Daughter of Ethos: Price of Power Book 3

by L M Lacee

  ‘Very well Commander, Star Daughter.’ She smiled as she addressed the still dazed Warrior. ‘Warrior Ward, I know she is overwhelming at times, just remember she snores in her sleep and you will be alright.’

  Peyton’s outraged gasp was lost among the laughs of the Warriors and the croak of bewilderment from the male. Janet grinned at the stunned Warrior. ‘Now Warrior Ward if you would come with me?’ She then indicated he should walk with her. He stumbled past Peyton and Hawk, his composure in tatters as he stated.

  ‘You are female?’

  ‘I am.’ She answered. ‘Is there a problem with that?’

  He shook his head swiftly from side to side. ‘No, they mentioned mates?’

  They could hear Janet talking to him as they left the building. Hawk indicated the golden door before them.

  ‘Darby said this was the receiving room.’

  Peyton rubbed her hands together and gave him a smile as she said. ‘Okay, let’s go get received.’

  Hawk ordered. ‘Squads assigned to search inside the Empirer, go retrieve our Warriors.’

  The Warriors peeled off, running up and down the stairs as Peyton asked Rage. ‘Can you have one of your Pride find this tank they are talking about and let the Falears know, so they can get those males out of there?’

  Rave is searching as we speak.

  ‘Thank you.’

  Peyton knew Rave would find them, if they were to be found. She nodded to Hawk, who pushed open the large golden doors leading into the receiving room.

  FOUR:

  They entered into a long, narrow monstrosity of a room. Her eyes were immediately drawn toward the ceiling which was decorated in huge red and gold panels, depicting a scene of space as seen from the world.

  Next, her eyes were drawn to the multiple shades of greens and reds mixed with an eye popping orange, which decorated the walls and furnishings. The room looked like someone had taken the three colors and stood in the center with sprayers and turned in circles coloring everything they saw. It was enough to make Peyton whimper as her eyes were assaulted, and to make matters worse, the room was literally stuffed with furniture. This was an obvious display of power and forced respect, a place where people were brought to and shown how much wealth and power the ruling house of Oraintarre controlled. A good intimidating tactic if they had not overdone the colors, as far as Peyton was concerned the color palette let the whole thing down and made it look like a comedic backdrop to childish authority.

  Large floor to ceiling windows faced them as they entered or they could have been glass doors, it was hard to tell as they were partially covered with heavy red and orange drapes. The floor was tiled, except this tile was nothing like the utilitarian brown in the corridor, the tile was patterned and looked very much like an aerial view of the planet; it was quite well done, except Peyton found it a little eye bleeding. The artist had not spared the colors red or brown.

  To the back of the room were three doors that were opened and Peyton could see Julope and some other people obviously servants watching her enter. She once again hoped Julope would think about what she had told her. Peyton’s heart hurt for the Warriors who lined the walls and stood in front of the curtains. They looked uneasy, and she was sure some looked ill.

  Several were very thin, all wore faded, mismatched, ill-fitting uniforms and at a fast count, there were between fifty and sixty of them standing with their swords and blasters drawn.

  Peyton addressed them rather than the females who sat or stood around an elegantly dressed female lounging on the golden throne which was on a platform raised five steps above the main floor at the end of the room.

  She saw them from the corner of her eye and inwardly snorted. The overly dressed female probably hoped the outsiders would take her position for a relaxed pose. Unfortunately, her tension and the tension of all the others filtered through their postures and fooled no one.

  Trying to suppress the pity welling in her throat for her Warriors, her voice came out soft and strained.

  ‘Warriors I am the Star Daughter. You are released from duty. I request your presence at home.’

  There was a slight movement from several of the Warriors, the females made no sounds as she continued in a little stronger voice. ‘If you would accompany the Warriors and Turqualls, they will show you the way.’

  They made no move to leave, Peyton heard a few twitters of laughter quickly silenced from the females. She watched the Warriors as Hawk came to stand next to her. His bearing one of command, her guard who had lined up behind her and Hawk, came to attention. Rage stood on the other side of Peyton as his pride members stood with the guards. She imagined they all looked impressive.

  In a voice honed on more than one battlefield over the last five hundred yentas, Hawk ordered. ‘Warriors of Maikonia as your Commanding Officer, I hereby relieve you of your duty to planet Oraintarre. Warrior Ward and several Warriors have already been relieved, please follow these Warriors and Turqualls as your Star Daughter requested.’

  When he was finished, the Warriors as one saluted Peyton and Hawk and without a question being asked, even though their eyes spoke volumes. They started from the room with several Turqualls and Warriors joining them, and in an unconscious display of unity, they all marched in time.

  Only when Peyton could no longer hear the thump of their boots, did she turn toward the throne and the females waiting there and what she saw broke her heart and inflamed her senses.

  How she had missed them when she entered, she could not say, and it was probably for the best. Warriors sat collared and chained to the arms of five females, five bedraggled males, beaten into submission by humiliation.

  Peyton stormed toward the throne, only stopping at the foot of the steps leading upwards. Hawk on one side with Rage on the other and her guard making a wall behind her, as did the remainder of the Turquall unit. No one got too close to her as her rage transmitted to the Warriors who drew their weapons and the Turquall’s who already in combat mode bared their fangs and claws.

  Peyton felt the anger at the treatment of the Warriors rise up and lend power to her voice as she demanded.

  ‘You dare to treat my Warriors like this. With collars and chains!’ When there was no reply or sign of movement from the females, she demanded. ‘RELEASE THEM IMMEDIATELY!’

  The intensity of her voice caused the walls to tremble and the floors to shake. A female that had been curled like a cat on the throne unwound herself from her seat, in what Peyton assumed she thought was a sensuous move.

  She was definitely a beautiful example of the Oraintarren race, dusky pink skin with oval shaped red eyes, and red and pink eyelashes with winged eyebrows. She was very slim and stood at least six foot tall, her dress was of a rich crimson fabric with daring pieces removed from strategic places, revealing flawless skin. The dress did flatter her long twin toned hair of pink and red, which had been artfully twisted into a long coil, falling over one bare shoulder.

  Peyton chose to think her dress made her look cheap and refused to feel underdressed in her black battledress outfit and silently thanked Darby for her insistence that she wore a flowing coat of dark blue over the outfit, she heard her say. ‘Called it, isn’t she cold in that?’

  Her observations served to reduce the anger simmering inside Peyton.

  Eddea the second sister to the Matriarch pulled on the chain around her wrist attached to her Warrior, a huge thin male crouched on the floor at her feet. She touched him with her foot, a smirk on her face at Peyton’s furious look. ‘Move Grunt.’

  He moved his large body aside as his head hung low to the floor. Eddea raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow over laughing eyes in challenge and let her voice fill with contempt as she demanded.

  ‘Who are you to tell me what to do in my sister’s house, on my sister’s world?’

  Peyton felt the power of the Stars rise and suddenly white flames engulfed her. Windows shattered and blew out and a rumble of power was heard like a wave rolling through
the building. The walls shook and the artistic tiled floor buckled throughout the room as the ceilings groaned and cracked. She mind-sent to Darby and the waiting planet. Shut it down. Shut it all down now!

  She then sent one word to the Warriors and Turqualls waiting aboard the cruisers. Deploy.

  Peyton raised her hand and the collars and chains glowed softly, then fell from the crouched Warriors. An instant later the Warriors disappeared and reappeared on the ship in medical. Peyton sent to Darby. Five in medical.

  ‘They have them and also all the others from your building are on shuttles that will arrive on board in two mins, we are shutting down in five.’

  Peyton calmed the flames raging around her and said to Eddea who was now shaking with fear as were the other females. Several were cowering behind the golden throne. ‘You wanted to know who I am. I am the Star Daughter, and by my decree in mins your planet will cease to function. There will be no traffic to or from your world, no communications will be allowed. Mining has ceased, and I have closed your port. Within days, you and your people will start to hunger as you have no way to obtain food other than what you have stockpiled. Because no one collars and chains my Warriors!’

  Starlight filled the Empirer causing more windows to blow out as walls ruptured and several more long cracks snaked along the length of the ceiling loosening panels causing them to fall into the room, ornaments and art work fell from the shelves and walls. Tables tumbled over as furniture skidded across the floor, banging into walls and colliding with other furniture.

  Fingers of starlight reached out to the golden doors and tore them from their hinges like tissue paper, and pieces were thrown into the hallway and embedded in the walls and floors. Peyton flicked her fingers and sent all of her people back to the port just as the planet shut down.

  Hawk cursed as he stormed into a waiting shuttle, his Warriors and the Turquall, with one look at their Commanding officers thunderous face, decided to wait for another shuttle. Only Rage volunteered to ride with him, and as the shuttle lifted from the planet, he asked the fuming Commander. Does she do that often?

  ‘Furin hayda no. This is the first time.’

  Rage thought this was why Hawk was angered, not that she had sent them all away, it was that he had not known she was going to do so.

  Will you have words with her?

  ‘I will.’ He looked down at the Turquall and stated. ‘I expect as her Pride Commander, for you to agree with me.’

  I will, but I have to ask, will it make a difference?

  ‘To her no, for my peace of mind yes.’

  Ahh I see… yes, I agree.

  FIVE:

  Eddea and the other females stood huddled together, shocked at the blatant display of power from the small female. Julope stood just inside the door leading to the kitchens with her sisters, amazed that not one piece of furniture or starlight had neared her or the other servants. Realizing that as angry as the Star Daughter was, she also cared enough to make sure they were unharmed. It was this fact that resolved her decision. This female, this myth would not leave the world without her and her sisters and as many people as she could convince to leave with her.

  Peyton’s eyes turned black and filled with stars, she glowed silvery white as the temperature in the room dropped and her voice took on the song of the Stars.

  You, who have dared to enslave our Daughters Warriors, have tried her patience and ours. You have reaped what you have sowed. I have no pity for what is to come.

  The Stars departed, leaving a very angry Peyton behind, who snarled at the female’s cowering before her.

  ‘You picked the wrong day and the wrong female to make angry, read your histories and understand why. I advise you to remember what you have seen here today and return my Warriors or I will take this Empirer and your communities and I will tear them apart piece by piece to find them. Now make this right, and you may live to regret your actions. Do nothing and I will show you what my anger truly looks like?’

  In seconds she was gone in a stream of starlight as every form of power was removed from the planet Oraintarre. With color draining from her face Eddea, slumped back onto the throne and listened to her sisters and cousins cry and demand answers, as fear beat a tattoo in her temples. She placed her face in her hands when the accusations started, along with the screaming and the hair pulling.

  Later that same day a few bloody fist fights broke out when the sisters and cousins of house Oraintarre discovered they had no power for all their little luxuries and the realization that their world was shut down, just like that female said it would. There were no vids or music, no entertainment of any kind, no bots made the beds or cleaned the floors of the rubble the sisters or cousins deposited there. No matter how many times they entered the kitchens they could hear no humming from working ovens as they made delicate appetizers or finger licking sticky little balls of goodness, which oozed sweetness to appease appetites.

  The meals delivered were cold and unappetizing to their refined palates. Within hours of the shutdown the servants learned to hide or move out of range of a kick or fist when they saw one of the sisters or cousins entering a room.

  For the remainder of the day and into the night Eddea, her sisters and their cousins who were in favor, discussed, argued and physically fought among themselves as they tried to make sense of a dead world. As the second sister and the ruling female of house Oraintarre while the First Sister was absent, Eddea’s life had become a living nightmare as her family made demands that she could never hope to fulfill. Where did one start to turn power on or make water flow? None of the servants had a clue, or even the people brought in by her sisters and threatened with death seemed to know what to do. The power they explained as with the water had always just been there, when she demanded they fix her world, they looked at her as though she spoke another language, and then just walked from her presence without permission being granted, brushing off her cousins who tried to detain them. It was so disrespectful.

  When she demanded the Governor attend her, it took him several hours before he presented himself to be questioned on why the world had stopped. When Eddea reminded him, it was his responsibility to look after such services like power and water, the insolent male had just sneered at her and stated that as he had not angered the Star Daughter, why was it his responsibility to repair the world. He then reminded her, as if she needed reminding, that she was the second sister, so it was for her to make the world work again. Preferably before they all froze or starved to death.

  She then demanded he tell her who had informed him the female was the Star Daughter, he had looked at her with disbelief and told her to look around the Empirer and then he stormed from the throne room, and she had not one Warrior to kill him for her.

  When her cousins and sisters had burst into distraught tears at the thought of starvation. Eddea angered and humiliated was in no mood to placate the foolish females, instead she retired to the First Sister’s private room, only to find the alcohol dispenser refused to work, she placed her head in her hands and wept.

  SIX:

  When Eddea’s bout of weeping was finished with, she issued orders for more servants to attend to the house of Oraintarre. By nightfall even she could see the servants were hard pressed to accommodate the wants of the family and keep the Empirer clean, especially when the sisters or cousins fouled a room and then just move to another, leaving disaster in their wake.

  Unfortunately for the servants of the Empirer, her demand for more help was ignored and with no Warriors anywhere to enforce the order, the people of Oraintarre felt no compulsion to attend the entitled sisters, they had their own hardships to overcome.

  By midnight Eddea had a headache that made tears fill her eyes. She had personally beaten two of her cousins, resulting in them taking to their beds before final-meal. Her sisters knew better than to argue with her when she became annoyed and only made snide comments when they thought she could not hear. It was enough to make a female drink until sh
e passed out, which she would have done, if they could only get the alcohol dispensers to work. So far, that was a task beyond them all.

  Julope and the other servants ignored the squabbling from the family about the alcohol dispensers, if they had been a little kinder to her and the others, maybe they would have informed them of the cellar and its many, many containers of alcohol but as the family’s demands became impossible to fulfill, and were accompanied with some form of violence, she felt no compulsion to tell them.

  As Eddea sat on her throne, or more correctly the throne that belonged to her sister Sennha, she yawned and rubbed her temples, making sure she did not mess her hair. All the screaming from her sisters upstairs as they realized there was no heat or lights to see by was making her headache worse. She once more congratulated herself for her foresight in bringing Julope into her service, at least she had made sure her master or was it a mistress received food. She did not know and right now did not care. She shrugged, then groaned inwardly as the movement caused her head to ache more. Julope had made sure she had food, albeit it was cold, but at least it had been edible. She would not beat her for the coldness. She was after all, a benevolent owner, unlike Sennha.

  It was time to retire from this most horrendous of days and while she waited for a light to be brought to her. She realized that for the first time in her life, her home felt cold. She looked toward the billowing curtains and sucked back a sob. Of course, the furin windows were still broken or missing. How was she to have them repaired? Who would come to do the work without her pet Grunt to reinforce her orders, she would not be able to make anyone attend the house? The populace were being unkind and disrespectful to the house of Oraintarre. Not one servant had appeared after she demanded they attend her. Just like that male… The Governor who had snarled at her. It was outrageous, the citizens had no idea what pressure she was under and all without alcohol and hot food. It was enough to make her cry, if she was anyone other than the second sister. With a small sniff, she conveniently disregarded her momentary lapse in her sister’s study earlier that day. It was after all understandable; had she not faced down a desoul in her own home.