And he did not move as she was dragged by. From the way he would not meet her eyes, she realized what must have happened.
He must have been somehow manipulated by the Emperor.
Eleanor felt sick.
She reached the throne room, and sure enough, there was her father, looking his usual angry, regal self.
"Leave us." He glared at her.
They let her go. She wasn't expecting the sudden release, and she tumbled forward.
"Get up."
Eleanor did.
As soon as she stood, the Emperor slapped her.
"How dare you."
"What?"
"How dare you ruin this merger with the Hawthick people! You had no right!"
She put her hands on her hips. "I am not a bargaining chip, Father! I am your child! You should care what happens to me."
He yanked her hood back. "You're the spare. Theflawedspare. You don't matter." He glared at her face, then down at her hand, curled into a ball.
"So it is fine to trade your daughter's virginity to some man older than you are, to seal a negotiation?"
"Your job is to put the Terran Empire's importance over your own. And you have ruined two years of negotiation!"
"I didn't ruin anything. You did!"
He slapped her again. This time she fell to the floor. Her face throbbed, and she felt the strike all the way through her jaw and over her head.
How did he do that? It was not the first time he'd struck her. Likely would not be the last. But every time he managed to hit her so well, it radiated pain through her face and head.
He did not know or care that he'd hurt her. "You're lucky I don't drop you on the Rhimodian worlds and let those cybernetic monsters destroy you."
She shook her head, shoving the dizziness away as best she could. "You would throw your own flesh and blood to the society we're at war against, just out of spite and vitriol?"
"I have done far worse for the good of the Empire. If this is who you will be--a freak monster in society, then maybe you do need to be thrown away. No one would have you. You're an abhorrent genetic fluke. Damaged beyond repair."
The words stabbed at her. He always found some way to make her feel less than worthy because she wasn't the perfect image of the Terran Empire. She didn't ask to be born with blue eyes or have a smashed hand.
And why did it matter? She was the second born. She was not the image of the future of the empire. She should be able to do what she wanted.
More or less.
"Maybe I do need to be dumped on the Rhimodians. Because I refuse to let you control me on such an intimate level! You have no right to sell my sexual status!"
"I will control you any way I see fit for the benefit of the Terran Empire!"
"I am not a pawn!"
"But you are. Very much so. You are my pawn in a large galactic game. You have no real use for me here in the Terran Empire anymore. You are the extra child. The guarantee in case anything happens to your sister, that my heirs will control the future of the Terran Empire."
"And since I'm not of any value to you?"
