Part 21

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Chapter 12

LETO ATREIDES

Leto observed the Fremen's departure from his solar, their absence leaving a palpable void. The room was hushed, each person grappling with the weight of the recent events in these Halls.

No one spoke a word. Gurney was quiet and contemplative, as was Thufir, and Leto's fingers tapped the table slowly.

Kazab's intervention had gone beyond anything he had expected. The revelations made by the young man had been damning. They had more or less confirmed his suspicions, yet they had also given him a thousand or so more questions.

Their coming to this planet was a trap, one that was set to go off sooner than he had realized. There truly was a traitor in their midst, and Kazab was somehow aware of this traitor's identity.

"My lord," Duncan broke the silence, prompting his attention as Leto turned and looked at his most prized soldier.

"My lord, why did you let this Kazab go? Had you ordered it, me and Gurney could have struck him down right here or even captured him to extract what he knows about the Harkonnen attack," he asked, and Leto shook his head.

"That was not a possibility. You told me yourself that Kazab is a highly influential figure in the Fremen. If we had struck, we would have ended any chance of peace with the desert dwellers," he explained.

Then there was the warning from Jessica: it had been subtle and in the sign, but he had managed to see it. She had warned him of making any move against the Kazab, and though he had not thought of doing so, that had dissuaded any such wondering thought.

"And what of his warning, my lord? About the imminent attack by the Harkonnens and the traitor, is it true?" Duncan questioned, and he was reminded that Idaho had not been here when Paul had been attacked.

"From the way he spoke, this Kazab seems rather intimately aware of the Harkonnen's plans and the affairs of our household. It all could be a bluff to shake up," Gurney added gruffly as he rubbed his stubble and grunted.

"I do not like it. Coming to this wasteland was a disaster in itself. The Harkonnen treachery and the sheer blindness of the Emperor over all these violations were already unsettling, and now this Kazab barges into our palace as if he owned this place. Things seem to be slipping away from us. We must take back control," he added, and he nodded.

Leto felt himself at the center of a whirlpool, the world moving and twisting around him.

"Did you notice his hair and his face?" Paul added from the side, and he was quiet as Leto turned towards his son.

"His hair, they were unlike any other Fremen," and he had noticed it as well. Most Fremen had black hair, thick and mottled, yet his was a blonde, silvery white with a shimmer so characteristic of a lineage he was quite well acquainted with.

"It could be an artificial color," he added, despite not believing so himself. And Paul shook his head.

"No, Fremen do not have such hair, and it was not an artificial color. The roots were silver as well. The only family that has such hair is..."

"The Royal family," he finished, and there was silence. Of course, he had noticed that yet the mere thought of such a thing was improbable, the connection impossible, yet for some reason, he could not get the conjecture out of his mind.

He felt as if the truth was staring him in the face, yet he could not grasp it.

'What was it? What was he missing? Just who was this Kazab?'

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