Page 9 (1/2)
"House Corrino wouldn&039;t dare attack us here!"
"Alia would profit if they did" A sneer in his voice provoked her
"I won&039;t be patronized by randson!" she said
"Then darandson! Think of me as your Duke Leto!" Tone and facial expression, even the abrupt, hand gesture, were so exact that she fell silent in confusion
In a dry, remote voice, Leto said: "I tried to prepare you Give me that, at least"
"Why would Alia abduct me?"
"To blame it on House Corrino, of course"
"I don&039;t believe it Even for her, this would be erous! How could she do it without I cannot believe this!"
"When it happens, you&039;ll believe Ahh, grandmother, Ghani and I have but to eavesdrop within ourselves and we know It&039;s siuess at themade around us?"
"I do not for a minute accept that abduction is part of Alia&039;s -"
"Gods belo can you, a Bene Gesserit, be this dense? The whole Iandists are all prepared to discredit you Alia can&039;t wait for that to happen If you go down, House Atreides could suffer a mortal blow"
"What does the whole Imperium suspect?"
Sheshe could not sway this unchild with any wile of Voice
"The Lady Jessica plans to breed those twins together!" he rasped "That&039;s what the Sisterhood wants Incest!"
She blinked "Idle rumor" She sed, "The Bene Gesserits will not let such a rumor run wild in the Imperium We still have some influence Remember that"
"Rumor? What rumor? You&039;ve certainly held your options open on interbreeding us" He shook his head as she started to speak "Don&039;t deny it Let us pass puberty still living in the same household and you in that household, and your influence will be nowaved in the face of a sandworm"
"Do you believe us to be such utter fools?" Jessica asked
"Indeed I do Your Sisterhood is nothing but a bunch of daht beyond their precious breeding prograe they have Do you think us fools?"
"Leverage?"
"They know you&039;re a Harkonnen! It&039;ll be in their breeding records: Jessica out of Tanidia Nerus by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen That record accidentally made public would pull your teeth to -"
"You think the Sisterhood would stoop to blackmail?"
"I know they would Oh, they coated it sweetly They told you to investigate the ruhter They fed your curiosity and your fears They invoked your sense of responsibility, uilty because you&039;d fled back to Caladan And they offered you the prospect of saving your grandchildren"
Jessica could only stare at hih he&039;d eavesdropped on the es with her Proctors from the Sisterhood She felt coan to accept the possibility that he spoke truth when he said Alia planned abduction
"You see, grandmother, I have a difficult decision to make," he said "Do I follow the Atreides mystique? Do I live for my subjects and die for them? Or do I choose another course - one which would permit me to live thousands of years?"
Jessica recoiled involuntarily These words spoken so easily touched on a subject the Bene Gesserits made almost unthinkable Many Reverend Mothers could choose that course or try it The manipulation of internal chemistry was available to initiates of the Sisterhood But if one did it, sooner or later all would try it There could be no concealing such an accueless women They knew for a certainty that this course would lead them to destruction Short-lived humanity would turn upon them No - it was unthinkable
"I don&039;t like the trend of your thoughts," she said
"You don&039;t understand hts," he said "Ghani and I" He shook his head "Alia had it in her grasp and threw it away"
"Are you sure of that? I&039;ve already sent word to the Sisterhood that Alia practices the unthinkable Look at her! She&039;s not aged a day since last I"
"Oh, that!" He dismissed Bene Gesserit body balance with a wave of his hand "I&039; far beyond anything huhast at how easily he&039;d lifted her disclosure froe represented a death sentence on Alia And noabout co the same offense Didn&039;t he know the peril of his words?
"You must explain," she said finally
"How?" he asked "Unless you understand that Tiin to explain My father suspected it He stood at the edge of realization, but fell back Now it&039;s up to Ghani and ered the poisoned needle she held beneath a fold of her robe It was the gohtest prick of it killed within seconds And she thought: They warned ht sent thein waves and she was thankful for the concealing robe
"Very well," he sighed "First, as to Time: there is no difference between ten thousand years and one year; no difference between one hundred thousand years and a heartbeat No difference That is the first fact about Time And the second fact: the entire universe with all of its Time is within me"
"What nonsense is this?" she demanded
"You see? You don&039;t understand I will try to explain in another way, then" He raised his right hand to illustrate, o forward, we co!"
"That is correct," he said "There are things which words cannot explain You must experience them without words But you are not prepared for such a venture, just as when you look atdirectly at you Of course I see you!" She glared at hie of the Zensunni Codex as she&039;d been taught it in the Bene Gesserit schools: play of words to confuse one&039;s understanding of philosophy
"Sos occur beyond your control," he said
"How does that explain this this perfection which is so far beyond other hue or death by the use of e or by that learned adjusthtly fear, such a delay invokes only an illusion of control Whether one walks rapidly through the sietch or slowly, one traverses the sietch And that passage of time is experienced internally"
"Why do you bandy words this way? I cutbefore even your father was born"
"But only the teeth grew," he said
"Words! Words!"
"Ahhh, you&039;re very close!"
"Hah!"
"Grand space Then: "You see? You can still respond as yourself" He smiled at her "But you cannot see past the shadows I aain he smiled "My father came very near to this When he lived, he lived, but when he died, he failed to die"
"What&039;re you saying?"
"Show me his body!"
"Do you think this Preacher"
"Possible, but even so, that is not his body"
"You&039;ve explained nothing," she accused
"Just as I warned you"
"Then why"
"You asked You had to be shown Now let us return to Alia and her plan of abduction for -"
"Are you planning the unthinkable?" she deom jabbar at the ready beneath her robe
"Will you be her executioner?" he asked, his voice deceptively er at the hand beneath her robe "Do you think she&039;ll permit you to use that? Or do you think I&039;d let you use it?"
Jessica found she could not s
"In answer to your question," he said, "I do not plan the unthinkable I ae Alia Of course she&039;s broken the precious Bene Gesserit commandment! What&039;d you expect? You ran out on her, left her as queen here in all but name All of that power! So you ran back to Caladan to nurse your wounds in Gurney&039;s are Alia?"
"I tell you, I will not dis -"
"Oh, shut up!" He looked away froust But his words had been uttered in that special Bene Gesserit way - the controlling Voice It silenced her as though a hand had been clapped over her ht: Who&039;d kno to hit us As many times as she&039;d used Voice on others, she&039;d never expected to be susceptible to it not ever again not since the school days when
He turned back to her "I&039;m sorry I just happen to kno blindly you can be expected to react when -"
"Blindly? Me?" She was ed by this than she&039;d been by his exquisite use of Voice against her
"You," he said "Blindly If you&039;ve any honesty left in you at all, you&039;ll recognize your own reactions I call your naue I invoke all your Bene Gesserit ht That, at least, is so you can do for your -"
"How dare you! What do you know of" Her voice trailed off Of course he knew!