Daughter of Ethos: Price of Power Book 3

by L M Lacee

  ‘Now, I am guessing, knowing the males in question that they would have been very angry and definitely ready to stop what was happening. In short, they made their objections known to you, they would not have been reticent in demanding you release the Warriors. I would wager they threatened you, probably by saying they would get in contact with Command or Thanikis. You could never allow them to do so. In fact, you had to prevent that by all means possible. So you sneakily, because that is what you are like, treacherous, devious and just plain nasty females that you are.’

  ‘How dare you?’ Sennha said. ‘We do not have to stand for this. Leave my house immediately.’

  All of her family stood as she rose from her chair, preparing to storm from the room as Sennha’s eyes bled to black and she screamed. ‘GET OUT.’

  Peyton remained seated as she ordered the females of Oraintarre. ‘Sit down.’ The power and intent behind the words shocked Sennha, and her body was obeying the order before her mind realized what she was doing.

  ‘How dare you?’ She snarled again as her body broke out in a sweat.

  Peyton glowed with power and temper. ‘Remain quiet. I am not finished. Warriors draw your swords, the next to speak take her head.’

  The sound of swords being unsheathed sent shivers of fear skating down the backs of each female, several even whimpered in distress. Peyton carried on as though her Warriors were not standing with swords drawn or there had been an interruption. ‘Now somehow you persuaded my forty- five Warriors on board your ship. How I do not know or care, you did, that is all that matters.’

  Marlo turned to the others. ‘How did she? I can’t remember. I am trying but it is just a blank.’

  Larson said. ‘As it is with me.’

  Raley agreed. ‘It is like a hole in my mind.’

  Alexx said quietly as he said most things. ‘I have no idea, and I am not sure I really want to remember.’

  Jarrod told them quietly. ‘She had it removed from your memories.’

  ‘How?’ Larson asked, even though he suspected he knew the truth.

  ‘If I had to guess. I would say a Master.’

  Marlo swore as Raley sighed. ‘Yes, that makes sense.’

  Jarrod offered. ‘If you want. I can recover it?’

  ‘No… no, I really do not think it will help.’ Marlo answered.

  Alexx agreed. ‘It will not change what happened.’

  Jarrod smiled. ‘A totally practical way of looking at it.’

  They returned their attention to the screen in time to hear Peyton say. ‘So you drugged or gassed them, whichever it was, again it makes no difference. I am assuming you had help, there is no way any of you are clever enough to develop a drug or gas strong enough to overcome and paralyze my Warriors. I know this is the drug you used, because several yentas ago one of my Warriors was drugged, and my people found out the compound used caused paralysis and was very rare. We assumed it was a one-off event. It appears now that is not so. Somehow your agent got their hands on this drug and used it on my Warriors. So let us see, you had forty-five incapacitated Warriors, the problem as I see it, was what to do with them once they were unconscious. See, you could not just execute them. Truthfully, neither you, Sennha, nor your sisters have the guts for it. And then there were the other Warriors to consider. They may find out and you would have a rebellion on your hands. Especially if they managed to contact Commander Elite Roeah whom you had been warned about. Of course, worse than the Commander being notified, if there is anything possible, was the thought Thanikis could find out you had lost control of the Warriors. You were frightened he would march right to your world and remove every Warrior here. Because he too could not afford a rebellion which he had made you well aware of. And let’s be honest, you feared for your life if he found out. So you thought about assigning them somewhere else in trade but reconsidered that option quickly. These older Warriors Thanikis had dumped on you were trouble makers and would not placidly go on assignment and leave their brother Warriors here to be mistreated. So you did the only thing open to you, you placed them on the moon KarSar.

  Because you are evil, just plain evil, you left them there on that moon with no weapons and no way of defending themselves. Knowing full well there were dangerous animals and vegetation there. Of course you could have ejected them into space, but you are smarter than that. Your thinking was that when they died as you knew they would, you could blame their deaths on their desire to hunt and your benevolent nature which allowed it.’

  Those in the room and on board the ship could see the picture she painted with her words and there was no mistaking the anger they felt with every word she spoke.

  ‘I would even go so far as to say you convinced yourself that even Thanikis would not take offense at the scenario you would present to him. In that your reasoning was sound, he would not have, it is not in his nature to look too deeply into anything that does not benefit himself. But before you left for the Capital you had second thoughts, you worried he may not believe your story and he could become suspicious of what you were actually doing with the Warriors and remove them. So you woke up forty- five Warriors from stasis, yes we found the empty tubes below in your cellar, beneath the tank room.’

  Sennha did not answer as Peyton knew she would not. She would then have to admit the stasis tubes were taken from within the moon. Peyton’s voice was scathing as she said. ‘You replaced the Warriors and took them with you. Thanikis would not suspect they were new Warriors, how could he. To him they would be just Warriors and it was a good plan. When you returned luneras later, you could tell the Warriors here Thanikis had ordered the forty- five returned to him, no one would even thing to challenge that order. You should not have worried, although Thanikis may have been irritated he would have believed your first story. I mean you are the type he takes for a lover on occasion, of course not recently. I have it on good authority he is indisposed that way.’

  At the shocked and fearful look on Sennha’s face, which she tried unsuccessfully to hide? Peyton knew she was right, her voice hardened as she continued. ‘You went to the Capital knowing nature would remedy your little problem as you played First Sister and waited for Thanikis to appear, unbeknownst to you, he was bonded back to his world by his Emperor. So he was a no show and then you found out we were asking for our Warriors and that we had a ship in orbit, so you started your voyage home. Then Eddea called all panicked and crying, sister come home, the Star Daughter has arrived and demands her Warriors, what do we do? And here we all are.’

  Sennha felt the panic slide into her belly making her nerves knot in agony, she could barely catch her breath and wondered when and how she lost control. This was not how she expected the meeting to go, none of this was meant to happen, where was the whimpering, the begging.

  Eddea and her sisters along with their cousins cringed in their seats as Peyton stared unblinking at Sennha. Annoyance colored her voice as she drove the final nail home. ‘Sennha your world is mine, your port is closed and your communications are controlled by my people, there will be no trade ships coming or leaving. Thanikis or the Coalition will not be sending any rescue ships. Your mines remain quiet, production stalled days ago, so you have no mineral to trade. Not that you can anyway, as I control that too. I would assume what little stocks of food you and your people had, will have been consumed by now and there is no more to obtain. Your people will be on your doorstep screaming, as their bellies growl for food, and their young go hungry. You have no way to protect your house from them because there are no Warriors. You cannot raise an armee against me, because again I have all of my Warriors. Yes Sennha, the ones from the moon as well as the Warriors you off loaded last night on that small planet. All of them. My Warriors will not help you to keep order. Because THEY ARE MINE.’

  She yelled, forcing the walls to tremble and the windows to rattle. ‘Shortly your citizens who you have exploited, controlled, abused and stolen from.’ She looked at Eddea as she said this, causing her to turn red.<
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  ‘Those same people who you threatened with my Warriors, will turn on you. Which you deserve and you sit here thinking you are in a position to dictate to me. Stupidity must run in your family.’

  Every one of the females from the house of Oraintarre looked shocked as though they had not considered the repercussions of living on a closed world. Their belief in Sennha’s ability and power to rectify the situation was absolute, sadly for her with every word Peyton spoke, it was slowly eroding. They were coming to realize the First Sister was not all powerful and she could not fix this problem by words alone as she had promised them.

  Sennha sat immovable as her thoughts tumbled over one another, it was impossible to believe they had all her Warriors, all of them. She had nothing to barter with. What can I do, there must be something? It does not end like this. I will not allow it too. She searched her mind for a way to stop this, to halt what she could see was her world’s destruction. Suddenly she remembered who she was and on what world she lived. Did this female know of Oraintarre, he will not allow this to happen? All she had to do was wake him, truly he had slept long enough, and when he runs this Impoef from the world, everyone would finally see the control she commanded.

  Peyton shook her head at the female’s thoughts, she stood as did all her people, causing Sennha to stare directly into black flamed filled eyes and read contempt.

  ‘The only reason you are not dead, all of you.’ Peyton said as she looked over the shocked and in some cases, crying females. ‘Is because I made a promise to Oraintarre.’

  Sennha looked stunned at the mention of Oraintarre. ‘Oh yes, Sennha, he is aware again, and he is very disappointed. He asked that I stay my hand and try to get you to change your ways. To stop what you have done in the past and help you become better Oraintarrens, but as I stand here, I see his pleas will fall on deaf ears. So I tell you now, you have reaped what you have sown. What occurs now is up to you.’

  Without another word Hawk led the way for Peyton as they retreated from the house that was doomed. When they entered the shuttles, they could hear glass breaking and heavy items crashing, accompanied by yelling and high pitched screaming.

  The people who had been watching the Empirer when they exited, ran back to their homes. In seconds apart from her people, no one remained on the street.

  ‘Nikolas, is everyone on board the shuttles?’

  ‘Not yet Star Daughter?’

  ‘We wait for everyone.’

  ‘As you wish.’

  Melody stood with Darby in the doorway of the house, a small box opened on her hands, she whistled a tune and her flying spies arrived from wherever they had been in the house. It was amazing Melody thought that they could hear her over the screeching and yelling.

  Small black bugs that looked like flies, flew into the box and when it was filled, Darby closed it and with her sister walked from the house.

  Rave said. Madam, we retrieved all the weapons.

  Thank you Rave.

  Mins later Nikolas said. ‘We have the all clear.’

  ‘Then take us to the Warbird, please Nikolas.’

  Fifteen mins later, they disembarked in silence everyone gave Peyton a wide berth, it could have been her silence or the slight glow she emanated. More than likely it was the icy calm that surrounded her, which kept everyone from engaging with her.

  Regardless Peyton made it to her cabin with only Rage and his mate Fanharr for company, she said as she entered. ‘No visitors please.’

  Alone Peyton stripped and showered, then wrapped in a towel she dialed up coffee from her dispenser, sipping it she stood in front of her window and stared out, seeing nothing, calibrating ideas. She drank her first cup, then dressed, combed her hair and drank a second one before she sat at her desk.

  ‘Comp’ on.’

  Greetings, Madam Peyton....

  ‘Greetings.’

  Huh, looked like Jean had programmed manners into the comp’, she had to admit it was nice and she liked the idea of a polite comp’. ‘Question: can the Oraintarre people survive for an extended time on the Warriors rations or what they call logs?’

  Calculating...

  ‘Comp’ please comm Trader Rose.’

  As you will Madam. I am connecting now, it will take a few seconds. In the meantime the calculations are complete...

  ‘Answer please.’

  The inhabitants of Oraintarre can survive on the Warriors rations or log for four yentas, five months three wekens...

  ‘Stop.’

  Trader Rose has answered.

  ‘Greetings Rose.’

  ‘Greetings Madam Peyton, what can I do for you?’

  ‘Several things, how long until Frand can bring the beasts here to Oraintarre?’

  Rose flicked her eyes down to her tablet. ‘We are eight hours away and we have four beasts available to us.’

  ‘Thank you, please proceed to these co-ordinates. Comp’ send co-ordinates to Trader Rose.’

  Transmitting as you speak….

  ‘Rose you are not out by yourself are you?’

  ‘No Madam, Frand and three squads are with me.’

  ‘Good. You will be picking up the mineral Salistred. Can you give me an estimate of price per tonne?’

  Rose took a breath and said. ‘I was hopeful we would be. It is valued as of this morn at 150 million credits a tonne. The price has gone up due to a fear of a shortage on the market.’

  ‘Do you have traders?’

  ‘Begging me for Salistred. Yes, do you have an estimate of how many tonnes?’

  ‘Let’s say forty for now, possibly more.’

  Rose stared at her for a moment then swallowed several times as Peyton waited for her to assimilate the tonnage. This was a big score, she and her brother and sister as sole traders for Maikonia received twenty-five percent of the price. As predicted she said. ‘Madam, maybe we should renegotiate our percentage?’

  ‘No Rose, are the cargo ships going to be big enough?’

  ‘Ahh yes, yes most definitely, more than we need.’

  ‘Well that is good, we will see you soon. Travel well.’

  ‘Done, we will be with you Madam, in eight or so hours.’

  ‘Take care for now Rose and thank you. Comp’ comm Chef Helen.’

  Connecting....

  ‘Madam. How can I help you?’

  ‘Question; how many of those Warrior logs do we have on board?’

  ‘Several containers full, we did not off load them before we came.’

  ‘Good, how did the hunting go?’

  ‘I have enough meat to feed the planet twice.’

  Peyton waited, seconds later Helen said. ‘Oh… Oh I see, yes okay.’

  ‘Good, can you hold please? Comp’ contact Commander Hawk and Captain Nikolas and Captain Willian for a meeting in my cabin please. In ten mins.’

  Complying....

  ‘Helen can you meet me in my cabin in ten?’

  ‘Done.’

  Completed....

  ‘Thank you comp’, I am done now.’

  You are welcome, Madam Peyton.

  Peyton shut off the comp’ then downed another coffee as she waited for her people to show and stared at the comp’. There was something very suspicious about it but she had no time to discover what it was, she just remembered she had ordered no visitors. She mind-sent to Rage and Fanharr. Hawk, Helen, Willian and Nikolas are on the way, allow them entry please. Then you are relieved and thank you.

  As you wish Beloved. Rage replied.

  When everyone arrived she said. ‘Okay, this is going to be quick. Hawk I need Warriors to load up two shuttles with the Warriors logs and one shuttle with the meat that was gathered from the moon. Helen it is all stored correctly?’

  ‘It is, it will not spoil.’

  ‘That is good I want the shuttles loaded and held until I give the word. Nikolas it will be you and Willian’s job to select pilots and to have them on standby.’

  ‘As you wish Madam.’

&
nbsp; ‘We are playing a waiting game, they now know we have all the Warriors returned. Darby will be sending them an account for the Warriors over the last four yentas. With additional sums for abuse, non-fulfillment of work orders, etc… etc. Also Hawk please make everyone aware trader Rose and her brother are arriving in eight hours or so with cargo ships. Do not shoot her.’

  ‘Thank you for informing me Madam.’

  ‘Yeah… yeah, I remembered what happened last time. It took Melody hours to stop yelling.’

  ‘Yes Madam.’ They all knew it was Hawk’s anger that upset her more than Melody yelling.

  Helen asked. ‘Rose is not alone is she?’

  ‘No, she has Frand and Warriors with her.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Alright, that’s it. We wait and see how long they can go without food. We wait to see what she does next?’

  Hawk asked. ‘For how long?’

  ‘If I am right, it will be less than two days.’

  ‘Should we take bets?’ Helen asked eagerly. ‘I could start a pool.’

  ‘A pool really?’ Peyton asked not having any idea what Helen meant, it just seemed the right thing to say. Helen beamed as she looked around at the blank faces of the Warriors. ‘Yes, it is a good idea?’

  ‘What is a pool, Chef Helen?’ Willian asked much to Peyton’s relief, as she would not have to admit she did not have a clue what Helen meant.

  ‘What is a bet?’ Nikolas asked next, halting in mid-sentence Helen’s explanation of the word pool.

  ‘My dearle boy, how can you not know?’ She placed her arm around Willian and Nikolas as they leaned down to hear her, as she led them from the room explaining as she went. Hawk looked after them, Peyton said. ‘I guess we are dismissed?’

  He nodded and hurried after Helen. Peyton growled and stomped over to her comp. ‘Comp’ on’

  Greetings Madam, what can I help you with?

  Startled again by the comp’s familiarity, Peyton blinked several times, before saying. ‘Ahh yes, greetings comp’. Please find the explanation for the English word pool, it has to do with wagering.’

  After a quick tutorial Peyton understood the word pool and imagined by nightfall, there would be one if not several betting pools in place.