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I will not argue with the Freious revelation, it is their concurrent claiical revelation which inspires me to shower them with derision Of course, they then their mandarinate and help thely oppressive It is in the name of all those oppressed people that I warn the Fre terht with Stilgar to the narrow ledge at the crest of the low rock outcropping which Sietch Tabr called The Attendant Under the waning light of Second Moon, the ledge gave them a panoramic view - the Shield Wall with Mount Idaho to the north, the Great Flat to the south and rolling dunes eastward toward Habbanya Ridge Winding dust, the afterht frosted the riainst his will, joining the secretive venture finally because Leto aroused his curiosity Why was it necessary to risk a sand crossing in the night? The lad had threatened to sneak away and ar refused The way of it bothered hiets alone in the night!

Leto squatted on the ledge facing south toward the flat Occasionally he pounded his knee as though in frustration

Stilgar waited He was good at silent waiting, and stood two paces to one side of his charge, arht breeze

For Leto, the sand crossing represented a response to inner desperation, a need to seek a new alignment for his life in a silent conflict which Ghaniar into sharing the journey because there were things Stilgar had to know in preparation for the days ahead

Again Leto pounded his knee It was difficult to know a beginning! He felt, at times, like an extension of those countless other lives, all as real and immediate as his own In the flow of those lives there was no ending, no acco They could be a lethrough which each desired to peer And there lay the peril which had destroyed Alia

Leto stared outward at thethe storm remnants Folds and overfolds of dunes spread across the flat: silica grit rit sand, pebbles He felt hiht in one of those poised moments just before dawn Time pressed at him It was already the month of Akkad and behind hi hot days and hot dry winds, nights like this one tors frolanced over his shoulder toward the Shield Wall, a broken line in starlight Beyond that wall in the Northern Sink lay the focus of his problems

Once more he looked to the desert As he stared into the hot darkness, day dawned, the sun rising out of dust scarves and placing a touch of lime into the stor himself to see how this day would appear froht up like a scattering of boxes between the light and the new shadows Desert boxes desert boxes

When he opened his eyes, the desert re curry expanse of wind-kicked sand Oily shadows along the base of each dune reached out like rays of the night just past They linked one ti here with Stilgar restless beside him, the older man worried at the silence and the unexplained reasons for co this ith his beloved Muad&039;Dib Even now Stilgar was ar did not like the open in daylight He was pure old Freht and the clean exertions of a sand crossing Once here in the rocks, the night had taken on its black stillness He syle thing even when it contained boiling terrors Light could be s which caht, everything a But terrors of the day could be worse

Stilgar cleared his throat

Leto spoke without turning: "I have a very serious problem, Stil"

"So I surmised" The voice beside Leto caly of the father It was a thing of forbidden ar Fremen knew the terrors of possession Those found possessed were rightfully killed and their water cast upon the sand lest it contaminate the tribal cistern The dead should remain dead It was correct to find one&039;s iht to assume too exact a shape from their past

"My probles undone," Leto said "Especially the focus of our lives The Eo on this way, Stil, without a proper focus for hu of life, you understand? Life, not death"

"Once, when he was troubled by a vision, your father spoke in this vein to ar said

Leto found hi fear beside hiestion that they break their fast He realized that he was very hungry They had eaten the previous noon and Leto had insisted on fasting through the night But another hunger drew him now

The trouble with ht No prelio back and back and back until distances fade away I cannot see the horizon; I cannot see Habbanya Ridge I can&039;t find the original place of testing

"There&039;s really no substitute for prescience," Leto said "Perhaps I should risk the spice"

"And be destroyed as your father was?"

"A dilemma," Leto said

"Once your father confided inthe future too as to be locked into that future to the exclusion of any freedoe"

"The paradox which is our proble, prescience The future becohted in the land of the blind carries its own perils If you try to interpret what you see for the blind, you tend to forget that the blind possess an inherent movement conditioned by their blindness They are like aits own path They have their own momentum, their own fixations I fear the blind, Stil I fear thear stared at the desert Lime dawn had become steel day He said: "Why have we come to this place?"

"Because I wanted you to see the place where I ar tensed Then: "So you have had a vision!"

"Perhaps it was only a drealared down at his charge "We will return at once"

"I won&039;t die today, Stil"

"No? What was this vision?"

"I saw three paths," Leto said His voice came out with the sleepy sound of rerandlance back toward Sietch Tabr, as though he feared the Lady Jessica could hear the the spice monopoly"

"I don&039;t understand"

"Nor do I But that is the thought of ar understood the use of a knife He drew a deep breath "What is the second path?"

"Ghani and I ar expelled his breath in a violent expression of distaste

"It was usual in ancient tis and queens to do this," Leto said "Ghani and I have decided ill not breed"

"I warn you to hold fast in that decision!" There was death in Stilgar&039;s voice By Fre tripod He cleared his throat, asked: "And the third path?"

"I am called to reduce my father to huar ar turned his back on the desert, stared toward the oasis of his beloved Sietch Tabr Such talk always disturbed hiar&039;s moves which had to be said here They could talk half the day away, h draay from real decisions, from those immediate necessities which confronted them And there was no doubt that House Corrino posed a real threat to real lives - his own and Ghani&039;s But everything he did now had to be weighed and tested against the secret necessities Stilgar once had voted to have Farad&039;n assassinated, holding out for the subtle application of chaumurky: poison administered in a drink Farad&039;n was known to be partial to certain sweet liquors That could not be permitted

"If I die here, Stil," Leto said, "you er your friend"

"What is this talk of death and your aunt?" Now Stilgar was truly outraged Kill the Lady Jessica! Beware of Alia! Die in this place!

"Se their faces at her command," Leto said "A ruler need not be a prophet, Stil Nor even godlike A ruler need only be sensitive I brought you here with overnment That does not depend upon laws or precedent, but upon the personal qualities of whoever governs"

"The Regency handles its Ie -"

"I ae! I&039; infant beside me I can remember times more than fifty centuries past Hah! I can even rerod"

"Why do you play with such fancies?" Stilgar demanded, his tone peremptory

Leto nodded to himself Why indeed? Why recount his memories of those other centuries? Today&039;s Fremen were his ies, prone to laugh at unlucky innocence

"The crysknife dissolves at the death of its owner," Leto said "Muad&039;Dib has dissolved Why are the Frees which so confounded Stilgar He found hi, but their intent eluded him

"I am expected to be Elanced across his shoulder at Stilgar "My grandfather for whom I was named added neords to his coat of arms when he came here to Dune: &039;Here I aar said

"Very good, Stil Nor have I any choice I should be the E, by all that has gone into overnar said "It is &039;servant of the Sietch&039; "

"I reovernment, the tribe overnment should behave"

Froar said: "You&039;ll assume the Imperial Mantle if it&039;s meet First you must prove that you can behave in the fashion of a ruler!"

Unexpectedly, Leto laughed Then: "Do you doubt ht?"

"You are who you are"

"And if I do what is expected of me, that is the measure of my sincerity, eh?"

"It is the Freuide my behavior?"

"I don&039;t understand what -"

"If I always behave with propriety, no matter what it costs me to suppress my own desires, then that is the ster"

"Youngster!" Leto shook his head "Ahhh, Stil, you provide overnment I must be constant, every action rooted in the traditions of the past"