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"Look inward, I say!" His voice was iain, his voice enthralled her She found her senses stilled, felt a quickening of breath Just beyond awareness lurked a pounding heart, the panting of Abruptly she realized that the quickened breath, the pounding heart, were not latent, not held at bay by her Bene Gesserit control Eyes widening in shocked awareness, she felt her own flesh obeying other commands Slowly she recovered her poise, but the realization re her like a fine instruhout their interview
"Now you kno profoundly you were conditioned by your precious Bene Gesserits," he said
She could only nod Her belief in words lay shattered Leto had forced her to look her physical universe squarely in the face, and she&039;d co with a neareness "Show h it were newborn Not since her earliest schooling days on Wallach, not since those terrifying days before the Duke&039;s buyers ca uncertainty about her next moments
"You will allow yourself to be abducted," Leto said
"But -"
"I&039; for discussion on this point," he said "You will allow it Think of this as a command from your Duke You&039;ll see the purpose when it&039;s done You&039;re going to confront a very interesting student"
Leto stood, nodded He said: "Soin but do not end It all depends upon where the observer is standing" Turning, he left her cha into their private quarters She stopped as she saw him, said: "Alia&039;s busy with the Convocation of the Faith" She looked a question at the passage which led to Jessica&039;s quarters
Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever reument Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past Atrocity merely ar upon itself - a barbarous form of incest Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred -The Apocrypha of Muad&039;Dib
Shortly after noon, when ri shade and source of libation they could find The Preacher entered the great square below Alia&039;s Te Assan Tariq In a pocket beneath his flowing robe, The Preacher carried the black gauze mask he&039;d worn on Salusa Secundus It amused him to think that the uise While he needed surrogate eyes, doubts rerow, but keep doubts alive, he thought
No one must discover that the mask was merely cloth, not an Ixian artifact at all His hand must not slip from Assan Tariq&039;s bony shoulder Let The Preacher once walk as the sighted despite his eyeless sockets, and all doubts would dissolve The small hope he nursed would be dead Each day he prayed for a change, soht stumble, but even Salusa Secundus had been a pebble, every aspect known Nothing changed; nothing could be changed yet
Many peoplethe way he turned his head fro it centered on a doorway or a person The movements of his head were not always blind-natural, and this added to the growingbattlee far below for son of identity Every rumor was reported to her Each new one caht her order to take The Preacher captive would remain secret, but that, too, cauards, souards would follow her new orders and not take this robed mystery captive in a public place where it could be seen and reported
It was dusty hot in the square The Preacher&039;s young guide had pulled the veil of his robe up around his nose, leaving only the dark eyes and a thin patch of forehead exposed The veil bulged with the outline of a stillsuit&039;s catchtube This told Alia that they&039;d come in from the desert Where did they hide out there?
The Preacher wore no veil protection fro air He had even dropped the catchtube flap of his stillsuit His face lay open to the sunlight and the heat shiverings which lifted off the square&039;s paving blocks in visible waves
At the Te their departure obeisance The shadowed edge of the square held perhaps fiftythe the onlookers could be seen h sales to close up for the worst of the day&039;s heat
Watching fro heat and knew herself to be caught between thinking and sensation, the way she&039;d often seen her brother caught The te like an o in her head The Baron was there: dutiful, but always ready to play upon her terrors when rational judgs around her lost their sense of past, present, and future
What if that&039;s Paul down there? she asked herself
"Nonsense!" the voice within her said
But the reports of The Preacher&039;s words could not be doubted Heresy! It terrified her to think that Paul hi down the structure built on his naht of what she&039;d said in Council just that ed acceptance of the gift of clothing froifts to the till be exaued
"And e find the gift harhtening thing of all: to find that the gift carried no threat
In the end they&039;d accepted the fine clothing and had gone on to the other issue: Was the Lady Jessica to be given a position on the Council? Alia had ht of this as she stared down at The Preacher
Things which happened to her Regency noere like the underside of that transformation they inflicted upon this planet Dune had once symbolized the power of ultimate desert That poindled physically, but the rew apace Only the ocean-desert rereat Mother Desert of the inner planet, with its riht Behind the thorn bushes arose soft green hills bending down to the sand All the hills were man-made Every last one of the insects The green of those hills was al to someone raised, as Alia had been, in the tradition of dun-shaded sand In her mind, as in the rip which would never relax She had only to close her eyes and she would see that desert
Open eyes at the desert edge sa the verdant hills, reen pseudopods toward the sand - but the other desert remained as powerful as ever
Alia shook her head, stared down at The Preacher
He had mounted the first of the terraced steps below the Temple and turned to face the almost deserted square Alia touched the button beside her hich would a herself held here in loneliness Whoar rear had been infected by this blind ar had asked her "I heard hie toHe counts &039;shuc, ishcai, qimsa, chuascu, picha, sucta, and so on I&039;ve not heard counting like that since the old days in the desert"
Froar could not be sent to do the job which uards where the slightest eency tended to be taken as absolute co down there, this Preacher?
The surrounding marketplace beneath its protective balconies and arched arcade still presented a gaudy face: merchandise left on display with a few boys to watch over it So for the spice-biscuit rim&039;s purse
Alia studied The Preacher&039;s back He appeared poised for speech, but so that ruin in ancient flesh? she asked herself That nificence&039; which once was er filled her How could she find out about The Preacher, find out for certain without finding out? She was trapped She dared not revealcuriosity about this heretic
Irulan felt it She&039;d lost her famous Bene Gesserit poise and screamed in Council: "We&039;ve lost the power to think well of ourselves!"
Even Stilgar had been shocked
Javid had brought them back to their senses: "We don&039;t have tiht What did it ht of the onto the I her poise, had been evenvital, I tell you When we lost it, we lost the ability to ood decisions We fall upon decisions these days the e fall upon an ene up, and we allow the decisions of others to otten that ere the ones who set this current flowing?"
And all over the question of whether to accept a gift from House Corrino
Irulan will have to be disposed of, Alia decided
What was that oldfor? He called himself a preacher Why didn&039;t he preach?
Irulan rong about our decision-, Alia told herself I can still make proper decisions! The person with life-and-death decisions to ht in the penduluerous of those things which were not natural The only pere was all that ht
The Preacher raised his ar in the square moved closer to him, and Alia noted the slowness of that movement Yes, the rumors were out that The Preacher had aroused Alia&039;s displeasure She bent closer to the Ixian speaker beside her spy hole The speaker brought her the s of the people in the square, the sound of wind, the scratching of feet on sand
"I bring you four es!" The Preacher said
His voice blared from Alia&039;s speaker, and she turned down the volue is for a certain person," The Preacher said "The first e is for Alia, the suzerain of this place" He pointed behind hi: You, who held the secret of duration in your loins, have sold your future for an eht But his words froze her
"My second ar, the Fremen Naib, who believes he can translate the power of the tribes into the power of the Ierous of all creations is a rigid code of ethics It will turn upon you and drive you into exile!"
He has gone too far! Alia thought I uards for him no matter the consequences But her hands remained at her sides
The Preacher turned to face the Temple, climbed to the second step and oncehis left hand upon the shoulder of his guide He called out now: "My third e is for the Princess Irulan Princess! Huet I warn you to flee!"
What&039;s he saying? Alia asked herself We humiliated Irulan, but Why does he warn her to flee? My decision was just h Alia How did The Preacher know?
"My fourth e is for Duncan Idaho," he shouted "Duncan! You were taught to believe that loyalty buys loyalty Ohh, Duncan, do not believe in history, because history is impelled by whatever passes for money Duncan! Take your horns and do what you know best how to do"
Alia chewed the back of her right hand Horns! She wanted to reach out and press the button which would suuards, but her hand refused to move
"Noill preach to you," The Preacher said "This is a sermon of the desert I direct it to the ears of Muad&039;Dib&039;s priesthood, those who practice the ecumenism of the sword Ohhh, you believers in manifest destiny! Know you not that manifest destiny has its demoniac side? You cry out that you find yourselves exalted enerations of Muad&039;Dib I say to you that you have abandoned Muad&039;Dib Holiness has replaced love in your religion! You court the vengeance of the desert!"
The Preacher lowered his head as though in prayer
Alia felt herself shivering with awareness Gods below! That voice! It had been cracked by years in the burning sands, but it could be the remnant of Paul&039;s voice
Once more The Preacher raised his head His voice booather, attracted by this oddity out of the past
"Thus it is written!" The Preacher shouted "They who pray for dew at the desert&039;s edge shall bring forth the deluge! They shall not escape their fate through powers of reason! Reason arises from pride that a man may not know in this hen he has done evil" He lowered his voice "It was said of Muad&039;Dib that he died of prescience, that knowledge of the future killed him and he passed from the universe of reality into the alam al-mythal I say to you that this is the illusion of Maya Such thoughts have no independent reality They cannot go out fros Muad&039;Dib said of hiic hich to encipher the universe Do not doubt hiain The Preacher raised his arms, lifted his voice in a stentorian bellow: "I warn the priesthood of Muad&039;Dib! The fire on the cliff shall burn you! They who learn the lesson of self-deception too well shall perish by that deception The blood of a brother cannot be cleansed away!"
He had lowered his ar the square before Alia could break herself fro immobility which had overcome her Such fearless heresy! It uards They dared not ainst this Preacher openly The evidence in the square below her confirmed this
Despite the heresy, no one uard leaped to pursue hirim tried to stop him That charismatic blind man! Everyone who saw or heard him felt his power, the reflection of divine talent
In spite of the day&039;s heat, Alia felt suddenly cold She felt the thin edge of her grip on the Ie of her spy holeas though to hold her power, thinking of its fragility The balance of Landsraad, CHOAM, and Fre Guild and Bene Gesserit dealt silently in the shadows The forbidden seepage of technological developes of hurations nibbled at the central power Products permitted the Ixian and Tleilaxu factories could not relieve the pressure And always in the wings there stood Farad&039;n of House Corrino, inheritor of Shaddam TV&039;s titles and claims
Without the Freeriatric spice, her grip would loosen All the poould dissolve She could feel it slipping froerous to silence hi such words as he&039;d shouted across her square today She could see the first omens of her own defeat and the pattern of the problem stood out clearly in her e populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe And we know the e populace may turn upon its keepers -
"One: When they find a leader This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders
"Two: When the populace recognizes its chains Keep the populace blind and unquestioning
"Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape froe They must never even believe that escape is possible!"
Alia shook her head, feeling her cheeks trens were here in her populace Every report she received frohout the I warfare of the Fremen Jihad left its mark everywhere Wherever "the ecumenism of the sword" had touched, people retained the attitude of a subject population: defensive, concealing, evasive All ious authority - becari thee had other motivations than devotion Most often it was a canny surety for the future It eained a real form of pohich was easily translated into wealth The Hajji who returned from Arrakis came home to new authority, new social status The Hajji could make profitable economic decisions which the planet-bound of his hoe
Alia knew the popular riddle: "What do you see inside the eht home from Dune?" And the answer: "The eyes of Muad&039;Dib (fire dia unrest paraded theht that opposition was always punished and assistance to the ruler was always rewarded Imperial forces must be shifted in random fashion Major adjuncts to Imperial power had to be concealed Every ency countered potential attack required delicate ti to keep the opposition off balance
Have I lost ? she wondered
"What idle speculation is this?" a voice within her asked She felt herself growing calood one We eliminate the threat of the Lady Jessica and, at the same time, we discredit House Corrino Yes
The Preacher could be dealt with later She understood his posture The symbolism was clear He was the ancient spirit of unbridled speculation, the spirit of heresy alive and functioning in her desert of orthodoxy That was his strength It didn&039;tas that could be kept in doubt But her Bene Gesserit knowledge told Alia that his strength would contain the key to his weakness
The Preacher has a flahich ill find I will have him spied upon, watched every moment And if the opportunity arises, he will be discredited