Daughter Of Ethos: Divine Justice Book 4

by L M Lacee

  He never walked anywhere, Ikiern thought just as Phantor’s fist connected with his chin, dropping him to the floor. Amera screamed and Wentur rushed from his chair, his hands balled into fists. Only to be halted by his sister Ipeara, who stood in front of him and shook her head. ‘I would not brother, you may end up in the same position as your mother’s brother and that may dirty your nice clean clothes.’ She smiled as she pointed to the chair behind him, indicating he should use it.

  Wentur subsided back into his chair. Ipeara scared him, as did his father and his father’s brothers, but the really frightening person in the room was his oldest sister Peneria. She hardly ever spoke and was deadly with swords, blasters and axes. He had secretly watched her train with the males when she was last here. She was coldly practical when dealing the death blows and as he thought those words, she looked over at him and he felt fear snake down his spine.

  Iirtha ran to Ikiern, falling to her knees next to him.

  ‘Leave him.’ Phantor ordered, when she did not immediately step away from him, he snarled. ‘I said leave him wife.’

  He watched her stand and turn to him, her eyes downcast and her hands in front of her. ‘Husband, I am startled to see you.’

  ‘Is this how you greet your new Emperor?’

  ‘I… we apologize. Welcome home, Emperor.’ As much as it irritated Iirtha to have to do so, she with her children bowed deeply as protocol demanded. His reprimand confused Iirtha, why now would he demand they greet him as the Emperor. Phantor was never a male to stand on ceremony, it was one of his more annoying traits.

  Phantor watched his wife and her children greet him, knowing what his wife was thinking. He signed for the two young adults to return to their seats and turned his attention to his wife. ‘Good, now wife, we have some urgent matters to discuss.’

  ‘What do we have to discuss?’ She asked breathlessly as fear, a feeling she was unaccustomed to, pulsed in her blood.

  ‘You cannot guess I am amazed, it seems obvious to me.’

  ‘Well it does not to me.’ She snapped in return.

  Phantor ignored her tone and said. ‘In fact, my wife, I am amazed to find you in your receiving room. I had a wager with Putaran that you would be dancing at the rumors of my death. Putaran disagreed, he thought you would be celebrating with some poor scaloup in your bed.’

  Iirtha screamed at the insult and ran toward Putaran, her sharpened red tipped nails held like claws in front of her. She was almost at her target, when Peneria reached out and tapped her chin with a closed fist. The tap was soft enough to stop her forward motion but not enough to knock her out. Still she dropped to the floor.

  Peneria looked down at her mother and said. ‘Now behave mother, or I will get cross.’

  She then stepped over her and stood next to her father’s brothers. Like Wentur, Iirtha was frightened of her eldest daughter, and was unsure what would happen if she did get cross. So she lay where she was and sobbed as she rubbed her chin and prayed there would be no mark. Then the implications of her husband being alive and here filled her mind.

  How had this happened, Phantor was supposed to be dead? She was told he arrived back yesterday from the Capital, where had been summoned to assure the Coalition nothing would change on Patamoglian now his father had died.

  She had received a report late last night from her Assaen stating Phantor stayed the night at his home within the outlands. Where he was supposed to be found dead this morn, yet here he was, larger than life, ruining everything. Iirtha sobbed harder as she realized all the luneras of planning she and her family had put in place would come to nothing.

  Phantor sighed as he looked down at his wife, a female he had once had great feelings for. Now he saw her for the manipulative, treasonous female she had always been. It behooved him how he, an intelligent, learned, resourceful male had got it so wrong. He blamed it on youthful lust.

  Stupidity and lust a deadly combination, his brother Iperran would tell him often. But in saying that, whatever Iirtha had become, she had given him his two beautiful daughters. Sadly that would not stay his hand, this time she had gone too far.

  Iirtha knew she looked tragic and hoped the love she knew Phantor held in his heart for her, would cause him to relent on any decision he may make. She shivered in fear of him finding out all her misdeeds. Everyone knew her husband did not believe in any form of betrayal, hence the fact he had never rebelled against his father. If he had indeed found out she had betrayed him, there would be no reprieve for her or her family.

  Emotionlessly Phantor grimaced and stated. ‘Every member of your family including yourself and your children are under arrest. Now get the furin up, I have no time for your dramatics.’

  With those fateful words, Iirtha knew there would be no convincing him, logic said he knew something, she could only hope it was not about her act of treason. Before she realized what was to happen, she was hauled to her feet by her two daughters who barely glanced at her. They placed her on a chair next to her children.

  At the same time, Phantor’s brothers picked up Ikiern and unceremoniously dumped her unconscious brother onto a chair next to hers.

  Iirtha tried one more time to sway her husband from the path he seemed determined to venture down, namely placing her and her family on trial. She cried into her silk hand cloth and pleaded. ‘Phantor, how can you treat me… treat us this way. I am your wife, and these are your children. We love you and have stood by you in your banishment. Even though we have been ridiculed and our reputations besmirched. This is how you would repay our devotion.’

  Phantor, angrier than he had ever been, looked at the three people he thought he held affection for and realized he did not. These people, these strangers, were nothing to him, they were people who he wished far away from him and his world. He turned from the female who was his wife, intending to dismiss her and her children from his sight. Over the last few days he had toyed with the idea of banishment for her and her family, just as they had banished him and his daughters. But when her full betrayal had come to light, his thoughts had changed, now there would be no reprieve for traitors.

  He turned back to face her, curious what she would say when he casually said. ‘You could have come and lived with me and our daughters Iirtha. We would have welcomed you and more, we could have had a wonderful life.’

  Iirtha shield away from that statement and thought quickly. ‘I could not make our children suffer that kind of life. Deprive them of the education they received here. Remove them from the city and the only life they were accustomed to. What of my parents and family.’

  Peneria said. ‘Yet you had no trouble banishing Ipeara and I to that life, no offense, father.’

  He smiled as he said. ‘None taken.’

  Iirtha felt her heart skip a beat, she did not like that smile of Phantor’s. It usually meant trouble.

  He asked with a raised eyebrow. ‘Yes Iirtha, why did you not worry about our daughters?’

  Wentur sneered. ‘Who would? They are no more than savages. Look at them, they wear male clothing and have no knowledge of refinement or how to act like a female of standing within society.’

  Peneria raised a dark eyebrow at his words and pouted her lips at Ipeara who said. ‘The olesho is right, sort of.’

  Peneria shrugged. ‘Perhaps.’

  Emboldened by the interplay between sisters, Amera said. ‘Honestly father, the embarrassment to mother and us, also to our mothers family and the Emperor, it would have been more than we could have borne.’ She shuddered delicately.

  Phantor felt his daughter tense at the criticism and read the expression that entered her eyes. ‘No, Ipeara.’

  ‘Papa, just one punch please. I promise to be good afterward.’

  He and his brothers smiled at the often used promise, which they had heard for yentas and still she managed to get into trouble. ‘No daughter, not this time.’

  She subsided but not before shooting Amera a glare of retribution. Which had her paling
and flicking her eyes away from her sister, straight into the eyes of Peneria who frightened her into silence.

  Phantor asked. ‘Iirtha, do you also think our daughters would have been an embarrassment to you and your family?’

  Iirtha looked her two oldest daughters up and down; she had not seen them for five yentas. They had allowed their hair to grow from the short military style, Phantor had considered necessary when they were young. There was no denying they were their fathers daughters, each of them were as tall as him and his brothers. Each of them were blessed with sharp-pointed ears and straight noses with the natural rose bud lips the females of Phantor’s family possessed. And just like all true descendants of the original Patamoglian’s, both daughters had the round gray eyes with the distinctive three rings of emerald. Phantor’s daughters had the beauty of the originals and the temperament of their father’s family. Wild and uncontrollable, a deplorable attitude to have in the modern world.

  Iirtha did not stop the look of distaste that hid the jealousy crossing her face as she said. ‘Yes husband, I would. They are distasteful, unrefined and lacking in any grace. You have obviously let their education lapse, hopefully no one saw them with you when you entered the city.’

  The girls turned eyes of bored dislike on their mother, Peneria, who had said little, smirked and said in a high girly voice with obvious false glee.

  ‘Everyone saw us, Papa marched right through the city. It was amazing how many people stopped and stared, we waved and told them all who we were.’

  She then smiled a dangerous smile that had Iirtha leaning back in her seat. ‘It was so… so enchanting. I enjoyed myself immensely.’

  Iirtha said to her husband. ‘That one takes after your side of the family; she is not right in the head.’

  Phantor almost laughed at her statement, the cleverest person in the room and that included him was Peneria. He inclined his head to his eldest daughter as she said in a heartfelt voice. ‘Thank the Originals.’

  Phantor finally asked the question, which had driven him and his family to hurry here this morn. ‘Iirtha, what have you done to upset the Star Daughter?’

  ‘Nothing, my Ambassador demanded to know why she had removed the Warriors and then he offered her an apology and she declined to listen to him.’

  ‘Did you give her the credits she asked for?’

  ‘No, why should I? She has no need of them, it was a ridiculous amount and she did not ask, she demanded.’ At his frown, she hurriedly told him. ‘I made House Pentamogyte pay the credits she demanded of them.’ She concluded with a small self-satisfied smile. ‘Of course we will have to refund it later, but I am sure we can manage that at our own convenience.’

  Not once did it occur to Iirtha to ask her husband how he knew so much about the Star Daughter and the demands she had made. Iirtha, angered all over again at the stubborn female, complained. ‘She removed the Warriors, which she had no right to do. I asked the Emperor of Jenersar, he said they were not her Warriors. She has corrupted them somehow and if we return them, he would give us a reward.’

  Phantor asked. ‘He did, I am amazed and what was the reward stated?’

  On firmer ground now as she was the one to have brokered the deal with the Jenersar Emperor. Iirtha rose, and when he did not stop her, she paced away and back again saying. ‘He did not say, but they are a wealthy world, they would be beholden to us. We would be allies.’

  Phantor nodded. ‘He mentioned allies, did he?’

  ‘Yes, in a round about political way, he said we would be allies.’

  ‘Why?’ He asked her softly, which if she had not been so enamored with herself, should have warned her of her husband’s feelings. ‘Would we be allies with a world like them? When we have the Universe orbiting our own world.’

  Whirling around, she demanded. ‘Who... who is orbiting our world?’

  ‘Furin hayda... You do not even know that the Star Daughter is orbiting us?’

  Iirtha stood still and blinked several times and pouted her red lips. ‘No one told me?’ She walked over and kicked her brother. ‘Wake, you idiot, she is here?’

  ‘Who is here?’ He asked groggily.

  ‘The Star Daughter!’ Iirtha almost screamed at him, as he rubbed his jaw while working it around.

  He growled. ‘Impossible! I would have been informed.’

  Phantor looked at his brother Parkern, who he had appointed as Ambassador and said. ‘These are the great thinkers of our world, the same ones that do not even know the Star Daughter is knocking on our planet. These great thinkers want me to hand over Warriors we do not have to an Emperor and a doomed world, which will barely be able to defend itself. Once the Star Daughter turns her attention to them.’

  Parkern spread his hands wide. ‘I do not know what to tell you brother.’

  Phantor raised an eyebrow and asked Iirtha in a voice that barely suppressed the rage he was feeling.

  ‘This is what you and your Ambassador decided was the right plan?’

  Iirtha stepped away from him, from his anger as Phantor sneered at her in disgust, and turned to the male in question, who had finally come around fully.

  ‘Well Ambassador Ikiern was this your strategy?’

  Ikiern stood and only wobbled a little as he eyed the males and his sister’s daughters and smiled painfully.

  ‘This was only part of the plan. We decided to have the House Pentamogyte pay the demanded credits, which they have done. Thereby bringing the Star Daughter here, which has been accomplished.’

  Phantor stilled as he looked his wife’s brother up and down, sincerely amazed at the arrogance of the male. In a deceptively mild voice, he asked. ‘Then what were you going to do when she arrived with her Warriors and Warship?’

  Iirtha stated in a tone that suggested Phantor was an idiot for not understanding her entire plan. ‘We planned on having the families come to court, and the young innocent females would then tender an apology.’

  Phantor’s oldest brother Iperran scoffed. ‘Even though those sweet females are innocent?’

  ‘Well, yes, even though they are.’ Ikiern answered with a sneer at Iperran, who growled menacingly, enough that Phantor placed a restraining hand on his arm. Ikiern drawled affecting boredom which usually symbolized to his opponent, he was done with the discussion underway, and if pushed would unleash his devastating wit on them.

  ‘Once we received notification, the one they call the Star Daughter was on her way here. We would then have the Jenersar come and retrieve their Warriors, after we had secured them, of course.’

  Putaran asked. ‘You were going to capture all the Warriors, which I have heard number in the hundreds of thousands as well as restrain the Star Daughter, how?’

  Brother and sister both stared at him for several mins, then as if by mutual consent they ignored him. In truth they had no answer for him, because they had not really thought that far ahead.

  Parkern asked. ‘Did you watch the vid shown last eve?’

  Iirtha raised a mocking eyebrow at his question. ‘Parkern, why would we? It has nothing to do with us. Who is to say it is not a false vid?’

  Parkern looked at his brother, the new Emperor, and could not keep the contempt from his tone as he said. ‘They deserve everything they are entitled to and more, all of them.’

  Phantor and his brothers had watched most of the vid the previous evening until sickness induced by helpless rage overtook them. They had flatly refused Ipeara and Peneria’s request to view it. Phantor nodded as he sighed. ‘I know brother… I know.’

  Turning his attention to Iirtha and Ikiern again, he said. ‘You not only disbelieve that the Star Daughter is actually the vessel for the Star Child, the most powerful beings in the known Universe and beyond. You also believe the vid is false. This is what you are telling me.’

  ‘Yes.’ Ikiern answered smugly.

  ‘You all agree with this?’

  Iirtha and her two children nodded as she stated.

  ‘We
do.’

  Wentur said. ‘It is not determined yet father if this female is in fact the Star Daughter. We have seen no proof of this.’

  ‘Oh my!’ He mocked. ‘Did you hear that daughters, my brothers, there is no proof that the female orbiting our world in her Warship is the Star Daughter?’

  It was almost as though he spoke another language Phantor thought as he waited for a reaction from Iirtha and her brother. Suddenly, as though he had not just imparted information that could and should have changed everything these people thought. Ikiern dismissed his words with a wave of his hand and said.

  ‘Unlike you, I have conversed with this female who says she is the Star Daughter and she is an uneducated graceless, small female. It is obvious she is being backed by a few Warriors. I have ascertained that a very plain, almost ugly female cannot be the Star Daughter. We do not even know what planet she was spawned from. For all we know she could be a simple nobody from a pleasure planet working for the Warriors. Or owned by some world that wishes to hold the Coalition to ransom and are using this puppet to do so.’

  As his wife’s brother talked, Phantor Patamogol, Emperor of Patamoglian paced back and forth in front of his family in disbelief and despair. He quickly realized they really were as blind as his brother Parkern had warned him, and he wished it was not so. He stopped his pacing and looked at his brothers and in his eyes was the same question he had been asking for the last two days. What should I do?

  Again he saw the answer in their resigned expressions. They knew there was no hope for these people or this world, their world, if he did not remove the disease that had swept through the jewel houses. Listening to his wife, her brother and her offspring showed him the level of arrogance that had solidified while he had been banished. It saddened him, because if the houses were as obtuse as his wife and her family. Then he knew he could never make them understand their way of life had ended, without a harsh example and maybe not even then.

  In all Iirtha’s devious scheming over the yentas, she had never until recently stepped over the line into treason. Obviously when he became Emperor, he was always going to address her forgery of her children’s codex; he was not that forgiving. But the min she had put her stamp of approval on the death orders for himself, his brothers and especially his precious daughters. She had sealed her and her family’s fate.