Navigators of Dune

5

Still new to her role as Mother Superior, Valya Harkonnen ignored the biting cold from the wind that whipped across the Wallach IX landing field. A passenger ship set down, carrying a group of Sisters of questionable loyalty, whom she had recalled from the Imperial Court. Valya strode out to face them.

The weak sun overhead provided so little warmth in the early afternoon that she wore a heavy ornamented robe, but she could endure the chill. Her home world of Lankiveil was even colder, and besides, for her, easing discomfort was largely a matter of readjusting her metabolism.

Valya had short black hair that framed an oval face; her hazel eyes absorbed everything around her. She turned to watch the women emerge from the vessel, but did not offer them a smile. Now that the Sisterhood’s schism was ended and she had emerged victorious, Valya had summoned these disloyal women to face their new Mother Superior.

Mother Superior … Though still young in physical years, Valya was a Reverend Mother and thus carried the memories of millennia in her mind. She had held her important position for only a few months, since the death of Raquella Berto-Anirul. She was still testing her responsibilities, duties, and power … and had to make sure that other Sisters did not challenge her. These Sisters from the Imperial Court were suspect, but Valya had options.

It was a matter of survival for her to notice tiny details that others might miss. Although Valya was not trained as a Truthsayer, she had always possessed an instinct for discerning truth and loyalty. At first glance she could detect no buried violence in these new arrivals, no immediate threat from them, but if any of these women launched a physical attack on her, Valya would be a formidable opponent, and she was sharpening her control of the new Voice technique that could compel others to do as she wished.

She had to decide whether these Sisters from the former rival faction could be trusted, or if they would have to be discarded.

In addition to protecting herself against enemies, the Mother Superior also had to reaffirm and strengthen her closest allies in the Sisterhood. At one time, she had even suspected Fielle — the loyal Mentat Sister standing beside her now — of being overly ambitious, yet Fielle had become one of her closest advisers. Fielle was a large-boned, detail-oriented woman with a fleshy face; after finishing her training on Lampadas, the Mentat and Truthsayer had become one of old Raquella’s favorites, and now Valya viewed her as a powerful tool.

Black-robed Sisters marched out of the ship and lined themselves up as if in a funeral procession. Valya identified many of the Orthodox Sisters, including her fervent rivals Ninke and Esther-Cano, but not all of the women were known to her. Not yet. Valya intended to obtain reports on each of them, from which she would decide their fates. These women had broken their loyalty oath to Mother Superior Raquella, and even though the Sisterhood was unified again — in accordance with the old woman’s dying wish — Valya knew she could not trust them without significant reassurances. They had wounded the organization.

A promise broken once can be broken twice.

Sister Olivia took charge of assembling the newcomers so that the Mother Superior could address them. Although faithful and dependable, the blonde had a tendency to get excited, and Valya detected a nervous edge in Olivia’s voice. Nevertheless, she was attentive and conscientious, and Valya counted on her as another ally.

When Olivia had arranged the women, Valya stepped forward and raised her voice. Her tone was artificially bright. “Today you have an opportunity for advancement, rather than punishment. But you must discard the harmful ways that Dorotea taught you. The consolidated Sisterhood is strong again, after the damage caused by her rebellion against the Mother Superior.”

Valya’s gaze wandered over these women, probing their expressions and postures for signs of resistance. Some were anxious, cowed, or meek, while others were nearly unreadable. On the surface, she saw apparent submission, but only time would tell. “You will be interviewed carefully, and it is my fervent hope that we can welcome all of you back into the Sisterhood.”

Despite their suddenly uneasy expressions, Valya dismissed them, and Sister Olivia led the group toward a groundbus. Valya’s personal guard would take the new arrivals to an isolated section of the secure dormitory where they would be closely monitored. These Sisters would only be released after they had affirmed their allegiance to Valya and submitted to rigorous reeducation. Or they would die. Valya didn’t care if she happened to lose a few along the way. The Sisterhood would once again have one voice and one mind, and it would belong to her, instead of Raquella.

As the women were led away, Valya made eye contact with one of her steely guard escorts — her young sister Tula Harkonnen, who was among the best fighters in the Sisterhood, thanks to the rigorous training Valya had imposed. Beneath Tula’s soft, sweet beauty and curly blonde locks lurked the danger of razors. When the young woman glanced at Valya now, a look of uneasiness flashed in her eyes before she escorted the group of Sisters into the bus.

That brief moment disturbed Valya, and she tried to assess what it revealed. Tula had asked for permission to go back home to their family on Lankiveil, at least for a brief sabbatical, and she had certainly earned it … but Valya wanted to understand why Tula would make such a request. She had shed Atreides blood — as ordered — and proved her loyalty … as a Harkonnen, if nothing else.

Tula had implemented the perfect revenge by marrying young Orry Atreides and killing him on their wedding night. Such a delightful, wicked touch! The murder had sent Vorian Atreides into hiding along with Orry’s brother, Willem. The two had vanished from Caladan, and even with the Sisterhood’s connections Valya could not determine where they had gone.

But Tula had not shared her sister’s joy. Afterward, she had expressed remorse and guilt for killing Orry, as if convinced that she held true feelings for the victim. Tula had even expressed regret that the situation couldn’t be different between the two families. Different? Valya could not even conceive of that possibility, not after generations of blood feud.

The girl obviously needed time to contemplate her priorities, and it would be good for her to go back to Harkonnen holdings to be reminded of her family connections. Valya had arranged to send her to Lankiveil, until she was needed for another mission. Even so, Tula would have to be watched; this strangely reticent behavior concerned Valya.…

Fielle stepped up to report, interrupting her superior’s thoughts. “I am ready to depart for Salusa, Mother Superior. My companions and I are prepared to fill the new vacancies in the Imperial Court, as you commanded. If the Emperor will have me, I will be his new Truthsayer.”

“He will have you. He needs a Truthsayer, now that Dorotea is dead.” Valya smiled at the loyal woman. “And I will be glad to have you there. We need to make sure Emperor Roderick gets the proper advice.” Valya gazed at the shuttle, while male workers moved about, testing and refueling. “As soon as the shuttle is cleared to go, you and the other Sisters may board.” The EsconTran foldspace carrier would take them back to the capital planet.

“I will gain the Emperor’s trust by providing him with the information about Josef Venport that we discussed,” Fielle said. “He is naturally concerned, as are we, about how Venport has killed so many people to maintain his spice monopoly. He presents a danger not only to Imperial operations that remain on Arrakis, but to the entire Imperium.”

“It is a fine line we walk,” Valya said. “When Venport learns what you have revealed, he will see it as a betrayal on our part. He helped the Sisterhood in its time of need, arranging for us to move to Wallach IX and saving our new school here.”

“And his wife helped us retrieve the”—Fielle looked around, to make sure no one was listening, because what she was about to say was known to only a limited number of Sisters—“computers from the jungles of Rossak. Without them, we would have lost all our breeding records.”

“Yes, Venport served our purposes.” Valya nodded. “His wife, Cioba, is one of us, and a Sorceress as well. Her personal loyalty to us is above reproach, but in marital and business matters, one can never be entirely certain. We did what we had to do. But that is in the past, and we would be better served by siding with the Emperor.”

Fielle sounded sad. “Mother Superior Raquella was always grateful to Venport for helping us.”

“I am not Raquella,” Valya said. “She did not consider the implications of obligating the Sisterhood to one commercial magnate, and he thinks he can pull our puppet strings. I would rather send Venport a monetary reward for past services and be done with him than be beholden to him, as he undoubtedly believes we are now. He does favors, expecting to be repaid with high interest, like a warlord.” She pondered with a deepening frown. “In his own way, Directeur Venport is as difficult as Manford Torondo. Two troubled, troublesome personalities.” She nodded somberly. “We don’t want either of those men as enemies.”

“I understand the importance of remaining neutral,” Fielle said with a respectful bow. “I will be careful when I speak privately with the Emperor.”

As the Mentat Sister prepared to depart for Salusa Secundus, Valya felt reasonably content that the moving parts were falling neatly into place. At the back of her mind, she heard the excited chatter of women in Other Memory, those long-dead Sisters who surfaced periodically in her consciousness. They were ancient and unpredictable, but they provided her with valuable, yet often contradictory, advice. She heard one voice after another.

“Reverend Mother Valya! You focus too much on your vengeance against the Atreides,” one voice said.

“It is your legacy to be greater than Vorian Atreides, the most famous hero of the Butlerian Jihad,” said another.

“The Sisterhood is more important than the enmity of your two families. Rise above it.”

Another wise-sounding voice added, “How better to be victorious than to overshadow that man’s legacy? Greatness is your destiny, Valya Harkonnen, not pettiness. Think of the Sisterhood — not mere revenge!”

The voices faded into the background noise of other ghost memories, but Valya was not convinced. Why can’t I advance the interests of the Sisterhood and my Great House at the same time?

She frowned as she walked away, preoccupied. The messages from Other Memory were always important, but she didn’t know whether to heed their advice. Her life and destiny were on a different course, and those long-dead women knew it. Attaining her revenge was not just a personal matter; it affected all of House Harkonnen. She had vowed to see that her family was reinstated to the prominence that had been stolen from it.

I will stay on course, she thought, no matter what the inner voices say.