Gurney Halleck reached down beside his seat and raised his baliset, balancing it on his lap and striking a brief musical chord. “Perhaps a tune is what you need, my Lord.”
“Indeed, Gurney. I’ve been too long without music.”
Jessica touched Duke Leto’s forearm, letting him know her heart and thoughts were with him. He smiled softly, looked from face to face around the table. “After the spectacle on Otorio and the flashy glory of Kaitain, Caladan is much more to my liking.”
A news report is based on fact, fiction, or a combination of the two, and is presented from a certain angle. Truth belongs to those who control that perspective.
—COUNT HASIMIR FENRING
All the Imperial glory around Count Fenring could not distract from the shock waves and turmoil after the attack on Otorio. Emperor Shaddam considered himself at war against the violent rebels.
Fenring swept into the Imperial audience chamber accompanied by a small, thin man with an oversized head. Unfortunately, it was not the most impressive of entrances. The other man had a distracted way of walking, sometimes veering away and then catching himself. Fenring grabbed one of the man’s spindly arms and led him toward the throne.
The Padishah Emperor sat on a massive blue-green throne cut from Hagal quartz. Empress Aricatha occupied her own smaller throne beside him, her eyes intent and interested, and nearby lurked an aged woman in dark Bene Gesserit robes, the Truthsayer Mohiam, who had also barely escaped from Otorio.
Though Shaddam brooded on his throne, he brightened to see Fenring. “Ah, Hasimir! We have many important plans to discuss.” His brow wrinkled with impatient concern. “I see you brought your failed Mentat with you. Is he … functional enough?”
Fenring motioned for his tottering companion to remain off to one side, while he approached the dais and made a perfunctory bow. “The peculiarities of Grix Dardik are something I must tolerate in order to obtain the full benefit of his genius.” He smiled. “For the sake of the Imperium, we need his insights. After all, he is the one who found records of Otorio lost in the dusty archives.” He glanced at the strange little man, who seemed preoccupied with his shoe. “And if he can discover a whole missing planet for you, Sire, what else might he find? The Noble Commonwealth is hiding somewhere, and we must root them out…”
From his throne, the Emperor regarded Fenring’s peculiar companion. Shaddam’s new wife leaned closer and spoke in low tones, so that Fenring could not make out all the words, something to do with an Imperial assignment she wanted. Fenring knew Aricatha was constantly pressing her husband for more responsibility and meaningful things to do. Other Empresses had rarely been allowed to sit with him in the throne room at all.
Their interaction was remarkably different from how the Emperor had treated his previous five wives, a couple of whom Fenring had tolerated, while others he had loathed. He hadn’t yet decided if Aricatha would be a useful ally or a hindrance. She certainly had the powerful ruler wrapped around her finger.
While Fenring waited, the Emperor listened to his wife coax him about new duties. “Now that so many Landsraad representatives are gone, you need someone you can trust,” she said. “I am capable of carrying out more extensive diplomatic assignments.”
“Trust is a very difficult thing right now, my dear,” Shaddam said. He looked at Fenring and raised his voice. “How widespread is this Noble Commonwealth movement? How do we find the vile Jaxson Aru and bring him to justice?”
“That is what we must discover, Sire.” Glancing over at the tottering Mentat, Fenring saw Dardik’s gaze wandering around. He had to pull the man back to reality, or he could drift off for hours. Count Fenring needed the Mentat to be useful right now.
He spoke Dardik’s name sharply, noticed a slight jerk of his head, a rolling of the eyes. He spoke more sharply, and the eye rolling stopped. “We are here to make an important report.” The Mentat returned to reality with a sudden snap. “I need you to help us with this grave political crisis.”
Though brilliant, Dardik needed constant management. The slender man had failed to become a full Mentat because of his difficult personality and social maladjustment. In the Mentat school, he’d had a disturbing habit of starting arguments, debates, and even duels to the death.
But Fenring enjoyed a good debate to keep his own mind sharp, and though the eccentric genius might outthink him, Fenring could easily defeat him in personal combat. He had injured Dardik often enough to make his point, and the two men had managed to achieve a peculiar balance.
Now that he had his companion’s full attention again, Fenring turned him to face the throne dais and addressed the Emperor once more. “Sire, my Mentat will talk with you directly, but I will interject the, hmmmm, niceties of conversation, if he forgets himself. He has few social graces, but his brilliance makes up for that.”
“I want to hear what he has to say,” the Empress said.
Shaddam waved a hand at his wife. “I have my own court Mentats, Hasimir, and this one has not even earned his basic certification. In our response to the urgent matters before us, I need only the best advice.”
Fenring pursed his lips. “Sire, he was right about the existence of Otorio, wasn’t he? Let us hear him out.”
The Emperor sighed. “Speak to me, Mentat, and be efficient with your words. My time is valuable.”
“A Mentat is always efficient with words,” Dardik retorted. “My time is valuable as well.”
Fenring considered killing him right there. “Issue your new findings and prove your worth!”
The failed Mentat straightened. “Background summary: More than a year ago, I discovered the supposedly lost planet of Otorio, which you then commandeered as the site of your new Imperial museum complex. In light of recent events, I researched the world even more thoroughly. Jaxson Aru’s violence struck me as more than a mere political statement. It had a personal component as well.”
“A personal component?” Shaddam asked. “It’s clear the madman wanted to kill me and destroy the Imperium.”
“The attack was also about Otorio itself, not just you,” Dardik said, then after a momentary pause, he remembered to add, “Sire.” He blinked, as if reassessing his calculations. “I found clear evidence that the supposedly lost planet was an unacknowledged holding of the extended Aru family, used as a quiet retreat for several generations. After being removed from his duties for the CHOAM Company, Brondon Aru, Jaxson’s father, was sent to Otorio in effective exile. Jaxson spent much time on Otorio as a ward of his father.”
The Mentat hummed, as if he had forgotten to include important information. “Jaxson’s mother is the prominent Malina Aru, the Ur-Director of CHOAM, and his brother, Frankos Aru, is the public face of CHOAM, serving as President. Malina Aru has a third child, a daughter, Jalma, married to Count Uchan on the planet Pliesse. An interesting side note: Count Uchan is listed among the casualties in the Otorio massacre.”
As the failed Mentat rattled off the string of details, Shaddam tried to absorb the connections. “Are you saying that the insignificant world I chose for my Corrino museum is actually a CHOAM stronghold?”
“Possible, but not proven. Still, Sire, it is likely that Otorio was occupied by the Aru family, personally, and your museum paved over their ancestral holdings.”