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Halleck compressed his lips in frustration
"You heard the Reverend Mother&039;s words to me," Namri said "We Fremen understand such women but you off-worlders never understand them Fremen women often send their sons to death"
Halleck spoke past still lips "Are you telling me you&039;ve killed him?"
"He lives He is in a safe place He&039;ll continue to receive the spice"
"But I&039;randed
Halleck understood that this was all the answer he&039;d get Dao back to Jessica with such unanswered questions! He shook his head
"Why question what you cannot change?" Na well paid"
Halleck scowled at the ners were influenced pri more than Fremen prejudice Other forces were at work here and that was obvious to one who&039;d been trained in observation by a Bene Gesserit This whole thing had the s to the insultingly familiar form, Halleck said: "The Lady Jessica will be wrathful She could send cohorts against -"
"Zanadiq!" Naer! You stand outside the Mohalata! I take pleasure in possessing your water for the Noble People!"
Halleck rested a hand on his knife, readied his left sleeve where he&039;d prepared a small surprise for attackers "I see no water spilled here," he said "Perhaps you&039;re blinded by your pride"
"You live because I wished you to learn before dying that your Lady Jessica will not send cohorts against anyone You are not to be lured quietly into the Huanui, off-world scum I am of the Noble People, and you -"
"And I&039;m just a servant of the Atreides," Halleck said, voice mild "We&039;re the scum who lifted the Harkonnen yoke frorimace "Your Lady is prisoner on Salusa Secundus The notes you thought were frohter!"
By extreed to keep his voice even "No matter Alia will"
Namri drew his crysknife "What do you know of the Womb of Heaven? I a when I take your water!" And he lunged across the roo hi clu the extra length of heavy fabric he&039;d had sewn there, letting that take Namri&039;s knife In the same movement, Halleck swept the folds of cloth over Nah the cloth with his own knife aimed directly for the face He felt the point bite home as Namri&039;s body hit him with a hard surface of ed squeal, jerked backward, and fell He lay there, blood gushing frolared at Halleck then slowly dulled
Halleck blew air through his lips How could that fool Namri have expected anyone to miss the presence of armor beneath a robe? Halleck addressed the corpse as he recovered the trick sleeve, wiped his knife and sheathed it "How did you think we Atreides servants were trained, fool?"
He took a deep breath thinking: Well now Whose feint a of truth in Namri&039;s words Jessica a prisoner of the Corrinos and Alia working her own devious scheencies with Alia as enemy, but had not predicted herself as prisoner He had his orders to obey, though First there was the necessity of getting away from this place Luckily one robed Fremen looked much like another He rolled Namri&039;s body into a corner, threw cushions over it,to cover the blood When it was done, Halleck adjusted the nose and ht up thefor the desert, pulled the hood of his robe forward and went out into the long passage
The innocenthis pace at an easy saunter He felt curiously free, as though he&039;d er, not into it
I never did like her plan for the boy, he thought And I&039;ll tell her so if I see her If Because if Naerous alternate plan went into effect Alia wouldn&039;t let hiar - a good Freood Fremen&039;s superstitions
Jessica had explained it: "There&039;s a very thin layer of civilized behavior over Stilgar&039;s original nature And here&039;s how you take that layer off him"
The spirit of Muad&039;Dib is more than words, more than the letter of the Lahich arises in his naainst the coe whichabove all others: that humans can endure only in a fraternity of social justice -The Fedaykin Coainst the wall of the hut, his attention on Sabiha, watching the threads of his vision unroll She had prepared the coffee and set it aside Now she squatted across froruel redolent with e Her hands o stained the sides of his bowl She bent her thin face over the bowl, blending in the concentrate The crude membrane which hter ainst which her shadow danced in the flickering light of the cooking flaued Leto These people of Shuloch were profligate with spice-oil: a lalobe They kept slave outcasts within their walls in the fashion told by the most ancient Fremen traditions Yet they employed ornithopters and the latest spice harvesters They were a crude ruel toward hinored the bowl
"I will be punished if you do not eat this," she said
He stared at her, thinking: If I kill her, that&039;ll shatter one vision If I tell her Muriz&039;s plans, that&039;ll shatter another vision If I wait here for hty rope
His mind sorted the threads Some held a sweetness which haunted hi reality within his prescient awareness It threatened to block out all others until he followed it out to its ending agonies
"Why do you stare at me that way?" she asked
Still he did not answer
She pushed the bowl closer to him
Leto tried to s in a dry throat The impulse to kill Sabiha welled in hi with it How easy it would be to shatter one vision and let the wildness run free!
"Muriz co the bowls
Yes, Muriz co Muriz wanted a vision cast for hi the witch doctor to throw the ox bones and interpret their sprawl Muriz had taken his captive&039;s stillsuit "as a simple precaution" There&039;d been a sly jibe at Namri and Sabiha in that comment Only fools let a prisoner escape
Muriz had a deep eh: the Spirit River The captive&039;s water flowed in Muriz&039;s veins Muriz sought a sign that would permit him to hold a threat of death over Leto
Like father, like son, Leto thought
"The spice will only give you visions," Sabiha said The long silences y "
That&039;s it! he thought, his body locking itself into a stillness which left his skin cold and cla took over his consciousness, a pinpoint illu light of vision upon Sabiha and all of her Cast Out fellows The ancient Bene Gesserit learning was explicit:
"Languages build up to reflect specializations in a way of life Each specialization nized by its words, by its assues Specializations represent places where life is being stopped, where the movement is dammed up and frozen" He saw Sabiha then as a vision-ht, and every other human carried the say visions They caused disquiet and, therefore, otten deliberately Her people prayed to Shai-Hulud because the worm dominated many of their visions They prayed for dew at the desert&039;s edge because moisture limited their lives Yet they ed in spice wealth and lured sandtrout to open qanats Sabiha fed him prescient visions with a casual callousness, yet within her words he saw the illuht finite liors of terrible decisions which touched her own flesh She clung to her one-eyed vision of the universe, englobing and tiht be, because the alternatives terrified her
In contrast, Leto felt the pureinfinite dimensions and, because he saw those dimensions, he could make the terrible decisions
As my father did
"You must eat this!" Sabiha said, her voice petulant
Leto saw the whole pattern of the visions now and knew the thread hehis robe around hiainst his flesh with no stillsuit protecting his body His feet were bare upon the fused spice-fabric of the floor, feeling the sand tracked in there
"What&039;re you doing?" Sabiha de outside"
"You can&039;t escape," she said "Every canyon has its woro beyond the qanat, the worms will sense you by your moisture These captive worms are very alert - not like the ones in the desert at all Besides -" how gloating her voice became! "- you&039;ve no stillsuit"
"Then why do you worry?" he asked, wondering if he ht yet provoke a real reaction from her
"Because you&039;ve not eaten"
"And you&039;ll be punished"
"Yes!"
"But I&039;m already saturated with spice," he said "Every estured with a bare foot at the bowl "Pour that onto the sand Who&039;ll know?"
"They watch," she whispered
He shook his head, shedding her fro new freedom envelop him No need to kill this poor pawn She danced to other ht yet share the pohich lured the hungry pirates of Shuloch and Jacurutu Leto went to the doorseal, put a hand upon it
"When Muriz cory with -"
"Muriz is a merchant of eot to her feet "I&039;ht: She reility of her hold upon me Her visions stir within her But she would not listen to those visions She had but to reflect: How could he outwit a captive worm in its narrow canyon? How could he live in the Tanzerouft without stillsuit or Fremkit?
"I must be alone to consult my visions," he said "You&039;ll reo?"
"To the qanat"
"The sandtrout coht"
"They won&039;t eat me"
"Sometimes the worm comes down to just beyond the water," she said "If you cross the qanat" She broke off, trying to edge her words with menace
"How could Iif she still could salvage some bit of her visions
"Will you eat when you return?" she asked, squatting once o broth
"Everything in its own ti she&039;d be unable to detect his delicate use of Voice, the way he insinuated his own desires into her decision-
"Muriz will come and see if you&039;ve had a vision," she warned
"I will deal with Muriz inhow heavy and slow her movements had become The pattern of all Freuided her now Frey at sunrise but a deep and lethargic htfall Already she wanted to sink into sleep and drealittered with stars and he could ainst their pattern He went up under the palms to the qanat