Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [116]
“I am forging weapons. For that, fire is necessary.” Sheeana turned, letting Garimi know that the discussion was at an end. “I’ve heard your opinions often enough to memorize them. I will dine with the gholas today. Maybe they have fresh ideas.”
Incensed, the dark-haired woman followed Sheeana out of her quarters and down the corridors toward the dining hall. Unexpectedly, young Leto II stepped out of a lift tube, alone and quiet as usual. The twelve-year-old often wandered the halls of the no-ship by himself; now he looked at the two women and blinked, but did not speak to them. Such an odd, preoccupied child.
Before Sheeana could stop her, the Proctor Superior marched toward Leto, stiff and intimidating. Garimi had a fresh target for her anger and frustration. “So, Tyrant, where is your Golden Path? Where has it led us? If you were so prescient, why didn’t you warn us of the Honored Matres or the Enemy?”
“I don’t know.” The boy seemed genuinely perplexed. “I don’t remember.”
Garimi studied him in disgust. “And what if you did remember? Would you be the God Emperor, the greatest butcher in all of human history? Sheeana thinks you could save us, but I say the Tyrant could just as easily destroy us. That’s what you’re best at. I don’t want you or your monstrous ego back, Leto II. Your Golden Path is a blind man’s road, sunk in a swamp.”
“It is not this boy’s Golden Path,” Sheeana said, taking the other woman’s arm in a viselike grip. “Leave him alone.”
Leto took a quick step, darted around them, and fled down the corridor. Garimi looked triumphantly at Sheeana, who merely regarded her as a fool, condemned by her own irrational outburst.
HIS EYES AND ears burned from the Proctor Superior’s accusations, but Leto refused to allow a tear. A wise person didn’t waste water trying to drown his emotions; he knew that much about old Dune. As he moved away from Sheeana and the insufferable Proctor Superior, and everyone else who thought they knew what to expect from him, the boy silently denied what Garimi had said, trying to block away what he himself knew.
I was the God Emperor, the Tyrant. I created the Golden Path . . . but with my memories locked away, I don’t truly understand what it is! Despite all he had learned about his original lifetime, Leto felt like nothing more than a twelve-year-old who had never asked to be reborn.
He rode the transport tube to the deep lower decks, heading for a place where he felt more comfortable and safe. At first he considered slipping into the roaring winds of the recirculation chambers and the atmosphere-pumping ducts, but the strict security measures imposed by Bashar Teg and Leto’s friend Thufir had closed off all access.
Before his unpleasant encounter with Garimi, Leto had planned to join Thufir for his regular session on the training floor. Though the other ghola boy was now seventeen and had his security duties with the Bashar, he still frequently sparred with Leto. Despite his youth and size, Leto II was highly competitive even against a larger, stronger opponent. For the past few years they had provided quite a challenge for each other.
At the moment, though, Leto needed to be alone. He reached the bottom levels of the ship and stood at the main access door into the immense hold. The surveillance imagers would have spotted him already. He swallowed hard. He had never dared to go inside alone, though he had stared for hours through the plaz at the captive sandworms.
A pair of young guards stood in the hall, monitoring access to the cargo deck. Seeing the boy approach, they tensed. “This is a restricted area.”
“Restricted to me? Do you know who I am?”
“You are Leto the Tyrant, the God Emperor,” said the young woman, as if answering a proctor’s question. She was Debray, one of the Bene Gesserit daughters who had been born in space after the no-ship’s escape.
“And those worms are part of me. Don’t you remember your history?”
“They’re dangerous,” the male guard answered. “You shouldn’t go in there.”
Leto gazed calmly at the pair.