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On this h the Keep&039;s roof garden In a new attempt to win the inner battle, she tried to hold her entire awareness within Choda&039;s ad the ladder, onethe cliffs of the Shield Wall kept distracting her Plantings of resilient fuzz-grass filled the garden&039;s pathways When she looked away frorass, the catch of all the ht It reflected her own passage as of a iddy Each reflection carried the imprint of a face from the inner rass implied The presence of plentiful dew told her how far the ecological transforressed on Arrakis The cli warmer; atmospheric carbon dioxide was on the increase She rereen plants in the co year - and it required thirty-seven thousand cubic feet of water to irrigate just one hectare
Despite every attehts, she could not drive away the sharklike circling of all those others within her
She put her hands to her forehead and pressed
Her tee at sunset the previous day: one Essas Paymon, a dark little man ostensibly in the pay of a house minor, the Nebiros, who traded in holy artifacts and small manufactured items for decoration Actually Paymon was known to be a CHOAM spy whose task was to assess the yearly spice crop Alia had been on the point of sending hieons when he&039;d protested loudly "the injustice of the Atreides" That could have brought hi tripod, but Alia had been caught by his boldness She&039;d spoken sternly frohten hi more than he&039;d already told her inquisitors
"Why are our spice crops of such interest to the Combine Honnete?" she demanded "Tell us and we may spare you"
"I only collect so for which there is aof what is done with my harvest"
"And for this petty profit you interfere with our royal plans?" Alia deht have plans, too," he countered
Alia, captivated by his desperate audacity, said: "Essas Payrin whitened his dark face, and he said; "You were about to obliterate me without a qualm What is my new value that you should suddenly make a market for it?"
"You&039;ve a simple and practical value," she said "You&039;re bold and you&039;re for hire to the highest bidder I can bid higher than any other in the Empire"
At which, he named a rehed and countered with a figure she considered more reasonable and undoubtedly far more than he&039;d ever before received She added: "And, of course, I throw in the gift of your life upon which, I presuain!" Paynal from Alia, was led away by her priestly Master of Appointments, Ziarenko Javid
Less than an hour later, as Alia prepared to leave the Judg to report that Paymon had been overheard to e Catholic Bible: "Maleficos non patieris vivere "
"Thou shall not suffer a witch to live," Alia translated So that was his gratitude! He was one of those who plotted against her very life! In a flush of rage such as she&039;d never before experienced, she ordered Payhis body to the Temple deathstill where his water, at least, would be of so Paymon&039;s dark face haunted her
She tried all of her tricks against this persistent, accusing i the Bu Ji fro occurs!" But Payiddy new day, where she could see that his face had joined those in the jeweled reflections frouard called her to breakfast frohed She felt small choice between hells: the outcry within her mind or the outcry from her attendants - all were pointless voices, but persistent in their delass noises that she would like to silence with the edge of a knife
Ignoring the guard, Alia stared across the roof garden toward the Shield Wall A bahada had left its broad outwash like a detrital fan upon the sheltered floor of her doaze, outlined by the ht see that broad fan as evidence of a river&039;s flow, but it was no more than the place where her brother had shattered the Shield Wall with the Atreides Fa a path from the desert for the sandwor victory over his Imperial predecessor, Shaddam IV Now a broad qanat floater on the Shield Wall&039;s far side to block off sandworm intrusions Sandworms would not cross open water; it poisoned theht
The thought increased her giddy sensation of being separated from reality
Sandworms! Sandwores: e of the Fres included the priceless spice How odd it was, this sandworht They were like the flocking e to edge against the planet&039;s bedrock, for cisterns; they held back the water that their sandwory: soerous forces which could destroy her
Again the guard called her to breakfast, a note of irily Alia turned, waved a disuard obeyed, but the roof door sla door, Alia felt herself caught by everything she had attempted to deny The other lives welled up within her like a hideous tide Each deainst her vision centers - a cloud of faces Soe-spotted skin, other were callous and full of sooty shadows; there were es The pressure of the sashed over her in a current which dee into them
"No," she whispered "No no no"
She would have collapsed onto the path but for a bench beside her which accepted her sagging body She tried to sit, could not, stretched out on the cold plasteel, still whispering denial
The tide continued to rise within her
She felt attuned to the slightest show of attention, aware of the risk, but alert for every exclauarded mouths which clamored within her They were a cacophony of demand for her attention: "Me! Me!" "No, ave it completely, she would be lost To behold one face out of the multitude and follow the voice of that face would be to be held by the egocentrism which shared her existence
"Prescience does this to you," a voice whispered
She covered her ears with her hands, thinking: I&039;m not prescient! The trance doesn&039;t work for ht work, if you had help"
"No no," she whispered
Other voices wove around her amemnon, your ancestor, deainst her ears until the flesh answered her with pain
An insane cackle within her head asked: "What has become of Ovid? Simple He&039;s John Bartlett&039;s ibid!"
The naainst theainst all the other voices but could not find her own voice
Her guard, sent back to the roof by senior attendants, peered once more from the doorway behind the mimosa, saw Alia on the bench, spoke to a co You noted that she didn&039;t sleep well last night It is good for her to take the zaha, the uard Her awareness was caught by shrieks of singing: "Merry old birds are we, hurrah!" the voices echoed against the inside of her skull and she thought: I&039; ainst the bench She felt that if she could only coht escape She had to escape lest any part of that inner tide sweep her into silence, forever contahtiest forces in the Ihtest whim, but her body would not
An inner voice chuckled Then: "From one viewpoint, child, each incident of creation represents a catastrophe" It was a basso voice which ruh deriding its own pontification "My dear child, I will help you, but you round cla teeth: "Who who"
A face for face of such fatness that it could have been a baby&039;s except for the glittering eagerness of the eyes She tried to pull back, but achieved only a longer viehich included the body attached to that face The body was grossly, ies beneath it that this fat had required the support of portable suspensors
"You see," the basso voice rurandfather You know me I was the Baron Vladiasped
"But, of course, my dear! Most of us within you are dead But none of the others are really willing to help you They don&039;t understand you"
"Go away," she pleaded "Oh, please go away"
"But you need help, granddaughter," the Baron&039;s voice argued
How re the projection of the Baron against her closed eyelids
"I&039; to help you," the Baron wheedled "The others in here would only fight to take over your entire consciousness Any one of them would try to drive you out But ain the other lives within her lifted their claulf her and she heard her ht: She&039;s not dead
"Shut up!" the Baron co that cohout her awareness
Inner silence washed through her like a cool bath and she felt her haly the Baron&039;s voice intruded: "You see? Together, we&039;re invincible You help me and I help you"
"What what do you want?" she whispered
A pensive look caainst her closed eyelids "Ahhh, hter," he said, "I wish only a few simple pleasures Give me but an occasional moment of contact with your senses No one else need ever know Let me feel but a small corner of your life when, for example, you are enfolded in the arms of your lover Is that not a sood," the Baron chortled "In return, hter, I can serve you in many ways I can advise you, help you with my counsel You will be invincible within and without You will sweep away all opposition History will forget your brother and cherish you The future will be yours"
"You won&039;t let the the others take over?"
"They cannot stand against us! Singly we can be overcoether we command I will de his ie, his inner presence Not one memory, face, or voice of the other lives intruded
Alia allowed herself a treht It forced itself into her awareness as though it were her own, but she sensed silent voices behind it
The old Baron was evil He murdered your father He would&039;ve killed you and Paul He tried to and failed
The Baron&039;s voice came to her without a face: "Of course I would&039;ve killed you Didn&039;t you stand in ument is ended You&039;ve won it, child! You&039;re the new truth"
She felt herself nodding and her cheek ainst the harsh surface of the bench
His words were reasonable, she thought A Bene Gesserit precept reinforced the reasonable character of his words: "The purpose of argue the nature of truth"
Yes that was the way the Bene Gesserit would have it
"Precisely!" the Baron said "And I aile existence I&039;m a mere memory-self within you I am yours to command And how little I ask in return for the profound advice which is mine to deliver"
"What do you advise
"You&039;re worried about the judght," he said "You wonder if Paymon&039;s words were reported truthfully Perhaps Javid saw in this Paymon a threat to his position of trust Is this not the doubt which assails you?"
"Y-yes"
"And your doubt is based on acute observation, is it not? Javid behaves with increasing intimacy toward your person Even Duncan has noted it, hasn&039;t he?"
"You know he has"