Part 18 (1/2)

”Much more than a human being,” Ereboam a.s.serted. ”What better way to take down Emperor Paul-Muad'Dib than with our own superman?”

”Um-m-m-m-ah,” Fenring said. ”Your champion would charge into the throne room and throw cookies at him?” Thallo smiled as he chewed.

Making a true decision requires more than cursory data. The correct choice must trigger feelings and sensations. The process is instinctive.

-THE PRINCESS IRULAN, unpublished notes

In the evenings, away from public appearances and closed-door meetings, Irulan relished her quiet time - but did not relax. She sat upon the billowing softness of her immense four-post bed, surrounded by the comforts that supposedly befitted her royal station. She heard only a few voices in the corridor outside, the ever-present female guards Paul had set at her door, not the normal beehive of activity that surrounded her husband.

This was her most productive time for writing.

According to Bludd's master plan, her private apartments had been decorated with trappings stripped out of her cabin in Shaddam's captured s.h.i.+p from the plains of Arrakeen. The Emperor's s.h.i.+p and the now-defeated Sardaukar had all belonged to House Corrino - a legacy that had been mismanaged for years by her father, as she'd come to realize with great sadness. Her own lot in life, as a figurehead princess and the symbolic wife of a usurper, was a constant reminder of Shaddam's failures. However, Irulan now held a role of greater potential significance than any position her Corrino destiny had offered.

A year earlier, Paul had allowed her to reestablish contact with the exiled Imperial family on Salusa Secundus, though Irulan did not doubt that he scanned every communique for evidence of conspiracies. That was to be expected. With his innate truthsense, he should realize that she had no intention of overthrowing or a.s.sa.s.sinating Emperor Muad'Dib in order to bring her father back into power. But she could not blame him for being cautious.

Even from isolated Salusa, the disgraced remnants of House Corrino controlled a network of spies, smugglers, and black-market traders who could tap into the hidden wealth that the Padishah Emperor had buried in the long years of his reign. Nevertheless, her father probably had only limited and inaccurate information about what was really happening in the rest of the ravaged Imperium. Shaddam could never comprehend the scope of the Jihad, as Irulan did.

She was sure that Earl Memnon Thorvald had been in contact with her father, but Irulan knew the rebellious lord had no great love for Shaddam either. After all, Thorvald's sister Firenza had not survived long after marrying the Emperor, so many years ago....

Meanwhile, she concentrated on news from her family. Supposedly meaningless things. Wensicia had given birth to a healthy son, Shaddam's first grandchild and only male heir. This event seemed to have brought her father little joy, however, since it could not restore the Corrino bloodline to the throne, as a son from Irulan and Paul would have done.

In her role here at Arrakeen, Irulan had sent formal, though heartfelt, congratulations and gifts for baby Farad'n, but her sister's reply had been surprisingly cruel and accusatory. Wensicia insisted that the entire family considered her a traitor for staying with the usurper and writing his propaganda. ”Sleeping with the enemy,” she called it.

Irulan could only smile bitterly at that. If only they knew... If only they knew...

Even sweet and innocent Rugi felt that way. Her youngest sister had scribbled a horrid little note as a postscript: ”We all hate you for doing this to us! You don't know what it's like here.” That part had stung the most. Rugi had always been affectionate toward her.

Dismayed, Irulan looked past the billowing Nonian lace of her bed canopy to the handmade furnis.h.i.+ngs, the antique Balut lamps, and the priceless paintings. On the surface, Paul denied her no luxuries, no trappings of wealth or n.o.ble station. The wife of an Emperor was expected to have such things.

Despite the finery around her, Irulan felt an emptiness in her soul. She tried to imagine she was a girl again, bright-eyed and full of hope for the future, instead of a lonely, childless woman in her mid-thirties.

The Sisterhood still demanded that she preserve his bloodline by conceiving a child, and she wanted the same thing for herself, as much as the Imperium needed an heir.

But Paul had sworn in public that he would never share Irulan's bed, further shaming her while demonstrating devotion to his desert concubine, though even Chani had not given him a second son.

Regardless, through the writing process Irulan had come to understand and even respect Paul's relations.h.i.+p with Chani. The depth of the feelings those two shared went as deep as the sands of Arrakis, beyond the reach of politics or other outside influence. Irulan noticed how they gazed into one another's eyes and exchanged wordless thoughts. They had their own communication system, a private language that genuine lovers shared. The relations.h.i.+p seemed to be the only mark of normalcy that Paul allowed himself to show.

Under other circ.u.mstances, Irulan and Paul might have become friends, even lovers. Theoretically, they were well matched for each other. In the beginning, when she had suggested the marriage alliance as a path to peace, she had a.s.sumed she could seduce him with her Bene Gesserit skills, if given half a chance. But he was not a normal man, and he resisted her every move to get close to him. He offered his deep love for Chani as the excuse for his fidelity, but what did love have to do with dynastic concerns?

And why had Chani not yet become pregnant? Yes, their first son, Leto II, had been slain in a Sardaukar raid. Was she afraid to try again? Had the birth caused physical damage that prevented her from conceiving? Irulan thought not, though the subject was never discussed.

The Imperium needed an heir!

On the oversized bed she had arranged doc.u.ments and notes in neat piles, including s.h.i.+gawire spools containing interviews and heavily censored battlefield reports that Korba had permitted her to have. A stark reality hit her: Her bed had become an office instead of a place where she might conceive a child. In a sudden, angry gesture, she cast aside the journal and hurled it to the floor. It landed on the plush carpeting with a soft thud.

Using a Bene Gesserit calming exercise, Irulan forced the tears not to come. Such an emotional release would make nothing better. Ironically, though, the writing helped.

The winds of the Imperium had buffeted the tiny boat of her life, driving her onto a small island where her movements were restricted and her emotions were supposed to be confined. Paul showed little outward dislike toward her; in fact, he usually ignored Irulan, keeping the daughter of Shaddam out of any direct role in his government. Her position had improved somewhat after she'd published her first book about Muad'Dib, but she still didn't know if he would let her publish her own version of the truth in subsequent books. So far he had only read snippets of her new drafts, and had made no comment on them, despite the fact that the material did not show him in an entirely positive light. Interesting.

Her multi-volume biographical project had become much more than she had originally imagined it to be. With every bit of information she acc.u.mulated, the more she learned, the greater the potential legend became. And what to do about that? Her writings could provide important insights into the life of Paul-Muad'Dib, or they might serve another purpose entirely.

The more she learned about his younger years and his father Duke Leto, the more she thought that Paul might have spent a fine and happy life on Caladan, if not for the same cosmic ch.o.r.eographer that had intervened in Irulan's life. She saw clearly that her father was not blameless in this epic. Shaddam had allowed numerous improprieties during the War of a.s.sa.s.sins, which had caused so much pain and harm to the Atreides and the Ecazis. Later, he had played political games with House Harkonnen, setting the trap on Arrakis, turning a blind eye toward the Baron's schemes in exchange for the promise of increased spice revenues. Shaddam IV had brought much of this disaster on himself.

So, her sisters considered her a traitor to the family, and her father found her beneath contempt? I am not the traitor, am not the traitor, she thought. Because of the Padishah Emperor's numerous betrayals of House Atreides, Paul had more than enough reason to loathe House Corrino - and her. she thought. Because of the Padishah Emperor's numerous betrayals of House Atreides, Paul had more than enough reason to loathe House Corrino - and her.

Her private journal had become a bosom companion with whom she spent uncounted solitary nights, sharing her innermost thoughts with the fine spice paper pages. And, like a good friend, the journal revealed truths to her when she reread her own words and saw them in a more reflective light. On these pages, she was coming to recognize her own frailties.

She rearranged the pillows behind her and retrieved the journal from the floor. She stared at the words she had written today. Her heart ached to think of the sorrow and shock young Paul had endured after witnessing the wedding-day ma.s.sacre in Castle Caladan and escaping the subsequent attempts on his life. He had been a p.a.w.n from such a young age. And now he was the Emperor of the Known Universe.

With a resigned sigh, the Princess began to write in her journal again. It was speaking to her, urging her to continue the story....

PART IV Young Paul Atreides 10,187 AG

Those who have seen the wrath of Muad'Dib in the fighters of his Jihad say that he became bloodthirsty because of his time among the Fremen. Fremen. But the Lisan-al-gaib was set on his life's course long before that. But the Lisan-al-gaib was set on his life's course long before that.

One cannot look at Muad'Dib the man and fail to see Paul Atreides the boy, and the events and experiences that created him. He was a human being sculpted by treachery and tragedy. As As a young man of twelve, he was flung into a War of a.s.sa.s.sins that encompa.s.sed more than three n.o.ble Houses and threatened to decapitate the Imperium itself. Although Paul had been trained for years to face the dangers that were part of the upbringing of any duke's son, when Viscount Moritani from Grumman made his initial attack, those lessons suddenly became a young man of twelve, he was flung into a War of a.s.sa.s.sins that encompa.s.sed more than three n.o.ble Houses and threatened to decapitate the Imperium itself. Although Paul had been trained for years to face the dangers that were part of the upbringing of any duke's son, when Viscount Moritani from Grumman made his initial attack, those lessons suddenly became real. real. Paul found himself a target, hunted by a.s.sa.s.sins, caught in the center of a whirlpool of blood. Paul found himself a target, hunted by a.s.sa.s.sins, caught in the center of a whirlpool of blood.

These experiences, though, had an even greater effect on his father, Duke Leto Atreides, Atreides, who became not broken but hardened... tempered rather than destroyed. Duke Leto - the Red Duke, Leto the Just - had to fight repeatedly against treachery and betrayal, in matters where my father, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, was not innocent. who became not broken but hardened... tempered rather than destroyed. Duke Leto - the Red Duke, Leto the Just - had to fight repeatedly against treachery and betrayal, in matters where my father, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, was not innocent.

Through those pivotal events, Young Paul watched his father prepare and respond with an extremism that some might have called ruthlessness. The ultimate lesson he learned from this, though, was that despite all of his father's retaliations, Duke Leto Atreides ultimately failed because he did not learn to be ruthless enough.

-Muad'Dib the Man by the PRINCESS IRULAN by the PRINCESS IRULAN

Viscount, O Viscount, what have you unleashed? What have you done?

-GURNEY HALLECK, The Tragedy of House Ecaz Tragedy of House Ecaz

In the midst of the chaos and gore, Duke Leto rushed many of the wedding attendees from the grand hall and had soldiers escort them back to safety inside their waiting frigates at the s.p.a.ceport, though the s.h.i.+ps were forbidden to leave. Other guests barricaded themselves inside interior rooms in Castle Caladan.

The horrendous slaughter, the flying executioner discs, the failed defense by the Swordmasters and Leto's security men - all had transpired in less than a minute. Even as uniformed Atreides soldiers charged in through the hall doors, the victims already lay slashed and bleeding, some chopped to pieces, others sobbing in shock and disbelief. Prince Rhombur looked down at himself and saw that his formal wedding suit had been cut to ribbons, though otherwise he seemed undamaged.