Dune_ House Atreides - Brian Herbert [114]
Another concussion rocked the room, this one closer, stronger. The Prince of Ix gripped the table to keep it from toppling. Leto rushed over to the cracked window. “Rhombur, look out here!”
From the crosswalk streets connecting the stalactite buildings, someone screamed. Off to the left, an out-of-control transport capsule plummeted to smash into the ground far below with a spray of crystal shards and mutilated passengers.
The door to the tutorial room crashed open. Captain Zhaz of the Palace Guard burst in, carrying one of the new pulsed assault lasguns. Four subordinates followed him, all armed in the same fashion, all wearing the silver-and-white uniforms of House Vernius. No one on Ix, especially not the Earl himself, had ever thought Leto or Rhombur would need the protection of personal bodyguards.
“Come with us, young masters!” Zhaz said, breathing hard. The man’s dark eyes, framed by his squarish brown beard, darted with excitement as he noted the stone fragments falling from the ceiling, then the cracked windowplaz. Though he was ready to fight to the death, Zhaz clearly didn’t understand what had taken place in the normally peaceful city of Vernii.
“What’s happening, Captain?” Rhombur asked, as the retinue of guards hustled them out of the room and into the corridor, where the lights flickered. His voice quavered for a moment, then sounded stronger, as he reminded himself he was the heir of an Earl. “Tell me—is my family safe?”
Other guards and members of the Ixian court ran helter-skelter, with excited shouts ringing out, high-pitched and strident, in counterpoint to yet another explosion. From far below came the hubbub of an angry mob, so distant it sounded like a deep murmur. Then Leto made out the buzzing hum of lasgun fire. Even before the captain answered Rhombur, Leto guessed the source of the disturbance.
“There’s trouble with the suboids, my Lords!” Zhaz shouted. “Don’t worry, though—we’ll have it under control soon.” He touched a button on his belt, and a previously unseen door opened in the marble-mirrored wall. The captain and the household guard had drilled and prepared for so long against large-scale external attacks, they didn’t seem to know how to deal with a revolt from within. “This way to safety. I’m sure your family will be there waiting for you.”
When the two young men ducked under the low half door behind the mirrors, the portal sealed shut behind them. In the yellow light of emergency glowglobes, Leto and Rhombur ran alongside an electromagnetic track, while the captain of the guard shouted frantically into a tiny handheld comceiver. Lavender light flashed from the face of the instrument, and Leto heard the metallic sound of a responding voice: “Help is on the way!”
Seconds later an armored personnel car roared along the sheltered track and screeched to a stop. Zhaz boarded with the two young heirs and a pair of guards, leaving the rest of the security men behind to defend their exit. Leto tumbled into a bucket seat, while Zhaz and Rhombur clambered into the front. The railcar began to move.
“Suboids blew two of the diamond columns,” Zhaz said, breathlessly consulting the lavender screen of his comceiver. “Part of the overhead crust has collapsed.” His face turned gray with disbelief, and he scratched his brown beard. “This is impossible.”
Leto, who had seen the signs of the gathering storm all along, knew that the situation was probably even worse than the guard captain imagined. Ix’s troubles would not be solved within an hour.
A metallic-voiced report clattered in, sounding desperate. “Suboids are boiling up from the lower levels! How did . . . how could they become so organized?”
Rhombur cursed, and Leto looked knowingly at