Chapter Twenty-Eight

    "I suspect," Jessica said, "that the Harkonnens have managed to send an agent among us to poison Paul. It's the only explanation that seems to fit...ost unusual poison. I've examined his blood in the most subtle ways without detecting it."

    Chani thrust herself forward onto her knees. "Poison? Is he in pain? Coul... ...quot;

    "He is unconscious," Jessica said. "The processes of his life are so low that they can be detected only with the most refined techniques...hudder to think what could have happened ha...ot been the one to discover him. He appears dead to the untrained eye."

    "You have reasons other than courtesy for summoning me," Chani said. "I know you, Reverend Mother. What is it you thin...ay do that you cannot do?"

    She is brave, lovely and, ah-h-h, so perceptiv...essica thought. She'd have mad...ine Bene Gesserit .

    "Chani," Jessica said, "you may find this difficult to believe, bu...o not know precisely wh...ent for you. It was an instinc... ...asic intuition. The thought came unbidden: 'Send for Chani.' "

    For the first time, Chani saw the sadness in Jessica's expression, the unveiled pain modifying the inward stare.

    "I've done al...now to do," Jessica said. "That al... . it is so far beyond what is usually supposed as all that you would find difficulty imagining it. Ye... ...ailed."

    "The old companion, Halleck," Chani asked, "is it possible he'...raitor?"

    "Not Gurney," Jessica said.

    The two words carried an entire conversation, and Chani saw the searching, the test... . the memories of old failures that went into this flat denial.

    Chani rocked back onto her feet, stood up, smoothed her desert-stained robe. "Take me to him," she said.

    Jessica arose, turned through hangings on the left wall.

    Chani followed, found herself in what had bee...toreroom, its rock walls concealed now beneath heavy draperies. Paul lay o...ield pad against the far wall...ingle glowglobe above him illuminated his face...lack robe covered him to the chest, leaving his arms outside it stretched along his sides. He appeared to be unclothed under the robe. The skin exposed looked waxen, rigid. There was no visible movement to him.

    Chani suppressed the desire to dash forward, throw herself across him. She found her thoughts, instead, going to her so...eto. And she realized in this instant that Jessica once had faced suc...omen...er man threatened by death, forced in her own mind to consider what might be done to sav...oung son. The realization forme...udden bond with the older woman so that Chani reached out and clasped Jessica's hand. The answering grip was painful in its intensity.

    "He lives," Jessica said. "I assure you he lives. But the thread of his life is so thin it could easily escape detection. There are some among the leaders already muttering that the mother speaks and not the Reverend Mother, that my son is truly dead an...o not want to give up his water to the tribe."

    "How long has he been this way?" Chani asked. She disengaged her hand from Jessica's, moved farther into the room.

    "Three weeks," Jessica said. "I spent almos...eek trying to revive him. There were meetings, argument... . investigations. The...ent for you. The Fedaykin obey my orders, els...ight not have been able to delay th... . " She wet her lips with her tongue, watching Chani cross to Paul.

    Chani stood over him now, looking down on the soft beard of youth that framed his face, tracing with her eyes the high browline, the strong nose, the shuttered eye...he features so peaceful in this rigid repose.

    "How does he take nourishment?" Chani asked.

    "The demands of his flesh are so slight he does not yet need food," Jessica said.

    "How many know of what has happened?" Chani asked.

    "Only his closest advisers...ew of the leaders, the Fedaykin and, of course, whoever administered the poison."

    "There is no clue to the poisoner?"

    "And it's not for want of investigating," Jessica said.

    "What do the Fedaykin say?" Chani asked.

    "They believe Paul is i...acred trance, gathering his holy powers before the final battles. This i...hought I've cultivated."

    Chani lowered herself to her knees beside the pad, bent close to Paul's face. She sensed an immediate difference in the air about his fac... . but it was only the spice, the ubiquitous spice whose odor permeated everything in Fremen life. Stil... .

    "You were not born to the spice as we were," Chani said. "Have you investigated the possibility that his body has rebelled against too much spice in his diet?"

    "Allergy reactions are all negative," Jessica said.

    She closed her eyes, as much to blot out this scene as because of sudden realization of fatigue. How long hav...een without sleep? she asked herself. Too long .

    "When you change the Water of Life," Chani said, "you do it within yourself by the inward awareness. Have you used this awareness to test his blood?"

    "Normal Fremen blood," Jessica said. "Completely adapted to the diet and the life here."

    Chani sat back on her heels, submerging her fears in thought as she studied Paul's face. This wa...rick she had learned from watching the Reverend Mothers. Time could be made to serve the mind. One concentrated the entire attention.

    Presently, Chani said: "Is ther...aker here?"

    "There are several," Jessica said wit...ouch of weariness. "We are never without them these days. Each victory requires its blessing. Each ceremony befor...ai...quot;

    "But Paul Muad'Dib has held himself aloof from these ceremonies," Chani said.

    Jessica nodded to herself, remembering her son's ambivalent feelings toward the spice drug and the prescient awareness it precipitated.

    "How did you know this?" Jessica asked.

    "It is spoken."

    "Too much is spoken," Jessica said bitterly.

    "Get me the raw Water of the maker," Chani said.

    Jessica stiffened at the tone of command in Chani's voice, then observed the intense concentration in the younger woman and said: "At once." She went out through the hangings to sen...aterman.

    Chani sat staring at Paul. If he has tried to do this, she thought. And it's the sort of thing he might tr... .

    Jessica knelt beside Chani, holding ou...lain camp ewer. The charged odor of the poison was sharp in Chani's nostrils. She dippe...inger in the fluid, held the finger close to Paul's nose.

    The skin along the bridge of his nose wrinkled slightly. Slowly, the nostrils flared.

    Jessica gasped.

    Chani touched the dampened finger to Paul's upper lip.

    He drew i...ong, sobbing breath. "What is this?" Jessica demanded.

    "Be still," Chani said. "You must conver...mall amount of the sacred water. Quickly!"

    Without questioning, because she recognized the tone of awareness in Chani's voice, Jessica lifted the ewer to her mouth, drew i...mall sip.

    Paul's eyes flew open. He stared upward at Chani.

    "It is not necessary for her to change the Water," he said. His voice was weak, but steady.

    Jessica...ip of the fluid on her tongue, found her body rallying, converting the poison almost automatically. In the light elevation the ceremony always imparted, she sensed the life-glow from Pau... radiation there registering on her senses.

    In that instant, she knew.

    "You drank the sacred water!" she blurted.

    "One drop of it," Paul said. "So smal... . one drop."

    "How could you do suc...oolish thing?" she demanded.

    "He is your son," Chani said.

    Jessica glared at her.

    A rare smile, warm and full of understanding, touched Paul's lips. "Hear my beloved," he said. "Listen to her, Mother. She knows."

    "A thing that others can do, he must do," Chani said.

    "Whe...ad the drop in my mouth, whe...elt it and smelled it, whe...new what it was doing to me, the...ne...ould do the thing that you have done," he said. "Your Bene Gesserit proctors speak of the Kwisatz Haderach, but they cannot begin to guess the many place...ave been. In the few minute... ...quot; He broke off, looking at Chani wit...uzzled frown. "Chani? How did you get here? You're supposed to b... . Why are you here?"

    He tried to push himself onto his elbows. Chani pressed him back gently.

    "Please, my Usul," she said.

    "I feel so weak," he said. His gaze darted around the room. "How long hav...een here?"

    "You've been three weeks i...oma so deep that the spark of life seemed to have fled," Jessica said.

    "But it wa... ...ook it jus...oment ago an... . "

    "A moment for you, three weeks of fear for me," Jessica said.

    "It was only one drop, bu...onverted it," Paul said. "I changed the Water of Life." And before Chani or Jessica could stop him, he dipped his hand into the ewer they had placed on the floor beside him, and he brought the dripping hand to his mouth, swallowed the palm-cupped liquid.

    "Paul!" Jessica screamed.

    He grabbed her hand, faced her wit...eath's head grin, and he sent his awareness surging over her.

    The rapport was not as tender, not as sharing, not as encompassing as it had been with Alia and with the Old Reverend Mother in the caver... . but it wa...apport...ense-sharing of the entire being. It shook her, weakened her, and she cowered in her mind, fearful of him.

    Aloud, he said: "You speak o...lace where you cannot enter? This place which the Reverend Mother cannot face, show it to me."

    She shook her head, terrified by the very thought.

    "Show it to me!" he commanded.

    "No!"

    But she could not escape him. Bludgeoned by the terrible force of him, she closed her eyes and focused inwar...he-direction-that-is-dark.

    Paul's consciousness flowed through and around her and into the darkness. She glimpsed the place dimly before her mind blanked itself away from the terror. Without knowing why, her whole being trembled at what she had see... region wher...ind blew and sparks glared, where rings of light expanded and contracted, where rows of tumescent white shapes flowed over and under and around the lights, driven by darkness an...ind out of nowhere.

    Presently, she opened her eyes, saw Paul staring up at her. He still held her hand, but the terrible rapport was gone. She quieted her trembling. Paul released her hand. It was as though some crutch had been removed. She staggered up and back, would have fallen had not Chani jumped to support her.

    "Reverend Mother!" Chani said. "What is wrong?"

    "Tired," Jessica whispered. "S... . tired."

    "Here," Chani said. "Sit here." She helped Jessica t...ushion against the wall.

    The strong young arms felt so good to Jessica. She clung to Chani.

    "He has, in truth, seen the Water of Life?" Chani asked. She disengaged herself from Jessica's grip.

    "He has seen," Jessica whispered. Her mind still rolled and surged from the contact. It was like stepping to solid land after weeks o...eaving sea. She sensed the old Reverend Mother within he... . and all the others awakened and questioning; "What was that? What happened? Where was that place? "

    Through it all threaded the realization that her son was the Kwisatz Haderach, the one who could be many places at once. He was the fact out of the Bene Gesserit dream. And the fact gave her no peace.

    "What happened?" Chani demanded.

    Jessica shook her head.

    Paul said: "There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives...an finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it's almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. Fo...oman, the situation is reversed."

    Jessica looked up, found Chani was staring at her while listening to Paul.

    "Do you understand me, Mother?" Paul asked.

    She could only nod.

    "These things are so ancient within us," Paul said, "that they're ground into each separate cell of our bodies. We're shaped by such forces. You can say to yourself, 'Yes...ee how suc...hing may be.' But when you look inward and confront the raw force of your own life unshielded, you see your peril. You see that this could overwhelm you. The greatest peril to the Giver is the force that takes. The greatest peril to the Taker is the force that gives. It's as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking."

    "And you, my son," Jessica asked, "are you one who gives or one who takes?"

    "I'm at the fulcrum," he said. "I cannot give without taking an...annot take withou... . " He broke off, looking to the wall at his right.

    Chani fel...raft against her cheek, turned to see the hangings close.

    "It was Otheym," Paul said. "He was listening."

    Accepting the words, Chani was touched by some of the prescience that haunted Paul, and she kne...hing-yet-to-be as though it already had occurred. Otheym would speak of what he had seen and heard. Others would spread the story until it wa...ire over the land. Paul-Muad'Dib is not as other men, they would say. There can be no more doubt. He i...an, yet he sees through to the Water of Life in the way o...everend Mother. He is indeed the Lisan al-Gaib.

    "You have seen the future, Paul," Jessica said. "Will you say what you've seen?"

    "Not the future," he said. "I've seen the Now." He forced himself t...itting position, waved Chani aside as she moved to help him. "The Space above Arrakis is filled with the ships of the Guild."

    Jessica trembled at the certainty in his voice.

    "The Padishah Emperor himself is there," Paul said. He looked at the rock ceiling of his cell. "With his favorite Truthsayer and five legions of Sardaukar. The old Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is there with Thufir Hawat beside him and seven ships jammed with every conscript he could muster. Every Great House has its raiders above u... . waiting."

    Chani shook her head, unable to look away from Paul. His strangeness, the flat tone of voice, the way he looked through her, filled her with awe.

    Jessica tried to swallow i...ry throat, said: "For what are they waiting?"

    Paul looked at her. "For the Guild's permission to land. The Guild will strand on Arrakis any force that lands without permission."

    "The Guild's protecting us?" Jessica asked.

    "Protecting us! The Guild itself caused this by spreading tales about what we do here and by reducing troop transport fares t...oint where even the poorest Houses are up there now waiting to loot us."

    Jessica noted the lack of bitterness in his tone, wondered at it. She couldn't doubt his word...hey had that same intensity she'd seen in him the night he'd revealed the path of the future that'd taken them among the Fremen.

    Paul too...eep breath, said: "Mother, you must chang...uantity of the Water for us. We need the catalyst. Chani, hav...cout force sent ou... . to fin...re-spice mass. If we plan...uantity of the Water of Life abov...re-spice mass, do you know what will happen?"

    Jessica weighed his words, suddenly saw through to his meaning. "Paul!" she gasped.

    "The Water of Death," he said. "It'd b...hain reaction." He pointed to the floor. "Spreading death among the little makers, killin...ector of the life cycle that includes the spice and the makers. Arrakis will becom...rue desolatio...ithout spice or maker."

    Chani pu...and to her mouth, shocked to numb silence by the blasphemy pouring from Paul's lips.

    "He who can destro...hing has the real control of it," Paul said. "We can destroy the spice."

    "What stays the Guild's hand?" Jessica whispered.

    "They're searching for me," Paul said. "Think of that! The finest Guild navigators, men who can quest ahead through time to find the safest course for the fastest Heighliners, all of them seeking m... .and unable to find me. How they tremble! They kno...ave their secret here!" Paul held out his cupped hand. "Without the spice they're blind!"

    Chani found her voice. "You said you see the now! "

    Paul lay back, searching the spread-out presen...ts limits extended into the future and into the past, holding onto the awareness with difficulty as the spice illumination began to fade.

    "Go do a...ommanded," he said. "The future's becoming as muddled for the Guild as it is for me. The lines of vision are narrowing. Everything focuses here where the spice i... . where they've dared not interfere befor... . because to interfere was to lose what they must have. But now they're desperate. All paths lead into darkness."

    And that day dawned when Arrakis lay at the hub of the universe with the wheel poised to spin.

    - from "Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan

    "Will you look at that thing!" Stilgar whispered.

    Paul lay beside him i...lit of rock high on the Shield Wall rim, eye fixed to the collector o...remen telescope. The oil lens was focused o...tarship lighter exposed by dawn in the basin below them. The tall eastern face of the ship glistened in the flat light of the sun, but the shadow side still showed yellow portholes from glowglobes of the night. Beyond the ship, the city of Arrakeen lay cold and gleaming in the light of the northern sun.

    It wasn't the lighter that excited Stilgar's awe, Paul knew, but the construction for which the lighter was only the centerpost...ingle metal hutment, many stories tall, reached out i...housand-meter circle from the base of the lighte... tent composed of interlocking metal leave...he temporary lodging place for five legions of Sardaukar and His Imperial Majesty, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.

    From his position squatting at Paul's left, Gurney Halleck said: "I count nine levels to it. Must be quit...ew Sardaukar in there."

    "Five legions," Paul said.

    "It grows light," Stilgar hissed. "We like it not, your exposing yourself, Muad'Dib. Let us go back into the rocks now."

    "I'm perfectly safe here," Paul said.

    "That ship mounts projectile weapons," Gurney said.

    "They believe us protected by shields," Paul said. "They wouldn't wast...hot on an unidentified trio even if they saw us."

    Paul swung the telescope to scan the far wall of the basin, seeing the pockmarked cliffs, the slides that marked the tombs of so many of his father's troopers. And he ha...omentary sense of the fitness of things that the shades of those men should look down on this moment. The Harkonnen forts and towns across the shielded lands lay in Fremen hands or cut away from their source like stalks severed fro...lant and left to wither. Only this basin and its city remained to the enemy.

    "They might tr...ortie by 'thopter," Stilgar said. "If they see us."

    "Let them," Paul said. "We've 'thopters to burn toda... . and we kno...torm is coming."

    He swung the telescope to the far side of the Arrakeen landing field now, to the Harkonnen frigates lined up there wit...HOAM Company banner waving gently from its staff on the ground beneath them. And he thought of the desperation that had forced the Guild to permit these two groups to land while all the others were held in reserve. The Guild was lik...an testing the sand with his toe to gauge its temperature before erectin...ent.

    "Is there anything new to see from here?" Gurney asked. "We should be getting under cover. The storm is coming."

    Paul returned his attention on the giant hutment. "They've even brought their women," he said. "And lackeys and servants. Ah-h-h, my dear Emperor, how confident you are."

    "Men are coming up the secret way," Stilgar said. "It may be Otheym and Korba returning."

    "All right, Stil," Paul said. "We'll go back."

    But he took one final look around through the telescop...tudying the plain with its tall ships, the gleaming metal hutment, the silent city, the frigates of the Harkonnen mercenaries. Then he slid backward aroun...carp of rock. His place at the telescope was taken b...edaykin guardsman.

    Paul emerged int...hallow depression in the Shield Wall's surface. It wa...lace about thirty meters in diameter and some three meters deep...atural feature of the rock that the Fremen had hidden beneat...ranslucent camouflage cover. Communications equipment was clustered aroun...ole in the wall to the right. Fedaykin guards deployed through the depression waited for Muad'Dib's command to attack.

    Two men emerged from the hole by the communications equipment, spoke to the guards there.

    Paul glanced at Stilgar, nodded in the direction of the two men. "Get their report, Stil."

    Stilgar moved to obey.

    Paul crouched with his back to the rock, stretching his muscles, straightened. He saw Stilgar sending the two men back into that dark hole in the rock, thought about the long climb down that narrow man-made tunnel to the floor of the basin.

    Stilgar crossed to Paul.

    "What was so important that they couldn't sen...ielago with the message?" Paul asked.

    "They're saving their birds for the battle," Stilgar said. He glanced at the communications equipment, back to Paul. "Even wit...ight beam, it is wrong to use those things, Muad'Dib. They can find you by takin...earing on its emission."

    "They'll soon be too busy to find me," Paul said. "What did the men report?"

    "Our pet Sardaukar have been released near Old Gap low on the rim and are on their way to their master. The rocket launchers and other projectile weapons are in place. The people are deployed as you ordered. It was all routine."

    Paul glanced across the shallow bowl, studying his men in the filtered light admitted by the camouflage cover. He felt time creeping like an insect working its way across an exposed rock.

    "It'll take our Sardauka...ittle time afoot before they can signa...roop carrier," Paul said.

    "They are being watched?"

    "They are being watched," Stilgar said.

    Beside Paul, Gurney Halleck cleared his throat. "Hadn't we best be getting t...lace of safety?"

    "There is no such place," Paul said. "Is the weather report still favorable?"

    "A great grandmother o...torm coming," Stilgar said. "Can you not feel it, Muad'Dib?"

    "The air does feel chancy," Paul agreed. "Bu...ike the certainty of poling the weather."

    "The storm'll be here in the hour," Stilgar said. He nodded toward the gap that looked out on the Emperor's hutment and the Harkonnen frigates. "They know it there, too. No...#039;thopter in the sky. Everything pulled in and tied down. They've ha...eport on the weather from their friends in space."

    "Any more probing sorties?" Paul asked.

    "Nothing since the landing last night," Stilgar said. "They know we're here...hink now they wait to choose their own time."

    "We choose the time," Paul said.

    Gurney glanced upward, growled: "If they let us."

    "That fleet'll stay in space," Paul said.

    Gurney shook his head.

    "They have no choice," Paul said. "We can destroy the spice. The Guild dares not risk that."

    "Desperate people are the most dangerous," Gurney said.

    "Are we not desperate?" Stilgar asked.

    Gurney scowled at him.

    "You haven't lived with the Fremen dream," Paul cautioned. "Stil is thinking of all the water we've spent on bribes, the years of waiting we've added before Arrakis can bloom. He's no...quot;

    "Arrrgh," Gurney scowled.

    "Why's he so gloomy?" Stilgar asked.

    "He's always gloomy befor...attle," Paul said. "It's the only form of good humor Gurney allows himself."

    A slow, wolfish grin spread across Gurney's face, the teeth showing white above the chip cup of his stillsuit. "It glooms me much to think on all the poor Harkonnen souls we'll dispatch unshriven," he said.

    Stilgar chuckled. "He talks lik...edaykin."

    "Gurney was bor...eath commando," Paul said. And he thought: Yes, let them occupy their minds with small talk before we test ourselves against that force on the plai...e looked to the gap in the rock wall and back to Gurney, found that the troubadour-warrior had resume...rooding scowl.

    "Worry saps the strength," Paul murmured. "You told me that once, Gurney."

    "My Duke," Gurney said, "my chief worry is the atomics. If you use them to blas...ole in the Shield Wal... . "

    "Those people up there won't use atomics against us," Paul said. "They don't dar... . and for the same reason that they cannot risk our destroying the source of the spice."

    "But the injunction agains...quot;

    "The injunction!" Paul barked. "It's fear, not the injunction that keeps the Houses from hurling atomics against each other. The language of the Great Convention is clear enough: 'Use of atomics against humans shall be cause for planetary obliteration.' We're going to blast the Shield Wall, not humans."

    "It's too fin...oint," Gurney said.

    "The hair-splitters up there will welcome any point," Paul said. "Let's talk no more about it."

    He turned away, wishing he actually felt that confident. Presently, he said: "What about the city people? Are they in position yet?"

    "Yes," Stilgar muttered.

    Paul looked at him. "What's eating you?"

    "I never knew the city man could be trusted completely," Stilgar said.

    "I wa...ity man myself once," Paul said.

    Stilgar stiffened. His face grew dark with blood. "Muad'Dib know...id not mea...quot;

    "I know what you meant, Stil. But the test o...an isn't what you think he'll do. It's what he actually does. These city people have Fremen blood. It's just that they haven't yet learned how to escape their bondage. We'll teach them."

    Stilgar nodded, spoke i...ueful tone: "The habits o...ifetime, Muad'Dib. On the Funeral Plain we learned to despise the men of the communities."

    Paul glanced at Gurney, saw him studying Stilgar. "Tell us, Gurney, why were the city folk down there driven from their homes by the Sardaukar?"

    "An old trick, my Duke. They thought to burden us with refugees."

    "It's been so long since guerrillas were effective that the mighty have forgotten how to fight them," Paul said. "The Sardaukar have played into our hands. They grabbed some city women for their sport, decorated their battle standards with the heads of the men who objected. And they've built u...ever of hate among people who otherwise would've looked on the coming battle as no more tha...reat inconvenienc... . and the possibility of exchanging one set of masters for another. The Sardaukar recruit for us, Stilgar."

    "The city people do seem eager," Stilgar said.

    "Their hate is fresh and clear," Paul said. "That's why we use them as shock troops."

    "The slaughter among them will be fearful," Gurney said.

    Stilgar nodded agreement.

    "They were told the odds," Paul said. "They know every Sardaukar they kill will be one less for us. You see, gentlemen, they have something to die for. They've discovered they'r...eople. They're awakening."

    A muttered exclamation came from the watcher at the telescope. Paul moved to the rock slit, asked: "What is it out there?"

    "A great commotion, Muad'Dib," the watcher hissed. "At that monstrous metal tent...urface car came from Rimwall West and it was lik...awk int...est of rock partridge."

    "Our captive Sardaukar have arrived," Paul said.

    "They'v...hield around the entire landing field now," the watcher said. "I can see the air dancing even to the edge of the storage yard where they kept the spice."

    "Now they know who it is they fight," Gurney said. "Let the Harkonnen beasts tremble and fret themselves that an Atreides yet lives!"

    Paul spoke to the Fedaykin at the telescope. "Watch the flagpole atop the Emperor's ship. If my flag is raised ther...quot;

    "It will not be," Gurney said.

    Paul saw the puzzled frown on Stilgar's face, said: "If the Emperor recognized my claim, he'll signal by restoring the Atreides flag to Arrakis. We'll use the second plan then, move only against the Harkonnens. The Sardaukar will stand aside and let us settle the issue between ourselves."

    "I've no experience with these offworld things," Stilgar said. "I've heard of them, but it seems unlikely th...quot;

    "You don't need experience to know what they'll do," Gurney said.

    "They're sendin...ew flag up on the tall ship," the watcher said. "The flag is yello... . wit...lack and red circle in the center."

    "There'...ubtle piece of business," Paul said. "The CHOAM Company flag."

    "It's the same as the flag at the other ships," the Fedaykin guard said.

    "I don't understand," Stilgar said.

    "A subtle piece of business indeed," Gurney said. "Had he sent up the Atreides banner, he'd have had to live by what that meant. Too many observers about. He could've signaled with the Harkonnen flag on his staf... flat declaration that'd have been. But, n...e sends up the CHOAM rag. He's telling the people up ther... . " Gurney pointed toward space. "... . where the profit is. He's saying he doesn't care if it's an Atreides here or not."

    "How long till the storm strikes the Shield Wall?" Paul asked.

    Stilgar turned away, consulted one of the Fedaykin in the bowl. Presently, he returned, said: "Very soon, Muad'Dib. Sooner than we expected. It'...reat-great-grandmother o...tor... . perhaps even more than you wished."

    "It's my storm," Paul said, and saw the silent awe on the faces of the Fedaykin who heard him. "Though it shook the entire world it could not be more tha...ished. Will it strike the Shield Wall full on?"

    "Close enough to make no difference," Stilgar said.

    A courier crossed from the hole that led down into the basin, said: "The Sardaukar and Harkonnen patrols are pulling back, Muad'Dib."

    "They expect the storm to spill too much sand into the basin for good visibility," Stilgar Said. "They think we'll be in the same fix."

    "Tell our gunners to set their sights well before visibility drops," Paul said. "They must knock the nose off every one of those ships as soon as the storm has destroyed the shields." He stepped to the wall of the bowl, pulled bac...old of the camouflage cover and looked up at the sky. The horsetail twistings of blow sand could be seen against the dark of the sky. Paul restored the cover, said: "Start sending our men down, Stil."

    "Will you not go with us?" Stilgar asked.

    "I'll wait her...it with the Fedaykin," Paul said.

    Stilgar gav...nowing shrug toward Gurney, moved to the hole in the rock wall, was lost in its shadows.

    "The trigger that blasts the Shield Wall aside, tha...eave in your hands, Gurney," Paul said. "You will do it?"

    "I'll do it."

    Paul gestured t...edaykin lieutenant, said: "Otheym, start moving the check patrols out of the blast area. They must be out of there before the storm strikes."

    The man bowed, followed Stilgar.

    Gurney leaned in to the rock slit, spoke to the man at the telescope: "Keep your attention on the south wall. It'll be completely undefended until we blow it."

    "Dispatc...ielago wit...ime signal," Paul ordered.

    "Some ground cars are moving toward the south wall," the man at the telescope said. "Some are using projectile weapons, testing. Our people are using body shields as you commanded. The ground cars have stopped."

    In the abrupt silence, Paul heard the wind devils playing overhea...he front of the storm. Sand began to drift down into their bowl through gaps in the cover...urst of wind caught the cover, whipped it away.

    Paul motioned his Fedaykin to take shelter, crossed to the men at the communications equipment near the tunnel mouth. Gurney stayed beside him. Paul crouched over the signalmen.

    One said: "A great-great-great grandmother o...torm, Muad'Dib."

    Paul glanced up at the darkening sky, said: "Gurney, have the south wall observers pulled out." He had to repeat his order, shouting above the growing noise of the storm.

    Gurney turned to obey.

    Paul fastened his face filter, tightened the stillsuit hood.

    Gurney returned.

    Paul touched his shoulder, pointed to the blast trigger set into the tunnel mouth beyond the signalmen. Gurney went into the tunnel, stopped there, one hand at the trigger, his gaze on Paul.

    "We are getting no messages," the signalman beside Paul said. "Much static."

    Paul nodded, kept his eye on the time-standard dial in front of the signalman. Presently, Paul looked at Gurney, raise...and, returned his attention to the dial. The time counter crawled around its final circuit.

    "Now!" Paul shouted, and dropped his hand.

    Gurney depressed the blast trigger.

    It seemed tha...ull second passed before they felt the ground beneath them ripple and shake...umbling sound was added to the storm's roar.

    The Fedaykin watcher from the telescope appeared beside Paul, the telescope clutched under one arm. "The Shield Wall is breached, Muad'Dib!" he shouted. "The storm is on them and our gunners already are firing."

    Paul thought of the storm sweeping across the basin, the static charge within the wall of sand that destroyed every shield barrier in the enemy camp.

    "The storm!" someone shouted. "We must get under cover, Muad'Dib!"

    Paul came to his senses, feeling the sand needles sting his exposed cheeks. We are committe...e thought. He put an arm around the signalman's shoulder, said: "Leave the equipment! There's more in the tunnel." He felt himself being pulled away, Fedaykin pressed around him to protect him. They squeezed into the tunnel mouth, feeling its comparative silence, turne...orner int...mall chamber with glowglobes overhead and another tunnel opening beyond.

    Another signalman sat there at his equipment.

    "Much static," the man said.

    A swirl of sand filled the air around them.

    "Seal off this tunnel!" Paul shouted...udden pressure of stillness showed that his command had been obeyed. "Is the way down to the basin still open?" Paul asked.

    ......