The Gems of Raga-Tor (Elemental Legends Book 1) (42 page)

Crystal teeth shattered and fell to the ground as he powered a mighty backstroke against the avatar’s gnashing jaws. The crystals made his footing treacherous and threw him dangerously off balance as they rolled when he stepped on them. In one of those suddenly off-balance moments, he heard the whistle of a crossbow bolt careen close to his head. The bolt missed the avatar and gouged out chunks of red earth before skittering off across the hard dirt.

“I thought your aim was better, Raga!” Eris shouted as he hacked off two more sharp talons. As the beast recoiled in renewed pain, Eris glanced down and kicked at what he thought was Raga’s stone, but it was only a tooth refracting yellow-orange from the dirt beneath it. “Verin’s teeth! How am I going to find that blasted thing?”

The avatar suddenly screeched wildly and whomped its massive tail on the ground. A cloud of choking, red dust rose into the air. Eris coughed and the grit brought sudden tears to his eyes. The ground shook as the beast slammed its tail again and thrust its nose high into the air. It whined a strange, horrible sound that made Eris pause. He looked up through the dusty cloud and saw a thick quarrel protruding from its neck. Another had ripped open the underside of its jaw and disappeared into its head.

The dragon whined again lifting itself higher as if trying to dislodge the quarrel. A feral light gleamed in Eris’ eyes when he saw the scales of the avatar’s belly were neither so hard nor so thick as on the rest of it. The protective covering of sapphires ended and Eris saw his chance.

Bloodlust screamed in him. He charged the mighty creature with his sword overhead and gripped by both hands. The blade sank deep into the yellow flesh. The gash tore wider as he pulled the sword down. Ichor poured from the wound, over his hands and made a growing pool on the ground. It made the sword slippery in his grasp.

Eris leaped back a pace as the avatar began lowering itself to protect its vulnerability. If it got all the way down, opportunity would be lost. With a savage shout, he drove the sword to the hilt into the yielding flesh. His hands quickly grasped the gooey quillons and calling on what remained of his strength, used the twisting force of his entire body to grind the blade over and over against the insides of the screeching beast.

The avatar shuddered violently. It jerked sideways, wrenched the sword from his hands and knocked him backward. Eris rolled away from the stomp of one, massive, hind foot and came face to face with Raga’s gem. He picked it up with a gore-coated hand and scrambled to his feet looking back at the avatar and its position. It ignored him as it pawed at the sword with hacked-off stubs of claws. Great yellow drops splattered to the ground as they dripped from the hole torn and visible on the underside of its jaw.

“Raga! Catch!” Eris shouted and threw the gem in his direction. As the stone left his hand, he felt the elation of his hard-fought victory. A sweep of exhaustion came over him as he began to jog toward the sorcerer. He saw Raga catch the stone and joy spread over the sorcerer’s face.

“Eris! Look out!” Raga shouted suddenly.

Eris glanced over his shoulder as the dying avatar crumpled slowly and toppled over. Its long tail lashed out wildly in the final throes of its agony. Eris felt adrenaline surge through his exhausted limbs. He was fast, but the thrashing tail whipped toward him faster still. A white light flashed brightly off of polished scales. There was the shroud, the death he had sensed earlier coming for him wrapped in a golden sheath. His lungs drew in great breaths of air as his legs strained to run faster. The sharp-scaled tail smashed across his lower back and hips like a giant whip. He cried out in sudden, mind-numbing agony as he felt his bones crushed by the awesome force. He felt flesh and muscle ripped away by the lacerating effects of the scales slashing across his body. His feet left the ground as the force propelled him through the air.

Through the mind bond, Raga felt the searing agony of Eris’ cry and all went dark when he struck the ground with no attempt to break his fall. Raga stood frozen in place, horrified by the unexpected turn of events.

“No, no, no!” he muttered, hoarsely, as he grabbed up his bow, pressed the yellow gem in place and hurried to where Eris lay still.

He was crumpled on one side. A bright pool of blood spread slowly around him. The ground was so dry and hard that it puddled into a slowly darkening pool.

Raga, puffing and panting by the time he reached Eris, knelt beside him. He moved aside a shred of his tattered shirt to assess the wound and gasped at the sight of it. The tail had nearly broken him in two. Raga knew he couldn’t heal a wound as horrendous as this even with all his powers and it was his only desire. There was no stopping it this time. Eris was dying.

He saw a slight rise in Eris’ chest and sat down beside him. He lifted his head gently into his lap. Great tears of horror and sadness welled up in his gray eyes and he wept as a child for a dying puppy.

“Oh gods, Eris! I never wanted to see this day, my friend,” he wept bitterly.

Fighting for the life remaining, Eris barely opened his eyes. Life was draining from him more quickly that he had hoped. There was much he wanted to tell Raga and was only vaguely conscious of his pain, but knew his body was badly shattered.

As equally as his life was leaving him, the overpowering presence of Riza was growing. He heard the echoing, triumphant laughter of the Lord of the Pits. Riza was coming to settle a bet he had made with that demon of hell, and finally, he had lost. Riza was coming for him.

“Raga,” Eris barely whispered. The sorcerer checked his weeping and bent his head closer to hear. “The bracer…open…”

Raga didn’t understand Eris’ request and his grief was too great to question, but he blindly did as he was asked.

“There is nothing in here,” Raga said, looking inside the pouch.

“Shake,” Eris whispered.

Gently, Raga did so and the green gem suddenly appeared on the ground in front of him. Raga’s teary eyes opened wide in shock. Eris had had that gem with him the whole time and he hadn’t known. He hadn’t even sensed its presence, nor had he felt a bulge in the leather when he had packed Eris’ things and that had been more than once.

“Eris…how?” was all he could say. Anger pulsed in him. He picked up the bow and jammed the green stone into the mounting. Like the others before it, it did nothing. Even fully complemented, it did nothing. “Damned bow! You have all your gems. Work! Give me back my powers,” Raga demanded furiously, and gave it a violent shake.

“Don’t...” Eris whispered, his voice fading.

“Eris, it’s not right for you to die this way. You aren’t supposed to die. We’re on the verge of finishing this and getting you your life back. I should have listened. I should never have brought you here. It should not have ended this way.” Raga's fury turned to sorrow and the tears streamed down his face.

“What way…friend?” Eris asked in barely a whisper. A slight, so slight it almost wasn’t there, smile flickered for a moment on his dirt-smudged face.

It was a smile that flashed like the light of a thousand torches in Raga’s heart and he knew it was sincere. He was about to question Eris’ words, when he remembered what he had told him. Was it not the way every warrior wanted to end his life, serving and defending those who couldn’t, as the blood of the enemy wet the ground even as his own life’s blood flowed from his body. But the bitterest blow of all was that Eris had called him friend.

“Friend, Eris?” Raga asked. His big hands trembled as they gently closed against each side of Eris’ face. Eris nodded slightly and closed his eyes. The red sky was too bright. The gaping black holes were too frightening.

“No, Eris, no,” Raga wept as he gently cradled him against his broad chest willing him to breath once more and then again.

The ground around them suddenly trembled with a mighty roar of laughter as the black and red, burning form of Riza appeared before Raga’s disbelieving eyes. The blazing fire around his head reduced to smoke and he turned black, yet the burning coals of eyes remained bright.

“Riza? What are you doing here?” Raga asked annoyed. Something about this new situation was making him feel even more disturbed than he already was.

“As if you didn’t know. You’re a sneaky one, Raga-Tor,” Riza chuckled, but Raga remained puzzled. “What is it that always rouses me from the pits; the delightful death of another foolish soul that attempted to play a dangerous game with me? Why do they do it? They never win.”

Riza laughed again and pointed to Eris with a gnarled, twisted finger. He made an obnoxious sucking sound as his lips curled up grotesquely to reveal white, razor-sharp fangs that eagerly awaited the taste of Eris’ blood.

“By the gods, no!” Raga exclaimed aghast. His ruddy face paled. “What sort of game were you playing?”

“Truly, Raga-Tor, all this fuss for a mortal? You’re not yourself these days. Charra-Tir has really taken you to task, hasn’t she?” Riza mocked. He bent down to take a closer look at both of them. The traces of Raga’s tears stopped him. “Oh ho, what is this now? Tears? You?” Riza howled with laughter. “Of all the Red Vale elementals, I never thought to see you shed a tear. You’re the meanest and most devious of the lot. I find this rather amusing. But, I am disappointed with this one,” he said and nudged Eris’ foot.

“Why, because he didn’t let you kill him sooner?” Raga asked angrily.

“No, that he changed his mind and decided to trust you. If he had managed to avoid the avatar, when were you going to kill him? Before or after your revenge on Charra-Tir?” Riza asked.

Raga looked up at him appalled.

“I never had any intention of killing him.”

“You’re not a very convincing liar. You’ve killed them all in the end. When they’ve suited your ends, poof, just a little puff of fire and ash,” Riza said. He snapped his fingers and a fiery spark blazed and went out.

“I’m not lying,” Raga insisted. “I’ll admit there were times when he sorely tried my patience, but he’s not like any of the others. If you knew him as I do, you would see that.”

Riza shrugged.

“Lie to yourself then, because I know you. You would have been hard pressed to kill him before in a match of sword against sword, but now that you are on the brink of having your powers restored…well, like I said, poof, the end. I’m just saving you the trouble,” Riza said.

Eris let go an almost inaudible sigh that caught both of their attentions. Riza leaned a little closer, but Raga shoved him back.

“His life ebbs very low. It won’t be long now,” Riza said. “In a moment or two he can tell you himself about the game we played before I chain his soul for the duration of our agreement.”

A ponderous weight of black, iron chains and locks appeared in the demon lord’s hand. Raga felt sick at the sight of them. He knew those heavy bonds would be the true hell for Eris, even more so than the place itself.

“No, Riza. I won’t allow this,” Raga insisted. “I shouldn’t have brought him here against his will. He was not meant to die here. Restore his life as I know you can.”

Riza smiled deviously that at the same time acknowledged Raga’s statement, but said that he would be contrary all the same. He shook his head in disbelief at Raga’s odd behavior.

“You know I won’t do that. Death is my business. Besides, I really should be angry with you. Twice you cheated me out of his soul. He was a hard one to kill. Usually I don’t have so much trouble.”

“You don’t play fair,” Raga accused, not knowing what else to say. He felt Eris shudder in his lap and knew his death was finally at hand.

“I don’t have to play fair. I'm Riza, Lord of the Pits of Damnation, remember. I have many plans for this one,” Riza said.

Raga felt the demon lord’s hot breath on his face as the tall, but squat looking demon, bent over Eris' nearly lifeless body. “Come to me, Eris. We have much to talk about, you and I. Your chains are warm and waiting.”

Riza rattled the black iron across Eris’ legs and Raga saw the aura of his soul beginning to waver around the edges of his body.

“No, Riza!” Raga shouted and knocked the chains away. He quickly laid Eris’ head on the ground and scrambled to his feet. “I won’t let you do this! If it’s a soul you want, take mine. Whatever deal he made with you, I will agree to. What other elemental has ever made you such an offer? Surely my soul is a greater prize than his.”

Riza laughed louder and red flames shot from his black ears in his mirth.

“No wonder the other elementals scorn you for your foolishness. You don’t have a soul, you dolt,” Riza laughed.

“What?” Raga said perplexed. “What do you mean I don’t? Everyone does.”

Riza laughed harder and little flames rose up all over his body.

“You're an idiot! You don’t. Only these pathetic creatures have them, and they're mostly wasted on them, too.”

“Then I’ll put myself in your irons in his place. Do with me as you will,” Raga insisted.

“Well,” Riza drawled, as he paused to consider the offer. He looked down at Eris, whose aura was growing brighter. “You would make an interesting experiment, something different for a change. His kind is so predictable. Fine. Agreed, but what to do with this one?”

“Let him go to the place of his own god, whoever that may be,” Raga said. He still wasn’t sure whether Eris believed in one or not. Or rather, it wasn’t that he didn’t believe, but more whether he would submit his life and soul to one.

An evil grin suddenly spread across Riza’s flat, pug-like face.

“I have a better plan. I think I will keep both of you. As you two are such good
friends
, it will be amusing to watch you torture each other. Yes, I think that will be quite an amusing change,” Riza said and leered at him.

“That will be enough, Riza,” a disembodied voice boomed out across the barren land. “You overstep your authority.”

“Who dares speak to me with such gall?” Riza demanded, but he was just as startled as Raga.

Both sorcerer and demon alike watched as a shimmering light appeared and rapidly took on corporeal form.

“Who are you?” Riza demanded.

Raga instantly recognized the stranger as the god of Morengoth, Tas-Moren. In more obvious ways, he looked very similar to the Tamori king, but the light and purity of his godhood shone around him in startling contrast to Riza and the wastelands around them.