“Sister Jessica, come immediately to Wallach IX. The Mother School has urgent need of your presence. This is not a request. Do your duty. Your Mother Superior commands it.” Harishka had signed her name.
The words, the seal, and the signature triggered a response within her. Her life, her mind, and her heart had been indoctrinated by the Bene Gesserit, and every cell in her body was wired to respond as components of that intricate machine. She was a part of it, and it was a part of her. Throughout the Imperium, the Sisterhood’s net was invisible, but as strong as shigawire. If she struggled against it, those wires would tighten and strangle her.
Worse, there was a second message.
Hidden, encoded, from her teacher and taskmaster, the woman who knew her better than anyone, in some ways even better than Leto did. The words sent a river of ice down her spine. Fighting a building sense of dread, Jessica ran her fingers over the raised dots of code and began to read.
“You belong to the Bene Gesserit, Jessica. We assigned you to the Duke of Caladan and can change your assignment if we so choose. You may believe yourself free, but you are ours to command. Come to Wallach IX now, or you may have nothing on Caladan to return to.
“I know your obstinate nature all too well. If you defy us, we will destroy not only you but Leto and everyone around him. As the Emperor’s Truthsayer, I can see to it that the Duke and all of House Atreides are disgraced and ruined. And in the end, you will still be ours. Come at once!”
Breathing hard, Jessica sat back, thinking through the implications. Black specks danced around her vision, and the room spun. She used her Bene Gesserit techniques to bring herself back under control.
Leto would never understand, but she could not refuse the summons. Even though she was the Duke’s bound concubine, the Sisterhood still owned her soul.
But this was the worst possible time! She could not leave now. Everyone in Castle Caladan could sense the icy barrier between them. Leto was departing for Kaitain, and if she also went her separate way …
Why did the Mother Superior want her? How long would she be gone? Jessica was forced to make an impossible choice and could not appeal the order. The Bene Gesserit would show her no compassion.
As she went to tell Leto about the message, at least to tell him she had to go, she murmured the Litany Against Fear. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. It did little to comfort her.
She stood at the doorway of Leto’s study until he looked up from his desk. Today, his expression was especially unreadable, even to her. He could be brusque when he was preoccupied, but it felt different now, as if she had become an outsider, suddenly excluded from his inner circle where she had been for so long.
He looked back down at his papers. “I asked not to be disturbed.”
She controlled her breathing, her pulse. “Apologies, my Lord, but I have received a summons. The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood has recalled me to Wallach IX.” She swallowed hard. “I must go immediately.”
He looked up at her, and his gray eyes probed deep into her expression with a gaze as sharp as a scalpel. “No. I cannot let you leave now. I am about to depart for Kaitain, and you must remain here to manage Castle Caladan and watch Paul. No matter what issues stand between us, you are still the Lady here, and I depend on you. We cannot both be gone at the same time.” He looked back down, as if that put an end to the matter.
“The command comes from Mother Superior Harishka herself,” Jessica said. “I have no choice.”
Leto flushed. “The person who claims to have no choice has no imagination. Find a way around it.”
“I cannot, Leto. I belong to the Sisterhood. They raised me and trained me. They dispatched me here.”
“And you accepted the terms. You are also my bound concubine, the mother of my son. I don’t care what those manipulative witches want from you. Your obligation is here on Caladan. To me.”
Jessica hung her head. She could not reveal the threat Mohiam had made, because that would merely make matters worse. “If only I could refuse. This is not unlike when I was pregnant with Paul and Lady Anirul summoned me to Kaitain so the Bene Gesserit could monitor the birth.”
Leto was not convinced. “I know all about your Sisterhood training. I’ve always known, and I accepted it. Yet I opened my heart to you. All these years, I believed you were ultimately on my side, my true partner, but of late, I have seen evidence to the contrary.”
The words cut her like a dagger. “I am true to you, Leto. How could you ever doubt that?”
“I never thought I would, but I now realize that many things were happening right before me that I was too foolish to notice. I will go to Kaitain. You will remain here.”
“But I have no discretion in the matter. You must understand, this is not my choice.”
She could see him visibly wrestling with his anger. “Then you are choosing the Sisterhood over your own family. You make it plain that the schemes of the Bene Gesserit are more important to you than I am. If that is true, then go. You are a liability to House Atreides. It shames me that I was manipulated yet again—and for so many years.”
Jessica’s hand shook involuntarily, and she forced calm upon herself. “Leto, you misunderstand. My loyalty to you is unchanged. I love you and Paul dearly. I do not love the Sisterhood, but I have sworn obligations to them. Of all people, you should understand duty.” She drew a hitching breath. “Out of a sense of honor, I have to obey the Mother Superior’s orders.”
Leto’s face was unreadable, and he walled his anger inside himself, which she found all the more frightening. He said, “Do you remember the day when Reverend Mother Mohiam first presented you to me? I was suspicious of you even then.”
Jessica swallowed hard. “You put a knife to my throat.”
“I did. I was sure it was Bene Gesserit treachery. You were forced upon me when I was already involved with Kailea, when I already had a son with her.” He placed his hands on the table. “Because of you, my relationship with her fell apart, and her poisonous jealousy led to what happened to Victor. Was that intentional? Part of your instructions from the damned Sisterhood?”
She gasped. “No, Leto! It just … happened.”
“Truly? With all of your years of training and your polished Bene Gesserit skills, you worked your way into my household, destroyed my relationship, and it ‘just happened’? After Victor died and Kailea threw herself from the tower, it took me years to learn to trust and love you.” He looked away, shaking his head. “You know honor and loyalty are the core of House Atreides. Now I see that your true loyalty lies elsewhere.” His voice cracked, just a little. “Was it all just some Sisterhood scheme? Everything?”
“No.” She wanted to scream her answer, to beg him to believe her, but she also knew Leto well enough to understand that no answer would be sufficient.
Desperate, she dredged deep and found a fact that he did not know, something she had never told him. Something he could never know. She might use that now as evidence of her love, an ultimate gambit. The Sisterhood had commanded her to bear only Atreides daughters, to dance to the strings of their breeding program. But after Victor’s death, she had seen how devastated Leto was, how deeply he needed healing, and she had given him another son instead. Paul. That had been her first defiance, and the Bene Gesserit would never forget it.