XXXVII: Besieged
"Na-Baron?"
I shook his arm.
The motion snapped Feyd out of his daze. He frowned. "Don't call me that."
"Your uncle. He-he's dead." I said.
No one comprehended it. The Emperors room was not in chaos. It was not mourning. It was nothing.
We stared in disbelief at the slain body of an evil man and the state he was left in after the poison took him.
Feyd was the next in line. He was the sole heir of the Barons legacy.
"You're Baron now," I murmured.
"There is more to come," he snipped below his breath. "It is not over."
"What do you mean? He is dead."
Another rumbling held the air hostage. A violent shaking hit the ship.
Loud cracking of the ground split from outside the Emperors ship. It sounded like the world was cracked in half by a mighty eruption.
Feyd turned to me and began to speak, but nothing came out.
We were tossed from steady ground. The ship jostled.
Everyone was thrown in disarray around the room. Soldiers spears rolled from their hands when they collided with the chorus of grunts and skulls cracked with each violent motion.
Rock and metal catapulted inside. Soldiers on the dais jumped over the Emperor to guard his body.
Princess Irulan ducked down and covered her head with her arms.
Feyd and I were closer to the projectiles. A large sheet of metal plating from outside the ship grazed his side. It broke the plate of his armored suit. He winced as the pieces protruded into his side.
The might of the blast knocked me off my feet. I fell backwards onto my bottom. My hands caught back against the floor before I hit my head.
Feyd helped me to stand; his arms lifted me like I was nothing.
A hole with jagged edges ripped through the ship let in the hot intensity of Arrakis. It wafted in thick waves through the hole. The comfort of the room dissipated.
"Are you well?" Feyd asked.
"Forget about me. Your side. You have to be bleeding!" I gushed.
The armored plate was deformed and sunken in. Feyd's side was not visible, yet it was vulnerable thanks to this plate being broken.
I pressed my palm against it. It was not slick with any liquid.
"It will bruise," he murmured. "That is all."
Sardaukar soldiers slowly made their way up from the floor toward the hole. Their eyes widened. The sight outside rendered them speechless.
"What?" The Emperor declared. "What is it?"
They stayed silent. Many of them stood at the hole staring out into the deserts beyond with the glare of day within their eyes.
"Speak. Speak, I command you! What do you see?" He tried again.
Their silence was not the ringing of good news.
"Feyd?" I whispered.
I was not taught in the ways of war. What happened to us – or was to come – was out of my realm of understanding.
"They have not targeted the ship. That means they want us. Alive," he replied.
Finally, the Emperor arose from his throne. He was bothered enough - only now - to handle it himself. The woman in black followed behind him in a steady feet clicked against the floor as she marched.
They peered out the window. Frustration of the Emperors face slowly dropped. Stoic indifference lessened his features. The tiresome elements of age grew larger.
The brilliance of his eyes faded.
"Fetch Count Fenring." The Emperor proclaimed. The answering footfall arose an anger in him. "Make haste!"
Something was very wrong.
The Emperor marched back to his throne seat. He spoke in hushed tones with his daughter, the woman in black turned to the other men. Their voices were all low. Too low to discern what was relayed.
It was then our turn to peer out to the wreckage to discover what awaited on the other side of the ship.
The lands of the desert were golden and sandy. A sprawl of a city I knew well from the heights of a balcony showed. However, it was not the same. The city walls were broken. Smoke rose throughout the distance in dark columns too numerous to count. Soldiers of black and grey uniforms were scattered atop the city grounds.
Still, they were being overcome.
The most shocking, though, was the sand worms.
"I thought worms couldn't come into the city. Worms don't like rock!" I blurted.
How? How could this be?
The Baron was dead. All our dreams were supposed to be here. Now, more blood bled into the desert.
Death in piles upon piles laid on the ground.
Wisps of sand- for that was all I saw- before a Harkonnen soldier was slit in his throat. Black blood spewed onto the sandy ground. An invisible blur of wind and sand was all that took him. Nothing stood as a guilty party.
"They die just as easily, Mintha," he said. "Out of the sand, they are a bigger targets." He looked steady in my eyes. "They will die under Harkonnen guns."
"Guns. What guns? You need hundreds to kill those things."
"I have thousands. Tens of thousands."
He glanced around the room. The chaos was a distraction away from focus of us. And the Baron's dead body.
I, too, glimpsed at the large body slain upon the floor. It filled me with a shudder. A shudder of joy and fear.
"Where is that little girl?" I asked. "The one who..."
"She slipped out when the hole was blown in the side. Off to meet Atreides somewhere."
The lightening of his dark eyes from the golden daylight showed a deep brown. It was almost black, but not totally. In the grandest brightest of sun, the Arrakis sun being the brightest, there was a glimpse into the color inside him.
He scanned the horizon as if he could recognize anyone in that distance.
"Atreides, she said. Like, Leto Atreides. The family that was slaughtered in the night here. Is that whom you mean?"
"The Duke died. Of that, my uncle was certain. But the boy...his mother was a witch. He was crafty. They outwitted the halfwit, Rabban. Escaped to the desert."
They rallied the support of the local Fremen. That was whom attacked as a part of the desert unseen. They stole the life water of those who oppressed the planet, in a poetic justice it was the Baron's glaring oversight of humanity that led to his death.
He did not know it was an enemy that targeted the spice. He did not know it was purposeful.
He sent Feyd to be his executioner, as he often did, without the slightest clue as to who Feyd fought.
A body thrown at a problem without consideration of what it meant to the body, or the problem.
"They knew," I revealed slowly.
My eyes flicked toward the Emperor and his gaggle.
They, still, perched on their platform as a beetle amongst ants. We, the only ones inferior to their rank in the room. For there was none now that stood before him at his mercy.
Feyd nodded. "That is why he came. He learned of Muad'Dib's identity. Why the Sardaukar are in great number."
"He risked so much to ask a question he already knew the answer to."
"He's scared." Feyd swallowed a grin. "He knows his fate. He made an egregious mistake that he cannot surmount. Not with the number that are outside now. It will all come to light."
I swallowed. "Are we going to die now?"
"No. No. This is great."
"What?" I snapped. "This is not great."
"He's vulnerable. It is a warzone. I could kill him in the confusion. No one would know it was me. It would be easy."
Many dark and grey bodies laid slain upon the grounds of Arrakeen. Their loss grew with each blink. More and more.
Blood drained in great puddles into the golden sands. The deserts thirst drank and drank.
My eyes watered. None would sate its need.
"Feyd, we need to get out of here before the desert takes us, too."
"This planet is power, Mintha," he said. He leaned closer to my ear to hide his voice. "I am not leaving. Control spice, control the Imperium. I'll be Emperor. I will be the strongest force to ever emerge. Our legacy will live on in infamy."
"Go home, Feyd. Be the Baron. Rule happily with one planet. One. We don't need this. So much death. Look. Behold the legacy you would leave."
Blood, red and black. The loss of lives, catastrophic devastation and a debt a life too heavy to be repaid.
I now stood on that edge with Feyd, afraid of what he'd become if he stepped over. The line drawn in the sand was like the demon god of that story Vishti often told me. Greed. It tainted the mind. It was my meager hold upon his heart that kept him leaned in my favor, if just barely.
But his weight was immense.
As was his ambition, the greed of his mind.
He wanted more.
For his greed, he'd suffocate an entire paradise with me to gain it.
"There are none to fear, sweetness. We are the strongest in the Imperium. I can kill an old man. His witch and daughter will be easy, too, if I have to. No one can stop us."
"Paul Atreides can," I said. "Look at what he's brought to us. He will die for this planet." It did not leave my lips, but my mind was full of its though: if he could overcome the instinctual fear of a sand worm enough to attack this city, his dedication was stronger than mine. "We don't want it that bad."
"We do. I do. We want it just as bad." He grasped my shoulders. "This is all we've planned for, sweetness. This is everything."
Sadness weighed heavy against my chest.
Did he not see?
We would not survive innocent in this. Death surrounded us. Its ever-growing reach closer and closer to our feet. To escape it, we'd have to raise a blade to fight it.
I did not want a throne that bad. Not upon the lifeless, innocent body of another.
And I did not want him to attain his that way either.
Killing his uncle for being a monster was one thing. Overthrowing a fickle insecure Emperor was of a similar vein. None were innocent in these courts. They were old greedy men who deserved their heads removed for all the suffering they caused.
Yet, I resisted want to kill a boy who only avenged his innocent father's death. He wanted his right to live. He wanted his pain felt.
If Feyd took sword against that cause, he forfeit a throne that was righteous.
How could I remain apart of that throne, atop the bloody carcasses of people I did not despise?
The deepening sadness swallowed me whole while the room remained still. The doors of the ship parted. A man and woman were ushered inside it quickly. Sardaukar guards slammed the doors closed. Most were positioned as guards against it. They kept spears faced at the large opening of the room.
My skin prickled with intensity. The sight of Lady Fenring reminded me of the encounter in the Baron's castle.
Her voice was distant in my head, like murmurs. The recollection of what she said to me that night was dim. Feelings moved through my mind. They coursed around parts of my brain. I was overcome with it.
What did she tell me, that I could not remember? It hid amongst the dark emptiness of my mind. It evaded memory.
"Feyd," I said.
He stood tall. An arm protectively held me against him. His chin leveled with the floor.
There was no need to hide me now. His uncle was dead.
"I know," he replied quietly. "They hope he will outwit Atreides."
Count Fenring and his lady listened to the Emperor speak. Their heads nodded. The strength of Lady Fenring's eyes pulled toward me once.
I became cold. Inescapable and constant.
The gaze broke when the Emperor moved aside. His body blocked the path of her stare.
"Barricade the door!" He ordered. "Young Baron. Come forth."
Sardaukar soldiers locked the door. Reinforced metal beams grew from the walls. They slid across in a crossed pattern against the wide surface.
I swallowed. Did they expect a sandworm to break in?
Feyd presented himself to the Emperor. He bowed his head slight.
"You take the place of your uncle," the Emperor said. "You are Baron Harkonnen now. A Baron whom we will need if we are to beat these Atreides. You will fight against them, won't you?"
"All I need is a moment. He will die."
Countr Fenring adjusted his suit coat. "It will not be that easy, young Baron. I assure you that."
"He has abilities beyond our power."
Feyd sneered. "I have slain many. Their abilities slice at the end of my reach."
"Brute force will not overcome him," the woman in black said.
"No. He has us overpowered." The Emperor hollowly agreed.
"Slieght of hand will be only choice."
They wanted Count Fenring to poison Paul Atreides with a needle in a friendly embrace. I did not know either. Why would they respect the other to allow them close to hurt them? This was a war. Paul attacked the essence of all that protected us. Count Fenring included.
He meant us harm.
Feyd did not mention the hidden poison needles within his sleeves. He kept their knowledge secret for an unknown reason.
A former member of Baron Harkonnens cabinet was tasked with the assassination of Paul Atreides. Their history gave the man - Thufir - an advantage.
What would happen then? Would control of Arrakis remain in Feyd's hand, or would the Emperor seize it? The Fremen were rallied. With their leader slain, would they retreat to the sands, back to being unknown and unseen? How could they? The number they had outnumbered ours. They would kill us all with ease if they wished.
We looked at certain death with a glimmer of hope. False hope.
Paul Atreides' death did not mean our own life.
No.
This was the end of all.
The rumbling grew in sound. Warring sounded closer and closer to the ship. We were surrounded by its reminder.
Death. Screams.
There was nothing to be done but await it.
Feyd paced the floor just ahead of my feet. Every second he passed into my field of vision. It reminded me of rising tensions, rising fear, and the rising question of my death.
I pondered the way the Fremen would kill me. Their blades were quick, efficient, brutal. It mirrored their life out in the dunes.
Or.
Their vengeance could be broiled under the heat of their native sun. It could demand more. They might slice through the tender fatty density of my thighs into the thick vein buried inside. A prick of that secured death, slow but certain. Rare was an injury like that survived.
Feyd once pulled the intestines from a man's stomach as he still writhed in agony. That remained an option for them to do. There would be more to pull since I carry an heir.
Death awaited.
What would it find when it met me?
It would meet a half-formed creature: not human, but not inhuman either. It would see a woman, life half lived, most of it in fear, some of it in love, with the question of who she was at the forefront of her mind. Death would see how little I was. In the scheme of things, I mattered little to this Imperium. Small, feeble, pathetic.
I wrinkled my nose with distaste.
Half a woman, too riddled with fear to be bold.
My death, a welcome conclusion to a lesser life.
Why had I not begged more? Or screamed. Why had I let fear become all I was, without knowing that was what controlled me? Fear of life, so expect death at any moment to cope with the fact that I lacked courage.
Courage to stand up for those who deserved it.
By the time that it reached the inner blast doors of the ship, my mind receded to peace. It was time to meet a death I'd so longed to greet.
It was cruel irony that it came when I'd found reason to live.
I sniffed as I steadied on my own feet. Feyd stopped his pacing. Predatory eyes stared at the large, reinforced doors of the Emperor's ship that we were safely sealed behind. Sounds of the assault behind echoed through all our ears. We felt the surge with each steady push against them.
"Can they be breeched?" The woman in black asked.
"No," Feyd barked.
"Not without a superior fire power. They do not have," the Emperor declared.
His long robes dragged on the floor behind him as he walked.
He tread beside Feyd. It caught the new Barons side eye.
The slender aged shell of the Emperor was so close. A simple swing of Feyd's arm would knock the man to the ground with enough force to kill.
Thoughts of those actions cycled through Feyd's concern, shifting only back to the collision of men and weapon against the doors.
"The young man will have to find another way," the Emperor continued.
His distant eyes stared ahead.
The doors. They were all that protected us now.
"Paul Atreides will have to reach us in here." The woman in black stepped down from the dais for the first time. Her tone was steady and unbroken by nerves. "Force will not be his ally. The only question is: what way will he choose?"
"Honor." Princess Irulen's voice rang clear. "He will appeal to honors to get us emerged."
"He is better off with trickery," the woman in black rebutted.
"We are too smart for that."
Were we? I was not. I would be tricked out with the promise of an airship awaiting to take me away.
"Stories say that Muad'Dib is motivated by honor. Now that we know his name, we know what he seeks. His mission is to restore his. He will want to do it right, as his father taught," Irulan reasoned.
Feyd scoffed.
Words screeched through a Sardaukar soldier's transmitter. It relayed a message of defeat. Voice of a young man - shockingly youthful but coarse - asked for surrender.
Our surrender.
My chest tightened. Heat held at my palms.
Fate came to collect its debt.
The Emperor agreed to surrender conditionally. "The conditions, of which, I will speak to your face. A man faces his victor with a steady chin."
Feyd caught my eye. He twirled the ring upon his finger. It ignited the warmth of mine on my own hand. I felt its creeping sensation surmount my elbow, my shoulder, straight to my heart.
The pulse within responded in faster throbbing. It was not my own blood that flooded throughout my body. It was his, too. The blood of his body that made our child inside me. Our mixed waters of life, pulsating in life.
Life that was to be stolen. Soon.
The Emperor's entourage gathered together. They prepared for their surrender.
Metal bars slid away. The reinforcements gone into the ship out of sight.
Our last protections, tucked away.
I could not let it be the last moment. Unsaid. There were many thoughts that my heart burned to release.
"My Baron," fled my lips in a gush.
His face grimaced. Still, he stepped closer into my confidence. "Lady Mintha."
"I wish for you to know..."
There was no time to explain the intricacies of my emotions. They were forced toward the front of my thoughts. All I felt, in the short time at his side, was overwhelming. It was all the goodness I recalled in life. That life was soon to be met with a violent end. He deserved to know the efforts were worth it.
"Even if it hurts, even if it's razor deep, even if my bones cannot carry my weight and I must crawl." My throat tensed. I knew the others could hear. I pushed through my reserve to tell him this little shred of my soul before it died. "You are the one thing in the Imperium I can call my own. I belong to no other." My voice cracked, too. It made me feel all the worse for it. "It was my honor to hold onto your lineage whilst I could."
He held my stomach with a gentle palm. "It is better this way," he hummed quietly.
The flips in my stomach started. Their violent excitement hurt my heart.
She would never know how much her father loved her. A life that he planned for with great interest and respect. He chose me to protect and carry his child into the world as its most important support. I was gifted his love in a soul. A soul that lost dearly with every passing moment.
My heart throttled harder against my chest.
"She loves you, too," I mouthed silently.
It was enough to undo the brutal mask. He pulled my face against his. Our lips met, sliding against one another. His fingers gripped my face hard. Each tip dug into my flesh harder and harder, as if he did not want to let go.
Too late, it happened. Too late was there time to leave this place.
The siege came to the doors. Thundering boots echoed from behind their massive weight.
Fremen soldiers flooded through the doors opening once it was disarmed by the Sardaukar guards. Long white blades were drawn from their sides. They were dutiful in their slaughter of the Emperors guard men. Only his servants and lowly staff were spared.
I breathed in relief. Death was quick. Deserts blessed, death was quick.
Paul Atreides' soldiers encircled us. The woman in black with her few others behind her, the Fenrings, Princess Irulan, the Emperor, the expected assassin, and two others whom I did not know. We were caught surrounded. Though their blades did not cut our throats.
Yet.
The strange swords captured Feyd's interest. He observed their length- even as it was shoved in his face with a demand of his weapons. He tossed his blades to the floor. It took time; there were seven he kept total.
My heart sank as each blade clattered against the floor.
A Fremen soldier approached me then. The front mask of their still suit pulled away.
Dark skin, blackened by the intense sun, glowed beneath the protection of their face mask. Everywhere else was sand logged. The color lightened, dusty.
A pair of electric blue eyes cut through the air; it was all I saw.
So blue.
They asked me to disarm myself. I shook my head.
"Without blade," I said. "I am without."
They nodded.
We were then urged forward. Outside the doors, we were led through Arrakeen. These corridors were familiar to me. Their rocky walls loomed high above my head. I did not shiver in nothingness. It did not rattle my heart.
I knew.
I walked to meet my death.