Daughter Of Ethos: Divine Justice Book 4

by L M Lacee

  ‘She has no claim on the Warriors and has no right to keep them from serving us. We need and deserve them, they were given to us to be used as we wished. The Emperors own house allowed this, negotiated the original agreement. Then your house demanded I hand over credits for my right in using a Warrior as I saw fit. It is preposterous, and I demand to be reimbursed.’

  Peyton controlled the coldness of anger spreading inside her with surprising ease. Knowing she could take the life of this imbecile and all these others, placed reins on her temper. The pumped-up Lord returned to his position by his wife and daughter, who frowned at him. Her worried glances at Peyton did not go unnoticed by her father, he gave her hand a gentle pat and said something to her. She nodded but did not smile.

  The Emperor moved slightly forward and shook his head. ‘Sadly, I think you Lord Pentamogyte and members of this court are under a misconception as to why we are here. I realize now, you also have a deluded reason as to why the Star Daughter and her people are here.’ He paced across the dais and then resumed his position in front of the crowd with his hands behind his back.

  ‘We are not here to right what you all perceive as a wrong against your houses. We are not here to demand the Star Daughter return the Warriors, and we are definitely not here for you to be recompensed. No, we are here to witness the punishment of the females and families that took part in a most brutal betrayal of trust against a Warrior. Against the Maikonian people and sadly against our Star Daughter.

  This was a horrendously unforgivable act that took place under my Patriarch’s rule. Which I state now will never happen under my rule. Every one of these twenty-four females presented here today, conducted themselves in the most heinous of ways, and to compound this atrocity. Their parents and members of their own houses knew of this and did nothing. Not once in the passing two yentas have they tried to make this right and to the shame of my brothers and myself. Our father, the late Emperor knew of this most unspeakable brutality and did nothing.’

  He looked over the audience and said in a voice edged with danger. ‘I am not my father, so take note today. Remember these words because as I look at you, I realize, like my wife and her family. Most of you did not view the vid that was provided to you last eve. So we will watch it now.’

  Instantly the walls came alive with sounds and pictures of Willian’s torture. Darby grabbed Peyton’s hand, who immediately mind-sent to everyone.

  Steady, stay strong. We knew this was a possibility. Remember for Willian.

  Hands fisted, as jaws clenched keeping sobs from escaping. Peyton sat with Netta’s hand discreetly placed on her shoulder, the only point of warmth on her body; helping to ground her to the here and now. Her glow faded to a soft white as Netta kept her hand in place, the contact allowing for her own Rie to settle.

  Females on the floor of the court and in the audience cried as they watched the vid. Some covered their ears with their hands and closed their eyes, but they could still feel the flinches from the people next to them.

  A female among the twenty-four daughters and their parents fell to her knees begging the Emperor. ‘Stop… please stop… It is unbearable... Please!’ She sobbed as her hands covered her face, and her robust frame shook with distress.

  Phantor looked down at her without pity, and they all heard him say. ‘Your daughter struck the first lash, Lady Pentamogyte. Why would you not want others to see what she and the daughters of the other great jewel houses are capable of? To see and understand what special ladies you have raised them to be.’

  Her husband and daughter helped her to her feet, she looked at them as if she had no idea who they were. Her daughter stretched her hand imploringly toward her, but Lady Pentamogyte backed away from her and stood alone. Her head bowed as tears dripped in a steady stream from her eyes.

  Iirtha watched the vid, her face becoming paler each time the whip lashed out. The audience watched as the females laughed and danced around the male strapped to the pole. All heard the excited voice of Lord Pentamogyte as he demanded. ‘Harder… harder my jewels. You can do it.’

  Some of the females screamed as others stuffed fists into their mouths to stop the horrifying screams escaping, as they witnessed their part in the torture of Willian. More fell to the floor crying hysterically as they tried unsuccessfully to cover their eyes and ears with their arms. Eventually, everyone looked away, unable to watch the females as blood flew from Willian. Covering their faces and hands and soaking their party dresses, while he screamed and sobbed in pain. With a nod from the Emperor the images stopped and a desperate silence hung in the air, except for the cries from the females in the audience.

  Everyone looked at Lord Pentamogyte as those close to him moved away. Shocked, he stood pale and shaken with his daughter by his side, his wife stayed where she was, her head remaining bowed.

  The Emperor rose from the seat he had taken, his head lowered under the strain of what he was about to do. Then he looked up directly into the eyes of Peyton and saw understanding and compassion for him and the position he was in. After everything she had witnessed, he knew deep in his heart she would not condemn him for what he was about to do.

  Peyton knew what it was costing the Emperor today, and felt his pain. Instinctively she understood this was a defining moment in the relationship they would forge in the future. With that one look of understanding Phantor gathered his courage and straightened his shoulders, thanking her with a slight nod of his head.

  Darby looked at Peyton and saw her eyes swimming with tears, and knew it was not just for Willian. They were for the courageous male standing alone, who was about to change the course of his world. So she too straightened her shoulders and placed her hand in Peyton’s and willed the Emperor to know she stood with him.

  Peyton squeezed her hand as Phantor quietly said to the shocked court. ‘This is what some of you allowed, what you condoned from your offspring. You knew this took place, and not one of you came forward to be held accountable or to offer aid to the injured Warrior. Not one of you cared enough to find out if the Warrior lived or died. I say to every parent present, through your inactions you have brought shame to yourselves and your houses and to our world. If your child was the one to have endured this brutality and the Warriors were the ones to have whipped your child. Would you be demanding justice or retribution from this court?

  I, like everyone here know you would have been baying for blood, theirs and the Star Daughters. Yet not a one of you or your houses thought to offer an apology or compensation to the injured Warrior.’ He shook his head as sadness overtook him for a moment. ‘No, you did not, you sat within your houses and moaned about the injustice of the withdrawal of the Warriors from our world. Cursed the Star Daughter for taking a stand, for caring for her Warriors. You even became outraged that she would have the audacity to place her Warriors above your rights. The Star Daughter likened the care you gave her Warriors to less than you show your house pets, and I agree. To my great shame… I agree.’

  Silence met his words as he paced the stage once more and in tones that conveyed the anger and shame he was feeling, he stated. ‘Every one of your houses has degraded what it means to be Patamoglian, dismissed the yentas of traditions the Originals entrusted us with.’

  He spread his hands wide. ‘You have left me without options, and I am so very afraid you do not see this.’

  He looked at the twenty-four females and their families and said. ‘So as no apology was tendered by any family or house, and only a token amount of compensation paid. It fell to me, your Emperor to make the apology. Which I fully intended to do.’

  Heads nodded in agreement with his words and suddenly stopped when he said. ‘Until I realized no house had viewed the vid presented to them last eve. So I will not offer an apology to the Star Daughter because my words will only have meaning for myself and my family. The apology I will give the Star Daughter and her people on behalf of you, the great houses will be in the form of compensation. Therefore, I have decid
ed each of the twenty-four houses will carry this burden as will the females who through their actions have brought us here today.’

  With a nod, twenty-four poles dropped from the ceiling before the dais, forcing those closest to move back as they thudded into brackets on the floor. Instantly clamps slammed into position holding the poles immobile. Armed males in masks strode into the courtroom and restrained parents with blasters pointed directly at them. While their daughters in some cases were taken forcibly from their arms. People clad in full body costumes with face masks appeared with whips in their hands and stood before the poles.

  Lady Pentamogyte did not lift her head, even when they dragged her daughter from her husband’s arms or as parents reached for their daughters, screaming and roaring in terror. Horror filled their eyes as they watched their daughters being tied to the poles, knowing they could not help their daughters, filled them with despair.

  Suddenly screams and cries of outrage filled the courtroom as realization of what was going to take place overwhelmed the people in the audience. Females pleaded for leniency as males roared and brandished fists of outrage. Voices demanded what right the Emperor had to do such an atrocity.

  Unmoved by the noise, Phantor demanded.

  ‘Silence! I will have silence or I will have your tongues.’

  All noise ceased, and not once did he look toward Peyton or her people, as he admonished the audience.

  ‘Have some dignity, surely it should come as no shock to any of you to find yourselves in this position?’ He scathingly told the parents. ‘I say be thankful you are not lined up with your daughters, but trust me on this. If you try to obstruct what is about to happen, you will be. Your punishment is to stand and face the consequences of your daughter’s actions and to do what you do best… Nothing!’

  He then lifted his eyes to the now silent audience as he said. ‘There will be no more outbursts; this is a new future with new laws… my laws. You will learn and adhere to them or you will face death. I have seen and heard enough of your groveling, sniveling, grasping voices to last a lifetime. It stops now.’ He raised a sardonic eyebrow and stated to the horrified audience before him and in the terraces. ‘All those that do not agree with my rule may leave our world by the end of this weken.’

  As people looked at each other to see if they too were thinking of escaping this new regime and quickly constructing steps to secure their wealth and houses.

  He stated further. ‘Just remember you will leave with what I allow you to take, no more and no less. Think well on what you want to do. Once you leave our borders, you will be unable to return my patience for you has run its course. Today you will witness justice as we have never seen before on our world and I hope to never see again. So choose wisely.’

  He turned his back on his people and looked at his stunned wife before he took his seat. Iirtha sat pale and shaken, never in a thousand yentas would she have believed this day would come. Phantor was supposed to be dead and her children the new rulers, yet here she was sitting in court with a husband who lived and her children exposed as liars. Looking at her stunned family she knew she would never be able to keep the promises she had made to them or to the females families. She felt her hearts constrict with despair as eyes pleaded with her to do something. Her mind kept circling back to the same question she had been asking herself since they arrived in court. How had Phantor found out about the death orders?

  From his seat Phantor stated. ‘Before we start, know this, every house that had a daughter involved in this revolting celebration will be dissolved as of this day. And the value of their estates turned over to the Warrior and the Maikonian people for compensation. Their banishments will be determined at a later date, all retainers and servants will report to the palace the day after tomorrow, to receive new positions.’

  Shocked gasps and moans were heard as murmurs of disbelief filled the room. Phantor looked out at these people he now ruled and told them. ‘As of fifteen mins ago, all funds that were rightly demanded for the Warriors who guarded houses and their shipments over the last fifty yentas. Have been removed from the houses accounts and placed in the accounts of the Star Daughter. Now guards take your positions and commence on my signal.’

  Empress Iirtha Patamogol sat horrified while she tried grappling with the fact her husband of fifty-three yentas was far more ruthless than she or his father believed him to be. Giving away the fortunes of the families and dissolving their houses, then banishing them was not something his father would have dared to do. Yet Phantor stated it without emotion as though it was no more important to him than asking for bread. This was enormous in five-hundred yentas, no house had lost its standing and been dissolved. Surely Phantor must know the repercussions would be felt for yentas to come.

  As the guards lined up, whips in hand, Iirtha sat immobile, her hands clasped together and her lips clamped against the screams that wanted desperately to escape. Terrified to speak or show any emotion as she realized, he really was going to allow these young females to be brutalized like this in public. She raised her head and looked at the female responsible for this and found eyes of black with Universes swirling in their depths staring down at her.

  Stars grow and shine and Phantor will be one of those stars. If I could spare him what he must endure, I would. Unfortunately these tasks set before him are needed to shape his future and the future of this world. Your corruption Iirtha Patamogol will not be missed in my Universe.

  Iirtha looked down at her hands as they whitened in her distress, surely that had not been the Star Child’s voice in her mind. She assured herself that it was just her overwrought imagination brought on by these terrible events that was all, because she knew Phantor would never take her life; he may threaten her, but actually kill her… never! Regardless of everything, she was still the mother of his daughters that was all there was to it. She did not hear voices in her head. From beneath her lashes she looked up at the balcony and saw just a female, nothing otherworldly, and sighed in relief.

  THIRTEEN:

  As much as the females fought their restraints they could not twist their bodies away from the poles or their minds from what was to come. Frightened, they pleaded for their parents to release them as they spied the twenty-four costumed figures, then the cries turned to screams.

  As though they had drilled the sequence of events, the costumed figures each produced a wicked-looking knife. In a synchronized move, the tips of twenty-four knives cut a line down the back of twenty-four dresses, exposing pale youthful skin. The screams intensified as the costumed figures took a pace away from the females and returned the knives to their sheaths. Whips once more appeared, held loosely in hands that waited for the order to start.

  The Emperor sat impassively in his chair and stared at the scene before him. Several of the females fainted before the first stroke.

  ‘Begin.’

  When the first crack of the whip met flesh, Phantor turned his head and stared at his wife, distaste and betrayal filled his eyes. Iirtha flinched in terror as she read her death in that look, with half her mind registering the crack of the whips, the other half struggled with the dawning realization that her death and the death of her family was in motion. Instantly understanding that the first time a lie crossed her lips she had sealed her fate. Just as the fate of these females and their parents had been sealed when the first stroke of the whip touch the Warrior’s skin. It was only ever a matter of when, not if justice would be delivered.

  Twenty-four times the whips sounded throughout the court and into the hearts and needars of those made to witness Phantor’s justice.

  The cries and screams from the females sounded instantaneously with each stroke, and still Lady Pentamogyte did not lift her head. Her husband, Lord Pentamogyte, fell to his knees as tears streamed down his face. While he watched the skin split on his daughter's back and her blood mix with the blood of the other daughters. Mothers and fathers wept and prostrated themselves on the tiles as others beat their
hands in desperation.

  Peyton heard her people’s gasps of dismay and breaths being sharply indrawn, but not one person moved or looked away as they all mind-sent.

  For Willian!

  She glowed with a mixture of anger and sorrow as they witnessed the Emperors judgement. When the last blood and gore covered whip lay to rest, the costumed figures together bowed to the Emperor. Then with slow silent steps left the courtroom, heads and arms hanging limply. The female’s backs were bloody messes of flayed skin and blood.

  No one moved to release them from the poles as the Emperor and his family rose. Peyton also stood with her people, indicating it was time to leave. Melody and Netta together supported Darby as Harm surreptitiously placed his arm around Heather’s waist, holding her up. Jarrod moved with Fox to relieve the shaken sisters of Darby’s slack body, then Jarrod leaned down and whispered to a glassy-eyed Darby. She nodded once, then again more emphatically as he touched her cheek. Within seconds she was standing by herself without any expression on her face or in her eyes.

  He looked toward Peyton who nodded, letting him know she approved and was thankful for what he had done by placing Darby’s mind to sleep. He could control her body and take her back to the shuttle without her showing any emotion.

  Before they left, Peyton looked at the Emperor as he huskily stated. ‘Star Daughter, justice has been delivered.’

  Peyton inclined her head and took a breath to steady her voice as she replied. ‘And witnessed. We will await you Emperor on our Warship.’

  Phantor took it for the order it was and inclined his head. ‘As the Star Daughter wishes.’