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"I would rather not talk about Malky"

"Please, Love I feel that it&039;s iested to Malky that there s men should not invent"

"And that&039;s all?"

"No" He spoke reluctantly "My words angered him He said: `You think that in a world without birds, men would not invent aircraft! What a fool you are! Men can invent anything!"&039; "He called you a fool?" There was shock in Hwi&039;s voice

"He was right And although he denied it, he spoke the truth He taughtaway from inventions"

"Then you fear the lxians?"

"Of course I do! They can invent catastrophe"

"Then what could you do?"

"Run faster History is a constant race between invention and catastrophe Education helps but it&039;s never enough You alsoyour soul with me, Love Do you know that?"

Leto looked away from her and focused on Moneo&039;s back, the motions of the majordomo, the tucked-in pretenses of secrecy so apparent there The procession had coin the cliwall West Moneo moved as he had always round where he would place each step, but there was so away, no longer content toto match himself to his master&039;s destiny Off to the east, the Sareer waited Off to the west, there was the river, the plantations Moneo looked neither left nor right He had seen another destination

"You do not answer me," Hwi said

"You already know the answer"

"Yes I a of you," she said "I can sense some of your fears And I think I already knohere it is that you live"

He turned a startled glance on her and found hi He could not h and he felt his hands begin to twitch

"You live where the fear of being and the love of being are combined, all in one person," she said

He could not blink

"You area entle to yourself only because you are in thein ways that others cannot You fear to share this, yet you want to share itelse"

"What have you seen?" he whispered

"I have no inner eye, no inner voices," she said "But I have seenthat you truly understand"

He broke fro of his hands could be felt all through his front segment

"Love, that is what you understand," she said "Love, and that is all of it"

His hands stopped tre A tear rolled down each of his cheeks When the tears touched his coisps of blue s and was thankful for the pain

"You have faith in life," Hwi said "I know that the courage of love can reside only in this faith"

She reached out with her left hand and brushed the tears from his cheeks It surprised him that the cowl did not react with its ordinary reflex to prevent the touch

"Do you know," he asked, "that since I have become thus, you are the first person to touch my cheeks?"

"But I knohat you are and what you were," she said

"What I was ahhh, Hwi What I was has become only this face, and all the rest is lost in the shadows of one"

"Not hidden froer afraid to lock gazes "Is it possible that the lxians knohat they have created in you "I assure you, Leto, love of my soul, that they do not know You are the first person, the only person to whom I have ever completely revealed ht have been," he said "Yes, my love, I will share my soul with you" -= Think of it as plastic memory, this force within you which trends you and your felloard tribal forms This plastic memory seeks to return to its ancient shape, the tribal society It is all around you-the feudatory, the diocese, the corporation, the platoon, the sports club, the dance troupes, the rebel cell, the planning council, the prayer group each with its master and servants, its host and parasites And the swar these very words!) tend eventually to be enlisted in the argument for a return to "those better ri you other ways You have square thoughts which resist circles

- The Stolen Journals IDAHO FOUND he could rown by the Tleilaxu reinal youthand he could bury his childhood in forgetfulness while he cliht into the high rocks of his home planet It did not ht here by es of weather

Thesun was hot on Idaho&039;s back He could hear Siona&039;s efforts to reach the relatively sie far below him The position was virtually useless to Idaho, but it had been the argureement that they should atteht try it alone

Nayla, three of her Fish Speaker aides, Garun and three chosen from his Museum Fremen waited on the sand at the foot of the barrier Wall which enclosed the Sareer

Idaho did not think about the Wall&039;s height He thought only about where he would next put a hand or a foot He thought about the coil of light rope around his shoulders That rope was the tallness of this Wall He hadacross the sand, not counting his steps When the rope was long enough it was long enough The Wall was as high as the rope was long Any other way of thinking could only dull his roped his way up the sheer face well, not quite sheer Wind and sand and even some rain, the forces of cold and heat, had been at their erosive work here for more than three thousand years For one full day, Idaho had sat on the sand below the Wall and he had studied what had been accomplished by Ti shadow, a thin line, a crue, a tiny lip of rock here and another over there

His fingers wriggled upward into a sharp crack He tested his weight gently on the support Yes Briefly, he rested, pressing his face against war was aHis shoulders ht ers took inevitable danored

Once more, he crept upward A bit of rock broke away froht cheek, but he did not even feel it Every bit of his awareness concentrated on the groping hand, the balance of his feet on the tiniest of protrusions He was a er-hold here, a toehold there, clinging to the rock surface at times by the sheer power of his will

Nine ed one of his pockets, but he resisted using theled froers had ive up her lasgun She had, however, obeyed Siona&039;s direct order to accoely obedient

"Have you not sworn to obey me?" Siona had demanded

Nayla&039;s reluctance had vanished

Later, Siona had said: "She always obeys my direct orders"

"Then we may not have to kill her," Idaho had said

"I would rather not attempt it I don&039;t think you have even the faintest idea of her strength and quickness"

Garun, the Museu a "true Naib in the old fashion," had set the stage for this cli Idaho&039;s question: "Hoill the God Emperor co randfather&039;s time"

"And that was?" Siona had pro in the dusty shadows outside the guest house, sheltering from the afternoon sun on the day of the announcement that the Lord Leto would be wed in Tuono A semicircle of Garun&039;s aides squatted around the doorstep where Siona and Idaho sat with Garun Two Fish Speakers lounged nearby, listening Nayla was due to arrive h Wall behind the village, its riht "The Royal Road runs there and the God Ehts"

"It&039;s built into his cart," Idaho said

"Suspensors," Siona agreed "I&039;ve seen the the Royal Road, a great troop of thee square on his device The others cahtfully: "Ropes"

"Why did they come?" Siona asked

"To affirreat-grandfather said It was a great honor, but not as great as this wedding"

Idaho arose while Garun was still talking There was a clear view of the high Wall froht down the central street, a view froht Idaho strode to the corner of the guest house out into the central street He stopped there, turned and looked at the Wall The first look told why everyone said it was not possible to cli about a ht It could be five hundredlay in what a more careful study revealed tiny transverse cracks, broken places, even a narrow ledge about twentysand at the bottoe about two-thirds of the way up the face

He knew that an unconscious part of hi the necessary ths to that place, a handgrip here, another there His own hands He could already feel hiht shoulder as he stood in that first exa?" She had co nohere he looked

"I can cliht rope, I could pull up a heavier rope The rest of you could climb it easily then"

Garun joined them in time to hear this "Why would you cli at Garun "To provide a suitable greeting for the God Emperor"

This had been before her doubts, before her own eyes and the ignorance of such a cliun to erode that first confidence

With that first elation, Idaho asked: "Hoide is the Royal Road up there?"

"I have never seen it," Garun said "But I a it, so they say And there are bridges, places to view the river and and oh, it is a one up there to see it yourself?" Idaho asked

Garun ed and pointed at the Wall

Nayla arrived then and the arguue, the relationship between Nayla and Siona! They were like two conspirators yet not conspirators Siona commanded and Nayla obeyed But Nayla was a Fish Speaker, the Friend as trusted by Leto to hola She admitted that she had been in the Royal Constabulary since childhood Such strength in her! Given that strength, there was so awesome about the way she bowed to Siona&039;s will It was as though Nayla listened for secret voices which told her what to do Then she obeyed

Idaho groped upward for another handhold His fingers wriggled along the rock, up and outward to the right, finding at last an unseen crack where they ht enter His memory provided the natural line of ascent, but only his body could learn the way by following that line His left foot found a toehold up up slowly, testing Left hand up now no crack but a ledge His eyes, then his chin lifted over the high ledge he had seen from below He elbowed his way onto it, rolled over and rested, looking only outward, not up or down It was a sand horizon out there, a breeze with dust in it li the view He had seen many such horizons in the Dune days

Presently, he turned to face the Wall, lifted hi upward, and he resumed the climb The picture of the Wall remained in his mind as he had seen it from below He had only to close his eyes and the pattern lay there, fixed the way he had learned to do it as a child hiding froertips found a crack where they could be wedged He clawed his way upward

Watching fro affinity for the climber Idaho had been reduced by distance to such a small and lonely shape upon the Wall He must knohat it was like to be alone with ht A child fro and resourceful What is it that God wants from a child of Siona and this man?

Nayla had awakened before dawn and had walked out to the top of a low dune at the village edge to think about this thing that Idaho proposed It had been a li cloth of dust in the distance, then steel day and the baleful immensity of the Sareer She knew then that these matters certainly had been anticipated by God What could be hidden froure of Duncan Idaho groping for a pathway up to the edge of heaven

As she watched Idaho cli the wall to the horizontal Idaho beca across a broken surface How s smaller

An aide offered Nayla water which she drank The water brought the Wall back into its true perspective

Siona crouched on the first ledge, leaning out to peer up- ward "If you fall, I will try it," Siona had proe promise Why would both of them want to try the impossible?

Idaho had failed to dissuade Siona froht It is God&039;s will

They were the sa

A bit of rock fell from where Idaho clutched at it That had happened several ti ti fro that the eye did not report truthfully when it said the Wall was sheer

He will succeed or he will not,- Nayla thought Whatever happens, it is God&039;s will

She could feel her heart haht It was not passively erotic, but akin to rareherself that Idaho was not for her

He is for Siona If he survives

And if he failed, then Siona would try Siona would succeed or she would not Nayla wondered, though, if she asm should Idaho reach the top He was so close to it now

Idaho took several deep breaths after dislodging the rock It was a badto a three-point hold on the Wall Alroped upward oncepast the rotten place into another slender crack Slowly, he shifted his weight onto that hand Slowly slowly His left knee felt the place where a toehold could be achieved He lifted his foot to that place, tested it Memory told him the top was near, but he pushed the e that Leto would arrive tomorrow

Leto and Hwi

He could not think about that, either But it would not go away The top Hwi Leto toht fed his desperation, forced him into the immediate remembrance of the climbs of his childhood The more he remembered consciously, the more his abilities were blocked He was forced to pause, breathing deeply in the atteo back to the natural ways of his past

But were those ways natural?

There was a blockage in his mind He could sense intrusions, a finality the fatality of what ht have been and noould never be

Leto would arrive up there tomorrow

Idaho felt perspiration run down his face around the place where he pressed a cheek against the rock

Leto will defeat you, Leto I will defeat you for myself, not for Hwi, but only for h hiht while he prepared himself mentally for this cliun to talk to hi hih the Forbidden Forest and her oath at the edge of the river

"Now I have given an oath to command his Fish Speakers," she said "I will honor that oath, but I hope it will not happen in the way he wants"