s gentle fingers continued to caress the suddenly tight peaks of his breasts, he discovered his body did things he didn’t know it would do. He was horrified by what his body suddenly, and deeply, craved.

“Soon, my dearest,” Umar said quietly, as his lips brushed Eris’ cheeks, “your body will sing in a way you never thought possible.”

Eris felt betrayed by a body he couldn’t control. He didn’t want it singing, or dancing or doing anything but finding an escape.

Umar got to his feet then took Eris by the hands to help him stand. When he put weight on limbs injured and deeply bruised by the pressing iron bands, a sudden cry of pain escaped his lips and he staggered unexpectedly into Umar's strong embrace. His face flushed and he felt foolish for having done so. He had survived much worse with never a sound in his other form.

“Mark this well, Erisa, the price for your disobedience,” Umar said, as he knelt to unfetter Eris’ ankles. The rest of the chain, except for the cuffs binding his hands, fell away from him. “Maissa will remove the wrist cuffs in the morning. And, let us hope, my beautiful one, they stay off. Your misbehavior will be punished at the least by their return and enforced by this when they come off.”

The Sultan suddenly grasped the iron bracelets and twisted them against Eris’ flesh. Eris gasped as the rough flashing on the inside of the bands dug deeply into the soft skin of his wrists. He remembered Maissa’s scarred wrists and knew that once even she must have rebelled against this man’s arrogance and abuse. Again, Eris saw perverse pleasure in the man's eyes as blood seeped from the wounds.

“But, my Lord,” Eris said quietly, submissively, “how can I serve you bound thusly?” He was more than ready to take his chances at a wild dash for freedom, but the iron had to be removed.

“A simple question, simply answered. Tonight, I shall serve you,” Umar said, as his hands pushed the gauzy gown from Eris’ shoulders.

The armholes caught at his bent elbows, but it was enough to reveal his feminine charms. He saw the look of pleasure rise in the Sultan’s eyes and his fingers brushed ever so lightly over Erisa's rosy-tipped breasts. Once again his body responded, defying his will. He felt like wretching. This wasn’t right and no amount of pretending, of letting Erisa take over, would make it so.

With a strength that didn’t seem to match him, Umar suddenly scooped Erisa’s lithe form into his arms and walked slowly across the expansive room.

This man is nothing but madness
, Eris thought. How could a sane man abuse a woman as he had and then expect her to be a pleasant companion, much less a lover, or wife? Maissa was right. The man’s ego knew no bounds. Only the gods knew what else was about to happen to him. And why the essence of Erisa continued to respond even in spite of the pain inflicted and the anger he felt, he could only guess at. It made no sense to him.

Eris starred down at his blood-streaked wrists resting in his lap. He wondered if Charra-Tir had somehow been able to see his future. Her words, flung at him in indignant anger, were now all too prophetic. He had become nothing but chattel in the world of powerful men. And for what? Nothing more than a kiss to a girl’s hand.

“She would kill you herself if she knew you lived.”
Raga’s words drifted in as answer to Eris’ wandering, brooding thoughts. “
Seems a fitting penance for you to endure. Yes, a simple kiss to her hand, but in the end, it caused her death.”

“You had better never turn your back to me, sorcerer.”
There was vengeance in his warning.

“You knew this was a possibility when we first started this scheme of ours.”

“You mean this scheme of yours. This is serious, Raga. I never thought it would come to this. This is revolting. I'm a soldier. Verin’s blood, I'm a man!”

“I know that all too well. That’s why I asked you what happens when…well, you know. There was always the chance this could happen. You just didn’t want to think about it.”

“I haven’t changed my mind.”

“Listen, it’s been a long time for you. Forget who you really are and give the Sultan a night he’ll remember until his dying day.”

“I’d rather give you a slow death.”

“I’m sure you would, but before you do, I’d like to listen in on this little experiment. It’s quite interesting. You wouldn’t mind would you?”
Raga jested in spite of himself. He really wasn’t trying to be mean, but sometimes, just sometimes he couldn’t help himself.

“Yes, I would!”
Eris’ answer roared across the silvery link threatening to snap it apart. “
Go find your own whore!”

Raga felt his head ring and Eris trembled in the Sultan’s arms for the intensity of his outrage and indignation. The Sultan smiled down at Eris as he gently laid him on the soft bed thinking to have conquered another willful maiden.

Raga’s head pounded. Eris was becoming rapidly and strangely much too adept at using this simple tool as a weapon against him. Carefully, Raga inspected the link. By all rights it should have disintegrated with that last message, but it was as strong as ever. Being a truly curious sort of fellow, Raga edged himself as close to Eris’ consciousness as possible.

“You are much too good at this, Eris, my boy,” Raga chuckled as the image of the red jewel pulsed and shimmered before him and nothing else.

At the first hint of morning, Eris woke with a start. He felt confused and unsure about just where he was, but the sudden, subtle acuteness in his senses warned of danger.

His eyes darted quickly around the ornate room. There was silence except for the quietly breathing Sultan next to him. Eris avoided looking at the man and the necklace suddenly felt tight and constricting around his neck. As he raised his hands to ease his discomfort, his mouth fell open in amazement.

Gone were the graceful hands of Erisa replaced by the powerful ones of Eris.

“Charra-Tir be damned,” he muttered discovering yet another twist of his abominable curse. It was suspected, but, he realized, not totally expected; at least not by him. He raised the sheet to find the rest of him back to normal as well.
Now I really have to get out of here
.

The Sultan snored suddenly. Eris froze. The man continued to sleep and Eris plotted his escape.

The first thing he had to do was get rid of the manacles, which once again bit into his flesh owing to his normal size. He remembered seeing the key next to the stretcher. He didn’t recall the Sultan putting it back into his pocket.

Slowly, Eris began to extricate himself from the tangle of sheets. The Sultan, even in his sleep, sensed the stirring of his new love and roused himself to gaze upon the face of the beautiful Erisa.

Eris saw shock widen the man’s eyes and knew there was no stopping what he had to do.

“Who are you? What have you done with Erisa?” the Sultan demanded, recovering quickly from his surprise. “Gua—” he shouted suddenly. Eris’ two clenched fists slammed the Sultan’s temple, the iron bands added to the blow’s severity, and toppled him back into his pillows in black unconsciousness.