Chapter 13
LADY JESSICA
As Lady Jessica sat before her Duke, a storm of doubt and consternation raged within her. Her internal struggle was palpable, a clash of many facets of herself. The Duke, perceptive as ever, sensed her turmoil but did not rush her to speak.
Within Lady Jessica, a battle of identities raged. The Bene Gesserit sister, the apprentice of the Reverend mother, the one raised by the secret sisterhood, was at odds with the mother of Paul Atreides, the mother of the child growing inside her womb, the concubine and wife-in-all-but-name of the Duke Leto Atreides.
"Jessica, what's troubling you?" Leto inquired softly as he leaned forward. She gazed up at him, torn between betraying either herself or the order that had raised her all her life or the man who sat in front of her - the love of her life.
"I...." She tried to open her mouth, but words failed her as her heart thrummed in turmoil, trying to find the appropriate words to say.
Leto stood up and walked towards Jessica, his eyes narrowing in concern. Placing a gentle hand on hers, he asked softly, "What is it that you wish to say, Jessica? You can tell me." His reassuring presence helped her calm down, and she felt grateful for his support.
"I...I do not know how to say it. It's just..." too much. How could she tell him of the sisterhood's orders and plans? Of what they had done to the Emperor, of what they had done to a boy born against their wishes.
"I've always known that there were things you couldn't tell me about because of the sisterhood, but I've always trusted you more than myself. Please, tell me what you can," he spoke softly as her eyes welled up with tears.
"Tell me what I should do in these grave times. We're stranded in foreign lands with enemies all around, and I need your guidance." She nodded and used her Bene Gesserit training to calm her mind.
She then took out the piece of paper that Inzal had given her, the paper had a single name on it. And though she had been surprised at the name written on it, she had an inkling that Inzal was right that this person was the traitor inside their ranks. The one who had betrayed them to the Harkonnens.
Leto was surprised, yet he took the piece of paper from her hands and unfurled it, frowning as he read the name before facing her.
"Before Inzal left," she began as she told him of what had happened.
"He gave me the name of the traitor in our ranks," she finished and saw his eyes widen as he scanned the name once more.
"It's Impossible, Yueh. He is an Imperial-conditioned medic. Inzal lies; he could never betray us; moreover, he hat." Leto rejected the notion, just as she had before he had whispered the truth in her ears.
"...hates the Harkonnens, but not because they have killed his dear wife. No," she cut in, surprising Leto as she glanced down.
"Because they yet hold her," she told him what Inzal had told her, and it angered her that one of her own sisters had been abandoned to such a fate. That perhaps she would be left to the Harkonnen mercies much like poor Wanna. After all, how was she different than her in the grand scheme of things?
"The Harkonnens hold his dear Wanna in their hands," and she knew just how much the doctor loved his wife and just what such a captivity would mean for anyone. For her.
Leto was perplexed and enraged at the same time as he glanced down at the paper. He was not ignorant to the ways of the Harkonnen, they were hated throughout the galaxy for a reason, many in these very Halls had survived such pains, their hatred for the Harkonnen forged in the fires of their prions.
Yet still, he shook his head.
"But the Imperial conditioning has never..." he said, stopping midsentence, seeing the reasoning in her words.
"There is always a first..." she added, hurting herself at the betrayal.
"Love can make a man do strange things," she added as her voice softened. Love can make a woman do strange things as well. After all, hadn't it been love that had made her give the Duke a son?
"I will have him put under observation, but I will not condemn him because of the words of a man I just met today," he said before his eyes narrowed.
"Yet, for some reason, you believe his words to be true, and I do not think it is because of his Fremen origins, is it?" Leto asked, his observation as astute as it had been the day she had met him.
"Why would he give this to you and not me?" he asked again, her eyes glued to the floor, her mind racing for the appropriate words to explain herself.
"Why do you put your trust in his words so implicitly, Jessica? Why?" and there was silence, for minutes, and she wished she did not have to speak, that she had no tongue, yet alas she did and answer him she must.
"Because I have met him before," she explained to him. She felt the atmosphere in his room change at her words. Leto's eyes grew wider as he stared at her, but she couldn't find the courage to meet his gaze.
"When?" he asked, and in her inner turmoil, she did not know how much time had passed since her words.
"Years ago," she told the truth, feeling her whole being break in two. There was no going back. With this, she had chosen her path and whatever it may bring. And her hand went to her belly towards the unborn babe growing in her womb as she found herself betraying the very order that had raised her.
"He was but a babe then, a few days old, and me just an apprentice," she began, her whole being cracking with every word. Yet the love she held for Leto, for her, the two children that bore their blood, and for a sister who had called herself her sister gave her enough courage to utter those words.
Yet, not enough to look Leto in the eye.
"He was born alongside a sister," and even staring at his feet, she felt Leto stiffen at her words, his own mind racing to make the connection.
"His mother was a sister of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, much like myself," she began, recalling the girl who had shared lessons with her.
"Yet our bond went beyond the confines of the sisterhood, and we were sisters in ways more than one," she added, recalling the soft features of Anirul, features that had lived on in her son.
"I..." her words failed her as she tried to utter the cruelty the sisterhood had wished to doll on the child.
"I was there when he was named...when his mother put him on a small ship in her desperation, as she entrusted him to the skies," she added, biting her lip.
"For she knew that if he were to stay there, he would not live to see the next day...."
"...and so he was forgotten, entrusted to the deep galaxy, as the Empire celebrated the birth of a Princess."
She did not miss how her hands shook at the internal turmoil that raged inside her, yet she missed how her eyes had watered up, for she had betrayed herself. Seconds passed turning into minutes as she revealed to Leto a secret she had never told anyone, one that could unravel her very order, unravel this very world.
And at that moment, she felt alone, truly alone for the first time. For she had given up her very self in telling him that, and now she lay bare infront of him, stripped of all her secrets, waiting for judgment.
Suddenly, she felt Leto grip her hand. His calming presence eased her mind as she looked up and wiped away the tears bubbling in her eyes.
He was in turmoil, much like her, and she could see a thousand questions buzzing in his head.
"He did not lie today, not even once. His offer was genuine," she told him.
"Do you understand what allying with him would mean for us? Mean for House Atreides," Leto questioned, and she bit her lip as she nodded.
"I do, but you said it yourself. We are beset by enemies on all sides," she implored him as her fists tightened around his hands.
"We are in a foreign land, tired, unaccustomed, as our enemies wait to pounce on us, the very enemies that brought us here to this desert wasteland for annihilation," she added, pointing towards the Imperial involvement in all this, and how the very Emperor had turned against their House.
What did vows matter now? What did honor when your very liege wished to slaughter you?"
"Even with all that, how could I ever trust him? I know you do but I cann..."
"Through blood," she answered, surprising him as Leto's head snapped towards her, and she bit her lip as she looked down, her hands closing onto her belly.
"An alliance bound in marriage, between himself..." and she hesitated before she continued as she looked him in the eye.
"...and the girl that grows inside me as we speak."
0000
In Sietch Tabr, things were tense as Chani heard Stilgar speak of how Inzal had met the Duke and offered him an alliance, going beyond his mandate and involving the whole of the Fremen in his plot.
The tensions between Inzal's factions and the more conservative faction had been growing for some time. There was no violence, for their disagreements, while vocal, were always centered around the mode and method of action rather than the intentions of the other party.
Inzal had always denounced all prophecies and other notions about the Lisan-al-Gaib, the Mahdi, and the glorious Jihad. He believed in reason, in making his destiny with their own hands, an idea which had backed through his actions.
His assaults on the Harkonnen had brought much aggression and rage upon the Fremen, with the Harkonnen attacks growing in frequency and ruthlessness. Yet, the losses suffered by them over the last few years had been no more than the years prior, and it was all because of Inzal and his group.
They would warn the Sietches ahead of time, allowing them enough time to gather their resources and water to make 'hajra' to a new Sietch. For a Sietch the most important thing was their water, and collecting it and moving with it was time taking, time that they would oft not have.
Inzal had many times replenished the water stores of displaced Sietch himself, using his own wealth to save thousands of lives, lives which would have been lost otherwise.
This made him popular, giving him much more credibility as he continued to slaughter Harkonnen's men with his attacks.
Surprisingly, all his efforts had resulted in him attaining the very stature he had wished to avoid and though none would say it to his name, Kazab was a name spoken with nearly the same reverence as the Lisan-al-Gaib, even though few would ever say it infront of Kazab knowing his frustration with this notion.
Suddenly, the 'Apostle' stood up, quieting everyone in the council room as he walked towards the centre. Stilgar and the more conservative members glared at the young representative of Inzal, but none would harm him, for they owed this man and Inzal much.
"I bring a message from Kazab for everyone here," he spoke as he looked around the Council room.
"He has called for a Grand Council of the Naibs. The other Naibs have agreed and marched towards Tabr as we speak."
And murmurs broke out at those words. She was also surprised, for such a Council had not been called in years or centuries.
"Kazab shall attend as well."
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