The Gems of Raga-Tor (Elemental Legends Book 1) (43 page)

“I’m the god of the Tamori,” Tas-Moren answered. He raised a hand over Eris to keep body and soul together until they settled their business.

“The Tamori are all dead,” Riza spat. “You have no right to interfere.”

“I have every right. The man you claim, and the elemental, have fulfilled a prophecy cast by myself three centuries ago,” Tas-Moren said.

“Don’t play your games with me. I know how these things work. It could have been any man come along to help this one,” Riza said, indicating Raga. He kicked Eris’ foot. “This one made his deal with me months before Raga entered the situation. He promised me his soul for one year if he should die while still cursed by Charra-Tir. In exchange, I gave him a spell that would hide the power of the fire gems. Raga has his gems. This one is still cursed. I win.”

“You were working against me?” Raga asked in shock. “You and I are of the same kind. How could you betray a first-level elemental?”

“You are such a fool, Raga-Tor,” Riza snorted with a condescending leer. “This reduced state of power has revealed you for the imbecile you are. Where is your cunning, your deviousness? I’ve beaten you at your own games. But, you see, this one has a most vital soul, and I want it.”

“Enough I say,” Tas-Moren said, demanding silence. “Though you were spawned in treachery most vile Riza, you have no excuse for breaking oath with a first-level elemental.”

“What oath? I broke no oath,” Riza screeched.

“Yes, you did. You agreed to take the sorcerer in exchange for the man and then decided to keep both. I would say you went back on your word.” He held up a hand. “Don’t speak, not one sound. I know it was a trivial thing you uttered, but your mistake suits my need. They have served my purpose and as a reward, the man shall live. The elemental will take his place in your domain, but for only half the required time. Unfortunately, not even I can completely void an agreement made with you.”

Riza howled his defeat. He stomped his heavy, black feet and hurled the chains far out into the red void. His gnarled fists waved and threatened as he argued.

“You can’t do this! Your people are dead. You have no power to say who lives and who dies. There is not one soul to believe in you and until you have one, you are powerless. These two are mine!” Riza shouted furiously.

Tas-Moren smiled patiently as Riza’s firestorm ran its course. Puffs of black smoke came from the demon lord’s nose as he glared at the Tamori god.

“There is yet one, and one is all I need to overcome any of your obstacles. I preserved the life of my last king until the day when at least one, or both, of these men came across his path. My prophecy is fulfilled. You have been told how it will be,” Tas-Moren said.

Riza howled his loss and frustration and the ground trembled beneath their feet. Without warning, he vaporized from the desolate plain to the seventh level of his hell to lick his wounds. He pouted and raged about Raga’s eventual stay. There was no way to torment the elemental of fire. Raga-Tor was spawned in the fire and fury of creation and destruction. For him, it would be like coming home to the womb.

Raga felt numb by the sudden twist of events. He still wasn’t sure if he should feel sad or grateful. He looked down at Eris’ broken body and thought of the horrible waste of a proud young man, who still had so much more to do.

“My heart-felt thanks to you for saving him from Riza,” Raga said. He sat back down and pulled Eris into his lap. “If you would grant me a few more minutes before letting him go to his god, I would appreciate it.”

“Shall I add not listening to your list of shortcomings as well, Raga-Tor? I said that he will live and I didn’t say that merely to anger Riza,” Tas-Moren said. He echoed the strain of Eris’ own conceit, when he added after a moment, “The world has great need for one of his kind, for a champion of kings and gods alike.”

Raga’s face brightened slowly at hearing those words. His ruddy complexion warmed and the internal fire that fueled his existence burned in his eyes, though he was still unaware of its return.

“I'm afraid I don't understand what good we have done to warrant your good graces. All we have accomplished here is the destruction of the avatar,” Raga said. The sight of the slain beast more than embarrassed him now that he was face-to-face with the god.

“Many things have happened in the course of these months of which you are unaware. I will tell you, and you alone, several of these things so you will understand. We of the godhood have decided this is the best course of action, as you are so slow to ponder these things,” Tas-Moren said.

Raga felt embarrassed again and lowered his head. He used his sleeve to wipe some of the dirt from Eris’ pale face. The god of the Tamori smiled down and took pity.

“Watch, Raga. Then you will pay attention,” Tas-Moren said. He walked slowly and passed his hand over Eris’ still form from head to foot. The shining light of his soul faded and healthy color replaced the pallor of his face. His chest rose and fell more fully and evenly and Raga felt a steady heartbeat beneath the palm of his hand.

“Thank you,” he whispered, but kept his hand pressed to Eris’ chest just to be sure.

“You are most welcome. Now listen to my words,” Tas-Moren replied. “As many of your kind knows, and as Eris will discern for himself in time, life is not without purpose, though sometimes it doesn't seem so in its despair, its chaos. Much of what has happened was a lesson for Morengoth as well as for you.

“Morengoth, as you have already seen, is a man of many talents and possesses a mind of astute intelligence. Yet he, like any man, was and is capable of great evil. That evil needed to be purged from him if he was ever to regain his kingdom. When he got a hold of your gem, he could have easily plumbed its mysteries had he so desired. His temptation was great as night after night he wrestled with his desire for revenge against those who had come against him. After three centuries, he finally had the means with which to utterly destroy the descendants of the men who destroyed his people. My people for that matter,” Tas-Moren said. A shadow of sadness passed over his face.

“Forgiveness is a worthy trait in a just king,” Raga said, and the god nodded that this was so. “But it seems to me that you punished him for an unjust amount of time. Three centuries is a long time to be alone. I know something of this loneliness and I don’t find it pleasant.”

“Of course it wasn’t pleasant, but it needed to be endured. Morengoth wasn’t always like the man you met. Time has tempered him. Besides, there were other things that needed to happen that could only come about by the passage of time. You have existed for countless millennia, yet one such as Eris doesn’t appear so often.

“Morengoth showed me his ability for pity and compassion when he offered to save Eris’ life, which at first he was loath to do. He displayed temperance and tolerance, when he allowed you to tell your story, then cunning and cleverness when he put you on the quest for Anya. In the past, he would have used threats and abuse to achieve his ends. Finally, Eris was the tool again, when Morengoth showed me that he has the ability to judge men accurately after only a short period of time. That was not easy for him given Eris’ own internal strife and his fits of intemperance. Nevertheless, an essential trait for rebuilding an empire,” Tas-Moren explained.

“I’m confused again,” Raga interrupted. “When and what judgment did Morengoth pass on him?”

“He gave him the sword of the Tamori warrior did he not?”

Raga nodded. He looked down at Eris and saw that the pool of blood beneath him had blackened and was finally absorbed into the hard earth. He pulled aside the tear in the shirt’s collar to check on the wound made by the sharp talon. It was swollen and bloody, but it had stopped bleeding.

“By giving him that sword, Morengoth charged him with upholding his honor in all things. He reminded him that some things are worth whatever the cost,” Tas-Moren said.

“How could there have been any doubt by Morengoth or you? I’ve seen this in him from the beginning. In the end, my help in slaying the avatar was inconsequential compared to his efforts, which have cost him much,” Raga said.

Tas-Moren shook his head indicating that he was wrong and Raga looked puzzled.

“He wasn’t going to help you. His desire for those gems and the hate in his heart made him hesitate. He was content to watch the avatar kill you, which was a very real possibility in your reduced state. That fact wasn’t lost on him either.”

“Really, it could have finished me?” Raga asked.

Tas-Moren nodded. "Gods create, gods destroy at a level higher than yours. It was my avatar."

Raga shivered at the realization. “I know Eris hasn’t been the most pleasant person to live with, but he hurled himself into that battle and fought as bravely as any man, probably more so than most. In the end, he called me friend and I know he meant it.” A tear ran from Raga’s eye.

Tas-Moren smiled knowingly at Raga-Tor’s newly found innocence such as it was.

“Of course he meant it, and he meant to save your life. He wanted both of them for you as a true friend. Morengoth judged him correctly, and Eris, just in time, came to realize his own flawed thinking, as well as to understand that perhaps not all things are to be feared and hated equally. He realized that not living up to the honor he professes would have made his words, and his life, worthless when it counted most,” Tas-Moren explained.

“Then why let him be killed, or almost killed? What is the purpose in this other than to increase his deepest fears?”

“It was not our intent that this should have happened yet. However, when Riza is involved, things do not always go as planned.”

“What do you mean by
yet
? This year, or ten years from now you’ll try to kill him again? I'm beginning to think Eris is right and that the collective godhood toys with elementals and mortals with equal ease,” Raga said, feeling a new sense of disturbance.

“Raga-Tor,” Tas-Moren sighed, “I knew from the day you were spawned we would have trouble with you. You have been willful, malicious and cruel from the start. I, for one, am still surprised Eris didn’t make good on his threats and try to kill you at least once for some of the mean things you said. Now look at you, all tears and concern for him, but where is the truth in it?”

“What do you mean where is the truth if not making tracks down my face, if not breaking my heart, if not tearing at my very soul, and—”

Tas-Moren raised a brow at the word
soul
and Raga paused.

“That word has become a bad habit with you,” the god said.

“It’s not habit and it wasn’t something just thrown at Riza to make him go away. It’s something I feel deep within me. How can I deny what’s there?” Raga asked then added. “It is there, isn’t it?”

“No, Raga, it isn’t and that is the truth,” Tas-Moren said quietly, and watched as loss and mournful sadness come to the great sorcerer’s face.

Raga looked away from Tas-Moren and felt a great emptiness descend on him. He looked out across the vast, barren land and realized it was an image of himself. He was a force of creation, but what had he ever created that had lasted from the dawn of the Third Age until now? He remembered many things, many men he had destroyed, some rightly so and others for a whim. He looked down at Eris’ sleeping face and felt tears well up again. Maybe the god was correct and he didn’t have the soul of men, but fire and fury had forged a relationship between them that had never existed between those of mortal and immortal blood. He was sure of it. Of course there were the tales of great romance and great love between the two, but this was something beyond even that. This was something that ran deeply, beyond love, beyond friendship, but in the very center of them both. Maybe Eris had only a glimpse of it before the avatar nearly destroyed him, but Raga knew he would understand. And it was no small feat that he himself had persevered to create and experience something of great value and would not deny its existence.

“Speak, Raga, tell me your thoughts,” Tas-Moren encouraged, seeing some realization taking place.

“Maybe I don’t have a heart and soul as they do, but what I feel is nothing less,” Raga said slowly and his understanding suddenly took on a different aspect. “This is, or rather, I am the second part of Morengoth’s puzzle and why you allowed Anya to go to him. A soul, yes I understand I don’t have one, is something more valuable, one could say, than life, which I gladly offered up for him. For Eris, the value was upholding his honor in the face of terrifying adversity and future uncertainty that he can trust me in the end. I would say, however, that he values his soul little. Otherwise, he would never have made such a bargain with Riza.”

“Ahh, Raga, there is hope for you yet,” Tas-Moren sighed, but he was pleased. “But I will tell you this, so you might have some comfort. Riza is right that most of the other elementals know they have no souls, but you are the first to have found one in a manner of speaking. A surprise to many of us to be honest with you. For while all elementals were birthed in the maelstrom of universal creation, you are not above growing and learning as mortals do.”

Raga frowned and felt troubled again. “Then what you are saying as well is that all we have been through has been nothing more than a test? Or, as Eris would put it, a game in which we are naught but the gods' playing pieces.”

“Yes and no. Life teaches many lessons, if you will but stop and pay attention. Something you do not do very well. You and Morengoth have succeeded for now. As for Eris, well, he is something all together different.”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Raga said and wiped Eris’ face again. “Every day I wonder how he manages to live with his temper, but maybe he’ll be better now that Riza isn’t lurking about. That is, unless you have a mind to kill him again.”

“No, he’ll be fine for now, unless you let Charra-Tir get a hold of him.”

“Ahh, I think you still don’t trust me with him.”

“Time will bear out your words, Raga-Tor, also called the Great Destroyer, and I wouldn’t count on him being any more even tempered for a very long time. He has a difficult road ahead of him, but he has an incredible will and more courage than any man alive, so perhaps he’ll do well in the end. I understand why Riza was eager to have him,” Tas-Moren said.