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The Preacher sighed deeply "How far has it gone, this thing you&039;ve done to yourself?"

"My skin is not my own, father"

The Preacher shuddered "Then I kno you found me here"

"Yes, I fastened my memory to a placewith my father"

"I&039;m not your father I&039;m only a poor copy, a relic" He turned his head toward the sound of the approaching guide "I no longer go to the visions for my future"

As he spoke, darkness covered the desert Stars leaped out above theuide "Wubakh ul kuhar!" Leto called to the youth "Greetings!"

Back ca in a hoarse whisper, The Preacher said: "That young Assan Tariq is a dangerous one"

"All of the Cast Out are dangerous," Leto said "But not to me" He spoke in a low, conversational tone

"If that&039;s your vision, I will not share it," The Preacher said

"Perhaps you have no choice," Leto said "You are the fit-haquiqa The Reality You are Abu Dhur, Father of the Indefinite Roads of Time"

"I&039;m no more than bait in a trap," The Preacher said, and his voice was bitter

"And Alia already has eaten that bait," Leto said "But I don&039;t like its taste"

"You cannot do this!" The Preacher hissed

"I&039;ve already done it My skin is not my own"

"Perhaps it&039;s not too late for you to -"

"It is too late" Leto bent his head to one side He could hear Assan Tariq trudging up the duneslope toward thes, Assan Tariq of Shuloch," Leto said

The youth stopped just below Leto on the slope, a dark shadow there in the starlight There was indecision in the set of his shoulders, the way he tipped his head

"Yes," Leto said, "I&039;m the one who escaped froain: "You cannot do this!"

"I a it What matter if you&039;re made blind once more?"

"You think I fear that?" The Preacher asked "Do you not see the fine guide they have provided for ain Leto faced Tariq "Didn&039;t you hear me, Assan? I&039;m the one who escaped from Shuloch"

"You&039;re a demon," the youth quavered

"Your demon," Leto said "But you are roeen himself and his father It was a shadow play all around them, a projection of unconscious forms And Leto felt the memories of his father, a form of backward prophecy which sorted visions from the familiar reality of this moment

Tariq sensed it, this battle of the visions He slid several paces backward down the slope

"You cannot control the future," The Preacher whispered, and the sound of his voice was filled with effort as though he lifted a great weight

Leto felt the dissonance between them then It was an elerappled Either he or his father would be forced to act soon,a vision And his father was right: trying for some ultimate control of the universe, you only built weapons hich the universe eventually defeated you To choose and le, thin thread - playing God on a high tightith cosmic solitude on both sides Neither contestant could retreat into death-as-surcease-from-paradox Each knew the visions and the rules All of the old illusions were dying And when one contestant ht countermove The only real truth that mattered to theround There was no place of safety, only a transitory shifting of relationships, marked out within the lies Each of thee upon which to rely, but Leto possessed two advantages: he had co back, and he had accepted the terrible consequences to himself His father still hoped there was a way back and had made no final commitment

"You must not! You e, Leto thought

Leto spoke in a conversational tone,effort this other-level contest required "I have no passionate belief in truth, no faith other than what I create," he said And he felt then a ranular characteristics which touched only Leto&039;s own passionately subjective belief in himself By such belief he knew that he posted the markers of the Golden Path Soe gift froer would be human on that day But these ahout the landscape of his inner lives and, feeling this, poised hianal which both he and his father knew must come One question reuide aited below them?

Presently Leto sensed ozone in his nostrils, the betraying odor of a shield True to his orders fro to kill both of these dangerous Atreides, not knowing the horrors which this would precipitate

"Don&039;t," The Preacher whispered

But Leto knew the signal was a true one He sensed ozone, but there was no tingling in the air around them Tariq used a pseudo-shield in the desert, a weapon developed exclusively for Arrakis The Holtzmann Effect would su would stop such a wor Yes, the youth had planted the device in the duneslope and was beginning to edge away froer zone

Leto launched hi his father scream in protest But the awful impetus of Leto&039;s a hand caught the neck of Tariq&039;s stillsuit, the other slapped around to grip the doole snap as the neck broke Leto rolled, lifting his body like a finely balanced instrument which dove directly into the sand where the pseudo-shield had been hidden Fingers found the thing and he had it out of the sand, throwing it in a looping arc far out to the south of the din out on the desert where the pseudo-shield had gone It subsided, and silence returned

Leto looked up to the top of the dune where his father stood, still defiant, but defeated That was Paul Muad&039;Dib up there, blind, angry, near despair as a consequence of his flight from the vision which Leto had accepted Paul&039;sKoan: "In the one act of predicting an accurate future, Muad&039;Dib introduced an eleh which he saw huht uncertainty onto hi the absolute of orderly prediction, he a to the dunetop in a single leap, Leto said: "Now I&039;o back to Shuloch? Even if they&039;d welcoone now? Do your eyes see it?"

Paul confronted his son then, ai the eyeless sockets at Leto "Do you really know the universe you have created here?"

Leto heard the particular emphasis The vision which both of them knew had been set into terrible motion here had required an act of creation at a certain point in time For that moment, the entire sentient universe shared a linear view of tiression They entered this ti vehicle, and they could only leave it the saainst this, Leto held the hted view of tihted man in the universe of the blind Only he could scatter the orderly rationale because his father no longer held the reins In Leto&039;s view, a son had altered the past And a thought as yet undreamed in the farthest future could reflect upon the now and move his hand

Only his hand

Paul knew this because he no longer could see how Leto nize the inhuht: Here is the change for which I prayed Why do I fear it? Because it&039;s the Golden Path!

"I&039;ive purpose to our lives," Leto said

"Do you wish to live those thousands of years, changing as you no you will change?"

Leto recognized that his father was not speaking about physical changes Both of them knew the physical consequences: Leto would adapt and adapt; the skin-which-was-not-his-oould adapt and adapt The evolutionary thrust of each part would e Whencreature of awesoe upon the universe - and that universe would worship hihts and decisions which would inflict themselves upon the worshipers

"Those who think you dead," Leto said, "you knohat they say about your last words"

"Of course"

" &039;Now I do what all life must do in the service of life,&039; " Leto said "You never said that, but a Priest who thought you could never return and call him liar put those words into your mouth"

"I&039;d not call hiood last words"

"Would you stay here or return to that hut in the basin of Shuloch?" Leto asked

"This is your universe now," Paul said

The words filled with defeat cut through Leto Paul had tried to guide the last strands of a personal vision, a choice he&039;d made years before in Sietch Tabr For that, he&039;d accepted his role as an instrue for the Cast Out, the remnants of Jacurutu They had contaminated him, but he&039;d accepted this rather than his view of this universe which Leto had chosen

The sadness in Leto was so great he could not speak for several e his voice, Leto said: "So you baited Alia, te decisions And now she knoho you are"

"She knows Yes, she knows"

Paul&039;s voice was old then and filled with hidden protests There was a reserve of defiance in hih He said: "I&039;ll take the vision away from you if I can"

"Thousands of peaceful years," Leto said "That&039;s what I&039;ll give thenation!"

"Of course And those forms of violence which I peret"

"I spit on your lesson!" Paul said "You think I&039;ve not seen a thing sireed

"Is your vision any better than mine?"

"Not one whit better Worse, perhaps," Leto said

"Then what can I do but resist you?" Paul demanded

"Kill me, perhaps?"

"I&039;m not that innocent I knohat you&039;ve set in motion I know about the broken qanats and the unrest"