Chapter Three

The court collectively gasped and looked on in horror. Leto violently snatched her hand away from his body and took a cautionary step back; knowing that his allies as well as his enemies scrutinized their every move, looking, and waiting patiently, for weaknesses. They didn't need this now. This woman held a power over him but it wasn't the power she thought she held. She now controlled the people. Whatever words that would fall from her lips they would eat up and it would spread like a wildfire on the new grass of Dune.

Much like his father's had on the dwindling sands.

"Clear the hall." Ghanima ordered. Clearly knowing what thoughts were running through Leto's head, just as she had always known, but he didn't dare turn to his sister. Farad'n protected her well, more than most would have expected from him, and the woman had said herself that she had come for but one reason.

Him.

As the people quickly filed out, they took enough time for their eyes – glittering with a vast array of emotions – over Shandre'la and then her servant before they left. The scuttle of rough cloth against floor and bodies echoing loudly within the elaborate chamber was enough to drive Shandre'la – who had lived her whole life in a quiet desert – mad.

Marisa, on the other hand had grown up on the waterside of their home planet and loved the noise. It reminded her of the waves that had always crashed against the hulls of their ships.

"Your offer is duly noted and appreciated, but this Path I chose and I will see it to its conclusion." As he spoke, Leto continued to keep his eyes on hers. Most people he could read but she was a puzzle, a Pandora's box that if left closed would be a constant annoyance to open and if opened would bring hell to Dune.

And he could still feel the heat from her fingers where she had touched his chest.

"You have traveled far and I am sure that you and your servant are exhausted. Your rooms will be prepared immediately so that you will have some place to consider home until you decide to depart." Farad'n would have smiled at the shock that he witnessed in Marisa's eyes if not for the anger he saw in Shandre'la's.

"You act as if we've just come when in actuality we've been here for a week! I thank you for the hospitality, although I would like to know why it is given so freely to someone you obviously know so little about."

"As you said," Ghanima began. Wanting Shandre'la's hostile gaze on her instead of Farad'n before she continued, "Dune in the center of the universes. We must set an example."

Shandre'la tilted her chin up slightly and her eyes flickered with tense acknowledgment. She glided backwards a little ways. Signifying the end to the conversation and then watched in bemusement as guards moved in to flank her.

She turned back to look at Ghanima.

"Am I a guest within these Palace walls or a prisoner? Or do you treat one the same as the other?"

"You'll find out now, won't you?" Ghanima muttered darkly under her breath. Only Farad'n heard, and he discreetly moved closer to her attempting to soothe her anger and frustration with his proximity.

Aloud she said, "One is not the same as the other, until they show that they are dangerous and have ill intentions toward this family or my people. You killed one of the Freman."

"It was self defense." Shandre'la cool countenance wavered almost painfully when reminded about what she had done causing her to briefly forget her intense need for control at all time, and in so doing, briefly weakening her mental barriers. It was exactly the opportunity that Leto had been waiting for. Watching for.

For a brief moment in a place where time did not exist, Leto quickly slipped past her walls and into her mind. And what he saw made him want out as fast as he could leave.

Her very soul was tormented and dying. The heartbeats of thousands were linked to hers and while they multiplied, they also died faster.

Shandre'la watched him calmly as Leto's body flinched and his hands trembled slightly. Knowing exactly what was happening to him. What he was experiencing. Feeling. Seeing. Touching. It was, after all, something that had been a part of her very existence for quite some time.

Swiftly closing her mind off from his, she forced herself to remain standing where she was. Rooted to the flooring. "If you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss will stare back at you, Leto. What you just saw is the Path you long to take."

He gave no more outward sign of having been rattled in the slightest by her words, but she knew that he had heard them. And for right now, that was all she could expect.

For the first time practically since they had met, Leto removed his gaze from Shandre'la's to look back towards his sister.

"Ghanima, she means us no harm. She wouldn't do anything to endanger her life, simply because she is tied to so many others."

"Then just take her to her room." Ghanima pressed her lips together into a thin line. Waving her hand in a dismissal as the guards jumped to do her bidding.

They stayed a respectable space away from Shandre'la. Not because they respected her, but because they feared her. She had already shown one of the members of their own ranks that she was as swift and as skilled as their duke and they didn't yet know just how powerful. They had no way of genuinely defeating someone like her if she developed a mind to resist them as her escort, and they all knew it. Thus the cautious distance.

Shandre'la could have cared less what they thought of her in that moment. So long as they left her alone.

Marisa looked over at Shandre'la worriedly as they turned around in preparation to leave. Knowing that for her to have let her guard down long enough for Leto to have slipped past her barriers, something had to have happened. She just didn't know how to broach the subject as they were escorted pointedly away from the royal family. Only when she saw Shandre'la stumble did she know her fears were well warranted.

"Mi'lady, it pains me to see you in pain."

Shandre'la sighed in exasperation. "It pains me to be in pain, Marisa. Ask your question and be done with it." Wincing suddenly, she grabbed at her side and tried to catch her breath. Clenching her teeth against the sharp phantom pain that ran through her body as if it were her own as her eyes screwed shut. Biting out enough words to soothe over the intensifying concern flowing through Marisa.

"It means nothing but that my worm is being ridden."

Marisa nodded in understanding. They'd let Shandre'la's bonded worm free on Arakis. Knowing it was the safest place for it to be. What happened to one would happen to the other, and they were both a planet's last hope for survival. One was to breed and the other to marry.

And as of right now, it didn't look like one would be fulfilling their side of the bargain.

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