goodreads.ccChapter One
Book One
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time: born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place.
- from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reache...early unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.
It wa...arm night at Castle Caladan, and the ancient pile of stone that had served the Atreides family as home for twenty-six generations bore that cooled-sweat feeling it acquired befor...hange in the weather.
The old woman was let in by the side door down the vaulted passage by Paul's room and she was allowe...oment to peer in at him where he lay in his bed.
By the half-light o...uspensor lamp, dimmed and hanging near the floor, the awakened boy could se...ulky female shape at his door, standing one step ahead of his mother. The old woman wa...itch shado...air like matted spiderwebs, hooded 'round darkness of features, eyes like glittering jewels.
"Is he not small for his age, Jessica?" the old woman asked. Her voice wheezed and twanged like an untuned baliset.
Paul's mother answered in her soft contralto: "The Atreides are known to start late getting their growth, Your Reverence."
"So I've heard, so I've heard," wheezed the old woman. "Yet he's already fifteen."
"Yes, Your Reverence."
"He's awake and listening to us," said the old woman. "Sly little rascal." She chuckled. "But royalty has need of slyness. And if he's really the Kwisatz Haderac... . wel... ."
Within the shadows of his bed, Paul held his eyes open to mere slits. Two bird-bright oval...he eyes of the old woma...eemed to expand and glow as they stared into his.
"Sleep well, you sly little rascal," said the old woman. "Tomorrow you'll need all your faculties to meet my gom jabbar."
And she was gone, pushing his mother out, closing the door wit...olid thump.
Paul lay awake wondering: What'...om jabbar?
In all the upset during this time of change, the old woman was the strangest thing he had seen.
Your Reverence .
And the way she called his mother Jessica lik...ommon serving wench instead of what she wa... Bene Gesserit Lady...uke's concubine and mother of the ducal heir.
I...om jabbar something of Arraki...ust know before we go there? he wondered.
He mouthed her strange words: Gom jabba... . Kwisatz Haderach .
There had been so many things to learn. Arrakis would b...lace so different from Caladan that Paul's mind whirled with the new knowledge. Arraki...un...esert Planet .
Thufir Hawat, his father's Master of Assassins, had explained it: their mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, had been on Arrakis eighty years, holding the planet in quasi-fief unde...HOAM Company contract to mine the geriatric spice, melange. Now the Harkonnens were leaving to be replaced by the House of Atreides in fief-complet...n apparent victory for the Duke Leto. Yet, Hawat had said, this appearance contained the deadliest peril, for the Duke Leto was popular among the Great Houses of the Landsraad.
"A popular man arouses the jealousy of the powerful," Hawat had said.
Arraki...un...esert Planet .
Paul fell asleep to dream of an Arrakeen cavern, silent people all around him moving in the dim light of glowglobes. It was solemn there and lik...athedral as he listened t...aint soun...he drip-drip-drip of water. Even while he remained in the dream, Paul knew he would remember it upon awakening. He always remembered the dreams that were predictions.
The dream faded.
Paul awoke to feel himself in the warmth of his be...hinkin... . thinking. This world of Castle Caladan, without play or companions his own age, perhaps did not deserve sadness in farewell. Dr. Yueh, his teacher, had hinted that the faufreluches class system was not rigidly guarded on Arrakis. The planet sheltered people who lived at the desert edge without caid or bashar to command them: will-o'-the-sand people called Fremen, marked down on no census of the Imperial Regate.
Arraki...un...esert Planet .
Paul sensed his own tensions, decided to practice one of the mind-body lessons his mother had taught him. Three quick breaths triggered the responses: he fell into the floating awarenes... . focusing the consciousnes... . aortal dilatio... . avoiding the unfocused mechanism of consciousnes... . to be conscious by choic... . blood enriched and swift-flooding the overload region... . one does not obtain food-safety-freedom by instinct alon... . animal consciousness does not extend beyond the given moment nor into the idea that its victims may become extinc... . the animal destroys and does not produc... . animal pleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the perceptua... . the human require...ackground grid through which to see his univers... . focused consciousness by choice, this forms your gri... . bodily integrity follows nerve-blood flow according to the deepest awareness of cell need... . all things/cells/beings are impermanen... . strive for flow-permanence withi... .
Over and over and over within Paul's floating awareness the lesson rolled.
When dawn touched Paul's window sill with yellow light, he sensed it through closed eyelids, opened them, hearing then the renewed bustle and hurry in the castle, seeing the familiar patterned beams of his bedroom ceiling.
The hall door opened and his mother peered in, hair like shaded bronze held wit...lack ribbon at the crown, her oval face emotionless and green eyes staring solemnly.
"You're awake," she said. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes."
He studied the tallness of her, saw the hint of tension in her shoulders as she chose clothing for him from the closet racks. Another might have missed the tension, but she had trained him in the Bene Gesserit Way - in the minutiae of observation. She turned, holdin...emiformal jacket for him. It carried the red Atreides hawk crest above the breast pocket.
"Hurry and dress," she said. "Reverend Mother is waiting."
"I dreamed of her once," Paul said. "Who is she?"
"She was my teacher at the Bene Gesserit school. Now, she's the Emperor's Truthsayer. And Pau... . " She hesitated. "You must tell her about your dreams."
"I will. Is she the reason we got Arrakis?"
"We did not get Arrakis." Jessica flicked dust fro...air of trousers, hung them with the jacket on the dressing stand beside his bed. "Don't keep Reverend Mother waiting."
Paul sat up, hugged his knees. "What'...om jabbar?"
Again, the training she had given him exposed her almost invisible hesitation...ervous betrayal he felt as fear.
Jessica crossed to the window, flung wide the draperies, stared across the river orchards toward Mount Syub...quot;You'll learn abou... . the gom jabbar soon enough," she said.
He heard the fear in her voice and wondered at it.
Jessica spoke without turning. "Reverend Mother is waiting in my morning room. Please hurry."
The Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam sat i...apestried chair watching mother and son approach. Windows on each side of her overlooked the curving southern bend of the river and the green farmlands of the Atreides family holding, but the Reverend Mother ignored the view. She was feeling her age this morning, more tha...ittle petulant. She blamed it on space travel and association with that abominable Spacing Guild and its secretive ways. But here wa...ission that required personal attention fro...ene Gesserit-with-the-Sight. Even the Padishah Emperor's Truthsayer couldn't evade that responsibility when the duty call came.
Damn that Jessica! the Reverend Mother thought. If only she'd borne u...irl as she was ordered to do!
Jessica stopped three paces from the chair, droppe...mall curtsy...entle flick of left hand along the line of her skirt. Paul gave the short bow his dancing master had taugh...he one used "when in doubt of another's station."
The nuances of Paul's greeting were not lost on the Reverend Mother. She said: "He'...autious one, Jessica."
Jessica's hand went to Paul's shoulder, tightened there. Fo...eartbeat, fear pulsed through her palm. Then she had herself under control. "Thus he has been taught, Your Reverence."
What does she fear? Paul wondered.
The old woman studied Paul in one gestalten flicker: face oval like Jessica's, but strong bone... . hair: the Duke's black-black but with browline of the maternal grandfather who cannot be named, and that thin, disdainful nose; shape of directly staring green eyes: like the old Duke, the paternal grandfather who is dead.
Now, there wa...an who appreciated the power of bravur...ven in deat...he Reverend Mother thought.
"Teaching is one thing," she said, "the basic ingredient is another. We shall see." The old eyes darte...ard glance at Jessica. "Leave us...njoin you to practice the meditation of peace."
Jessica took her hand from Paul's shoulder. "Your Reverence... "
"Jessica, you know it must be done."
Paul looked up at his mother, puzzled.
Jessica straightened. "Ye... . of course."
Paul looked back at the Reverend Mother. Politeness and his mother's obvious awe of this old woman argued caution. Yet he felt an angry apprehension at the fear he sensed radiating from his mother.
"Pau... . " Jessica too...eep breath. "... this test you're about to receiv... . it's important to me."
"Test?" He looked up at her.
"Remember that you'r...uke's son, "Jessica said. She whirled and strode from the room i...ry swishing of skirt. The door closed solidly behind her.
Paul faced the old woman, holding anger in check. "Does one dismiss the Lady Jessica as though she wer...erving wench?"
A smile flicked the corners of the wrinkled old mouth. "The Lady Jessica was my serving wench, lad, for fourteen years at school." She nodded. "An...ood one, too. Now, you come here!"
The command whipped out at him. Paul found himself obeying before he could think about it. Using the Voice on m...e thought. He stopped at her gesture, standing beside her knees.
"See this?" she asked. From the folds of her gown, she lifte...reen metal cube about fifteen centimeters o...ide. She turned it and Paul saw that one side was ope...lack and oddly frightening. No light penetrated that open blackness.
"Put your right hand in the box," she said.
Fear shot through Paul. He started to back away, but the old woman said: "Is this how you obey your mother?"
He looked up into bird-bright eyes.
Slowly, feeling the compulsions and unable to inhibit them, Paul put his hand into the box. He felt firs...ense of cold as the blackness closed around his hand, then slick metal against his fingers an...rickling as though his hand were asleep.
A predatory look filled the old woman's features. She lifted her right hand away from the box and poised the hand close to the side of Paul's neck. He sa...lint of metal there and started to turn toward...
"Stop!" she snapped.
Using the Voice again! He swung his attention back to her face.
"I hold at your neck the gom jabbar," she said. "The gom jabbar, the high-handed enemy. It'...eedle wit...rop of poison on its tip. Ah-ah! Don't pull away or you'll feel that poison."
Paul tried to swallow i...ry throat. He could not take his attention from the seamed old face, the glistening eyes, the pale gums around silvery metal teeth that flashed as she spoke.
"A duke's son must know about poisons," she said. "It's the way of our times, eh? Musky, to be poisoned in your drink. Aumas, to be poisoned in your food. The quick ones and the slow ones and the ones in between. Here'...ew one for you: the gom jabbar. It kills only animals."
Pride overcame Paul's fear. "You dare sugges...uke's son is an animal?" he demanded.
"Let us sa...uggest you may be human," she said. "Steady...arn you not to try jerking away...m old, but my hand can drive this needle into your neck before you escape me."
"Who are you?" he whispered. "How did you trick my mother into leaving me alone with you? Are you from the Harkonnens?"
"The Harkonnens? Bless us, no! Now, be silent."...ry finger touched his neck and he stilled the involuntary urge to leap away.
"Good," she said. "You pass the first test. Now, here's the way of the rest of it: If you withdraw your hand from the box you die. This is the only rule. Keep your hand in the box and live. Withdraw it and die."
Paul too...eep breath to still his trembling. "I...all out there'll be servants on you in seconds and you'll die."
"Servants will not pass your mother who stands guard outside that door. Depend on it. Your mother survived this test. Now it's your turn. Be honored. We seldom administer this to men-children."
Curiosity reduced Paul's fear t...anageable level. He heard truth in the old woman's voice, no denying it. If his mother stood guard out ther... . if this were trul...es... . And whatever it was, he knew himself caught in it, trapped by that hand at his neck: the gom jabbar. He recalled the response from the Litany against Fear as his mother had taught him out of the Bene Gesserit rite.
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration...ill face my fear...ill permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone pas...ill turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Onl...ill remain ."
He felt calmness return, said: "Get on with it, old woman."
"Old woman!" she snapped. "You've courage, and that can't be denied. Well, we shall see, sirra." She bent close, lowered her voice almost t...hisper. "You will feel pain in this hand within the box. Pain. But! Withdraw the hand and I'll touch your neck with my gom jabba...he death so swift it's like the fall of the headsman's axe. Withdraw your hand and the gom jabbar takes you. Understand?"
"What's in the box?"
"Pain."
He felt increased tingling in his hand, pressed his lips tightly together. How could this b...est? he wondered. The tingling became an itch.
The old woman said; "You've heard of animals chewing of...eg to escap...rap? There's an animal kind of trick...uman would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remov...hreat to his kind."
The itch became the faintest burning. "Why are you doing this?" he demanded.
"To determine if you're human. Be silent."
Paul clenched his left hand int...ist as the burning sensation increased in the other hand. It mounted slowly: heat upon heat upon hea... . upon heat. He felt the fingernails of his free hand biting the palm. He tried to flex the fingers of the burning hand, but couldn't move them.
"It burns," he whispered.
"Silence!"
Pain throbbed up his arm. Sweat stood out on his forehead. Every fiber cried out to withdraw the hand from that burning pi... . bu... . the gom jabbar. Without turning his head, he tried to move his eyes to see that terrible needle poised beside his neck. He sensed that he was breathing in gasps, tried to slow his breaths and couldn't.
Pain!
His world emptied of everything except that hand immersed in agony, the ancient face inches away staring at him.
His lips were so dry he had difficulty separating them.
The burning! The burning!
He thought he could feel skin curling black on that agonized hand, the flesh crisping and dropping away until only charred bones remained.
It stopped!
As thoug...witch had been turned off, the pain stopped.
Paul felt his right arm trembling, felt sweat bathing his body.
"Enough," the old woman muttered. "Kull wahad! No woman child ever withstood that much...ust've wanted you to fail." She leaned back, withdrawing the gom jabbar from the side of his neck. "Take your hand from the box, young human, and look at it."
He fought down an aching shiver, stared at the lightless void where his hand seemed to remain of its own volition. Memory of pain inhibited every movement. Reason told him he would withdra...lackened stump from that box.
"Do it!" she snapped.
He jerked his hand from the box, stared at it astonished. No...ark. No sign of agony on the flesh. He held up the hand, turned it, flexed the fingers.
"Pain by nerve induction," she said. "Can't go around maiming potential humans. There're those who'd giv...retty for the secret of this box, though." She slipped it into the folds of her gown.
"But the pai...quot; he said.
"Pain," she sniffed. "A human can override any nerve in the body."
Paul felt his left hand aching, uncurled the clenched fingers, looked at four bloody marks where fingernails had bitten his palm. He dropped the hand to his side, looked at the old woman. "You did that to my mother once?"
"Ever sift sand throug...creen?" she asked.
The tangential slash of her question shocked his mind int...igher awareness: Sand throug...cree...e nodded.
"We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans."
He lifted his right hand, willing the memory of the pain. "And that's all there is to i...ain?"
"I observed you in pain, lad. Pain's merely the axis of the test. Your mother's told you about our ways of observing...ee the signs of her teaching in you. Our test is crisis and observation."
He heard the confirmation in her voice, said: "It's truth!"
She stared at him. He senses truth! Could he be the one? Could he truly be the one? She extinguished the excitement, reminding herself: "Hope clouds observation ."
"You know when people believe what they say," she said.
"I know it."
The harmonics of ability confirmed by repeated test were in his voice. She heard them, said: "Perhaps you are the Kwisatz Haderach. Sit down, little brother, here at my feet."
"I prefer to stand."
"Your mother sat at my feet once."
"I'm not my mother."
"You hate u...ittle, eh?" She looked toward the door, called out: "Jessica!"
The door flew open and Jessica stood there staring hard-eyed into the room. Hardness melted from her as she saw Paul. She manage...aint smile.
"Jessica, have you ever stopped hating me?" the old woman asked.
"I both love and hate you," Jessica said. "The hat...hat's from pain...ust never forget. The lov...hat'... . "
"Just the basic fact," the old woman said, but her voice was gentle. "You may come in now, but remain silent. Close that door and mind it that no one interrupts us."
Jessica stepped into the room, closed the door and stood with her back to it. My son live...he thought. My son lives and i... . human...new he wa... . bu... . he lives. Now...an go on livin...he door felt hard and real against her back. Everything in the room was immediate and pressing against her senses.
My son lives .
Paul looked at his mother. She told the trut...e wanted to get away alone and think this experience through, but knew he could not leave until he was dismissed. The old woman had gaine...ower over him. They spoke trut...is mother had undergone this test. There must be terrible purpose in i... . the pain and fear had been terrible. He understood terrible purposes. They drove against all odds. They were their own necessity. Paul felt that he had been infected with terrible purpose. He did not know yet what the terrible purpose was.
"Some day, lad," the old woman said, "you, too, may have to stand outsid...oor like that. It take...easure of doing."
Paul looked down at the hand that had known pain, then up to the Reverend Mother. The sound of her voice had containe...ifference then from any other voice in his experience. The words were outlined in brilliance. There was an edge to them. He felt that any question he might ask her would bring an answer that could lift him out of his flesh-world into something greater.
"Why do you test for humans?" he asked.
"To set you free."
"Free?"
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."
"'Thou shalt not mak...achine in the likeness o...an's mind,' " Paul quoted.
"Right out of the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible," she said. "But what the O.C. Bible should've said is: 'Thou shalt not mak...achine to counterfei...uman mind.' Have you studied the Mentat in your service?"
"I've studied with Thufir Hawat."
"The Great Revolt took awa...rutch," she said. "It forced human minds to develop. Schools were started to train human talents."
"Bene Gesserit schools?"
She nodded. "We have two chief survivors of those ancient schools: the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild. The Guild, so we think, emphasizes almost pure mathematics. Bene Gesserit performs another function."
"Politics," he said.
"Kull wahad!" the old woman said. She sen...ard glance at Jessica.
"I've not told him. Your Reverence," Jessica said.
The Reverend Mother returned her attention to Paul. "You did that on remarkably few clues," she said. "Politics indeed. The original Bene Gesserit school was directed by those who saw the need o...hread of continuity in human affairs. They saw there could be no such continuity without separating human stock from animal stoc...or breeding purposes."
The old woman's words abruptly lost their special sharpness for Paul. He felt an offense against what his mother called his instinct for rightnes...t wasn't that Reverend Mother lied to him. She obviously believed what she said. It was something deeper, something tied to his terrible purpose.
He said: "But my mother tells me many Bene Gesserit of the schools don't know their ancestry."
"The genetic lines are always in our records," she said. "Your mother knows that either she's of Bene Gesserit descent or her stock was acceptable in itself."
"Then why couldn't she know who her parents are?"
"Some d... . Many don't. We might, for example, have wanted to breed her t...lose relative to set u...ominant in some genetic trait. We have many reasons."
Again, Paul felt the offense against rightness. He said: "You tak...ot on yourselves."
The Reverend Mother stared at him, wondering: Di...ear criticism in his voice? "We carr...eavy burden," she said.
Paul felt himself coming more and more out of the shock of the test. He levele...easuring stare at her, said: "You say maybe I'm th... . Kwisatz Haderach. What's that...uman gom jabbar?"
"Paul," Jessica said. "You mustn't take that tone wit...quot;
"I'll handle this, Jessica," the old woman said. "Now, lad, do you know about the Truthsayer drug?"
"You take it to improve your ability to detect falsehood," he said. "My mother's told me."
"Have you ever seen truthtrance?"
He shook his head. "No."
"The drug's dangerous," she said, "but it gives insight. Whe...ruthsayer's gifted by the drug, she can look many places in her memor...n her body's memory. We look down so many avenues of the pas... . but only feminine avenues." Her voice took o...ote of sadness. "Yet, there'...lace where no Truthsayer can see. We are repelled by it, terrorized. It is sai...an will come one day and find in the gift of the drug his inward eye. He will look where we canno...nto both feminine and masculine pasts."
"Your Kwisatz Haderach?"
"Yes, the one who can be many places at once: the Kwisatz Haderach. Many men have tried the dru... . so many, but none has succeeded."
"They tried and failed, all of them?"
"Oh, no." She shook her head. "They tried and died."
To attempt an understanding of Muad'Dib without understanding his mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood. It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness. It cannot be.
- from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
It wa...elief globe o...orld, partly in shadows, spinning under the impetus o...at hand that glittered with rings. The globe sat o...reeform stand at one wall o...indowless room whose other walls presente...atchwork of multicolored scrolls, filmbooks, tapes and reels. Light glowed in the room from golden balls hanging in mobile suspensor fields.
An ellipsoid desk wit...op of jade-pink petrified elacca wood stood at the center of the room. Veriform suspensor chairs ringed it, two of them occupied. In one sa...ark-haired youth of about sixteen years, round of face and with sullen eyes. The other hel...lender, short man with effeminate face.
Both youth and man stared at the globe and the man half-hidden in shadows spinning it.
A chuckle sounded beside the globe...asso voice rumbled out of the chuckle: "There it is, Pite...he biggest mantrap in all history. And the Duke's headed into its jaws. Is it no...agnificent thing that I, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, do?"
"Assuredly, Baron," said the man. His voice came out tenor wit...weet, musical quality.
The fat hand descended onto the globe, stopped the spinning. Now, all eyes in the room could focus on the motionless surface and see that it was the kind of globe made for wealthy collectors or planetary governors of the Empire. It had the stamp of Imperial handicraft about it. Latitude and longitude lines were laid in with hair-fine platinum wire. The polar caps were insets of finest cloud-milk diamonds.
The fat hand moved, tracing details on the surface. "I invite you to observe," the basso voice rumbled. "Observe closely, Piter, and you, too, Feyd-Rautha, my darling: from sixty degrees north to seventy degrees sout...hese exquisite ripples. Their coloring: does it not remind you of sweet caramels? And nowhere do you see blue of lakes or rivers or seas. And these lovely polar cap...o small. Could anyone mistake this place? Arrakis! Truly unique...uperb setting fo...nique Victory."
A smile touched Piter's lips. "And to think. Baron: the Padishah Emperor believes he's given the Duke your spice planet. How poignant."
"That'...onsensical statement," the Baron rumbled. "You say this to confuse young Feyd-Rautha, but it is not necessary to confuse my nephew."
The sullen-faced youth stirred in his chair, smoothe...rinkle in the black leotards he wore. He sat upright a...iscreet tapping sounded at the door in the wall behind him.
Piter unfolded from his chair, crossed to the door, cracked it wide enough to accep...essage cylinder. He closed the door, unrolled the cylinder and scanned it...huckle sounded from him. Another.
"Well?" the Baron demanded.
"The fool answered us, Baron!"
"Whenever did an Atreides refuse the opportunity fo...esture?" the Baron asked. "Well, what does he say?"
"He's most uncouth, Baron. Addresses you as 'Harkonnen'...o 'Sire et Cher Cousin,' no title, nothing."
"It'...ood name," the Baron growled, and his voice betrayed his impatience. "What does dear Leto say?"
"He says: 'Your offer o...eeting is refused...ave ofttimes met your treachery and this all men know.' "
"And?" the Baron asked.
"He says: 'The art of kanly still has admirers in the Empire. ' He signs it: 'Duke Leto of Arrakis.' " Piter began to laugh. "Of Arrakis! Oh, my! This is almost too rich!"
"Be silent, Piter," the Baron said, and the laughter stopped as though shut off wit...witch. "Kanly, is it?" the Baron asked. "Vendetta, heh? And he uses the nice old word so rich in tradition to be sur...now he means it."
"You made the peace gesture," Piter said. "The forms have been obeyed."
"Fo...entat, you talk too much, Piter," the Baron said. And he thought...ust do away with that one soon. He has almost outlived his usefulnes...he Baron stared across the room at his Mental assassin, seeing the feature about him that most people noticed first: the eyes, the shaded slits of blue within blue, the eyes without any white in them at all.
A grin flashed across Piter's face. It was lik...ask grimace beneath those eyes like holes. "But, Baron! Never has revenge been more beautiful. It is to se...lan of the most exquisite treachery: to make Leto exchange Caladan for Dun...nd without alternative because the Emperor orders it. How waggish of you!"
I...old voice, the Baron said: "You hav...lux of the mouth, Piter."
"Bu...m happy, my Baron. Whereas yo... . you are touched by jealousy."
"Piter!"
"Ah-ah. Baron! Is it not regrettable you were unable to devise this delicious scheme by yourself?"
"Someda...ill have you strangled, Piter."
"O...ertainty, Baron. Enfin! Bu...ind act is never lost, eh?"
"Have you been chewing verite or semuta, Piter?"
"Truth without fear surprises the Baron," Piter said. His face drew down int...aricature o...rowning mask. "Ah, hah! But you see, Baron...now a...entat when you will send the executioner. You will hold back just so long a...m useful. To move sooner would be wasteful and I'm yet of much use...now what it is you learned from that lovely Dune plane...aste not. True, Baron?"
The Baron continued to stare at Piter.
Feyd-Rautha squirmed in his chair. These wrangling fools! he thought. My uncle cannot talk to his Mental without arguing. Do they think I've nothing to do except listen their arguments?
"Feyd," the Baron said. "I told you to listen and learn whe...nvited you in here. Are you learning?"
"Yes, Uncle." the voice was carefully subservient.
"Sometime...onder about Piter," the Baron said. "I cause pain out of necessity, but h... ...wear he take...ositive delight in it. For myself...an feel pity toward the poor Duke Leto. Dr. Yueh will move against him soon, and that'll be the end of all the Atreides. But surely Leto will know whose hand directed the pliant docto... . and knowing that will b...errible thing."
"Then why haven't you directed the doctor to sli...indjal between his ribs quietly and efficiently?" Piter asked. "You talk of pity, bu...quot;
"The Duke must know whe...ncompass his doom," the Baron said. "And the other Great Houses must learn of it. The knowledge will give them pause. I'll gai...it more room to maneuver. The necessity is obvious, bu...on't have to like it."
"Room to maneuver," Piter sneered. "Already you have the Emperor's eyes on you, Baron. You move too boldly. One day the Emperor will sen...egion or two of his Sardaukar down here onto Giedi Prime and that'll be an end to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen."
"You'd like to see that, wouldn't you, Piter?" the Baron asked. "You'd enjoy seeing the Corps of Sardaukar pillage through my cities and sack this castle. You'd truly enjoy that."
"Does the Baron need to ask?" Piter whispered.
"You should've bee...ashar of the Corps," the Baron said. "You're too interested in blood and pain. Perhap...as too quick with my promise of the spoils of Arrakis."
Piter took five curiously mincing steps into the room, stopped directly behind Feyd-Rautha. There wa...ight air of tension in the room, and the youth looked up at Piter wit...orried frown.
"Do not toy with Piter, Baron," Piter said. "You promised me the Lady Jessica. You promised her to me."
"For what, Piter?" the Baron asked. "For pain?"
Piter stared at him, dragging out the silence.
Feyd-Rautha moved his suspensor chair to one side, said: "Uncle, d...ave to stay? You said you'...quot;
"My darling Feyd-Rautha grows impatient," the Baron said. He moved within the shadows beside the globe. "Patience, Feyd." And he turned his attention back to the Mentat. "What of the Dukeling, the child Paul, my dear Piter?"
"The trap will bring him to you, Baron," Piter muttered.
"That's not my question," the Baron said. "You'll recall that you predicted the Bene Gesserit witch would bea...aughter to the Duke. You were wrong, eh, Mentat?"
"I'm not often wrong, Baron," Piter said, and for the first time there was fear in his voice. "Give me that: I'm not often wrong. And you know yourself these Bene Gesserit bear mostly daughters. Even the Emperor's consort had produced only females."
"Uncle," said Feyd-Rautha, "you said there'd be something important here for me t...quot;
"Listen to my nephew," the Baron said. "He aspires to rule my Barony, yet he cannot rule himself." The Baron stirred beside the globe...hadow among shadows. "Well then, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen...ummoned you here hoping to teach yo...it of wisdom. Have you observed our good Mentat? You should've learned something from this exchange."
"But, Uncl...quot;
"A most efficient Mentat, Piter, wouldn't you say, Feyd?"
"Yes, bu...quot;
"Ah! Indeed but! But he consumes too much spice, eats it like candy. Look at his eyes! He might've come directly from the Arrakeen labor pool. Efficient, Piter, but he's still emotional and prone to passionate outbursts. Efficient, Piter, but he still can err."
Piter spoke i...ow, sullen tone: "Did you call me in here to impair my efficiency with criticism, Baron?"
"Impair your efficiency? You know me better, Piter...ish only for my nephew to understand the limitations o...entat."
"Are you already training my replacement?" Piter demanded.
"Replace you? Why, Piter, where coul...ind another Mentat with your cunning and venom?"
"The same place you found me, Baron."
"Perhap...hould at that," the Baron mused. "You do see...it unstable lately. And the spice you eat!"
"Are my pleasures too expensive, Baron? Do you object to them?"
"My dear Piter, your pleasures are what tie you to me. How coul...bject to that...erely wish my nephew to observe this about you."
"Then I'm on display," Piter said. "Shal...ance? Shal...erform my various functions for the eminent Feyd-Ra...quot;
"Precisely," the Baron said. "You are on display. Now, be silent." He glanced at Feyd-Rautha, noting his nephew's lips, the full and pouting look of them, the Harkonnen genetic marker, now twisted slightly in amusement. "This i...entat, Feyd. It has been trained and conditioned to perform certain duties. The fact that it's encased i...uman body, however, must not be overlooked...erious drawback, that...ometimes think the ancients with their thinking machines had the right idea."
"They were toys compared to me," Piter snarled. "You yourself, Baron, could outperform those machines ."
"Perhaps," the Baron said. "Ah, wel... . " He too...eep breath, belched. "Now, Piter, outline for my nephew the salient features of our campaign against the House of Atreides. Function a...entat for us, if you please."
"Baron, I've warned you not to trust one so young with this information. My observations o...quot;
"I'll be the judge of this," the Baron said. "I give you an order, Mentat. Perform one of your various functions."
"So be it," Piter said. He straightened, assuming an odd attitude of dignit...s though it were another mask, but this time clothing his entire body. "I...ew days Standard, the entire household of the Duke Leto will embark o...pacing Guild liner for Arrakis. The Guild will deposit them at the city of Arrakeen rather than at our city of Cartha...he Duke's Mentat, Thufir Hawat, will have concluded rightly that Arrakeen is easier to defend."
...
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time: born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place.
- from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reache...early unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.
It wa...arm night at Castle Caladan, and the ancient pile of stone that had served the Atreides family as home for twenty-six generations bore that cooled-sweat feeling it acquired befor...hange in the weather.
The old woman was let in by the side door down the vaulted passage by Paul's room and she was allowe...oment to peer in at him where he lay in his bed.
By the half-light o...uspensor lamp, dimmed and hanging near the floor, the awakened boy could se...ulky female shape at his door, standing one step ahead of his mother. The old woman wa...itch shado...air like matted spiderwebs, hooded 'round darkness of features, eyes like glittering jewels.
"Is he not small for his age, Jessica?" the old woman asked. Her voice wheezed and twanged like an untuned baliset.
Paul's mother answered in her soft contralto: "The Atreides are known to start late getting their growth, Your Reverence."
"So I've heard, so I've heard," wheezed the old woman. "Yet he's already fifteen."
"Yes, Your Reverence."
"He's awake and listening to us," said the old woman. "Sly little rascal." She chuckled. "But royalty has need of slyness. And if he's really the Kwisatz Haderac... . wel... ."
Within the shadows of his bed, Paul held his eyes open to mere slits. Two bird-bright oval...he eyes of the old woma...eemed to expand and glow as they stared into his.
"Sleep well, you sly little rascal," said the old woman. "Tomorrow you'll need all your faculties to meet my gom jabbar."
And she was gone, pushing his mother out, closing the door wit...olid thump.
Paul lay awake wondering: What'...om jabbar?
In all the upset during this time of change, the old woman was the strangest thing he had seen.
Your Reverence .
And the way she called his mother Jessica lik...ommon serving wench instead of what she wa... Bene Gesserit Lady...uke's concubine and mother of the ducal heir.
I...om jabbar something of Arraki...ust know before we go there? he wondered.
He mouthed her strange words: Gom jabba... . Kwisatz Haderach .
There had been so many things to learn. Arrakis would b...lace so different from Caladan that Paul's mind whirled with the new knowledge. Arraki...un...esert Planet .
Thufir Hawat, his father's Master of Assassins, had explained it: their mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, had been on Arrakis eighty years, holding the planet in quasi-fief unde...HOAM Company contract to mine the geriatric spice, melange. Now the Harkonnens were leaving to be replaced by the House of Atreides in fief-complet...n apparent victory for the Duke Leto. Yet, Hawat had said, this appearance contained the deadliest peril, for the Duke Leto was popular among the Great Houses of the Landsraad.
"A popular man arouses the jealousy of the powerful," Hawat had said.
Arraki...un...esert Planet .
Paul fell asleep to dream of an Arrakeen cavern, silent people all around him moving in the dim light of glowglobes. It was solemn there and lik...athedral as he listened t...aint soun...he drip-drip-drip of water. Even while he remained in the dream, Paul knew he would remember it upon awakening. He always remembered the dreams that were predictions.
The dream faded.
Paul awoke to feel himself in the warmth of his be...hinkin... . thinking. This world of Castle Caladan, without play or companions his own age, perhaps did not deserve sadness in farewell. Dr. Yueh, his teacher, had hinted that the faufreluches class system was not rigidly guarded on Arrakis. The planet sheltered people who lived at the desert edge without caid or bashar to command them: will-o'-the-sand people called Fremen, marked down on no census of the Imperial Regate.
Arraki...un...esert Planet .
Paul sensed his own tensions, decided to practice one of the mind-body lessons his mother had taught him. Three quick breaths triggered the responses: he fell into the floating awarenes... . focusing the consciousnes... . aortal dilatio... . avoiding the unfocused mechanism of consciousnes... . to be conscious by choic... . blood enriched and swift-flooding the overload region... . one does not obtain food-safety-freedom by instinct alon... . animal consciousness does not extend beyond the given moment nor into the idea that its victims may become extinc... . the animal destroys and does not produc... . animal pleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the perceptua... . the human require...ackground grid through which to see his univers... . focused consciousness by choice, this forms your gri... . bodily integrity follows nerve-blood flow according to the deepest awareness of cell need... . all things/cells/beings are impermanen... . strive for flow-permanence withi... .
Over and over and over within Paul's floating awareness the lesson rolled.
When dawn touched Paul's window sill with yellow light, he sensed it through closed eyelids, opened them, hearing then the renewed bustle and hurry in the castle, seeing the familiar patterned beams of his bedroom ceiling.
The hall door opened and his mother peered in, hair like shaded bronze held wit...lack ribbon at the crown, her oval face emotionless and green eyes staring solemnly.
"You're awake," she said. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes."
He studied the tallness of her, saw the hint of tension in her shoulders as she chose clothing for him from the closet racks. Another might have missed the tension, but she had trained him in the Bene Gesserit Way - in the minutiae of observation. She turned, holdin...emiformal jacket for him. It carried the red Atreides hawk crest above the breast pocket.
"Hurry and dress," she said. "Reverend Mother is waiting."
"I dreamed of her once," Paul said. "Who is she?"
"She was my teacher at the Bene Gesserit school. Now, she's the Emperor's Truthsayer. And Pau... . " She hesitated. "You must tell her about your dreams."
"I will. Is she the reason we got Arrakis?"
"We did not get Arrakis." Jessica flicked dust fro...air of trousers, hung them with the jacket on the dressing stand beside his bed. "Don't keep Reverend Mother waiting."
Paul sat up, hugged his knees. "What'...om jabbar?"
Again, the training she had given him exposed her almost invisible hesitation...ervous betrayal he felt as fear.
Jessica crossed to the window, flung wide the draperies, stared across the river orchards toward Mount Syub...quot;You'll learn abou... . the gom jabbar soon enough," she said.
He heard the fear in her voice and wondered at it.
Jessica spoke without turning. "Reverend Mother is waiting in my morning room. Please hurry."
The Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam sat i...apestried chair watching mother and son approach. Windows on each side of her overlooked the curving southern bend of the river and the green farmlands of the Atreides family holding, but the Reverend Mother ignored the view. She was feeling her age this morning, more tha...ittle petulant. She blamed it on space travel and association with that abominable Spacing Guild and its secretive ways. But here wa...ission that required personal attention fro...ene Gesserit-with-the-Sight. Even the Padishah Emperor's Truthsayer couldn't evade that responsibility when the duty call came.
Damn that Jessica! the Reverend Mother thought. If only she'd borne u...irl as she was ordered to do!
Jessica stopped three paces from the chair, droppe...mall curtsy...entle flick of left hand along the line of her skirt. Paul gave the short bow his dancing master had taugh...he one used "when in doubt of another's station."
The nuances of Paul's greeting were not lost on the Reverend Mother. She said: "He'...autious one, Jessica."
Jessica's hand went to Paul's shoulder, tightened there. Fo...eartbeat, fear pulsed through her palm. Then she had herself under control. "Thus he has been taught, Your Reverence."
What does she fear? Paul wondered.
The old woman studied Paul in one gestalten flicker: face oval like Jessica's, but strong bone... . hair: the Duke's black-black but with browline of the maternal grandfather who cannot be named, and that thin, disdainful nose; shape of directly staring green eyes: like the old Duke, the paternal grandfather who is dead.
Now, there wa...an who appreciated the power of bravur...ven in deat...he Reverend Mother thought.
"Teaching is one thing," she said, "the basic ingredient is another. We shall see." The old eyes darte...ard glance at Jessica. "Leave us...njoin you to practice the meditation of peace."
Jessica took her hand from Paul's shoulder. "Your Reverence... "
"Jessica, you know it must be done."
Paul looked up at his mother, puzzled.
Jessica straightened. "Ye... . of course."
Paul looked back at the Reverend Mother. Politeness and his mother's obvious awe of this old woman argued caution. Yet he felt an angry apprehension at the fear he sensed radiating from his mother.
"Pau... . " Jessica too...eep breath. "... this test you're about to receiv... . it's important to me."
"Test?" He looked up at her.
"Remember that you'r...uke's son, "Jessica said. She whirled and strode from the room i...ry swishing of skirt. The door closed solidly behind her.
Paul faced the old woman, holding anger in check. "Does one dismiss the Lady Jessica as though she wer...erving wench?"
A smile flicked the corners of the wrinkled old mouth. "The Lady Jessica was my serving wench, lad, for fourteen years at school." She nodded. "An...ood one, too. Now, you come here!"
The command whipped out at him. Paul found himself obeying before he could think about it. Using the Voice on m...e thought. He stopped at her gesture, standing beside her knees.
"See this?" she asked. From the folds of her gown, she lifte...reen metal cube about fifteen centimeters o...ide. She turned it and Paul saw that one side was ope...lack and oddly frightening. No light penetrated that open blackness.
"Put your right hand in the box," she said.
Fear shot through Paul. He started to back away, but the old woman said: "Is this how you obey your mother?"
He looked up into bird-bright eyes.
Slowly, feeling the compulsions and unable to inhibit them, Paul put his hand into the box. He felt firs...ense of cold as the blackness closed around his hand, then slick metal against his fingers an...rickling as though his hand were asleep.
A predatory look filled the old woman's features. She lifted her right hand away from the box and poised the hand close to the side of Paul's neck. He sa...lint of metal there and started to turn toward...
"Stop!" she snapped.
Using the Voice again! He swung his attention back to her face.
"I hold at your neck the gom jabbar," she said. "The gom jabbar, the high-handed enemy. It'...eedle wit...rop of poison on its tip. Ah-ah! Don't pull away or you'll feel that poison."
Paul tried to swallow i...ry throat. He could not take his attention from the seamed old face, the glistening eyes, the pale gums around silvery metal teeth that flashed as she spoke.
"A duke's son must know about poisons," she said. "It's the way of our times, eh? Musky, to be poisoned in your drink. Aumas, to be poisoned in your food. The quick ones and the slow ones and the ones in between. Here'...ew one for you: the gom jabbar. It kills only animals."
Pride overcame Paul's fear. "You dare sugges...uke's son is an animal?" he demanded.
"Let us sa...uggest you may be human," she said. "Steady...arn you not to try jerking away...m old, but my hand can drive this needle into your neck before you escape me."
"Who are you?" he whispered. "How did you trick my mother into leaving me alone with you? Are you from the Harkonnens?"
"The Harkonnens? Bless us, no! Now, be silent."...ry finger touched his neck and he stilled the involuntary urge to leap away.
"Good," she said. "You pass the first test. Now, here's the way of the rest of it: If you withdraw your hand from the box you die. This is the only rule. Keep your hand in the box and live. Withdraw it and die."
Paul too...eep breath to still his trembling. "I...all out there'll be servants on you in seconds and you'll die."
"Servants will not pass your mother who stands guard outside that door. Depend on it. Your mother survived this test. Now it's your turn. Be honored. We seldom administer this to men-children."
Curiosity reduced Paul's fear t...anageable level. He heard truth in the old woman's voice, no denying it. If his mother stood guard out ther... . if this were trul...es... . And whatever it was, he knew himself caught in it, trapped by that hand at his neck: the gom jabbar. He recalled the response from the Litany against Fear as his mother had taught him out of the Bene Gesserit rite.
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration...ill face my fear...ill permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone pas...ill turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Onl...ill remain ."
He felt calmness return, said: "Get on with it, old woman."
"Old woman!" she snapped. "You've courage, and that can't be denied. Well, we shall see, sirra." She bent close, lowered her voice almost t...hisper. "You will feel pain in this hand within the box. Pain. But! Withdraw the hand and I'll touch your neck with my gom jabba...he death so swift it's like the fall of the headsman's axe. Withdraw your hand and the gom jabbar takes you. Understand?"
"What's in the box?"
"Pain."
He felt increased tingling in his hand, pressed his lips tightly together. How could this b...est? he wondered. The tingling became an itch.
The old woman said; "You've heard of animals chewing of...eg to escap...rap? There's an animal kind of trick...uman would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remov...hreat to his kind."
The itch became the faintest burning. "Why are you doing this?" he demanded.
"To determine if you're human. Be silent."
Paul clenched his left hand int...ist as the burning sensation increased in the other hand. It mounted slowly: heat upon heat upon hea... . upon heat. He felt the fingernails of his free hand biting the palm. He tried to flex the fingers of the burning hand, but couldn't move them.
"It burns," he whispered.
"Silence!"
Pain throbbed up his arm. Sweat stood out on his forehead. Every fiber cried out to withdraw the hand from that burning pi... . bu... . the gom jabbar. Without turning his head, he tried to move his eyes to see that terrible needle poised beside his neck. He sensed that he was breathing in gasps, tried to slow his breaths and couldn't.
Pain!
His world emptied of everything except that hand immersed in agony, the ancient face inches away staring at him.
His lips were so dry he had difficulty separating them.
The burning! The burning!
He thought he could feel skin curling black on that agonized hand, the flesh crisping and dropping away until only charred bones remained.
It stopped!
As thoug...witch had been turned off, the pain stopped.
Paul felt his right arm trembling, felt sweat bathing his body.
"Enough," the old woman muttered. "Kull wahad! No woman child ever withstood that much...ust've wanted you to fail." She leaned back, withdrawing the gom jabbar from the side of his neck. "Take your hand from the box, young human, and look at it."
He fought down an aching shiver, stared at the lightless void where his hand seemed to remain of its own volition. Memory of pain inhibited every movement. Reason told him he would withdra...lackened stump from that box.
"Do it!" she snapped.
He jerked his hand from the box, stared at it astonished. No...ark. No sign of agony on the flesh. He held up the hand, turned it, flexed the fingers.
"Pain by nerve induction," she said. "Can't go around maiming potential humans. There're those who'd giv...retty for the secret of this box, though." She slipped it into the folds of her gown.
"But the pai...quot; he said.
"Pain," she sniffed. "A human can override any nerve in the body."
Paul felt his left hand aching, uncurled the clenched fingers, looked at four bloody marks where fingernails had bitten his palm. He dropped the hand to his side, looked at the old woman. "You did that to my mother once?"
"Ever sift sand throug...creen?" she asked.
The tangential slash of her question shocked his mind int...igher awareness: Sand throug...cree...e nodded.
"We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans."
He lifted his right hand, willing the memory of the pain. "And that's all there is to i...ain?"
"I observed you in pain, lad. Pain's merely the axis of the test. Your mother's told you about our ways of observing...ee the signs of her teaching in you. Our test is crisis and observation."
He heard the confirmation in her voice, said: "It's truth!"
She stared at him. He senses truth! Could he be the one? Could he truly be the one? She extinguished the excitement, reminding herself: "Hope clouds observation ."
"You know when people believe what they say," she said.
"I know it."
The harmonics of ability confirmed by repeated test were in his voice. She heard them, said: "Perhaps you are the Kwisatz Haderach. Sit down, little brother, here at my feet."
"I prefer to stand."
"Your mother sat at my feet once."
"I'm not my mother."
"You hate u...ittle, eh?" She looked toward the door, called out: "Jessica!"
The door flew open and Jessica stood there staring hard-eyed into the room. Hardness melted from her as she saw Paul. She manage...aint smile.
"Jessica, have you ever stopped hating me?" the old woman asked.
"I both love and hate you," Jessica said. "The hat...hat's from pain...ust never forget. The lov...hat'... . "
"Just the basic fact," the old woman said, but her voice was gentle. "You may come in now, but remain silent. Close that door and mind it that no one interrupts us."
Jessica stepped into the room, closed the door and stood with her back to it. My son live...he thought. My son lives and i... . human...new he wa... . bu... . he lives. Now...an go on livin...he door felt hard and real against her back. Everything in the room was immediate and pressing against her senses.
My son lives .
Paul looked at his mother. She told the trut...e wanted to get away alone and think this experience through, but knew he could not leave until he was dismissed. The old woman had gaine...ower over him. They spoke trut...is mother had undergone this test. There must be terrible purpose in i... . the pain and fear had been terrible. He understood terrible purposes. They drove against all odds. They were their own necessity. Paul felt that he had been infected with terrible purpose. He did not know yet what the terrible purpose was.
"Some day, lad," the old woman said, "you, too, may have to stand outsid...oor like that. It take...easure of doing."
Paul looked down at the hand that had known pain, then up to the Reverend Mother. The sound of her voice had containe...ifference then from any other voice in his experience. The words were outlined in brilliance. There was an edge to them. He felt that any question he might ask her would bring an answer that could lift him out of his flesh-world into something greater.
"Why do you test for humans?" he asked.
"To set you free."
"Free?"
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."
"'Thou shalt not mak...achine in the likeness o...an's mind,' " Paul quoted.
"Right out of the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible," she said. "But what the O.C. Bible should've said is: 'Thou shalt not mak...achine to counterfei...uman mind.' Have you studied the Mentat in your service?"
"I've studied with Thufir Hawat."
"The Great Revolt took awa...rutch," she said. "It forced human minds to develop. Schools were started to train human talents."
"Bene Gesserit schools?"
She nodded. "We have two chief survivors of those ancient schools: the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild. The Guild, so we think, emphasizes almost pure mathematics. Bene Gesserit performs another function."
"Politics," he said.
"Kull wahad!" the old woman said. She sen...ard glance at Jessica.
"I've not told him. Your Reverence," Jessica said.
The Reverend Mother returned her attention to Paul. "You did that on remarkably few clues," she said. "Politics indeed. The original Bene Gesserit school was directed by those who saw the need o...hread of continuity in human affairs. They saw there could be no such continuity without separating human stock from animal stoc...or breeding purposes."
The old woman's words abruptly lost their special sharpness for Paul. He felt an offense against what his mother called his instinct for rightnes...t wasn't that Reverend Mother lied to him. She obviously believed what she said. It was something deeper, something tied to his terrible purpose.
He said: "But my mother tells me many Bene Gesserit of the schools don't know their ancestry."
"The genetic lines are always in our records," she said. "Your mother knows that either she's of Bene Gesserit descent or her stock was acceptable in itself."
"Then why couldn't she know who her parents are?"
"Some d... . Many don't. We might, for example, have wanted to breed her t...lose relative to set u...ominant in some genetic trait. We have many reasons."
Again, Paul felt the offense against rightness. He said: "You tak...ot on yourselves."
The Reverend Mother stared at him, wondering: Di...ear criticism in his voice? "We carr...eavy burden," she said.
Paul felt himself coming more and more out of the shock of the test. He levele...easuring stare at her, said: "You say maybe I'm th... . Kwisatz Haderach. What's that...uman gom jabbar?"
"Paul," Jessica said. "You mustn't take that tone wit...quot;
"I'll handle this, Jessica," the old woman said. "Now, lad, do you know about the Truthsayer drug?"
"You take it to improve your ability to detect falsehood," he said. "My mother's told me."
"Have you ever seen truthtrance?"
He shook his head. "No."
"The drug's dangerous," she said, "but it gives insight. Whe...ruthsayer's gifted by the drug, she can look many places in her memor...n her body's memory. We look down so many avenues of the pas... . but only feminine avenues." Her voice took o...ote of sadness. "Yet, there'...lace where no Truthsayer can see. We are repelled by it, terrorized. It is sai...an will come one day and find in the gift of the drug his inward eye. He will look where we canno...nto both feminine and masculine pasts."
"Your Kwisatz Haderach?"
"Yes, the one who can be many places at once: the Kwisatz Haderach. Many men have tried the dru... . so many, but none has succeeded."
"They tried and failed, all of them?"
"Oh, no." She shook her head. "They tried and died."
To attempt an understanding of Muad'Dib without understanding his mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood. It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness. It cannot be.
- from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
It wa...elief globe o...orld, partly in shadows, spinning under the impetus o...at hand that glittered with rings. The globe sat o...reeform stand at one wall o...indowless room whose other walls presente...atchwork of multicolored scrolls, filmbooks, tapes and reels. Light glowed in the room from golden balls hanging in mobile suspensor fields.
An ellipsoid desk wit...op of jade-pink petrified elacca wood stood at the center of the room. Veriform suspensor chairs ringed it, two of them occupied. In one sa...ark-haired youth of about sixteen years, round of face and with sullen eyes. The other hel...lender, short man with effeminate face.
Both youth and man stared at the globe and the man half-hidden in shadows spinning it.
A chuckle sounded beside the globe...asso voice rumbled out of the chuckle: "There it is, Pite...he biggest mantrap in all history. And the Duke's headed into its jaws. Is it no...agnificent thing that I, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, do?"
"Assuredly, Baron," said the man. His voice came out tenor wit...weet, musical quality.
The fat hand descended onto the globe, stopped the spinning. Now, all eyes in the room could focus on the motionless surface and see that it was the kind of globe made for wealthy collectors or planetary governors of the Empire. It had the stamp of Imperial handicraft about it. Latitude and longitude lines were laid in with hair-fine platinum wire. The polar caps were insets of finest cloud-milk diamonds.
The fat hand moved, tracing details on the surface. "I invite you to observe," the basso voice rumbled. "Observe closely, Piter, and you, too, Feyd-Rautha, my darling: from sixty degrees north to seventy degrees sout...hese exquisite ripples. Their coloring: does it not remind you of sweet caramels? And nowhere do you see blue of lakes or rivers or seas. And these lovely polar cap...o small. Could anyone mistake this place? Arrakis! Truly unique...uperb setting fo...nique Victory."
A smile touched Piter's lips. "And to think. Baron: the Padishah Emperor believes he's given the Duke your spice planet. How poignant."
"That'...onsensical statement," the Baron rumbled. "You say this to confuse young Feyd-Rautha, but it is not necessary to confuse my nephew."
The sullen-faced youth stirred in his chair, smoothe...rinkle in the black leotards he wore. He sat upright a...iscreet tapping sounded at the door in the wall behind him.
Piter unfolded from his chair, crossed to the door, cracked it wide enough to accep...essage cylinder. He closed the door, unrolled the cylinder and scanned it...huckle sounded from him. Another.
"Well?" the Baron demanded.
"The fool answered us, Baron!"
"Whenever did an Atreides refuse the opportunity fo...esture?" the Baron asked. "Well, what does he say?"
"He's most uncouth, Baron. Addresses you as 'Harkonnen'...o 'Sire et Cher Cousin,' no title, nothing."
"It'...ood name," the Baron growled, and his voice betrayed his impatience. "What does dear Leto say?"
"He says: 'Your offer o...eeting is refused...ave ofttimes met your treachery and this all men know.' "
"And?" the Baron asked.
"He says: 'The art of kanly still has admirers in the Empire. ' He signs it: 'Duke Leto of Arrakis.' " Piter began to laugh. "Of Arrakis! Oh, my! This is almost too rich!"
"Be silent, Piter," the Baron said, and the laughter stopped as though shut off wit...witch. "Kanly, is it?" the Baron asked. "Vendetta, heh? And he uses the nice old word so rich in tradition to be sur...now he means it."
"You made the peace gesture," Piter said. "The forms have been obeyed."
"Fo...entat, you talk too much, Piter," the Baron said. And he thought...ust do away with that one soon. He has almost outlived his usefulnes...he Baron stared across the room at his Mental assassin, seeing the feature about him that most people noticed first: the eyes, the shaded slits of blue within blue, the eyes without any white in them at all.
A grin flashed across Piter's face. It was lik...ask grimace beneath those eyes like holes. "But, Baron! Never has revenge been more beautiful. It is to se...lan of the most exquisite treachery: to make Leto exchange Caladan for Dun...nd without alternative because the Emperor orders it. How waggish of you!"
I...old voice, the Baron said: "You hav...lux of the mouth, Piter."
"Bu...m happy, my Baron. Whereas yo... . you are touched by jealousy."
"Piter!"
"Ah-ah. Baron! Is it not regrettable you were unable to devise this delicious scheme by yourself?"
"Someda...ill have you strangled, Piter."
"O...ertainty, Baron. Enfin! Bu...ind act is never lost, eh?"
"Have you been chewing verite or semuta, Piter?"
"Truth without fear surprises the Baron," Piter said. His face drew down int...aricature o...rowning mask. "Ah, hah! But you see, Baron...now a...entat when you will send the executioner. You will hold back just so long a...m useful. To move sooner would be wasteful and I'm yet of much use...now what it is you learned from that lovely Dune plane...aste not. True, Baron?"
The Baron continued to stare at Piter.
Feyd-Rautha squirmed in his chair. These wrangling fools! he thought. My uncle cannot talk to his Mental without arguing. Do they think I've nothing to do except listen their arguments?
"Feyd," the Baron said. "I told you to listen and learn whe...nvited you in here. Are you learning?"
"Yes, Uncle." the voice was carefully subservient.
"Sometime...onder about Piter," the Baron said. "I cause pain out of necessity, but h... ...wear he take...ositive delight in it. For myself...an feel pity toward the poor Duke Leto. Dr. Yueh will move against him soon, and that'll be the end of all the Atreides. But surely Leto will know whose hand directed the pliant docto... . and knowing that will b...errible thing."
"Then why haven't you directed the doctor to sli...indjal between his ribs quietly and efficiently?" Piter asked. "You talk of pity, bu...quot;
"The Duke must know whe...ncompass his doom," the Baron said. "And the other Great Houses must learn of it. The knowledge will give them pause. I'll gai...it more room to maneuver. The necessity is obvious, bu...on't have to like it."
"Room to maneuver," Piter sneered. "Already you have the Emperor's eyes on you, Baron. You move too boldly. One day the Emperor will sen...egion or two of his Sardaukar down here onto Giedi Prime and that'll be an end to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen."
"You'd like to see that, wouldn't you, Piter?" the Baron asked. "You'd enjoy seeing the Corps of Sardaukar pillage through my cities and sack this castle. You'd truly enjoy that."
"Does the Baron need to ask?" Piter whispered.
"You should've bee...ashar of the Corps," the Baron said. "You're too interested in blood and pain. Perhap...as too quick with my promise of the spoils of Arrakis."
Piter took five curiously mincing steps into the room, stopped directly behind Feyd-Rautha. There wa...ight air of tension in the room, and the youth looked up at Piter wit...orried frown.
"Do not toy with Piter, Baron," Piter said. "You promised me the Lady Jessica. You promised her to me."
"For what, Piter?" the Baron asked. "For pain?"
Piter stared at him, dragging out the silence.
Feyd-Rautha moved his suspensor chair to one side, said: "Uncle, d...ave to stay? You said you'...quot;
"My darling Feyd-Rautha grows impatient," the Baron said. He moved within the shadows beside the globe. "Patience, Feyd." And he turned his attention back to the Mentat. "What of the Dukeling, the child Paul, my dear Piter?"
"The trap will bring him to you, Baron," Piter muttered.
"That's not my question," the Baron said. "You'll recall that you predicted the Bene Gesserit witch would bea...aughter to the Duke. You were wrong, eh, Mentat?"
"I'm not often wrong, Baron," Piter said, and for the first time there was fear in his voice. "Give me that: I'm not often wrong. And you know yourself these Bene Gesserit bear mostly daughters. Even the Emperor's consort had produced only females."
"Uncle," said Feyd-Rautha, "you said there'd be something important here for me t...quot;
"Listen to my nephew," the Baron said. "He aspires to rule my Barony, yet he cannot rule himself." The Baron stirred beside the globe...hadow among shadows. "Well then, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen...ummoned you here hoping to teach yo...it of wisdom. Have you observed our good Mentat? You should've learned something from this exchange."
"But, Uncl...quot;
"A most efficient Mentat, Piter, wouldn't you say, Feyd?"
"Yes, bu...quot;
"Ah! Indeed but! But he consumes too much spice, eats it like candy. Look at his eyes! He might've come directly from the Arrakeen labor pool. Efficient, Piter, but he's still emotional and prone to passionate outbursts. Efficient, Piter, but he still can err."
Piter spoke i...ow, sullen tone: "Did you call me in here to impair my efficiency with criticism, Baron?"
"Impair your efficiency? You know me better, Piter...ish only for my nephew to understand the limitations o...entat."
"Are you already training my replacement?" Piter demanded.
"Replace you? Why, Piter, where coul...ind another Mentat with your cunning and venom?"
"The same place you found me, Baron."
"Perhap...hould at that," the Baron mused. "You do see...it unstable lately. And the spice you eat!"
"Are my pleasures too expensive, Baron? Do you object to them?"
"My dear Piter, your pleasures are what tie you to me. How coul...bject to that...erely wish my nephew to observe this about you."
"Then I'm on display," Piter said. "Shal...ance? Shal...erform my various functions for the eminent Feyd-Ra...quot;
"Precisely," the Baron said. "You are on display. Now, be silent." He glanced at Feyd-Rautha, noting his nephew's lips, the full and pouting look of them, the Harkonnen genetic marker, now twisted slightly in amusement. "This i...entat, Feyd. It has been trained and conditioned to perform certain duties. The fact that it's encased i...uman body, however, must not be overlooked...erious drawback, that...ometimes think the ancients with their thinking machines had the right idea."
"They were toys compared to me," Piter snarled. "You yourself, Baron, could outperform those machines ."
"Perhaps," the Baron said. "Ah, wel... . " He too...eep breath, belched. "Now, Piter, outline for my nephew the salient features of our campaign against the House of Atreides. Function a...entat for us, if you please."
"Baron, I've warned you not to trust one so young with this information. My observations o...quot;
"I'll be the judge of this," the Baron said. "I give you an order, Mentat. Perform one of your various functions."
"So be it," Piter said. He straightened, assuming an odd attitude of dignit...s though it were another mask, but this time clothing his entire body. "I...ew days Standard, the entire household of the Duke Leto will embark o...pacing Guild liner for Arrakis. The Guild will deposit them at the city of Arrakeen rather than at our city of Cartha...he Duke's Mentat, Thufir Hawat, will have concluded rightly that Arrakeen is easier to defend."
...