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.Then he went to the Vernius family's stockpile of atomics -- forbidden weapons,nevertheless held in reserve by every Great House of the Landsraad.Absolutelyrestricted by the articles of the Great Convention, the Ixian atomics had beensecreted away for generations, sealed on the dark side of a moonlet orbiting thefifth planet in the Alkaurops system.The Tleilaxu vermin on Ix knew nothing ofthis.Now Dominic's smuggler ship carried enough doomsday firepower to annihilate aworld. "Vengeance is in the hands of the Lord," stated the Orange Catholic Bible.Butafter what he had gone through, Dominic did not feel terribly religious, nor didhe care to be bound by the niceties of law.He was a renegade now, and beyondthe touch -- or protection -- of the legal system.He envisioned himself as the greatest of all smugglers, hiding where no onewould find him, yet where he could inflict great economic damage on all thepowerhouses that had betrayed him and refused to offer help.With these atomics, he could make his mark on history.Shielded from the outdated weather-satellite network maintained by the Guild,Dominic brought his ship and his atomic stockpile down in an uninhabited polarregion of the desert planet Arrakis.A brisk, cool wind whipped the raggeduniforms of his men as they stepped onto desolate land.Arrakis.Their newbase of operations.It would be a long time before anyone heard of Dominic Vernius again.But whenhe was ready.the entire Imperium would remember.A world is supported by four things: the teaming of the wise, the justice ofthe great, the prayers of the righteous, and the valor of the brave.But all ofthese are as nothing without a ruler who knows the art of ruling.-PRINCE RAPHAEL CORRINO,Discourses on Galactic LeadershipLeto worked his way down to the shore alone, zigzagging along the steepcliffside path and staircase to reach the old quays below the edifice of CastleCaladan.Through cloud patches, midday sunlight glimmered off the placid water thatstretched to the horizon.Leto paused on the sheer, black-rock cliff, shadinghis eyes to look beyond the aqueous kelp forests, the fishing fleets with theirchanting crews, and the line of reefs that sketched a hard topography onto thesprawling sea.Caladan -- his world, rich in seas and jungles, arable land and naturalresources.It had belonged to House Atreides for twenty-six generations.Nowit belonged to him, uncontested.He loved this place, the smell of the air, the salt of the ocean, the tang ofkelp and fish.The people here had always worked hard for their Duke, and Letotried to do his best for them as well.If he had lost his Trial by Forfeiture,what would have happened to the good citizens of Caladan? Would they even havenoticed if these holdings had been given over to the surrogate governorship of, say, House Teranos, House Mutelli, or any other reputable member of theLandsraad? Perhaps.Perhaps not.Leto, though, could not imagine being anyplace else.This was where theAtreides belonged.Even if he'd been stripped of everything, he would havereturned to Caladan to live out his life near the sea.Though Leto knew he was innocent, he still did not understand what had happenedto the Tleilaxu ships inside the Heighliner.He had no evidence to prove toanyone else that he hadn't fired the blasts that nearly triggered a major war.On the contrary, he'd certainly had sufficient motive, and because of this, theother Houses had been reluctant to speak strongly in his defense, allies or not.Had they done so, they would have risked their share of the spoils if theAtreides holdings were forfeited and divided.Yet even during that time, manyHouses had sent silent expressions of approval for the way Leto had protectedhis crew members and friends.And then, by some miracle, Emperor Shaddam had saved him.On the flight home from Kaitain, Leto had spoken at length with Thufir Hawat,but neither the young Duke nor the warrior Mentat could fathom Emperor Shaddam'sreason for coming to the aid of the Atreides, or why he had so feared Leto'sdesperate bluff.Even as a boy, Leto had known never to trust an explanation ofpure altruism, no matter what Shaddam said in his moving statement before thecourt.This much was certain: The new Emperor had something to hide.Something involving the Tleilaxu.Under Leto's guidance, Hawat had dispatched Atreides spies to many worlds,hoping to uncover further information.But the Emperor, forewarned by Leto'smysterious, provocative message, would no doubt be more careful than ever.In the vast spectrum of the Imperium, House Atreides was still not particularlypowerful and had no hold on the Corrino family, no apparent reason to beprotected.The blood ties were not in themselves enough.Though Leto himselfwas a cousin to Shaddam, many in the Landsraad could trace their bloodlines atleast peripherally back to the Corrinos, especially if one went all the way backto the days of the Great Revolt.And where did the Bene Gesserit fit in? Were they Leto's allies, or hisenemies? Why had they offered to help him? Who had sent the information aboutShaddam's involvement in the first place? The coded message cube haddisintegrated.Leto had come to expect hidden enemies -- but not allies whoremained so secretive.And, most enigmatic of all, who really had destroyed the Tleilaxu ships?Alone for the moment, but still troubled, Leto stepped away from the cliffs andcrossed a gentle downslope along the gray-black shingle at the water's edge,until he reached the quiet docks.All the boats had been taken out for the day,save for one small beached coracle and a yacht at anchor, flying a faded pennantwith the hawk crest of the Atreides.That hawk had come perilously close to extinction.In bright sunlight, Leto sat at the end of the main dock, listening to thelapping waves and the songs of gray gulls.He smelled salt and fish and thesweet, fresh air.He remembered when he and Rhombur had gone out together to dive for coral gems.the accidental fire and the near disaster they hadsuffered out on the distant reefs.A small matter in comparison with what hadoccurred later.Peering into the water below him, he watched a rock crab as it clung to the dockpiling, then disappeared into the blue-green depths."So, are you satisfied to be a Duke, or would you rather be a simple fisherman,after all?" Prince Rhombur's loud voice sounded bright, blustering with goodcheer.Leto turned, feeling the sun-warmed dock boards beneath the seat of histrousers.Rhombur and Thufir Hawat trudged across the crunching shingle towardhim.Leto knew the Master of Assassins would chide him for sitting with hisback vulnerable to the open beach, where the white noise from the ocean mightmask any stealthy approach."Perhaps I can be both," Leto said, standing and brushing himself off."Thebetter to understand my people."" 'Understanding your people paves the road to understanding leadership,' "Hawat intoned -- an old Atreides maxim."I hope you were meditating uponstatecraft, as we have much work to do, now that all is returning to normal."Leto sighed."Normal? I think not.Someone tried to start a war with theTleilaxu and blame my family in the process.The Emperor fears what he thinks Iknow.House Vernius is still renegade, and Rhombur and Kailea remain exiledhere, though at least they were pardoned and the blood price on their heads hasbeen lifted
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