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"What alternative?"

"In time, you may understand it Moneo did"

"Your damned Golden Path!"

"Not damned at all Quite holy"

"You think I&039;m a fool who can&039;t"

"I think you&039;re inexperienced, but possessed of great capability whose potential you do not even suspect"

She took three deep breaths and regained some of her composure, then: "If you can&039;t mate with the Ixian, what"

"Child, why do you persist in ? It&039;s not sex Before Hwi, I could not pair I had no other like me In all of the cosmic void, I was the only one"

"She&039;s like you?"

"Deliberately so The lxians made her that way"

"Made her"

"Don&039;t be a cood-trap Even the victis?" she whispered

"You stole two copies of my journals," he said "You&039;ve read the Guild translations and you already knohat could catch me"

"You knew?"

He saw boldness return to her stance, a sense of her oer "Of course you knew," she said, answering her own question

"It was ine how many times I have loved a companion and seen that co away now"

"You love hio quickly; so slowness Each time I am wracked I can play callous and I can make the necessary decisions, even decisions which kill, but I cannot escape the suffering For a long, long time-those journals you stole tell it truly-that was the only emotion I knew"

He saw the moistness in her eyes, but the line of her jaw still spoke of angry resolution

"None of this gives you the right to govern," she said

Leto suppressed a smile At last they were down to the root of Siona&039;s rebellion

By what right? Where is justice in ht of Fish Speaker ar fair to the evolutionary thrust of humankind? I know all of the revolutionary cant, the catch-prattle and the resounding phrases

"Nowhere do you see your own rebellious hand in the power I wield," he said

Her youth still deovern," she said

"But you strengthenme I sharpen lance at his hands

"A figure of speech," he said

"So I&039;ve offended you at last," she said, hearing only the cutting anger in his words and tone

"You&039;ve not offended me We&039;re related and can speak bluntly to each other within the family The fact is, I have much more to fear from you than you from me"

This took her aback, but only momentarily He saw belief stiffen her shoulders, then doubt Her chin lowered and she peered upward at hinorant violence"

"Are you saying that you&039;re physically vulnerable?"

"I will not warn you again, Siona There are liames I will play You and the lxians both know that it&039;s the ones I love who are physically vulnerable Soon, most of the Empire will know it This is the kind of information which travels fast"

"And they&039;ll all ask what right you have to rule!"

There was glee in her voice It aroused an abrupt anger in Leto He found it difficult to suppress This was a side of hu! It was soh her defenses at the vulnerability he already had seen

"I rule by the right of loneliness, Siona My loneliness is part-freedoroup My slavery to you says that I will serve all of you to the best of ht you!" she said

"No They have given thens me"

"It weakens you!"

"That, too," he admitted "But very powerful forces still obey me"

"Ohhh, yes" she nodded "I understand that"

"You don&039;t understand it"

"Then I&039;m sure you&039;ll explain it to me," she taunted

He spoke so softly that she had to lean toward him to hear: "There are no others of any kind anywhere who can call upon , not for coovernment I am the only one"

"Not even this Ixian woman can"

"She is so much like me that she would not weaken me in that way"

"But when the Ixian Embassy was attacked"

"I can still be irritated by stupidity," he said

She scowled at hiht, quite unconscious He knew he had made her think He was sure she had never before considered that any rights ht adhere to uniqueness

He addressed her silent scowl: "There has never before been a government exactly like mine Not in all of our history I a payment in full for what I have sacrificed"

"Sacrificed!" she sneered, but he heard the doubts "Every despot says so like that You&039;re responsible only to yourself!"

"Whichh these tiht have been and then no more"

He saw the indecision in her She did not trust her instincts, her untrained abilities at prediction She ht leap occasionally as she had done when she took his journals, but the motivation for the leap was lost in the revelation which followed

"My father says you can be very tricky ords," she said

"And he ought to know But there is knowledge you can only gain by participating in it There&039;s no way to learn it by standing off and looking and talking"

"That&039;s the kind of thing he reed "It&039;s not logical But it is a light, an eye which can see, but does not see itself"

"I&039;ht: l have seen enough, done enough She is wide open to her doubts How vulnerable they are in their ignorance!

"You haven&039;t convinced ," she said

"That was not the purpose of this "

"What was the purpose?"

"To see if you are ready to be tested"

"Test" She tipped her head a bit to the right and stared at him

"Don&039;t play the innocent with me," he said "Moneo has told you And I tell you that you are ready!"

She tried to s, then: "What are"

"I have sent for Moneo to return you to the Citadel," he said "When we ain, ill really learn what you are made of" -= You know the myth of the Great Spice Hoard? Yes, I know about that story, too A ht it to me one day to aantic hoard, big as a great mountain The hoard is concealed in the depths of a distant planet It is not Arrakis, that planet It is not Dune The spice was hidden there long ago, even before the First E Guild The story says Paul Muad&039;Dib went there and lives yet beside the hoard, kept alive by it, waiting The majordomo did not understand why the story disturbed er as he strode along the gray plastone halls toward his quarters in the Citadel At each guard post he passed, the woman there snapped to attention He did not respond Idaho kneas causing disturbance a them Nobody could mistake the Commander&039;s mood But he did not abate his purposeful stride The heavy thu the walls

He could still taste the noon rains herb-seasoned and baked around a pungent morsel of pseudomeat, all of it washed doith a drink of clear cidrit juice Moneo had found hiional operations schedule propped up beside his plate

Without invitation, Moneo had seated himself opposite

Idaho and had pushed aside the operations schedule

"I bring a htly controlled tone warned Idaho that this was no casual encounter Others sensed it Listening silence settled over the woh the room

Idaho put down his chopsticks "Yes?"

"These were the words of the God Emperor," Moneo said "`It is my bad luck that Duncan Idaho should become enamored of Hwi Noree This er thinned Idaho&039;s lips, but he reers us all," Moneo said "Noree is the God Eer, but the words were a betrayal: "He can&039;t , Moneo?"

"I ae, no more," Moneo said

Idaho&039;s voice was low and threatening "But he confides in you"

"The God Emperor sympathizes with you," Moneo lied

"Sy a new depth to the room&039;s silence

"Noree is a woman of obvious attractions," Moneo said "But she is not for you"

"The God Emperor has spoken," Idaho sneered, "and there is no appeal"

"I see that you understand the e," Moneo said

Idaho started to push hi?" Moneo deht now!"

"That is certain suicide," Moneo said

Idaho glared at hi intensity in the women at the tables around thenized i to the Devil&039;s Gallery," Muad&039;Dib had called it