Chapter 8b
LADY JESSICA
The castle had a guest, an unexpected guest in the form of a Fremen leader, Duncan Idaho, who had met and brought for a meeting. Stilgar was his name, and the duke had decided to host this Fremen leader, an unexpected development that puzzled nearly everyone.
And so, she found herself in his solar, along with his two most trusted advisors, Gurney Halleck and Thufir Hwatt. They had yet to identify the Harkonen spy in their midst, and she had heard that Thufir bore suspicions about herself, partly driven out of the distrust the order of Bene Gesserit faced all over the realm for their secrecy.
How wrong he was! How could she ever betray Leto? The mere thought of this betrayal wrung her heart in agony. Already, she was pained greatly by the eventuality that faced them, and though she prayed for Leto and his safety every day, she was not blind to the noose tightening around them.
Yet she knew that if there was anyone who could change the threads of fates that had been sewn for them all, it was Leto. After all, hadn't he maimed her own heart, the heart of a Bene Gesserit?
"My lord, welcoming a guest as such into our halls when we have a possible spy roaming our halls is not wise," Hwatt counseled. She could have blamed him for his incompetence in allowing this to happen, yet she knew that the man was loyal to her Duke.
"We are still trying to uncover the Harkonen plot, and it may not even be a Harkonen plot. Maybe it was someone else, maybe it was the Fremen," he reasoned out.
"No, this was not the Fremen. This was a Harkonen plot," Leto concluded as he looked towards Hwatt.
"And I do this because I trust in your abilities, Hwatt..."
"But my lord, I fail..."
"And you shall not fail me again, that belief allows me to take this step, and that Fremen could be a game changer," he spoke out as their eyes met.
"Whoever this Kazab is, he is very powerful and key to our survival and subsequent prosperity on this planet. We must learn all we can about him. The Fremen know more about him than he shared much more; Duncan suspects the same, and so do I. Having him in the meeting with Gunrey's smuggler would allow us to sift the lies from the truths and gain a better understanding of the man." Duke argued, and there was wisdom in his words.
"But still trusting a Fremen so quickly could be dangerous as well. If he knows so much about this Kazab, then what is to stop him from telling him about us and our functioning? That information could be quite valuable and allow this Kazab to attack us," Hwatt had a point one which, if Leto's frown was anything to go by, he had missed.
"It is a risk I am willing to take," he said as he leaned back.
"We came to this planet knowing the danger it presented," he spoke, her lips thinned as their eyes met.
She wished he had listened to her, abandoned this whole campaign, and left with Ehr and Paul to the outreaches of the galaxy. She wished it still.
Yet he could not abandon his house or his men. It was naivety. Cruel naivety in the face of existential danger. Yet one he would commit a thousand times, for he was Duke Leto Atreides, and the Atreides were loyal to their men.
"I have a feeling that this Kazab is at the center of everything, that he may prove to be the key to either our salvation or our eventual demise on Arrakis. And I am inclined to trust my gut on this," he said, his voice powerful and filled with confidence as Hwatt exchanged a glance with Halleck.
"As you wish, my lord. I shall ensure the safety of our guests and escort the smuggler into the meeting Hall when he arrives," Hwatt began. With a bow, he left the office, and Gurney Halleck left as well, leaving her all alone with the Duke.
As the door closed behind them, she saw him sigh as the tension left his shoulders, yet his mind still wandered away to a distant place as his fingers slowly tapped at the table.
"What bothers you, my Duke?" she asked softly.
"Too much," he answered, and she knew that.
"Ever since we landed on Arrakis, I have felt a noose around my neck. I can feel it tighten slowly despite everything I have done, yet it has not shifted. It still lingers on, and it could snap at any moment," he said.
"You have done much," she tried to reassure him.
"Is it enough?" he questioned as he looked her in the eye. It was a question to the Bene Gesserit rather than the mother of his child, and she did not have it in her to lie to him as she shook her head.
"No," she answered and saw his lips thin; he could have asked for more. Maybe she would have even given it, just as she had given him a son.
Yet he did not, and it broke her that even now, he cared so deeply for her.
"I should have married you, alliances be damned," he spoke softly, and it stilled her, and though it filled her with warmth, she did not need a title to know she was loved. She felt it aplenty.
"You are a Duke. You should marry to further your house and station," she replied evenly, even as he scoffed.
"Earlier, when you were talking to Hwatt, you did not tell him the whole truth," she questioned testingly.
"You kept something from him? May I ask what?" she questioned. He did not answer at first, and she thought maybe she had overstepped. Just as she was about to apologize, he spoke up.
"It was something the Fremen said," he began, and she listened with rapt attention. She could tell that this was what drove him to make the Fremen their guest and take such a huge gamble.
"I asked him whether this Kazab was one of the Fremen, and he did not answer openly though his eyes kept glancing towards Paul for some reason," he spoke, and she stilled.
Could it be the prophecy, the one the Sisterhood had woven into this Planet? Did he suspect Paul to be the Lisan'Al Gaib?
"He asked Paul, 'Do you share blood with the Emperor?'" Leto repeated, making her frown.
"He asked Paul that?" she confirmed, and he nodded.
"He did, and it irked me. Like I was missing something, something significant," he spoke.
"It is well known that you are the Emepror's cousin. Maybe it was because of that," she took a guess, and he shook his head.
"No, he is a Fremen. He would hardly know what the Emperor looks like or what he may have looked like in his youth. And he did not question me," he said as he jerked forward, leaning forward as he frowned.
"He asked it to Paul, not me," he repeated as her own mind raced.
The only explanation that came up was that he had seen a picture of the Emperor in his youth, though Paul did not resemble the man that much.
"Paul is around fifteen years old now. Fifte..." suddenly, his mumblings stopped as his eyes widened, and she realized that he had made a connection.
"Impossible," he gasped out as his eyes landed on her.
"What is impossible?" she questioned as she saw his mind race.
"The Harkonens believed that this Kazab was an outsider because he presented himself as such, as somewhat of a mix between House Atreides and House Corrino looks," he said, and she nodded.
"And the attacks on the Harkonens by this Kazab began in the past decade only; add to that the fact that according to Duncan, most of his followers or supporters are on the younger side, could mean only one thing," he reasoned out as her own mind grasped the thread he chased.
"You cannot me..."
"What if he was not pretending to be an outsider? What if he was one?" This question had implications for her and Paul as well, for it meant that the path laid out may have already been used by an outsider already.
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