The Gems of Raga-Tor (Elemental Legends Book 1) (12 page)

“That’s true, but there is still one more thing left to do. Close your eyes,” Raga said.

“What are you going to do?” Eris asked suspiciously.

“Apply your make-up.”

“I don’t see any on the chairs.”

“There isn’t.”

“You’d better think twice before you magic me.”

Raga sighed. "You might be handy with that little shaving blade of yours, but I doubt you know much about this so be quiet and close your eyes."

Eris stubbornly refused. He barely tolerated Raga’s magic as it was.

“Close them,” Raga insisted in an even voice. “Don’t make me force you.”

Eris stared coldly at Raga a moment more and then closed his eyes. Almost immediately he felt a warm, damp mist flow around his head, and the sweet smell of orange blossoms wafted passed his nose.

“I believe that is one of your favorite fragrances,” Raga said, sniffing the sweet perfume.

“How do you know?”

“When I was healing you, I ran across a few interesting items. This was one of them. In fact, on that thought I placed a mind-bonding marker. It will help you sustain the link between us,” Raga told him.

“You did what?” Eris demanded, incredulously. His eyes snapped open. “Verin’s eyes!” he swore suddenly as the red mist stung him.

“Did I tell you to open your eyes?” Raga asked. He shook his head in exasperation and grabbed Eris' hands. “Don’t rub them. You’ll smear everything.”

“They hurt, damn you,” Eris said, angrily, struggling against Raga’s grip on him.

“The feeling will pass shortly.”

“I told you not to touch me with your sorcery without telling me first. Now you’ve been playing with my mind, and you expect me to trust you? You’ve already put me through more than anyone has a right to do.”

Raga gripped him tighter. “Hold still. It will pass. And what I did was for the best. I was already there, so why not? Why waste my energy to do it later? If I never told you, you would never know the marker was there. Good. You’re finished. Now you can open your eyes.”

Eris blinked a time or two to get rid of the gritty feeling left over from the magical mist and turned to look in the glass. His eyes were kohled and lined to further enhance their already exotic look. His lips were red like a wet, polished apple, and his cheeks were powered with the touch of a summer rose.

Eris raised an eyebrow and studied his face.

“I’ll never be able to get this stuff on right.”

“You won’t have to. You’ll have plenty of servants to do it for you. How many days until the new moon?”

“Twelve.”

“Good. That will give us plenty of time to get you out of the seraglio. Who knows, you might even learn how to put all of this on in that length of time,” Raga teased.

“Don’t count on it. As soon as that stone is in my hand, I’ll be looking for a way out and you had better be ready,” Eris said and swept out into the room leaving a trail of orange blossom behind.

“Whenever you say things like that, I get worried,” Raga said. The looking glass vanished in a golden flash.

“You’re worried? What about me? I have to enter a seraglio with probably fifty other women.”

“You’ll enjoy every minute of it.”

“If I entered as myself, as a man, I would think I was in paradise, but as this—”

“Erisa the Wench,” Raga teased and Eris gave him annoyed look.

“What do women talk about anyway?” It was something he’d never given much thought to. He doubted that his grandmother’s conversations that he had listened to as a child would be topics of a harem.

“How should I know? You’ve a better chance of understanding their minds than I do,” Raga answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “I suppose they talk about their hair, clothes, and the virility of the Sultan. Things like that.”

Eris wrinkled his face.

“I’m going to die of boredom, and from being fluffed and puffed, not from any curse,” he grumbled, fidgeting with the pearls hanging from the bodice.

“In that case, it’s time to give you something better to complain about. It’s time for you to dance,” Raga announced. He moved a small table and the chairs out of the way. “And, before you say anything, yes, I’m going to use a spell on you. We can’t have you lumbering about like a camel on ice. Come, stand over here.”

It was futile to argue, so Eris stood on the spot Raga indicated.

“Sometimes, I think you should stay a woman. You seem to be a trifle less ornery this way,” Raga commented, as he draped a cloak over Eris’ head and shoulders and handed him two small packets of paper filled with lumpy powder.

“What’s this for?”

“I thought it would be better if you wore the cloak to the palace and have it on when you begin your dance. That way no one will see you until we want them to. When the music starts, I want you to relax and simply listen to the music. The spell will do the rest. These packets will make a smoke cloud when you throw them to the floor. That’s when you’ll toss aside your cloak and appear as a goddess from the mist,” Raga explained with a theatrical flourish of arms.

“How are you going to explain floating instruments to the Sultan? Obviously, his musicians won’t be able to play the music you have in mind.”

“Need you ask,” Raga said as a full complement of instruments appeared floating in the air in one corner of the room. “I’m going to use a few illusions.”

“I should never have agreed to this,” Eris mumbled. Nervously, he wondered just what sort of dance this was going to be.

“Ready?”

Eris shrugged. “As I’ll ever be.”

“Remember, relax and concentrate on the music. It will do the work for you,” Raga reminded as the slow, rhythmic music began.

Forcing himself to relax, Eris listened to the first few measures of the music before he felt compelled to throw down the magical powder. A white cloud rose up from his feet filling the space inside the cloak and roiling gently out of the opening in the front. He tossed the cloak aside as his head dropped back and his arms raised up over his head, over the white mist to offer a glimpse of what was to come.

The music ebbed and flowed around him as if gentle hands guided his first hesitant steps. The melody soothed and relaxed him as alien emotions filled him. He felt a desire to be admired for his grace, for the strength in his moves and a strange desire to please and Eris Pann never went out of his way to please anyone. Soon he had absolutely no control over the movements of his body as it skipped and whirled in graceful time to the fiery, haunting melody.

“Good, Eris, you’re doing fine,” Raga encouraged.

Eris barely heard him in his trance-like state, but again he was oddly pleased by the words and gave himself to the powerful rhythms pulsing around him, to the unseen hands that guided his quick steps. He reveled in the flowing, graceful strength of his body. Maybe it had its uses after all.

It was an intoxicating feeling as his breath came fully into his lungs, and a long-buried joy in his spirit twined and whirled with the strains of the music. He found great pleasure in what he was doing, and that puzzled the barely conscious masculine side of him immensely.

The music began to slow. The drums faded and the airy sounds of the flute made fluttery sounds that matched the movement of his undulating torso. Eris knew the dance was coming to an end.

He spun slowly once, twice and sank down into a shimmering red puddle on the floor. One leg bent beneath him and the other stretched sinuously forward. Slowly, he bent forward and finished the dance with crossed wrists lying on top of his outstretched ankle. With a last glance and but a whisper of a smile his head bowed down to the knee.

After an intensely silent moment, Raga exclaimed, “That was beautiful!”

It was so much better than he had hoped for especially on the first try. Obviously, there was no need for a second. He hurried across the room to help Eris to his feet.

Raga bent down and took Eris by the hands, helped him to stand and then took an involuntary step backward as Eris raised his face to him. Raga was stunned by the aroused look in those brilliant green eyes.

“Did you enjoy it, sorcerer?” Eris asked, in a voice as dusky as a violet sunset. He pressed a soft hand to Raga’s furry face. The large diamond on the bodice twinkled encouragingly as Eris strove to catch his breath.

Raga was stupefied. Eris felt vaguely puzzled by what he did, but somehow it didn’t seem to matter, it seemed almost…natural.

“Are you feeling all right?” Raga asked.

Eris smiled, almost sweetly, as he walked passed Raga. The scent of orange blossom bloomed with the heat of Eris’ body. Raga watched in amazement as Eris sank slowly down on the edge of the bed and stretched out seductively. With slow, feline movements, he rolled over onto his stomach and propped his chin in his cupped hands.

“I feel just fine. And you?” he asked and winked at the bemused sorcerer.

“I’m not sure,” Raga answered in a voice that almost wasn’t there. He found himself edging closer to Eris. Something unexpected, unexplainable was happening and he didn’t feel inclined to sort it out.

Eris was acting too much a woman to ignore, appearance notwithstanding. Raga wasn’t finding it difficult to forget what Eris really was. Even sorcerers got lonely once in a while.

Raga sat on the edge of the bed. His broad hands caressed Eris’ smooth face, yet Eris didn’t resist. Raga’s voice of conscience warned him loudly at how foolish he was to attempt such a liaison. But how smooth and soft was the skin on that slender throat encircled with a king’s ransom in diamonds. Those full, red lips were soft and tender as Raga felt a moment of fragrant ecstasy surge through him: lips that responded unexpectedly to his growing desires as his hand followed the strip of fabric down to a lush, full breast.

Suddenly, Eris sputtered a curse and pulled away. Raga found himself sprawled on the floor. The center of his chest throbbed from the blow struck him by the heel of Eris’ hand. The trance-like moment of Erisa the Seductress was gone.

“Damn your manhood, Raga-Tor!” Eris swore violently. He leapt from the bed snarling like a tiger. “That’s it! What in the Seven Hells were you trying to do? No more! I’m finished with you! Damn you to the pits, and damn myself for ever letting you talk me into this!”

“Eris, you’re going to awaken everyone in this place,” Raga cautioned and sat up. His chest actually hurt when he breathed.

“So what! No one else has spent the night in the clutches of black sorcery either. And, I’ll tell you something else,” Eris raged, as he glared down at Raga. His green eyes narrowed with furious anger. “You can get out of here. From now on it’s each
man
for himself. It was bad enough when you shot quarrels at me in the dark, but this! This…taking advantage of me while I was trying to get out from under your spell is revolting. You disgust me. You’ve gone too far this time.”

When he paused to catch his breath, the words of Charra-Tir rushed back with the fury of the sea-winds to taunt him. Angrily, he shoved those words from his mind.

“What can I say? Your beauty enchanted me and I got a little carried away. I’m sorry,” Raga apologized, sincerely.

“Keep it to yourself. I don’t want to hear any more of your damned lies and promises. Every time I turn around I’m caught in your clutches. And taking advantage of me like this, under your spell, as—as a woman—”

“Would you have acted any less than I, Eris Pann?” Raga demanded. His voice echoed his sudden frustration.

Raga got to his feet. One hand rubbed his sternum as he turned to face Eris.

“You’re angry, because it happened to you. A man
pushing
himself on a woman, who just happens to be you. And you know you cannot stand there and honestly say you wouldn’t have done the same.”

Eris saw the familiar fire flicker in the sorcerer’s eyes.

“You had me caught in that accursed spell of yours. It wasn’t my fault. I wouldn’t in a thousand years ever think to lure you to me,” Eris defended without backing down.

“And did the maiden from Charra-Tir’s temple lure you to her? No, of course not. Was she not also just as angry as you are now? And what would have happened had you not been caught when you were? Oh, don’t look so surprised. We of the Red Vale may not always get along, but we do keep track of each other for our own well being. Obviously, I haven’t been doing a very good job of it,” Raga said. He walked to the table and poured himself a glass of wine. Angry fire warmed his belly.

“What you are insinuating is a lie. Whose is it, yours or Charra-Tir’s?” Eris demanded.

“What difference does it make? You think us both alike anyway.”

“It makes a difference to me, to my honor. Oh, don’t pretend to look surprised. If you knew me—never mind. I don’t have to explain myself to you. I did nothing but talk to that girl.”

“You kissed her,” Raga accused.

“On the hand!” Eris exclaimed. “I told her I would take her away from Charra-Tir if she wanted, then I kissed her hand and left her where I found her. Untouched.”

“Yet that one kiss sealed her fate. She’s dead now, in case you didn’t know,” Raga said, looking Eris straight in the face.

Eris turned away from Raga’s fiery glare. The woman inside him cried out for the injustice that had befallen the poor girl. The tender side of Erisa was pensive, but Eris forced those feelings from his heart. They had no place in him.

“I had no hand in her death,” Eris said coldly. “What business had she anyway with a sorceress like that? By that association, she brought the destruction upon herself.”

“And in kind you too have brought similar destruction on yourself for interfering where you shouldn’t have,” Raga reminded. “What will your fate have waiting for you?”

“I believe that’s more than obvious.” Eris pivoted quickly to face Raga and pointed a slender finger at him. “You are going to be the destruction of me one way or another.”

An exasperated sigh escaped Raga.

“You are not as indestructible as you think yourself to be.”

“I live as I must. Do what I must to survive. From now on that means without your interference.” Eris grabbed up his cloak from the floor and wrapped it tightly around his body. The fire in Raga’s eyes unnerved him. He was sure it was the blaze of anger, then again…Eris shivered. It was anger fired by passion that could end in an unfortunate event.