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With catching movements of their heads remarkably synchronized, both turned, eyes hts without spoken words passed between them

Jessica: I wish you to see my fear

Ghanima: Now I know you love me

It was a swift moment of utter trust

Jessica said: "When your father was but a boy, I brought a Reverend Mother to Caladan to test him"

Ghanima nodded The memory of it was extremely vivid

"We Bene Gesserits were already cautious to make sure that the children we raised were human and not animal One cannot always tell by exterior appearances"

"It&039;s the way you were trained," Ghanima said, and the memory flooded into her mind: that old Bene Gesserit, Gaius Helen Mohiao pain Paul&039;s hand (Ghaniony of that box while the old woman talked calmly of immediate death if the hand ithdrawn from the pain And there had been no doubt of the death in that needle held ready against the child&039;s neck while the aged voice droned its rationale:

"You&039;ve heard of ani to escape a trap There&039;s an animal kind of trick A hu death that he ht kill the trapper and reainst the reined his skin curling black on that agonized hand within the box, flesh crisping and dropping away until only charred bones remained And it had been a trick - the hand unharmed But sweat stood out on Ghanima&039;s forehead at the memory

"Of course you remember this in a way that I cannot," Jessica said

For a randht do out of the driving necessities of that early conditioning in the Bene Gesserit schools! It raised new questions about Jessica&039;s return to Arrakis

"It would be stupid to repeat such a test on you or your brother," Jessica said "You already know the way it went I must assume you are human, that you will not misuse your inherited powers"

"But you don&039;t make that assumption at all," Ghanima said

Jessica blinked, realized that the barriers had been creeping back in place, dropped them once more She asked: "Will you believe my love for you?"

"Yes" Ghanima raised a hand as Jessica started to speak "But that love wouldn&039;t stop you fro: &039;Better the animal-human die than it re-create itself&039; And that&039;s especially true if the animal-human bears the name Atreides"

"You at least are human," Jessica blurted "I trust my instinct on this"

Ghanima saw the truth in this, said: "But you&039;re not sure of Leto"

"I&039;m not"

"Abomination?"

Jessica could only nod

Ghanier of it, though We can see the way of it in Alia"

Jessica cupped her hands over her eyes, thought: Even love can&039;t protect us from unwanted facts And she knew then that she still loved her daughter, crying out silently against fate: Alia! Oh, Alia! I am sorry for my part in your destruction

Ghanima cleared her throat loudly

Jessica lowered her hands, thought: I hter, but there are other necessities now She said: "So you&039;ve recognized what happened to Alia"

"Leto and I watched it happen We were powerless to prevent it, although we discussed many possibilities"

"You&039;re sure that your brother is free of this curse?"

"I&039;m sure"

The quiet assurance in that state it Then: "How is it you&039;ve escaped?"

Ghanima explained the theory upon which she and Leto had settled, that their avoiding of the spice trance while Alia entered it often made the difference She went on to reveal his dreams and the plans they&039;d discussed - even Jacurutu

Jessica nodded "Alia is an Atreides, though, and that poses enormous problems"

Ghanima fell silent before the sudden realization that Jessica still h his death had been but yesterday, that she would guard his naainst all threats Personal h Ghanima&039;s awareness to reinforce this assess

"Now," Jessica said, voice brisk, "what about this Preacher? I heard so reports yesterday after that daed "He could be -"

"Paul?"

"Yes, but we haven&039;t seen hihs at the rumors," Jessica said

Ghanirim smile touched Jessica&039;s lips "Nothings," Ghanihter," Jessica said "But do you actually entertain the notion that uise?"

"We say it&039;s possible And Leto" Ghani her breast She forced herself to overcome them, recounted Leto&039;s other revelations of prescient dreah wounded

Ghanima said: "Leto says he must find this Preacher and make sure"

"Yes Of course I should never have left here It was cowardly of me"

"Why do you blame yourself? You had reached a limit I know that Leto knows it Even Alia may know it"

Jessica put a hand to her own throat, rubbed it briefly Then: "Yes, the problee attraction on Leto," Ghanima said "That&039;s why I helped you rees that she is beyond hope, but still he finds ways to be with her and study her And it&039;s very disturbing When I try to talk against this, he falls asleep He -"

"Is she drugging him?"

"No-o-o" Ghanima shook her head "But he has this odd empathy for her And in his sleep, he often ain!" And Jessica found herself recounting Gurney&039;s report about the conspirators exposed at the landing field

"I sometimes fear Alia wants Leto to seek out Jacurutu," Ghaniend You know it, of course"

Jessica shuddered "Terrible story Terrible"

"What must we do?" Ghanima asked "I fear to search all of ainst that You mustn&039;t risk -"

"It may happen even if I don&039;t risk it Hoe knohat really happened to Alia?"

"No! You could be spared that that possession" She ground the word out "Well Jacurutu, is it? I&039;ve sent Gurney to find the place - if it exists"

"But how can he Oh! Of course: the slers"

Jessica found herself silenced by this further example of how Ghanima&039;s mind worked in concert hat e it was, Jessica thought, that this young flesh could carry all of Paul&039;s memories, at least until the moment of Paul&039;s spermal separation froainst which so pri into the absolute and unswerving Bene Gesserit judgment: Abomination! But there was a sweetness about this child, a willingness to sacrifice for her brother, which could not be denied

We are one life reaching out into a dark future, Jessica thought We are one blood And she girded herself to accept the events which she and Gurney Halleck had set in motion Leto must be separated from his sister, must be trained as the Sisterhood insisted

I hear the wind blowing across the desert and I see the reat ships in the void To theovernment; I will balance my inherited past and become a perfect storehouse of my relic memories And I will be known for kindliness e My face will shine down the corridors of ti as humans exist -Leto&039;s Vow, After Harq al-Ada

When she had been quite young, Alia Atreides had practiced for hours in the prana-bindu trance, trying to strengthen her own private personality against the onslaught of all those others She knew the problee could not be escaped in a sietch warren It infested everything: food, water, air, even the fabrics against which she cried at night Very early she recognized the uses of the sietch orgy where the tribe drank the death-water of a wory, Freenetic memories, and they denied thosetey

For her, there was no such release, no denial She had possessed full consciousness long before birth With that consciousness came a cataclysmic awareness of her circumstances: womb-locked into intense, inescapable contact with the personas of all her ancestors and of those identities death-transmitted in spice-tau to the Lady Jessica Before birth, Alia had contained every bit of the knowledge required in a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother - plus e lay recognition of a terrible reality - Aboe weakened her The pre-born did not escape Still she&039;d fought against thefor a tih childhood She&039;d known a private personality, but it had no iainst casual intrusions froh her

Thus will I be one day, she thought This thought chilled her To walk and disse, grasping at consciousness to add a quantum of experience

Fear stalked her childhood It persisted into puberty She had fought it, never asking for help Who would understand the help she required? Not her mother, who could never quite drive away that specter of Bene Gesserit judght when her brother walked alone into the desert seeking death, giving himself to Shai-Hulud as blind Fremen were supposed to do Within the month, Alia had been married to Paul&039;s swordht back from the dead by the arts of the Tleilaxu Her mother fled back to Caladan Paul&039;s tere Alia&039;s legal charge

And she controlled the Regency

Pressures of responsibility had driven the old fears away and she had been wide open to the inner lives, de into spice trance in search of guiding visions

The crisis caat Muad&039;Dib&039;s Keep with a cold wind blowing down fro, the color of the sterile sun More andthe inner voice of herHoly Days to be centered on the Te away at last with a faceless de on the Atreides La lives began to clamor for their moment of consciousness Alia felt that she had opened a bottomless pit, and faces arose out of it like a swarm of locusts, until she came at last to focus on one as like a beast: the old Baron Harkonnen In terrified outrage she had screa a temporary silence