The Gems of Raga-Tor (Elemental Legends Book 1) by CA Morgan Page A

motioning the serving girls in. Two carried trays of food and drink, one brought a small table and another held two sturdy chairs. When they had gone, he continued. “I should have expected you would go to see her. Well, and what did she say?”
    “Nothing much, except that you are who you say you are,” Eris answered.
    “That was good of her. I should see her sometime and thank her for helping me.” He pulled Eris across the room and shoved him down into a chair. “Eat. I have a few more things I need to ask you.”
    Eris poured a cup of wine, drank, and filled it once more.
    Raga eased onto a chair. “Now, perhaps, we can begin again and speak a little more civilly to each other. And before I forget, I must compliment you.”
    “What for?”
    “For not killing yourself.”
    “Why would I do that?”
    “A man, such as yourself, must find this particular curse of Charra-Tir’s quite unbearable.”
    “Just don’t make a habit of reminding me.”
    “All of the others so cursed killed themselves within a month,” Raga explained as-a-matter-of-factly.
    “Others?”
    “Believe me, you aren’t the first so afflicted and I doubt the last. This spell is a particular favorite of that witch. I’m sure she believes you’ve gone the way of the others. Won’t you be a devilish surprise on her doorstep,” Raga explained and raised his brimming cup to Eris. “To our victory. Soon may it come.”
    For the first time in several days, and quite in spite of himself, Eris managed a partial smile. Seeing that, Raga bellowed with laughter and shoved a monstrous piece of bread into his mouth. Soft, white crumbs dotted the red-gold field of his chest.
    The two of them ate and drank for some time without speaking. Raga laughed to himself occasionally, likely for the amount of wine that flowed, but Eris remained coolly reserved. He rarely trusted anyone enough to get drunk in their presence, and certainly not in the presence of an elemental sorcerer.
    “Ahh.” Raga belched and sprawled back in his chair. “Now, my boy, er— excuse me, Eris, I want to know the specifics of your curse.”
    “Why? I thought you knew all about it.” Eris leaned back and put his feet up on the edge of the table.
    “Well, most everything. I never went up to any of those others and asked them directly. They were miserable, pathetic creatures. I didn’t want to make them feel worse off.”
    “What makes you think I’m any different?”
    “Well. . .you’re still alive for one. And two, you’ve found some way to live with it without having lost your mind. Both admirable traits as far as I’m concerned.”
    “I see.” He ignored the compliment. “It’s simple. Every time I desire a woman, I become one. I stay in that form until either my life is threatened, as you saw yester eve, or until the night of the new moon,” Eris explained, folding his arms across his chest. “The witch has everything thought out so perfectly. Faced with life-threatening danger, I change back into a man just in time to continue living this impossible existence. Then, there are those times when I can’t change back. I have to live that way for days at a time, and hide myself from the men I worked with only a day or two before. I get tired of making up excuses for my sudden disappearances and odd behavior. This has to end one way or another.”
    “Then as I said, together, we can end this for both of us,” Raga commented. “How often do you change these days?”
    “If you’ve really been following me for several months, as you claim, wouldn’t you already know?”
    “Well, I did lose you more often than not,” Raga admitted.
    Eris was inwardly pleased. He didn’t think he had really lost his ability to know when he was being watched and followed.
    “At first it happened so often that I considered carrying a silvered glass just to make sure who and what I was,” Eris said. “Now, I’ve managed to control my impulses for the most part.”
    Raga