goodreads.ccChapter Twenty-Four
"Arrakis i...ierce planet," the Baron said. "Storm losses ca...quot;
"We both know the figure for storm accretion," Hawat said.
"What if he has lost thirty thousand?" the Baron demanded, and blood darkened his face.
"By your own count," Hawat said, "he killed fifteen thousand over two years while losing twice that number. You say the Sardaukar accounted for another twenty thousand, possibl...ew more. And I've seen the transportation manifests for their return from Arrakis. If they killed twenty thousand, they lost almost five for one. Why won't you face these figures, Baron, and understand what they mean?"
The Baron spoke i...oldly measured cadence: "This is your job, Mentat. What do they mean?"
"I gave you Duncan Idaho's head count on the sietch he visited," Hawat said. "It all fits. If they had just two hundred and fifty such sietch communities, their population would be about five million. My best estimate is that they had at least twice that many communities. You scatter your population on suc...lanet."
"Ten million?" The Baron's jowls quivered with amazement.
"At least."
The Baron pursed his fat lips. The beady eyes stared without wavering at Hawat. Is this true Mentat computation? he wondered. How could this be and no one suspect?
"We haven't even cut heavily into their birth-rate-growth figure," Hawat said. "We've just weeded out some of their less successful specimens, leaving the strong to grow stronge...ust like on Salusa Secundus."
"Salusa Secundus!" the Baron barked. "What has this to do with the Emperor's prison planet?"
"A man who survives Salusa Secundus starts out being tougher than most others," Hawat said. "When you add the very best of military trainin...quot;
"Nonsense! By your argument...ould recruit from among the Fremen after the way they've been oppressed by my nephew."
Hawat spoke i...ild voice: "Don't you oppress any of your troops?"
"Wel... ... ...u...quot;
"Oppression i...elative thing," Hawat said. "Your fighting men are much better off than those around them, heh? They see unpleasant alternative to being soldiers of the Baron, heh?"
The Baron fell silent, eyes unfocused. The possibilitie...ad Rabban unwittingly given House Harkonnen its ultimate weapon?
Presently he said: "How could you be sure of the loyalty of such recruits?"
"I would take them in small groups, not larger than platoon strength," Hawat said. "I'd remove them from their oppressive situation and isolate them wit...raining cadre of people who understood their background, preferably people who had preceded them from the same oppressive situation. Then I'd fill them with the mystique that their planet had really bee...ecret training ground to produce just such superior beings as themselves. And all the while, I'd show them what such superior beings could earn: rich living, beautiful women, fine mansion... . whatever they desired."
The Baron began to nod. "The way the Sardaukar live at home."
"The recruits come to believe in time that suc...lace as Salusa Secundus is justified because it produced the...he elite. The commonest Sardaukar trooper live...ife, in many respects, as exalted as that of any member o...reat House."
"Such an idea!" the Baron whispered.
"You begin to share my suspicions," Hawat said.
"Where did suc...hing start?" the Baron asked.
"Ah, yes: Where did House Corrino originate? Were there people on Salusa Secundus before the Emperor sent his first contingents of prisoners there? Even the Duke Leto...ousin on the distaff side, never knew for sure. Such questions are not encouraged."
The Baron's eyes glazed with thought. "Yes...ery carefully kept secret. They'd use every device o...quot;
"Besides, what's there to conceal?" Hawat asked. "That the Padishah Emperor ha...rison planet? Everyone knows this. That he ha...quot;
"Count Fenring!" the Baron blurted.
Hawat broke off, studied the Baron wit...uzzled frown. "What of Count Fenring?"
"At my nephew's birthday several years ago," the Baron said. "This Imperial popinjay. Count Fenring, came as official observer and t... . ah, conclud...usiness arrangement between the Emperor and myself."
"So?"
"... . ah, during one of our conversations...eliev...aid something about makin...rison planet of Arrakis. Fenrin...quot;
"What did you say exactly?" Hawat asked.
"Exactly? That was quit...hile ago an...quot;
"My Lord Baron, if you wish to make the best use of my services, you must give me adequate information. Wasn't this conversation recorded?"
The Baron's face darkened with anger. "You're as bad as Piter...on't like thes...quot;
"Piter is no longer with you my Lord," Hawat said. "As to that, whatever did happen to Piter?"
"He became too familiar, too demanding of me," the Baron said.
"You assure me you don't wast...seful man," Hawat said. "Will you waste me by threats and quibbling? We were discussing what you said to Count Fenring."
Slowly, the Baron composed his features. When the time come...e thought, I'll remember his manner with me. Yes...ill remember .
"One moment," the Baron said, and he thought back to the meeting in his great hall. It helped to visualize the cone of silence in which they had stood. "I said something like this," the Baron said. "The Emperor know...ertain amount of killing has always been an arm of business.'...as referring to our work force losses. The...aid something about considering another solution to the Arrakeen problem an...aid the Emperor's prison planet inspired me to emulate him."
"Witch blood!" Hawat snapped. "What did Fenring say?"
"That's when he began questioning me about you."
Hawat sat back, closed his eyes in thought. "So that's why they started looking into Arrakis," he said. "Well, the thing's done." He opened his eyes. "They must have spies all over Arrakis by now. Two years!"
"But certainly my innocent suggestion tha...quot;
"Nothing is innocent in an Emperor's eyes! What were your instructions to Rabban?"
"Merely that he should teach Arrakis to fear us."
Hawat shook his head. "You now have two alternatives, Baron. You can kill off the natives, wipe them out entirely, o...quot;
"Waste an entire work force?"
"Would you prefer to have the Emperor and those Great Houses he can still swing behind him come in here and perfor...urettement, scrape out Giedi Prime lik...ollow gourd?"
The Baron studied his Mentat, then: "He wouldn't dare!"
"Wouldn't he?"
The Baron's lips quivered. "What is your alternative?"
"Abandon your dear nephew, Rabban."
"Aban... . " The Baron broke off, stared at Hawat.
"Send him no more troops, no aid of any kind. Don't answer his messages other than to say you've heard of the terrible way he's handled things on Arrakis and you intend to take corrective measures as soon as you're able. I'll arrange to have some of your messages intercepted by Imperial spies."
"But what of the spice, the revenues, th...quot;
"Demand your baronial profits, but be careful how you make your demands. Require fixed sums of Rabban. We ca...quot;
The Baron turned his hands palms up. "But how ca...e certain that my weasel nephew isn'...quot;
"We still have our spies on Arrakis. Tell Rabban he either meets the spice quotas you set him or he'll be replaced."
"I know my nephew," the Baron said. "This would only make him oppress the population even more."
"Of course he will!" Hawat snapped. "You don't want that stopped now! You merely want your own hands clean. Let Rabban make your Salusa Secundus for you. There's no need even to send him any prisoners. He has all the population required. If Rabban is driving his people to meet your spice quotas, then the Emperor need suspect no other motive. That's reason enough for putting the planet on the rack. And you, Baron, will not show by word or action that there's any other reason for this."
The Baron could not keep the sly tone of admiration out of his voice. "Ah, Hawat, you ar...evious one. Now, how do we move into Arrakis and make use of what Rabban prepares?"
"That's the simplest thing of all, Baron. If you set each year's quot...it higher than the one before, matters will soon reac...ead there. Production will drop off. You can remove Rabban and take over yoursel... . to correct the mess."
"It fits," the Baron said. "Bu...an feel myself tiring of all this. I'm preparing another to take over Arrakis for me."
Hawat studied the fat round face across from him. Slowly the old soldier-spy began to nod his head. "Feyd-Rautha," he said. "So that's the reason for the oppression now. You're very devious yourself, Baron. Perhaps we can incorporate these two schemes. Yes. Your Feyd-Rautha can go to Arrakis as their savior. He can win the populace. Yes."
The Baron smiled. And behind his smile, he asked himself: Now, how does this fit in with Hawat's personal scheming?
And Hawat, seeing that he was dismissed, arose and left the red-walled room. As he walked, he could not put down the disturbing unknowns that cropped into every computation about Arrakis. This new religious leader that Gurney Halleck hinted at from his hiding place among the smugglers, this Muad'Dib.
Perhap...hould not have told the Baron to let this religion flourish where it will, even among the folk of pan and grabe...e told himself. But it's well known that repression make...eligion flourish .
And he thought about Halleck's reports on Fremen battle tactics. The tactics smacked of Halleck himsel... . and Idah... . and even of Hawat.
Did Idaho survive? he asked himself.
But this wa...utile question. He did not yet ask himself if it was possible that Paul had survived. He knew the Baron was convinced that all Atreides were dead. The Bene Gesserit witch had been his weapon, the Baron admitted. And that could only mean an end to al...ven to the woman's own son.
Wha...oisonous hate she must've had for the Atreide...e thought. Something like the hat...old for this Baron. Will my blow be as final and complete as hers?
There is in all thing...attern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace - those qualities you find always in that which the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, in the way sand trails alon...idge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush or the pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these patterns in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death.
- from "The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Paul-Muad'Dib remembered that there had bee...eal heavy with spice essence. He clung to this memory because it was an anchor point and he could tell himself from this vantage that his immediate experience must b...ream.
I a...heater of processe...e told himself......rey to the imperfect vision, to the race consciousness and its terrible purpose .
Yet, he could not escape the fear that he had somehow overrun himself, lost his position in time, so that past and future and present mingled without distinction. It wa...ind of visual fatigue and it came, he knew, from the constant necessity of holding the prescient future a...ind of memory that was in itsel...hing intrinsically of the past.
Chani prepared the meal for m...e told himself.
Yet Chani was deep in the sout...n the cold country where the sun was ho...ecreted in one of the new sietch strongholds, safe with their son, Leto II.
Or, was tha...hing yet to happen?
No, he reassured himself, for Alia-the-Strange-One, his sister, had gone there with his mother and with Chan... twenty-thumper trip into the south, ridin...everend Mother's palanquin fixed to the back o...ild maker.
He shied away from thought of riding the giant worms, asking himself: Or is Alia yet to be born?
I was on razzi...aul recalled. We went raiding to recover the water of our dead in Arrakeen. An...ound the remains of my father in the funeral pyre...nshrined the skull of my father i...remen rock mound overlooking Harg Pass.
Or was tha...hing yet to be?
My wounds are rea...aul told himself. My scars are real. The shrine of my father's skull is real .
Still in the dreamlike state, Paul remembered that Harah, Jamis' wife, had intruded on him once to say there'd bee...ight in the sietch corridor. That had been the interim sietch before the women and children had been sent into the deep south. Harah had stood there in the entrance to the inner chamber, the black wings of her hair tied back by water rings o...hain. She had held aside the chamber's hangings and told him that Chani had just killed someone.
This happene...aul told himself. This was real, not born out of its time and subject to change .
Paul remembered he had rushed out to find Chani standing beneath the yellow globes of the corridor, clad i...rilliant blue wraparound robe with hood thrown back...lush of exertion on her elfin features. She had been sheathing her crysknife...uddled group had been hurrying away down the corridor wit...urden.
And Paul remembered telling himself: You always know when they're carryin...ody.
Chani's water rings, worn openly in sietch o...ord around her neck, tinkled as she turned toward him.
"Chani, what is this?" he asked.
"I dispatched one who came to challenge you in single combat, Usul."
"You killed him?"
"Yes. But perhap...hould've left him for Harah."
(And Paul recalled how the faces of the people around them had showed appreciation for these words. Even Harah had laughed.)
"But he came to challenge me! "
"You trained me yourself in the weirding way, Usul."
"Certainly! But you shouldn'...quot;
"I was born in the desert, Usul...now how to us...rysknife."
He suppressed his anger, tried to talk reasonably. "This may all be true, Chani, bu...quot;
"I am no longe...hild hunting scorpions in the sietch by the light o...andglobe, Usul...o not play games."
Paul glared at her, caught by the odd ferocity beneath her casual attitude.
"He was not worthy, Usul," Chani said. "I'd not disturb your meditations with the likes of him." She moved closer, looking at him out of the corners of her eyes, dropping her voice so that only he might hear. "And, beloved, when it's learned tha...hallenger may face me and be brought to shameful death by Muad'Dib's woman, there'll be fewer challengers."
Ye...aul told himself, that had certainly happened. It was true-past. And the number of challengers testing the new blade of Muad'Dib did drop dramatically .
Somewhere, i...orld not-of-the-dream, there wa...int of motion, the cry o...ightbird.
I drea...aul reassured himself. It's the spice meal .
Still, there was about hi...eeling of abandonment. He wondered it if might be possible that his ruh-spirit had slipped over somehow into the world where the Fremen believed he had his true existenc...nto the alam al-mithal, the world of similitudes, that metaphysical realm where all physical limitations were removed. And he knew fear at the thought of suc...lace, because removal of all limitations meant removal of all points of reference. In the landscape o...yth he could not orient himself and say: "I a...ecaus...m here."
His mother had said once: "The people are divided, some of them, in how they think of you."
I must be waking from the drea...aul told himself. For this had happene...hese words from his mother, the Lady Jessica who was no...everend Mother of the Fremen, these words had passed through reality.
Jessica was fearful of the religious relationship between himself and the Fremen, Paul knew. She didn't like the fact that people of both sietch and graben referred to Muad'Dib as Hi...nd she went questioning among the tribes, sending out her Sayyadina spies, collecting their answers and brooding on them.
She had quote...ene Gesserit proverb to him: "When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement become headlon...aster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget tha...recipice does not show itself to the man i...lind rush until it's too late."
Paul recalled that he had sat there in his mother's quarters, in the inner chamber shrouded by dark hangings with their surfaces covered by woven patterns out of Fremen mythology. He had sat there, hearing her out, noting the way she was always observin...ven when her eyes were lowered. Her oval face had new lines in it at the corners of the mouth, but the hair was still like polished bronze. The wide-set green eyes, though, hid beneath their over-casting of spice-imbued blue.
"The Fremen hav...imple, practical religion," he said.
"Nothing about religion is simple," she warned.
But Paul, seeing the clouded future that still hung over them, found himself swayed by anger. He could only say: "Religion unifies our forces. It's our mystique."
"You deliberately cultivate this air, this bravura," she charged. "You never cease indoctrinating."
"Thus you yourself taught me," he said.
But she had been full of contentions and arguments that day. It had been the day of the circumcision ceremony for little Leto. Paul had understood some of the reasons for her upset. She had never accepted his liaiso...he "marriage of youth"...ith Chani. But Chani had produced an Atreides son, and Jessica had found herself unable to reject the child with the mother.
Jessica had stirred finally under his stare, said: "You think me an unnatural mother."
"Of course not."
"I see the way you watch me when I'm with your sister. You don't understand about your sister."
"I know why Alia is different," he said. "She was unborn, part of you, when you changed the Water of Life. Sh...quot;
"You know nothing of it!"
And Paul, suddenly unable to express the knowledge gained out of its time, said only: "I don't think you unnatural."
She saw his distress, said: "There i...hing, Son."
"Yes?"
"I do love your Chani...ccept her."
This was real, Paul told himself. This wasn't the imperfect vision to be changed by the twistings out of time's own birth.
The reassurance gave hi...ew hold on his world. Bits of solid reality began to dip through the dream state into his awareness. He knew suddenly that he was i...iereg...esert camp. Chani had planted their stilltent on flour-sand for its softness. That could only mean Chani was near b...hani, his soul, Chani his Sihaya, sweet as the desert spring, Chani up from the palmaries of the deep south.
Now, he remembered her singin...and chanty to him in the time for sleep.
"O my soul,
Have no taste for Paradise this night,
An...wear by Shai-hulud
You will go there,
Obedient to my love."
And she had sung the walking song lovers shared on the sand, its rhythm like the drag of the dunes against the feet:
"Tell me of thine eyes
An...ill tell thee of thy heart.
Tell me of thy feet
An...ill tell thee of thy hands.
Tell me of thy sleeping
An...ill tell thee of thy waking.
Tell me of thy desires
An...ill tell thee of thy need."
He had heard someone strummin...aliset in another tent. And he'd thought then of Gurney Halleck. Reminded by the familiar instrument, he had thought of Gurney whose face he had seen i...muggler band, but who had not seen him, could not see him or know of him lest that inadvertently lead the Harkonnens to the son of the Duke they had killed.
But the style of the player in the night, the distinctiveness of the fingers on the baliset's strings, brought the real musician back to Paul's memory. It had been Chatt the Leaper, captain of the Fedaykin, leader of the death commandos who guarded Muad'Dib.
We are in the deser...aul remembered. We are in the central erg beyond the Harkonnen patrols...m here to walk the sand, to lur...aker and mount him by my own cunning tha...ay b...remen entire .
He felt now the maula pistol at his belt, the crysknife. He felt the silence surrounding him.
It was that special pre-morning silence when the nightbirds had gone and the day creatures had not yet signaled their alertness to their enemy, the sun.
"You must ride the sand in the light of day that Shai-hulud shall see and know you have no fear," Stilgar had said. "Thus we turn our time around and set ourselves to sleep this night."
Quietly, Paul sat up, feeling the looseness o...lacked stillsuit around his body, the shadowed stilltent beyond. So softly he moved, yet Chani heard him.
She spoke from the tent's gloom, another shadow there: "It's not yet full light, beloved."
"Sihaya," he said, speaking with hal...augh in his voice.
"You call me your desert spring," she said, "but this day I'm thy goad...m the Sayyadina who watches that the rites be obeyed."
He began tightening his stillsuit. "You told me once the words of the Kitab al-Ibar," he said. "You told me: 'Woman is thy field; go then to thy field and till it.' "
"I am the mother of thy firstborn," she agreed.
He saw her in the grayness matching him movement for movement, securing her stillsuit for the open desert. "You should get all the rest you can," she said.
He recognized her love for him speaking then and chided her gently: "The Sayyadina of the Watch does not caution or warn the candidate."
She slid across to his side, touched his cheek with her palm. "Today...m both the watcher and the woman."
"You should've left this duty to another," he said.
"Waiting is bad enough at best," she said. "I'd sooner be at thy side."
He kissed her palm before securing the faceflap of his suit, then turned and cracked the seal of the tent. The air that came in to them held the chill not-quite-dryness that would precipitate trace dew in the dawn. With it came the smell o...re-spice mass, the mass they had detected off to the northeast, and that told them there would b...aker near by.
Paul crawled through the sphincter opening, stood on the sand and stretched the sleep from his muscles...aint green-pearl luminescence etched the eastern horizon. The tents of his troop were small false dunes around him in the gloom. He saw movement off to the lef...he guard, and knew they had seen him.
They knew the peril he faced this day. Each Fremen had faced it. They gave him this last few moments of isolation now that he might prepare himself.
It must be done toda...e told himself.
He thought of the power he wielded in the face of the pogro...he old men who sent their sons to him to be trained in the weirding way of battle, the old men who listened to him now in council and followed his plans, the men who returned to pay him that highest Fremen compliment: "Your plan worked, Muad'Dib."
Yet the meanest and smallest of the Fremen warriors could d...hing that he had never done. And Paul knew his leadership suffered from the omnipresent knowledge of this difference between them.
He had not ridden the maker.
Oh, he'd gone up with the others for training trips and raids, but he had not made his own voyage. Until he did, his world was bounded by the abilities of others. No true Fremen could permit this. Until he did this thing himself, even the great southland...he area some twenty thumpers beyond the er...ere denied him unless he ordere...alanquin and rode lik...everend Mother or one of the sick and wounded.
Memory returned to him of his wrestling with his inner awareness during the night. He sa...trange parallel her...f he mastered the maker, his rule was strengthened; if he mastered the inward eye, this carried its own measure of command. But beyond them both lay the clouded area, the Great Unrest where all the universe seemed embroiled.
The differences in the ways he comprehended the universe haunted hi...ccuracy matched with inaccuracy. He saw it in situ. Yet, when it was born, when it came into the pressures of reality, the now had its own life and grew with its own subtle differences. Terrible purpose remained. Race consciousness remained. And over all loomed the jihad, bloody and wild.
Chani joined him outside the tent, hugging her elbows, looking up at him from the corners of her eyes the way she did when she studied his mood.
"Tell me again about the waters of thy birthworld, Usul," she said.
He saw that she was trying to distract him, ease his mind of tensions before the deadly test. It was growing lighter, and he noted that some of his Fedaykin were already striking their tents.
"I'd rather you told me about the sietch and about our son," he said. "Does our Leto yet hold my mother in his palm?"
"It's Alia he holds as well," she said. "And he grows rapidly. He'll b...ig man."
"What's it like in the south?" he asked.
"When you ride the maker you'll see for yourself," she said.
"Bu...ish to see it first through your eyes."
"It's powerfully lonely," she said.
He touched the nezhoni scarf at her forehead where it protruded from her stillsuit cap. "Why will you not talk about the sietch?"
"I have talked about it. The sietch i...onely place without our men. It'...lace of work. We labor in the factories and the potting rooms. There are weapons to be made, poles to plant that we may forecast the weather, spice to collect for the bribes. There are dunes to be planted to make them grow and to anchor them. There are fabrics and rugs to make, fuel cells to charge. There are children to train that the tribe's strength may never be lost."
"Is nothing then pleasant in the sietch?" he asked.
"The children are pleasant. We observe the rites. We have sufficient food. Sometimes one of us may come north to be with her man. Life must go on."
"My sister, Ali...s she accepted yet by the people?"
Chani turned toward him in the growing dawnlight. Her eyes bored into him. "It'...hing to be discussed another time, beloved."
"Let us discuss it now."
"You should conserve your energies for the test," she said.
He saw that he had touched something sensitive, hearing the withdrawal in her voice. "The unknown brings its own worries," he said.
Presently she nodded, said, "There is ye... . misunderstanding because of Alia's strangeness. The women are fearful becaus...hild little more than an infant talk... . of things that only an adult should know. They do not understand th... . change in the womb that made Ali... . different."
"There is trouble?" he asked. And he thought: I've seen visions of trouble over Alia .
Chani looked toward the growing line of the sunrise. "Some of the women banded to appeal to the Reverend Mother. They demanded she exorcise the demon in her daughter. They quoted the scripture: 'Suffer no...itch to live among us.' "
"And what did my mother say to them?"
"She recited the law and sent the women away abashed. She said: 'If Alia incites trouble, it is the fault of authority for not foreseeing and preventing the trouble.' And she tried to explain how the change had worked on Alia in the womb. But the women were angry because they had been embarrassed. They went away muttering."
There will be trouble because of Ali...e thought.
A crystal blowing of sand touched the exposed portions of his face, bringing the scent of the pre-spice mass. "El Sayal, the rain of sand that brings the morning," he said.
He looked out across the gray light of the desert landscape, the landscape beyond pity, the sand that was form absorbed in itself. Dry lightning streake...ark corner to the sout...ign tha...torm had built up its static charge there. The roll of thunder boomed long after.
"The voice that beautifies the land," Chani said.
More of his men were stirring out of their tents. Guards were coming in from the rims. Everything around him moved smoothly in the ancient routine that required no orders.
"Give as few orders as possible," his father had told hi... . onc... . long ago. "Once you've given orders o...ubject, you must always give orders on that subject."
The Fremen knew this rule instinctively.
The troop's watermaster began the morning chanty, adding to it now the call for the rite to initiat...andrider.
"The world i...arcass," the man chanted, his voice wailing across the dunes. "Who can turn away the Angel of Death? What Shai-hulud has decreed must be."
Paul listened, recognizing that these were the words that also began the death chant of his Fedaykin, the words the death commandos recited as they buried themselves into battle.
Will there b...ock shrine here this day to mark the passing of another soul? Paul asked himself. Will Fremen stop here in the future, each to add another stone and think on Muad'Dib who died in this place?
He knew this was among the alternatives today...act along lines of the future radiating from this position in time-space. The imperfect vision plagued him. The more he resisted his terrible purpose and fought against the coming of the jihad, the greater the turmoil that wove through his prescience. His entire future was becoming lik...iver hurtling towar...has...he violent nexus beyond which all was fog and clouds.
"Stilgar approaches," Chani said. "I must stand apart now, beloved. Now...ust be Sayyadina and observe the rite that it may be reported truly in the Chronicles." She looked up at him and, fo...oment, her reserve slipped, then she had herself under control. "When this is past...hall prepare thy breakfast with my own hands," she said. She turned away.
Stilgar moved toward him across the flour sand, stirring up little dust puddles. The dark niches of his eyes remained steady on Paul with their untamed stare. The glimpse of black beard above the stillsuit mask, the lines of craggy cheeks, could have been wind-etched from the native rock for all their movement.
The man carried Paul's banner on its staf...he green and black banner wit...ater tube in the staf...hat already wa...egend in the land. Half pridefully, Paul thought...annot do the simplest thing without its becomin...egend. They will mark ho...arted from Chani, ho...reet Stilga...very mov...ake this day. Live or die, it i...egend...ust not die. Then it will be only legend and nothing to stop the jihad .
Stilgar planted the staff in the sand beside Paul, dropped his hands to his sides. The blue-within-blue eyes remained level and intent. And Paul thought how his own eyes already were assuming this mask of color from the spice.
"They denied us the Hajj," Stilgar said with ritual solemnity.
As Chani had taught him, Paul responded: "Who can den...remen the right to walk or ride where he wills?"
"I a...aib," Stilgar said, "never to be taken alive......eg of the death tripod that will destroy our foes."
Silence settled over them.
Paul glanced at the other Fremen scattered over the sand beyond Stilgar, the way they stood without moving for this moment of personal prayer. And he thought of how the Fremen wer...eople whose living consisted of killing, an entire people who had lived with rage and grief all of their days, never once considering what might take the place of eithe...xcept fo...ream with which Liet-Kynes had infused them before his death.
"Where is the Lord who led us through the land of desert and of pits?" Stilgar asked.
"He is ever with us," the Fremen chanted.
Stilgar squared his shoulders, stepped closer to Paul and lowered his voice. "Now, remember wha...old you. Do it simply and directl...othing fancy. Among our people, we ride the maker at the age of twelve. You are more than six years beyond that age and not born to this life. You don't have to impress anyone with your courage. We know you are brave. All you must do is call the maker and ride him."
"I will remember," Paul said.
"See that you do. I'll not have you shame my teaching."
Stilgar pulle...lastic rod abou...eter long from beneath his robe. The thing was pointed at one end, ha...pring-wound clapper at the other end. "I prepared this thumper myself. It'...ood one. Take it."
Paul felt the warm smoothness of the plastic as he accepted the thumper.
"Shishakli has your hooks," Stilgar said. "He'll hand them to you as you step out onto that dune over there." He pointed to his right. "Cal...ig maker, Usul. Show us the way."
Paul marked the tone of Stilgar's voic...alf ritual and half that o...orried friend.
In that instant, the sun seemed to bound above the horizon. The sky took on the silvered gray-blue that warned this would b...ay of extreme heat and dryness even for Arrakis.
"It is the time of the scalding day," Stilgar said, and now his voice was entirely ritual. "Go, Usul, and ride the maker, travel the sand a...eader of men."
Paul saluted his banner, noting how the green and black flag hung limply now that the dawn wind had died. He turned toward the dune Stilgar had indicate... dirty tan slope with an S-track crest. Already, most of the troop was moving out in the opposite direction, climbing the other dune that had sheltered their camp.
One robed figure remained in Paul's path: Shishakli...quad leader of the Fedaykin, only his slope-lidded eyes visible between stillsuit cap and mask.
Shishakli presented two thin, whiplike shafts as Paul approached. The shafts were abou...eter an...alf long with glistening plasteel hoods at one end, roughened at the other end fo...irm grip.
Paul accepted them both in his left hand as required by the ritual.
"They are my own hooks," Shishakli said i...usky voice. "They never have failed."
Paul nodded, maintaining the necessary silence, moved past the man and up the dune slope. At the crest, he glanced back, saw the troop scattering lik...light of insects, their robes fluttering. He stood alone now on the sandy ridge with only the horizon in front of him, the flat and unmoving horizon. This wa...ood dune Stilgar had chosen, higher than its companions for the viewpoint vantage.
Stooping, Paul planted the thumper deep into the windward face where the sand was compacted and would give maximum transmission to the drumming. Then he hesitated, reviewing the lessons, reviewing the life-and-death necessities that faced him.
When he threw the latch, the thumper would begin its summons. Across the sand...iant wor... make...ould hear and come to the drumming. With the whiplike hook-staffs, Paul knew, he could mount the maker's high curving back. For as long a...orward edge o...orm's ring segment was held open b...ook, open to admit abrasive sand into the more sensitive interior, the creature would not retreat beneath the desert. It would, in fact, roll its gigantic body to bring the opened segment as far away from the desert surface as possible.
I a...andride...aul told himself.
He glanced down at the hooks in his left hand, thinking that he had only to shift those hooks down the curve o...aker's immense side to make the creature roll and turn, guiding it where he willed. He had seen it done. He had been helped up the side o...orm fo...hort ride in training. The captive worm could be ridden until it lay exhausted and quiescent upon the desert surface an...ew maker must be summoned.
Once he was past this test, Paul knew, he was qualified to make the twenty-thumper journey into the southlan...o rest and restore himsel...nto the south where the women and the families had been hidden from the pogrom among the new palmaries and sietch warrens.
He lifted his head and looked to the south, reminding himself that the maker summoned wild from the erg was an unknown quantity, and the one who summoned it was equally unknown to this test.
"You must gauge the approaching maker carefully," Stilgar had explained. "You must stand close enough that you can mount it as it passes, yet not so close that it engulfs you."
With abrupt decision, Paul released the thumper's latch. The clapper began revolving and the summons drummed through the sand...easured "lum... . lum... . lum... . "
He straightened, scanning the horizon, remembering Stilgar's words: "Judge the line of approach carefully. Remember...orm seldom makes an unseen approach t...humper. Listen all the same. You may often hear it before you see it."
And Chani's words of caution, whispered at night when her fear for him overcame her, filled his mind: "When you take your stand along the maker's path, you must remain utterly still. You must think lik...atch of sand. Hide beneath your cloak and becom...ittle dune in your very essence."
Slowly, he scanned the horizon, listening, watching for the signs he had been taught.
It came from the southeast...istant hissing...and-whisper. Presently he saw the faraway outline of the creature's track against the dawnlight and realized he had never before see...aker this large, never heard of one this size. It appeared to be more than hal...eague long, and the rise of the sandwave at its cresting head was like the approach o...ountain.
This is nothin...ave seen by vision or in lif...aul cautioned himself. He hurried across the path of the thing to take his stand, caught up entirely by the rushing needs of this moment.
"Control the coinage and the courts - let the rabble have the rest." Thus the Padishah Emperor advises you. And he tells you: "If you want profits, you must rule." There is truth in these words, bu...sk myself: "Who are the rabble and who are the ruled?"
- Muad'Dib's Secret Message to the Landsraad from
"Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan
A thought came unbidden to Jessica's mind: Paul will be undergoing his sandrider test at any moment now. They try to conceal this fact from me, but it's obvious.
And Chani has gone on some mysterious errand .
Jessica sat in her resting chamber, catchin...oment of quiet between the night's classes. It wa...leasant chamber, but not as large as the one she had enjoyed in Sietch Tabr before their flight from the pogrom. Still, this place had thick rugs on the floor, soft cushions...ow coffee table near at hand, multicolored hangings on the walls, and soft yellow glowglobes overhead. The room was permeated with the distinctive acrid furry odor o...remen sietch that she had come to associate wit...ense of security.
Yet she knew she would never overcom...eeling of being in an alien place. It was the harshness that the rugs and hangings attempted to conceal.
A faint tinkling-drumming-slapping penetrated to the resting chamber. Jessica knew it fo...irth celebration, probably Subiay's. Her time was near. And Jessica knew she'd see the baby soon enoug... blue-eyed cherub brought to the Reverend Mother for blessing. She knew also that her daughter, Alia, would be at the celebration and would report on it.
It was not yet time for the nightly prayer of parting. They wouldn't have starte...irth celebration near the time of ceremony that mourned the slave raids of Poritrin, Bela Tegeuse, Rossak, and Harmonthep.
Jessica sighed. She knew she was trying to keep her thoughts off her son and the dangers he face...he pit traps with their poisoned barbs, the Harkonnen raids (although these were growing fewer as the Fremen took their toll of aircraft and raiders with the new weapons Paul had given them), and the natural dangers of the deser...akers and thirst and dust chasms.
She thought of calling for coffee and with the thought came that ever-present awareness of paradox in the Fremen way of life: how well they lived in these sietch caverns compared to the graben pyons; yet, how much more they endured in the open hajr of the desert than anything the Harkonnen bondsmen endured.
A dark hand inserted itself through the hangings beside her, deposite...up upon the table and withdrew. From the cup arose the aroma of spiced coffee.
An offering from the birth celebratio...essica thought.
She took the coffee and sipped it, smiling at herself. In what other society of our univers...he asked herself, coul...erson of my station accept an anonymous drink and quaff that drink without fear...ould alter any poison now before it did me harm, or course, but the donor doesn't realize this .
She drained the cup, feeling the energy and lift of its content...ot and delicious.
And she wondered what other society would have suc...atural regard for her privacy and comfort that the giver would intrude only enough to deposit the gift and not inflict her with the donor? Respect and love had sent the gif...ith onl...light tinge of fear.
Another element of the incident forced itself into her awareness: she had thought of coffee and it had appeared. There was nothing of telepathy here, she knew. It was the tau, the oneness of the sietch community...ompensation from the subtle poison of the spice diet they shared. The great mass of the people could never hope to attain the enlightenment the spice seed brought to her; they had not been trained and prepared for it. Their minds rejected what they could not understand or encompass. Still they felt and reacted sometimes lik...ingle organism.
And the thought of coincidence never entered their minds.
Has Paul passed his test on the sand? Jessica asked herself. He's capable, but accident can strike down even the most capable.
......
"We both know the figure for storm accretion," Hawat said.
"What if he has lost thirty thousand?" the Baron demanded, and blood darkened his face.
"By your own count," Hawat said, "he killed fifteen thousand over two years while losing twice that number. You say the Sardaukar accounted for another twenty thousand, possibl...ew more. And I've seen the transportation manifests for their return from Arrakis. If they killed twenty thousand, they lost almost five for one. Why won't you face these figures, Baron, and understand what they mean?"
The Baron spoke i...oldly measured cadence: "This is your job, Mentat. What do they mean?"
"I gave you Duncan Idaho's head count on the sietch he visited," Hawat said. "It all fits. If they had just two hundred and fifty such sietch communities, their population would be about five million. My best estimate is that they had at least twice that many communities. You scatter your population on suc...lanet."
"Ten million?" The Baron's jowls quivered with amazement.
"At least."
The Baron pursed his fat lips. The beady eyes stared without wavering at Hawat. Is this true Mentat computation? he wondered. How could this be and no one suspect?
"We haven't even cut heavily into their birth-rate-growth figure," Hawat said. "We've just weeded out some of their less successful specimens, leaving the strong to grow stronge...ust like on Salusa Secundus."
"Salusa Secundus!" the Baron barked. "What has this to do with the Emperor's prison planet?"
"A man who survives Salusa Secundus starts out being tougher than most others," Hawat said. "When you add the very best of military trainin...quot;
"Nonsense! By your argument...ould recruit from among the Fremen after the way they've been oppressed by my nephew."
Hawat spoke i...ild voice: "Don't you oppress any of your troops?"
"Wel... ... ...u...quot;
"Oppression i...elative thing," Hawat said. "Your fighting men are much better off than those around them, heh? They see unpleasant alternative to being soldiers of the Baron, heh?"
The Baron fell silent, eyes unfocused. The possibilitie...ad Rabban unwittingly given House Harkonnen its ultimate weapon?
Presently he said: "How could you be sure of the loyalty of such recruits?"
"I would take them in small groups, not larger than platoon strength," Hawat said. "I'd remove them from their oppressive situation and isolate them wit...raining cadre of people who understood their background, preferably people who had preceded them from the same oppressive situation. Then I'd fill them with the mystique that their planet had really bee...ecret training ground to produce just such superior beings as themselves. And all the while, I'd show them what such superior beings could earn: rich living, beautiful women, fine mansion... . whatever they desired."
The Baron began to nod. "The way the Sardaukar live at home."
"The recruits come to believe in time that suc...lace as Salusa Secundus is justified because it produced the...he elite. The commonest Sardaukar trooper live...ife, in many respects, as exalted as that of any member o...reat House."
"Such an idea!" the Baron whispered.
"You begin to share my suspicions," Hawat said.
"Where did suc...hing start?" the Baron asked.
"Ah, yes: Where did House Corrino originate? Were there people on Salusa Secundus before the Emperor sent his first contingents of prisoners there? Even the Duke Leto...ousin on the distaff side, never knew for sure. Such questions are not encouraged."
The Baron's eyes glazed with thought. "Yes...ery carefully kept secret. They'd use every device o...quot;
"Besides, what's there to conceal?" Hawat asked. "That the Padishah Emperor ha...rison planet? Everyone knows this. That he ha...quot;
"Count Fenring!" the Baron blurted.
Hawat broke off, studied the Baron wit...uzzled frown. "What of Count Fenring?"
"At my nephew's birthday several years ago," the Baron said. "This Imperial popinjay. Count Fenring, came as official observer and t... . ah, conclud...usiness arrangement between the Emperor and myself."
"So?"
"... . ah, during one of our conversations...eliev...aid something about makin...rison planet of Arrakis. Fenrin...quot;
"What did you say exactly?" Hawat asked.
"Exactly? That was quit...hile ago an...quot;
"My Lord Baron, if you wish to make the best use of my services, you must give me adequate information. Wasn't this conversation recorded?"
The Baron's face darkened with anger. "You're as bad as Piter...on't like thes...quot;
"Piter is no longer with you my Lord," Hawat said. "As to that, whatever did happen to Piter?"
"He became too familiar, too demanding of me," the Baron said.
"You assure me you don't wast...seful man," Hawat said. "Will you waste me by threats and quibbling? We were discussing what you said to Count Fenring."
Slowly, the Baron composed his features. When the time come...e thought, I'll remember his manner with me. Yes...ill remember .
"One moment," the Baron said, and he thought back to the meeting in his great hall. It helped to visualize the cone of silence in which they had stood. "I said something like this," the Baron said. "The Emperor know...ertain amount of killing has always been an arm of business.'...as referring to our work force losses. The...aid something about considering another solution to the Arrakeen problem an...aid the Emperor's prison planet inspired me to emulate him."
"Witch blood!" Hawat snapped. "What did Fenring say?"
"That's when he began questioning me about you."
Hawat sat back, closed his eyes in thought. "So that's why they started looking into Arrakis," he said. "Well, the thing's done." He opened his eyes. "They must have spies all over Arrakis by now. Two years!"
"But certainly my innocent suggestion tha...quot;
"Nothing is innocent in an Emperor's eyes! What were your instructions to Rabban?"
"Merely that he should teach Arrakis to fear us."
Hawat shook his head. "You now have two alternatives, Baron. You can kill off the natives, wipe them out entirely, o...quot;
"Waste an entire work force?"
"Would you prefer to have the Emperor and those Great Houses he can still swing behind him come in here and perfor...urettement, scrape out Giedi Prime lik...ollow gourd?"
The Baron studied his Mentat, then: "He wouldn't dare!"
"Wouldn't he?"
The Baron's lips quivered. "What is your alternative?"
"Abandon your dear nephew, Rabban."
"Aban... . " The Baron broke off, stared at Hawat.
"Send him no more troops, no aid of any kind. Don't answer his messages other than to say you've heard of the terrible way he's handled things on Arrakis and you intend to take corrective measures as soon as you're able. I'll arrange to have some of your messages intercepted by Imperial spies."
"But what of the spice, the revenues, th...quot;
"Demand your baronial profits, but be careful how you make your demands. Require fixed sums of Rabban. We ca...quot;
The Baron turned his hands palms up. "But how ca...e certain that my weasel nephew isn'...quot;
"We still have our spies on Arrakis. Tell Rabban he either meets the spice quotas you set him or he'll be replaced."
"I know my nephew," the Baron said. "This would only make him oppress the population even more."
"Of course he will!" Hawat snapped. "You don't want that stopped now! You merely want your own hands clean. Let Rabban make your Salusa Secundus for you. There's no need even to send him any prisoners. He has all the population required. If Rabban is driving his people to meet your spice quotas, then the Emperor need suspect no other motive. That's reason enough for putting the planet on the rack. And you, Baron, will not show by word or action that there's any other reason for this."
The Baron could not keep the sly tone of admiration out of his voice. "Ah, Hawat, you ar...evious one. Now, how do we move into Arrakis and make use of what Rabban prepares?"
"That's the simplest thing of all, Baron. If you set each year's quot...it higher than the one before, matters will soon reac...ead there. Production will drop off. You can remove Rabban and take over yoursel... . to correct the mess."
"It fits," the Baron said. "Bu...an feel myself tiring of all this. I'm preparing another to take over Arrakis for me."
Hawat studied the fat round face across from him. Slowly the old soldier-spy began to nod his head. "Feyd-Rautha," he said. "So that's the reason for the oppression now. You're very devious yourself, Baron. Perhaps we can incorporate these two schemes. Yes. Your Feyd-Rautha can go to Arrakis as their savior. He can win the populace. Yes."
The Baron smiled. And behind his smile, he asked himself: Now, how does this fit in with Hawat's personal scheming?
And Hawat, seeing that he was dismissed, arose and left the red-walled room. As he walked, he could not put down the disturbing unknowns that cropped into every computation about Arrakis. This new religious leader that Gurney Halleck hinted at from his hiding place among the smugglers, this Muad'Dib.
Perhap...hould not have told the Baron to let this religion flourish where it will, even among the folk of pan and grabe...e told himself. But it's well known that repression make...eligion flourish .
And he thought about Halleck's reports on Fremen battle tactics. The tactics smacked of Halleck himsel... . and Idah... . and even of Hawat.
Did Idaho survive? he asked himself.
But this wa...utile question. He did not yet ask himself if it was possible that Paul had survived. He knew the Baron was convinced that all Atreides were dead. The Bene Gesserit witch had been his weapon, the Baron admitted. And that could only mean an end to al...ven to the woman's own son.
Wha...oisonous hate she must've had for the Atreide...e thought. Something like the hat...old for this Baron. Will my blow be as final and complete as hers?
There is in all thing...attern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace - those qualities you find always in that which the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, in the way sand trails alon...idge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush or the pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these patterns in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death.
- from "The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Paul-Muad'Dib remembered that there had bee...eal heavy with spice essence. He clung to this memory because it was an anchor point and he could tell himself from this vantage that his immediate experience must b...ream.
I a...heater of processe...e told himself......rey to the imperfect vision, to the race consciousness and its terrible purpose .
Yet, he could not escape the fear that he had somehow overrun himself, lost his position in time, so that past and future and present mingled without distinction. It wa...ind of visual fatigue and it came, he knew, from the constant necessity of holding the prescient future a...ind of memory that was in itsel...hing intrinsically of the past.
Chani prepared the meal for m...e told himself.
Yet Chani was deep in the sout...n the cold country where the sun was ho...ecreted in one of the new sietch strongholds, safe with their son, Leto II.
Or, was tha...hing yet to happen?
No, he reassured himself, for Alia-the-Strange-One, his sister, had gone there with his mother and with Chan... twenty-thumper trip into the south, ridin...everend Mother's palanquin fixed to the back o...ild maker.
He shied away from thought of riding the giant worms, asking himself: Or is Alia yet to be born?
I was on razzi...aul recalled. We went raiding to recover the water of our dead in Arrakeen. An...ound the remains of my father in the funeral pyre...nshrined the skull of my father i...remen rock mound overlooking Harg Pass.
Or was tha...hing yet to be?
My wounds are rea...aul told himself. My scars are real. The shrine of my father's skull is real .
Still in the dreamlike state, Paul remembered that Harah, Jamis' wife, had intruded on him once to say there'd bee...ight in the sietch corridor. That had been the interim sietch before the women and children had been sent into the deep south. Harah had stood there in the entrance to the inner chamber, the black wings of her hair tied back by water rings o...hain. She had held aside the chamber's hangings and told him that Chani had just killed someone.
This happene...aul told himself. This was real, not born out of its time and subject to change .
Paul remembered he had rushed out to find Chani standing beneath the yellow globes of the corridor, clad i...rilliant blue wraparound robe with hood thrown back...lush of exertion on her elfin features. She had been sheathing her crysknife...uddled group had been hurrying away down the corridor wit...urden.
And Paul remembered telling himself: You always know when they're carryin...ody.
Chani's water rings, worn openly in sietch o...ord around her neck, tinkled as she turned toward him.
"Chani, what is this?" he asked.
"I dispatched one who came to challenge you in single combat, Usul."
"You killed him?"
"Yes. But perhap...hould've left him for Harah."
(And Paul recalled how the faces of the people around them had showed appreciation for these words. Even Harah had laughed.)
"But he came to challenge me! "
"You trained me yourself in the weirding way, Usul."
"Certainly! But you shouldn'...quot;
"I was born in the desert, Usul...now how to us...rysknife."
He suppressed his anger, tried to talk reasonably. "This may all be true, Chani, bu...quot;
"I am no longe...hild hunting scorpions in the sietch by the light o...andglobe, Usul...o not play games."
Paul glared at her, caught by the odd ferocity beneath her casual attitude.
"He was not worthy, Usul," Chani said. "I'd not disturb your meditations with the likes of him." She moved closer, looking at him out of the corners of her eyes, dropping her voice so that only he might hear. "And, beloved, when it's learned tha...hallenger may face me and be brought to shameful death by Muad'Dib's woman, there'll be fewer challengers."
Ye...aul told himself, that had certainly happened. It was true-past. And the number of challengers testing the new blade of Muad'Dib did drop dramatically .
Somewhere, i...orld not-of-the-dream, there wa...int of motion, the cry o...ightbird.
I drea...aul reassured himself. It's the spice meal .
Still, there was about hi...eeling of abandonment. He wondered it if might be possible that his ruh-spirit had slipped over somehow into the world where the Fremen believed he had his true existenc...nto the alam al-mithal, the world of similitudes, that metaphysical realm where all physical limitations were removed. And he knew fear at the thought of suc...lace, because removal of all limitations meant removal of all points of reference. In the landscape o...yth he could not orient himself and say: "I a...ecaus...m here."
His mother had said once: "The people are divided, some of them, in how they think of you."
I must be waking from the drea...aul told himself. For this had happene...hese words from his mother, the Lady Jessica who was no...everend Mother of the Fremen, these words had passed through reality.
Jessica was fearful of the religious relationship between himself and the Fremen, Paul knew. She didn't like the fact that people of both sietch and graben referred to Muad'Dib as Hi...nd she went questioning among the tribes, sending out her Sayyadina spies, collecting their answers and brooding on them.
She had quote...ene Gesserit proverb to him: "When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement become headlon...aster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget tha...recipice does not show itself to the man i...lind rush until it's too late."
Paul recalled that he had sat there in his mother's quarters, in the inner chamber shrouded by dark hangings with their surfaces covered by woven patterns out of Fremen mythology. He had sat there, hearing her out, noting the way she was always observin...ven when her eyes were lowered. Her oval face had new lines in it at the corners of the mouth, but the hair was still like polished bronze. The wide-set green eyes, though, hid beneath their over-casting of spice-imbued blue.
"The Fremen hav...imple, practical religion," he said.
"Nothing about religion is simple," she warned.
But Paul, seeing the clouded future that still hung over them, found himself swayed by anger. He could only say: "Religion unifies our forces. It's our mystique."
"You deliberately cultivate this air, this bravura," she charged. "You never cease indoctrinating."
"Thus you yourself taught me," he said.
But she had been full of contentions and arguments that day. It had been the day of the circumcision ceremony for little Leto. Paul had understood some of the reasons for her upset. She had never accepted his liaiso...he "marriage of youth"...ith Chani. But Chani had produced an Atreides son, and Jessica had found herself unable to reject the child with the mother.
Jessica had stirred finally under his stare, said: "You think me an unnatural mother."
"Of course not."
"I see the way you watch me when I'm with your sister. You don't understand about your sister."
"I know why Alia is different," he said. "She was unborn, part of you, when you changed the Water of Life. Sh...quot;
"You know nothing of it!"
And Paul, suddenly unable to express the knowledge gained out of its time, said only: "I don't think you unnatural."
She saw his distress, said: "There i...hing, Son."
"Yes?"
"I do love your Chani...ccept her."
This was real, Paul told himself. This wasn't the imperfect vision to be changed by the twistings out of time's own birth.
The reassurance gave hi...ew hold on his world. Bits of solid reality began to dip through the dream state into his awareness. He knew suddenly that he was i...iereg...esert camp. Chani had planted their stilltent on flour-sand for its softness. That could only mean Chani was near b...hani, his soul, Chani his Sihaya, sweet as the desert spring, Chani up from the palmaries of the deep south.
Now, he remembered her singin...and chanty to him in the time for sleep.
"O my soul,
Have no taste for Paradise this night,
An...wear by Shai-hulud
You will go there,
Obedient to my love."
And she had sung the walking song lovers shared on the sand, its rhythm like the drag of the dunes against the feet:
"Tell me of thine eyes
An...ill tell thee of thy heart.
Tell me of thy feet
An...ill tell thee of thy hands.
Tell me of thy sleeping
An...ill tell thee of thy waking.
Tell me of thy desires
An...ill tell thee of thy need."
He had heard someone strummin...aliset in another tent. And he'd thought then of Gurney Halleck. Reminded by the familiar instrument, he had thought of Gurney whose face he had seen i...muggler band, but who had not seen him, could not see him or know of him lest that inadvertently lead the Harkonnens to the son of the Duke they had killed.
But the style of the player in the night, the distinctiveness of the fingers on the baliset's strings, brought the real musician back to Paul's memory. It had been Chatt the Leaper, captain of the Fedaykin, leader of the death commandos who guarded Muad'Dib.
We are in the deser...aul remembered. We are in the central erg beyond the Harkonnen patrols...m here to walk the sand, to lur...aker and mount him by my own cunning tha...ay b...remen entire .
He felt now the maula pistol at his belt, the crysknife. He felt the silence surrounding him.
It was that special pre-morning silence when the nightbirds had gone and the day creatures had not yet signaled their alertness to their enemy, the sun.
"You must ride the sand in the light of day that Shai-hulud shall see and know you have no fear," Stilgar had said. "Thus we turn our time around and set ourselves to sleep this night."
Quietly, Paul sat up, feeling the looseness o...lacked stillsuit around his body, the shadowed stilltent beyond. So softly he moved, yet Chani heard him.
She spoke from the tent's gloom, another shadow there: "It's not yet full light, beloved."
"Sihaya," he said, speaking with hal...augh in his voice.
"You call me your desert spring," she said, "but this day I'm thy goad...m the Sayyadina who watches that the rites be obeyed."
He began tightening his stillsuit. "You told me once the words of the Kitab al-Ibar," he said. "You told me: 'Woman is thy field; go then to thy field and till it.' "
"I am the mother of thy firstborn," she agreed.
He saw her in the grayness matching him movement for movement, securing her stillsuit for the open desert. "You should get all the rest you can," she said.
He recognized her love for him speaking then and chided her gently: "The Sayyadina of the Watch does not caution or warn the candidate."
She slid across to his side, touched his cheek with her palm. "Today...m both the watcher and the woman."
"You should've left this duty to another," he said.
"Waiting is bad enough at best," she said. "I'd sooner be at thy side."
He kissed her palm before securing the faceflap of his suit, then turned and cracked the seal of the tent. The air that came in to them held the chill not-quite-dryness that would precipitate trace dew in the dawn. With it came the smell o...re-spice mass, the mass they had detected off to the northeast, and that told them there would b...aker near by.
Paul crawled through the sphincter opening, stood on the sand and stretched the sleep from his muscles...aint green-pearl luminescence etched the eastern horizon. The tents of his troop were small false dunes around him in the gloom. He saw movement off to the lef...he guard, and knew they had seen him.
They knew the peril he faced this day. Each Fremen had faced it. They gave him this last few moments of isolation now that he might prepare himself.
It must be done toda...e told himself.
He thought of the power he wielded in the face of the pogro...he old men who sent their sons to him to be trained in the weirding way of battle, the old men who listened to him now in council and followed his plans, the men who returned to pay him that highest Fremen compliment: "Your plan worked, Muad'Dib."
Yet the meanest and smallest of the Fremen warriors could d...hing that he had never done. And Paul knew his leadership suffered from the omnipresent knowledge of this difference between them.
He had not ridden the maker.
Oh, he'd gone up with the others for training trips and raids, but he had not made his own voyage. Until he did, his world was bounded by the abilities of others. No true Fremen could permit this. Until he did this thing himself, even the great southland...he area some twenty thumpers beyond the er...ere denied him unless he ordere...alanquin and rode lik...everend Mother or one of the sick and wounded.
Memory returned to him of his wrestling with his inner awareness during the night. He sa...trange parallel her...f he mastered the maker, his rule was strengthened; if he mastered the inward eye, this carried its own measure of command. But beyond them both lay the clouded area, the Great Unrest where all the universe seemed embroiled.
The differences in the ways he comprehended the universe haunted hi...ccuracy matched with inaccuracy. He saw it in situ. Yet, when it was born, when it came into the pressures of reality, the now had its own life and grew with its own subtle differences. Terrible purpose remained. Race consciousness remained. And over all loomed the jihad, bloody and wild.
Chani joined him outside the tent, hugging her elbows, looking up at him from the corners of her eyes the way she did when she studied his mood.
"Tell me again about the waters of thy birthworld, Usul," she said.
He saw that she was trying to distract him, ease his mind of tensions before the deadly test. It was growing lighter, and he noted that some of his Fedaykin were already striking their tents.
"I'd rather you told me about the sietch and about our son," he said. "Does our Leto yet hold my mother in his palm?"
"It's Alia he holds as well," she said. "And he grows rapidly. He'll b...ig man."
"What's it like in the south?" he asked.
"When you ride the maker you'll see for yourself," she said.
"Bu...ish to see it first through your eyes."
"It's powerfully lonely," she said.
He touched the nezhoni scarf at her forehead where it protruded from her stillsuit cap. "Why will you not talk about the sietch?"
"I have talked about it. The sietch i...onely place without our men. It'...lace of work. We labor in the factories and the potting rooms. There are weapons to be made, poles to plant that we may forecast the weather, spice to collect for the bribes. There are dunes to be planted to make them grow and to anchor them. There are fabrics and rugs to make, fuel cells to charge. There are children to train that the tribe's strength may never be lost."
"Is nothing then pleasant in the sietch?" he asked.
"The children are pleasant. We observe the rites. We have sufficient food. Sometimes one of us may come north to be with her man. Life must go on."
"My sister, Ali...s she accepted yet by the people?"
Chani turned toward him in the growing dawnlight. Her eyes bored into him. "It'...hing to be discussed another time, beloved."
"Let us discuss it now."
"You should conserve your energies for the test," she said.
He saw that he had touched something sensitive, hearing the withdrawal in her voice. "The unknown brings its own worries," he said.
Presently she nodded, said, "There is ye... . misunderstanding because of Alia's strangeness. The women are fearful becaus...hild little more than an infant talk... . of things that only an adult should know. They do not understand th... . change in the womb that made Ali... . different."
"There is trouble?" he asked. And he thought: I've seen visions of trouble over Alia .
Chani looked toward the growing line of the sunrise. "Some of the women banded to appeal to the Reverend Mother. They demanded she exorcise the demon in her daughter. They quoted the scripture: 'Suffer no...itch to live among us.' "
"And what did my mother say to them?"
"She recited the law and sent the women away abashed. She said: 'If Alia incites trouble, it is the fault of authority for not foreseeing and preventing the trouble.' And she tried to explain how the change had worked on Alia in the womb. But the women were angry because they had been embarrassed. They went away muttering."
There will be trouble because of Ali...e thought.
A crystal blowing of sand touched the exposed portions of his face, bringing the scent of the pre-spice mass. "El Sayal, the rain of sand that brings the morning," he said.
He looked out across the gray light of the desert landscape, the landscape beyond pity, the sand that was form absorbed in itself. Dry lightning streake...ark corner to the sout...ign tha...torm had built up its static charge there. The roll of thunder boomed long after.
"The voice that beautifies the land," Chani said.
More of his men were stirring out of their tents. Guards were coming in from the rims. Everything around him moved smoothly in the ancient routine that required no orders.
"Give as few orders as possible," his father had told hi... . onc... . long ago. "Once you've given orders o...ubject, you must always give orders on that subject."
The Fremen knew this rule instinctively.
The troop's watermaster began the morning chanty, adding to it now the call for the rite to initiat...andrider.
"The world i...arcass," the man chanted, his voice wailing across the dunes. "Who can turn away the Angel of Death? What Shai-hulud has decreed must be."
Paul listened, recognizing that these were the words that also began the death chant of his Fedaykin, the words the death commandos recited as they buried themselves into battle.
Will there b...ock shrine here this day to mark the passing of another soul? Paul asked himself. Will Fremen stop here in the future, each to add another stone and think on Muad'Dib who died in this place?
He knew this was among the alternatives today...act along lines of the future radiating from this position in time-space. The imperfect vision plagued him. The more he resisted his terrible purpose and fought against the coming of the jihad, the greater the turmoil that wove through his prescience. His entire future was becoming lik...iver hurtling towar...has...he violent nexus beyond which all was fog and clouds.
"Stilgar approaches," Chani said. "I must stand apart now, beloved. Now...ust be Sayyadina and observe the rite that it may be reported truly in the Chronicles." She looked up at him and, fo...oment, her reserve slipped, then she had herself under control. "When this is past...hall prepare thy breakfast with my own hands," she said. She turned away.
Stilgar moved toward him across the flour sand, stirring up little dust puddles. The dark niches of his eyes remained steady on Paul with their untamed stare. The glimpse of black beard above the stillsuit mask, the lines of craggy cheeks, could have been wind-etched from the native rock for all their movement.
The man carried Paul's banner on its staf...he green and black banner wit...ater tube in the staf...hat already wa...egend in the land. Half pridefully, Paul thought...annot do the simplest thing without its becomin...egend. They will mark ho...arted from Chani, ho...reet Stilga...very mov...ake this day. Live or die, it i...egend...ust not die. Then it will be only legend and nothing to stop the jihad .
Stilgar planted the staff in the sand beside Paul, dropped his hands to his sides. The blue-within-blue eyes remained level and intent. And Paul thought how his own eyes already were assuming this mask of color from the spice.
"They denied us the Hajj," Stilgar said with ritual solemnity.
As Chani had taught him, Paul responded: "Who can den...remen the right to walk or ride where he wills?"
"I a...aib," Stilgar said, "never to be taken alive......eg of the death tripod that will destroy our foes."
Silence settled over them.
Paul glanced at the other Fremen scattered over the sand beyond Stilgar, the way they stood without moving for this moment of personal prayer. And he thought of how the Fremen wer...eople whose living consisted of killing, an entire people who had lived with rage and grief all of their days, never once considering what might take the place of eithe...xcept fo...ream with which Liet-Kynes had infused them before his death.
"Where is the Lord who led us through the land of desert and of pits?" Stilgar asked.
"He is ever with us," the Fremen chanted.
Stilgar squared his shoulders, stepped closer to Paul and lowered his voice. "Now, remember wha...old you. Do it simply and directl...othing fancy. Among our people, we ride the maker at the age of twelve. You are more than six years beyond that age and not born to this life. You don't have to impress anyone with your courage. We know you are brave. All you must do is call the maker and ride him."
"I will remember," Paul said.
"See that you do. I'll not have you shame my teaching."
Stilgar pulle...lastic rod abou...eter long from beneath his robe. The thing was pointed at one end, ha...pring-wound clapper at the other end. "I prepared this thumper myself. It'...ood one. Take it."
Paul felt the warm smoothness of the plastic as he accepted the thumper.
"Shishakli has your hooks," Stilgar said. "He'll hand them to you as you step out onto that dune over there." He pointed to his right. "Cal...ig maker, Usul. Show us the way."
Paul marked the tone of Stilgar's voic...alf ritual and half that o...orried friend.
In that instant, the sun seemed to bound above the horizon. The sky took on the silvered gray-blue that warned this would b...ay of extreme heat and dryness even for Arrakis.
"It is the time of the scalding day," Stilgar said, and now his voice was entirely ritual. "Go, Usul, and ride the maker, travel the sand a...eader of men."
Paul saluted his banner, noting how the green and black flag hung limply now that the dawn wind had died. He turned toward the dune Stilgar had indicate... dirty tan slope with an S-track crest. Already, most of the troop was moving out in the opposite direction, climbing the other dune that had sheltered their camp.
One robed figure remained in Paul's path: Shishakli...quad leader of the Fedaykin, only his slope-lidded eyes visible between stillsuit cap and mask.
Shishakli presented two thin, whiplike shafts as Paul approached. The shafts were abou...eter an...alf long with glistening plasteel hoods at one end, roughened at the other end fo...irm grip.
Paul accepted them both in his left hand as required by the ritual.
"They are my own hooks," Shishakli said i...usky voice. "They never have failed."
Paul nodded, maintaining the necessary silence, moved past the man and up the dune slope. At the crest, he glanced back, saw the troop scattering lik...light of insects, their robes fluttering. He stood alone now on the sandy ridge with only the horizon in front of him, the flat and unmoving horizon. This wa...ood dune Stilgar had chosen, higher than its companions for the viewpoint vantage.
Stooping, Paul planted the thumper deep into the windward face where the sand was compacted and would give maximum transmission to the drumming. Then he hesitated, reviewing the lessons, reviewing the life-and-death necessities that faced him.
When he threw the latch, the thumper would begin its summons. Across the sand...iant wor... make...ould hear and come to the drumming. With the whiplike hook-staffs, Paul knew, he could mount the maker's high curving back. For as long a...orward edge o...orm's ring segment was held open b...ook, open to admit abrasive sand into the more sensitive interior, the creature would not retreat beneath the desert. It would, in fact, roll its gigantic body to bring the opened segment as far away from the desert surface as possible.
I a...andride...aul told himself.
He glanced down at the hooks in his left hand, thinking that he had only to shift those hooks down the curve o...aker's immense side to make the creature roll and turn, guiding it where he willed. He had seen it done. He had been helped up the side o...orm fo...hort ride in training. The captive worm could be ridden until it lay exhausted and quiescent upon the desert surface an...ew maker must be summoned.
Once he was past this test, Paul knew, he was qualified to make the twenty-thumper journey into the southlan...o rest and restore himsel...nto the south where the women and the families had been hidden from the pogrom among the new palmaries and sietch warrens.
He lifted his head and looked to the south, reminding himself that the maker summoned wild from the erg was an unknown quantity, and the one who summoned it was equally unknown to this test.
"You must gauge the approaching maker carefully," Stilgar had explained. "You must stand close enough that you can mount it as it passes, yet not so close that it engulfs you."
With abrupt decision, Paul released the thumper's latch. The clapper began revolving and the summons drummed through the sand...easured "lum... . lum... . lum... . "
He straightened, scanning the horizon, remembering Stilgar's words: "Judge the line of approach carefully. Remember...orm seldom makes an unseen approach t...humper. Listen all the same. You may often hear it before you see it."
And Chani's words of caution, whispered at night when her fear for him overcame her, filled his mind: "When you take your stand along the maker's path, you must remain utterly still. You must think lik...atch of sand. Hide beneath your cloak and becom...ittle dune in your very essence."
Slowly, he scanned the horizon, listening, watching for the signs he had been taught.
It came from the southeast...istant hissing...and-whisper. Presently he saw the faraway outline of the creature's track against the dawnlight and realized he had never before see...aker this large, never heard of one this size. It appeared to be more than hal...eague long, and the rise of the sandwave at its cresting head was like the approach o...ountain.
This is nothin...ave seen by vision or in lif...aul cautioned himself. He hurried across the path of the thing to take his stand, caught up entirely by the rushing needs of this moment.
"Control the coinage and the courts - let the rabble have the rest." Thus the Padishah Emperor advises you. And he tells you: "If you want profits, you must rule." There is truth in these words, bu...sk myself: "Who are the rabble and who are the ruled?"
- Muad'Dib's Secret Message to the Landsraad from
"Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan
A thought came unbidden to Jessica's mind: Paul will be undergoing his sandrider test at any moment now. They try to conceal this fact from me, but it's obvious.
And Chani has gone on some mysterious errand .
Jessica sat in her resting chamber, catchin...oment of quiet between the night's classes. It wa...leasant chamber, but not as large as the one she had enjoyed in Sietch Tabr before their flight from the pogrom. Still, this place had thick rugs on the floor, soft cushions...ow coffee table near at hand, multicolored hangings on the walls, and soft yellow glowglobes overhead. The room was permeated with the distinctive acrid furry odor o...remen sietch that she had come to associate wit...ense of security.
Yet she knew she would never overcom...eeling of being in an alien place. It was the harshness that the rugs and hangings attempted to conceal.
A faint tinkling-drumming-slapping penetrated to the resting chamber. Jessica knew it fo...irth celebration, probably Subiay's. Her time was near. And Jessica knew she'd see the baby soon enoug... blue-eyed cherub brought to the Reverend Mother for blessing. She knew also that her daughter, Alia, would be at the celebration and would report on it.
It was not yet time for the nightly prayer of parting. They wouldn't have starte...irth celebration near the time of ceremony that mourned the slave raids of Poritrin, Bela Tegeuse, Rossak, and Harmonthep.
Jessica sighed. She knew she was trying to keep her thoughts off her son and the dangers he face...he pit traps with their poisoned barbs, the Harkonnen raids (although these were growing fewer as the Fremen took their toll of aircraft and raiders with the new weapons Paul had given them), and the natural dangers of the deser...akers and thirst and dust chasms.
She thought of calling for coffee and with the thought came that ever-present awareness of paradox in the Fremen way of life: how well they lived in these sietch caverns compared to the graben pyons; yet, how much more they endured in the open hajr of the desert than anything the Harkonnen bondsmen endured.
A dark hand inserted itself through the hangings beside her, deposite...up upon the table and withdrew. From the cup arose the aroma of spiced coffee.
An offering from the birth celebratio...essica thought.
She took the coffee and sipped it, smiling at herself. In what other society of our univers...he asked herself, coul...erson of my station accept an anonymous drink and quaff that drink without fear...ould alter any poison now before it did me harm, or course, but the donor doesn't realize this .
She drained the cup, feeling the energy and lift of its content...ot and delicious.
And she wondered what other society would have suc...atural regard for her privacy and comfort that the giver would intrude only enough to deposit the gift and not inflict her with the donor? Respect and love had sent the gif...ith onl...light tinge of fear.
Another element of the incident forced itself into her awareness: she had thought of coffee and it had appeared. There was nothing of telepathy here, she knew. It was the tau, the oneness of the sietch community...ompensation from the subtle poison of the spice diet they shared. The great mass of the people could never hope to attain the enlightenment the spice seed brought to her; they had not been trained and prepared for it. Their minds rejected what they could not understand or encompass. Still they felt and reacted sometimes lik...ingle organism.
And the thought of coincidence never entered their minds.
Has Paul passed his test on the sand? Jessica asked herself. He's capable, but accident can strike down even the most capable.
......