Read Online Ashes of the Realm: Book 04 - The Return of the Realm by Saxon Andrew - Free Book Online

were nowhere near enough ships to transport the food needed by thousands of planets and rebuilding the null drives would have taken a long time and not allow us to save them. You would have forced the Realm into a civil war for survival.”
    Jake turned and looked at Twig. She made no motion. “Twig, is that true?”
    “It would have been unfortunate, but we would have been forced to do it. You could have eventually rebuilt the null drives.”
    Tag said, “So your sense of what was right and wrong overrode the safety of the Realm which you swore to protect. We could kill keepers but not defend ourselves. Your false, sanctimonious behavior is sickening.”
    Danielle looked at Twig and asked the most important question, “Did you know Sprig had the buoys destroyed in the old universe?”
    Jake and Valerie were shocked at the revelations and quickly looked at Twig. She lowered her branches and said, “No, I did not. He kept that information from me and the shame of what happened as a result of that act killed him. I sensed something was wrong but he never let me see it.”
    “Edison, why didn’t you tell her?”
    “Sprig made me promise to tell no one.”
    “So your promise to him overrode your oath to Matt and the Realm?”
    Edison thought a moment and said, “Yes, I guess it did. After the fact I can see how it appears that way.”
    “It doesn’t just appear that way. It was that way. You decided that the Algeans were more like you than the Rulers of the Realm. You found it easy to follow their orders. You also broke the oath your leaders made to us.”
    Edison lowered himself to the floor in disagreement but Newton said, “You didn’t tell us either. Don’t make it worse by being deceitful. I am ashamed of what you’ve done. Who gave you that authority?”
    Edison looked at Newton and raised himself.
    Twig looked at Danielle and said, “So where does that leave us now?”
    “I’m going to give you what you want.”
    “What?”
    “I am going to assign all of the Realm’s Ships to defend your two galaxies.”
    Edison said, “All of them?”
    “Every one of them but the Kosiev; he can make his own decision.”
    “What will you use to defend the Realm?”
    “Don’t think I don’t notice that you didn’t include yourselves in that question. In return for giving you all our ships, I require that you move this galaxy to the coordinates that I give you.”
    Edison said, “And if we don’t agree?”
    Danielle turned on the main display and the hundreds of thousands of ships holding station in the outer system appeared. Danielle said, “Those ships are not using teleportation boards built by Algeans. Every one of them is more powerful than a thousand of our Searchers which will not be used to defend you against them. If you don’t agree, I will have them bomb your galaxies into vapor. No planet will survive.” The Spiders and Twig looked at the huge fleet and Danielle sensed their fear. “However, I won’t have to make that threat, will I?”
    The Spiders looked at Danielle and then turned to Twig. “You wouldn’t kill all those innocent worlds we moved.”
    “They are not members of the Realm. What about the millions of dead worlds you deserted in our old universe, which are now dead? You had no mercy for them or the seven other universes that died. Don’t think for a moment that I don’t hold all of you, including those planets, responsible for that betrayal.
    “They were controlled by the Dukes. They were evil.”
    “That’s the worst thing you did, Twig. Those worlds were lied to and were never shown the true history of the Realm. We put those provinces in place with your agreement and approval that it was necessary. The Algeans are also responsible for what happened after we made that choice. Before we did that, they were loyal and totally supportive of the Realm. We caused that situation to happen, but we accepted no responsibility for it. We should have gone and destroyed every ship