Frank Herbert 2 страница

“Piter! ”

“Ah-ah. Baron! Is it not regrettable you were unable to devise this delicious scheme by yourself? ”

“Someday I will have you strangled, Piter. ”

“Of a certainty, Baron. Enfin! But a kind act is never lost, eh? ”

“Have you been chewing verite or semuta, Piter? ”

“Truth without fear surprises the Baron, ” Piter said. His face drew down into a caricature of a frowning mask. “Ah, hah! But you see, Baron, I know as a Mentat when you will send the executioner. You will hold back just so long as I am useful. To move sooner would be wasteful and I'm yet of much use. I know what it is you learned from that lovely Dune planet – waste not. True, Baron? ”

The Baron continued to stare at Piter.

Feyd-Rautha squirmed in his chair. These wrangling fools! he thought. My uncle cannot talk to his Mental without arguing. Do they think I've nothing to do except listen their arguments?

“Feyd, ” the Baron said. “I told you to listen and learn when I invited you in here. Are you learning? ”

“Yes, Uncle. ” the voice was carefully subservient.

“Sometimes I wonder about Piter, ” the Baron said. “I cause pain out of necessity, but he… I swear he takes a positive delight in it. For myself, I can feel pity toward the poor Duke Leto. Dr. Yueh will move against him soon, and that'll be the end of all the Atreides. But surely Leto will know whose hand directed the pliant doctor… and knowing that will be a terrible thing. ”

“Then why haven't you directed the doctor to slip a kindjal between his ribs quietly and efficiently? ” Piter asked. “You talk of pity, but –”

“The Duke must know when I encompass his doom, ” the Baron said. “And the other Great Houses must learn of it. The knowledge will give them pause. I'll gain a bit more room to maneuver. The necessity is obvious, but I don't have to like it. ”

“Room to maneuver, ” Piter sneered. “Already you have the Emperor's eyes on you, Baron. You move too boldly. One day the Emperor will send a legion or two of his Sardaukar down here onto Giedi Prime and that'll be an end to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. ”

“You'd like to see that, wouldn't you, Piter? ” the Baron asked. “You'd enjoy seeing the Corps of Sardaukar pillage through my cities and sack this castle. You'd truly enjoy that. ”

“Does the Baron need to ask? ” Piter whispered.

“You should've been a Bashar of the Corps, ” the Baron said. “You're too interested in blood and pain. Perhaps I was too quick with my promise of the spoils of Arrakis. ”

Piter took five curiously mincing steps into the room, stopped directly behind Feyd-Rautha. There was a tight air of tension in the room, and the youth looked up at Piter with a worried frown.

“Do not toy with Piter, Baron, ” Piter said. “You promised me the Lady Jessica. You promised her to me. ”

“For what, Piter? ” the Baron asked. “For pain? ”

Piter stared at him, dragging out the silence.

Feyd-Rautha moved his suspensor chair to one side, said: “Uncle, do I have to stay? You said you'd –”

“My darling Feyd-Rautha grows impatient, ” the Baron said. He moved within the shadows beside the globe. “Patience, Feyd. ” And he turned his attention back to the Mentat. “What of the Dukeling, the child Paul, my dear Piter? ”

“The trap will bring him to you, Baron, ” Piter muttered.

“That's not my question, ” the Baron said. “You'll recall that you predicted the Bene Gesserit witch would bear a daughter to the Duke. You were wrong, eh, Mentat? ”

“I'm not often wrong, Baron, ” Piter said, and for the first time there was fear in his voice. “Give me that: I'm not often wrong. And you know yourself these Bene Gesserit bear mostly daughters. Even the Emperor's consort had produced only females. ”

“Uncle, ” said Feyd-Rautha, “you said there'd be something important here for me to –”

“Listen to my nephew, ” the Baron said. “He aspires to rule my Barony, yet he cannot rule himself. ” The Baron stirred beside the globe, a shadow among shadows. “Well then, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, I summoned you here hoping to teach you a bit of wisdom. Have you observed our good Mentat? You should've learned something from this exchange. ”

“But, Uncle –”

“A most efficient Mentat, Piter, wouldn't you say, Feyd? ”

“Yes, but –”

“Ah! Indeed but! But he consumes too much spice, eats it like candy. Look at his eyes! He might've come directly from the Arrakeen labor pool. Efficient, Piter, but he's still emotional and prone to passionate outbursts. Efficient, Piter, but he still can err. ”

Piter spoke in a low, sullen tone: “Did you call me in here to impair my efficiency with criticism, Baron? ”

“Impair your efficiency? You know me better, Piter. I wish only for my nephew to understand the limitations of a Mentat. ”

“Are you already training my replacement? ” Piter demanded.

“Replace you? Why, Piter, where could I find another Mentat with your cunning and venom? ”

“The same place you found me, Baron. ”

“Perhaps I should at that, ” the Baron mused. “You do seem a bit unstable lately. And the spice you eat! ”

“Are my pleasures too expensive, Baron? Do you object to them? ”

“My dear Piter, your pleasures are what tie you to me. How could I object to that? I merely wish my nephew to observe this about you. ”

“Then I'm on display, ” Piter said. “Shall I dance? Shall I perform my various functions for the eminent Feyd-Rau-”

“Precisely, ” the Baron said. “You are on display. Now, be silent. ” He glanced at Feyd-Rautha, noting his nephew's lips, the full and pouting look of them, the Harkonnen genetic marker, now twisted slightly in amusement. “This is a Mentat, Feyd. It has been trained and conditioned to perform certain duties. The fact that it's encased in a human body, however, must not be overlooked. A serious drawback, that. I sometimes think the ancients with their thinking machines had the right idea. ”

“They were toys compared to me, ” Piter snarled. “You yourself, Baron, could outperform those machines. ”

“Perhaps, ” the Baron said. “Ah, well… ” He took a deep breath, belched. “Now, Piter, outline for my nephew the salient features of our campaign against the House of Atreides. Function as a Mentat for us, if you please. ”

“Baron, I've warned you not to trust one so young with this information. My observations of –”

“I'll be the judge of this, ” the Baron said. “I give you an order, Mentat. Perform one of your various functions. ”

“So be it, ” Piter said. He straightened, assuming an odd attitude of dignity – as though it were another mask, but this time clothing his entire body. “In a few days Standard, the entire household of the Duke Leto will embark on a Spacing Guild liner for Arrakis. The Guild will deposit them at the city of Arrakeen rather than at our city of Carthag. The Duke's Mentat, Thufir Hawat, will have concluded rightly that Arrakeen is easier to defend. ”

“Listen carefully, Feyd, ” the Baron said. “Observe the plans within plans within plans. ”

Feyd-Rautha nodded, thinking: This is more like it. The old monster is letting me in on secret things at last. He must really mean for me to be his heir.

“There are several tangential possibilities, ” Piter said. “I indicate that House Atreides will go to Arrakis. We must not, however, ignore the possibility the Duke has contracted with the Guild to remove him to a place of safety outside the System. Others in like circumstances have become renegade Houses, taking family atomics and shields and fleeing beyond the Imperium. ”

“The Duke's too proud a man for that, ” the Baron said.

“It is a possibility, ” Piter said. “The ultimate effect for us would be the same, however. ”

“No, it would not! ” the Baron growled. “I must have him dead and his line ended. ”

“That's the high probability, ” Piter said. “There are certain preparations that indicate when a House is going renegade. The Duke appears to be doing none of these things. ”

“So, ” the Baron sighed. “Get on with it, Piter. ”

“At Arrakeen, ” Piter said, “the Duke and his family will occupy the Residency, lately the home of Count and Lady Fenring. ”

“The Ambassador to the Smugglers, ” the Baron chuckled.

“Ambassador to what? ” Feyd-Rautha asked.

“Your uncle makes a joke, ” Piter said. “He calls Count Fenring Ambassador to the Smugglers, indicating the Emperor's interest in smuggling operations on Arrakis. ”

Feyd-Rautha turned a puzzled stare on his uncle. “Why? ”

“Don't be dense, Feyd, ” the Baron snapped. “As long as the Guild remains effectively outside Imperial control, how could it be otherwise? How else could spies and assassins move about? ”

Feyd-Rautha's mouth made a soundless “Oh-h-h-h. ”

“We've arranged diversions at the Residency, ” Piter said. “There'll be an attempt on the life of the Atreides heir – an attempt which could succeed. ”

“Piter, ” the Baron rumbled, “you indicated –”

“I indicated accidents can happen, ” Piter said. “And the attempt must appear valid. ”

“Ah, but the lad has such a sweet young body, ” the Baron said. “Of course, he's potentially more dangerous than the father… with that witch mother training him. Accursed woman! Ah, well, please continue, Piter. ”

“Hawat will have divined that we have an agent planted on him, ” Piter said. “The obvious suspect is Dr. Yueh, who is indeed our agent. But Hawat has investigated and found that our doctor is a Suk School graduate with Imperial Conditioning – supposedly safe enough to minister even to the Emperor. Great store is set on Imperial Conditioning. It's assumed that ultimate conditioning cannot be removed without killing the subject. However, as someone once observed, given the right lever you can move a planet. We found the lever that moved the doctor. ”

“How? ” Feyd-Rautha asked. He found this a fascinating subject. Everyone knew you couldn't subvert Imperial Conditioning!

“Another time, ” the Baron said. “Continue, Piter. ”

“In place of Yueh, ” Piter said, “we'll drag a most interesting suspect across Hawat's path. The very audacity of this suspect will recommend her to Hawat's attention. ”

“Her? ” Feyd-Rautha asked.

“The Lady Jessica herself, ” the Baron said.

“Is it not sublime? ” Piter asked. “Hawat's mind will be so filled with this prospect it'll impair his function as a Mentat. He may even try to kill her. ” Piter frowned, then: “But I don't think he'll be able to carry it off. ”

“You don't want him to, eh? ” the Baron asked.

“Don't distract me, ” Piter said. “While Hawat's occupied with the Lady Jessica, we'll divert him further with uprisings in a few garrison towns and the like. These will be put down. The Duke must believe he's gaining a measure of security. Then, when the moment is ripe, we'll signal Yueh and move in with our major force… ah… ”

“Go ahead, tell him all of it, ” the Baron said.

“We'll move in strengthened by two legions of Sardaukar disguised in Harkonnen livery. ”

“Sardaukar! ” Feyd-Rautha breathed. His mind focused on the dread Imperial troops, the killers without mercy, the soldier fanatics of the Padishah Emperor.

“You see how I trust you, Feyd, ” the Baron said. “No hint of this must ever reach another Great House, else the Landsraad might unite against the Imperial House and there'd be chaos. ”

“The main point, ” Piter said, “is this: since House Harkonnen is being used to do the Imperial dirty work, we've gained a true advantage. It's a dangerous advantage, to be sure, but if used cautiously, will bring House Harkonnen greater wealth than that of any other House in the Imperium. ”

“You have no idea how much wealth is involved, Feyd, ” the Baron said. “Not in your wildest imaginings. To begin, we'll have an irrevocable directorship in the CHOAM Company. ”

Feyd-Rautha nodded. Wealth was the thing. CHOAM was the key to wealth, each noble House dipping from the company's coffers whatever it could under the power of the directorships. Those CHOAM directorships – they were the real evidence of political power in the Imperium, passing with the shifts of voting strength within the Landsraad as it balanced itself against the Emperor and his supporters.

“The Duke Leto, ” Piter said, “may attempt to flee to the new Fremen scum along the desert's edge. Or he may try to send his family into that imagined security. But that path is blocked by one of His Majesty's agents – the planetary ecologist. You may remember him – Kynes. ”

“Feyd remembers him, ” the Baron said. “Get on with it. ”

“You do not drool very prettily, Baron, ” Piter said.

“Get on with it, I command you! ” the Baron roared.

Piter shrugged. “If matters go as planned, ” he said, “House Harkonnen will have a subfief on Arrakis within a Standard year. Your uncle will have dispensation of that fief. His own personal agent will rule on Arrakis. ”

“More profits, ” Feyd-Rautha said.

“Indeed, ” the Baron said. And he thought: It's only just. We're the ones who tamed Arrakis…except for the few mongrel Fremen hiding in the skirts of the desert… and some tame smugglers bound to the planet almost as tightly as the native labor pool.

“And the Great Houses will know that the Baron has destroyed the Atreides, ” Piter said. “They will know. ”

“They will know, ” the Baron breathed.

“Loveliest of all, ” Piter said, “is that the Duke will know, too. He knows now. He can already feel the trap. ”

“It's true the Duke knows, ” the Baron said, and his voice held a note of sadness. “He could not help but know… more's the pity. ”

The Baron moved out and away from the globe of Arrakis. As he emerged from the shadows, his figure took on dimension – grossly and immensely fat. And with subtle bulges beneath folds of his dark robes to reveal that all this fat was sustained partly by portable suspensors harnessed to his flesh. He might weigh two hundred Standard kilos in actuality, but his feet would carry no more than fifty of them.

“I am hungry, ” the Baron rumbled, and he rubbed his protruding lips with a beringed hand, stared down at Feyd-Rautha through fat-enfolded eyes. “Send for food, my darling. We will eat before we retire. ”

Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: “The Reverend Mother must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness. ”

-from “Muad'Dib, Family Commentaries” by the Princess Irulan

“Well, Jessica, what have you to say for yourself? ” asked the Reverend Mother.

It was near sunset at Castle Caladan on the day of Paul's ordeal. The two women were alone in Jessica's morning room while Paul waited in the adjoining soundproofed Meditation Chamber.

Jessica stood facing the south windows. She saw and yet did not see the evening's banked colors across meadow and river. She heard and yet did not hear the Reverend Mother's question.

There had been another ordeal once – so many years ago. A skinny girl with hair the color of bronze, her body tortured by the winds of puberty, had entered the study of the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Proctor Superior of the Bene Gesserit school on Wallach IX. Jessica looked down at her right hand, flexed the fingers, remembering the pain, the terror, the anger.

“Poor Paul, ” she whispered.

“I asked you a question, Jessica! ” The old woman's voice was snappish, demanding.

“What? Oh… ” Jessica tore her attention away from the past, faced the Reverend Mother, who sat with back to the stone wall between the two west windows. “What do you want me to say? ”

“What do I want you to say? What do I want you to say? ” The old voice carried a tone of cruel mimicry.

“So I had a son! ” Jessica flared. And she knew she was being goaded into this anger deliberately.

“You were told to bear only daughters to the Atreides. ”

“It meant so much to him, ” Jessica pleaded.

“And you in your pride thought you could produce the Kwisatz Haderach! ”

Jessica lifted her chin. “I sensed the possibility. ”

“You thought only of your Duke's desire for a son, ” the old woman snapped. “And his desires don't figure in this. An Atreides daughter could've been wed to a Harkonnen heir and sealed the breach. You've hopelessly complicated matters. We may lose both bloodlines now. ”

“You're not infallible, ” Jessica said. She braved the steady stare from the old eyes.

Presently, the old woman muttered: “What's done is done. ”

“I vowed never to regret my decision, ” Jessica said.

“How noble, ” the Reverend Mother sneered. “No regrets. We shall see when you're a fugitive with a price on your head and every man's hand turned against you to seek your life and the life of your son. ”

Jessica paled. “Is there no alternative? ”

“Alternative? A Bene Gesserit should ask that? ”

“I ask only what you see in the future with your superior abilities. ”

“I see in the future what I've seen in the past. You well know the pattern of our affairs, Jessica. The race knows its own mortality and fears stagnation of its heredity. It's in the bloodstream – the urge to mingle genetic strains without plan. The Imperium, the CHOAM Company, all the Great Houses, they are but bits of flotsam in the path of the flood. ”

“CHOAM, ” Jessica muttered. “I suppose it's already decided how they'll redivide the spoils of Arrakis. ”

“What is CHOAM but the weather vane of our times, ” the old woman said. “The Emperor and his friends now command fifty-nine point six-five per cent of the CHOAM directorship's votes. Certainly they smell profits, and likely as others smell those same profits his voting strength will increase. This is the pattern of history, girl. ”

“That's certainly what I need right now, ” Jessica said. “A review of history. ”

“Don't be facetious, girl! You know as well as I do what forces surround us. We've a three-point civilization: the Imperial Household balanced against the Federated Great Houses of the Landsraad, and between them, the Guild with its damnable monopoly on interstellar transport. In politics, the tripod is the most unstable of all structures. It'd be bad enough without the complication of a feudal trade culture which turns its back on most science. ”

Jessica spoke bitterly: “Chips in the path of the flood – and this chip here, this is the Duke Leto, and this one's his son, and this one's –”

“Oh, shut up, girl. You entered this with full knowledge of the delicate edge you walked. ”

“ ‘I am Bene Gesserit: I exist only to serve, ’ “ Jessica quoted.

“Truth. ” the old woman said. “And all we can hope for now is to prevent this from erupting into general conflagration, to salvage what we can of the key bloodlines. ”

Jessica closed her eyes, feeling tears press out beneath the lids. She fought down the inner trembling, the outer trembling, the uneven breathing, the ragged pulse, the sweating of the palms. Presently, she said, “I'll pay for my own mistake. ”

“And your son will pay with you. ”

“I'll shield him as well as I'm able. ”

“Shield! ” the old woman snapped. “You well know the weakness there! Shield your son too much, Jessica, and he'll not grow strong enough to fulfill any destiny. ”

Jessica turned away, looked out the window at the gathering darkness. “Is it really that terrible, this planet of Arrakis? ”

“Bad enough, but not all bad. The Missionaria Protectiva has been in there and softened it up somewhat. ” The Reverend Mother heaved herself to her feet, straightened a fold in her gown. “Call the boy in here. I must be leaving soon. ”

“Must you? ”

The old woman's voice softened. “Jessica, girl, I wish I could stand in your place and take your sufferings. But each of us must make her own path. ”

“I know. ”

“You're as dear to me as any of my own daughters, but I cannot let that interfere with duty. ”

“I understand… the necessity. ”

“What you did, Jessica, and why you did it – we both know. But kindness forces me to tell you there's little chance your lad will be the Bene Gesserit Totality. You mustn't let yourself hope too much. ”

Jessica shook tears from the corners of her eyes. It was an angry gesture. “You make me feel like a little girl again – reciting my first lesson. ” She forced the words out: “ ‘Humans must never submit to animals. ’ “ A dry sob shook her. In a low voice, she said: “I've been so lonely. ”

“It should be one of the tests, ” the old woman said. “Humans are almost always lonely. Now summon the boy. He's had a long, frightening day. But he's had time to think and remember, and I must ask the other questions about these dreams of his. ”

Jessica nodded, went to the door of the Meditation Chamber, opened it. “Paul, come in now, please. ”

Paul emerged with a stubborn slowness. He stared at his mother as though she were a stranger. Wariness veiled his eyes when he glanced at the Reverend Mother, but this time he nodded to her, the nod one gives an equal. He heard his mother close the door behind him.

“Young man, ” the old woman said, “let's return to this dream business. ”

“What do you want? ”

“Do you dream every night? ”

“Not dreams worth remembering. I can remember every dream, but some are worth remembering and some aren't. ”

“How do you know the difference? ”

“I just know it. ”

The old woman glanced at Jessica, back to Paul. “What did you dream last night? Was it worth remembering? ”

“Yes. ” Paul closed his eyes. “I dreamed a cavern… and water… and a girl there – very skinny with big eyes. Her eyes are all blue, no whites in them. I talk to her and tell her about you, about seeing the Reverend Mother on Caladan. ” Paul opened his eyes.

“And the thing you tell this strange girl about seeing me, did it happen today? ”

Paul thought about this, then: “Yes. I tell the girl you came and put a stamp of strangeness on me. ”

“Stamp of strangeness, ” the old woman breathed, and again she shot a glance at Jessica, returned her attention to Paul. “Tell me truly now, Paul, do you often have dreams of things that happen afterward exactly as you dreamed them? ”

“Yes. And I've dreamed about that girl before. ”

“Oh? You know her? ”

“I will know her. ”

“Tell me about her. ”

Again, Paul closed his eyes. “We're in a little place in some rocks where it's sheltered. It's almost night, but it's hot and I can see patches of sand out of an opening in the rocks. We're… waiting for something… for me to go meet some people. And she's frightened but trying to hide it from me, and I'm excited. And she says: ‘Tell me about the waters of your homeworld, Usul. ’ “ Paul opened his eyes. “Isn't that strange? My homeworld's Caladan. I've never even heard of a planet called Usul. ”

“Is there more to this dream? ” Jessica prompted.

“Yes. But maybe she was calling me Usul, ” Paul said. “I just thought of that. ” Again, he closed his eyes. “She asks me to tell her about the waters. And I take her hand. And I say I'll tell her a poem. And I tell her the poem, but I have to explain some of the words – like beach and surf and seaweed and seagulls. ”

“What poem? ” the Reverend Mother asked.

Paul opened his eyes. “It's just one of Gurney Halleck's tone poems for sad times. ”

Behind Paul Jessica began to recite:

“I remember salt smoke from a beach fire

And shadows under the pines –

Solid, clean… fixed –

Seagulls perched at the tip of land,

White upon green…

And a wind comes through the pines

To sway the shadows;

The seagulls spread their wings,

Lift

And fill the sky with screeches.

And I hear the wind

Blowing across our beach,

And the surf,

And I see that our fire

Has scorched the seaweed. ”

“That's the one, ” Paul said.

The old woman stared at Paul, then: “Young man, as a Proctor of the Bene Gesserit, I seek the Kwisatz Haderach, the male who truly can become one of us. Your mother sees this possibility in you, but she sees with the eyes of a mother. Possibility I see, too, but no more. ”

She fell silent and Paul saw that she wanted him to speak. He waited her out.

Presently, she said: “As you will, then. You've depths in you; that I'll grant. ”

“May I go now? ” he asked.

“Don't you want to hear what the Reverend Mother can tell you about the Kwisatz Haderach? ” Jessica asked.

“She said those who tried for it died. ”

“But I can help you with a few hints at why they failed, ” the Reverend Mother said.

She talks of hints, Paul thought. She doesn't really know anything. And he said: “Hint then. ”

“And be damned to me? ” She smiled wryly, a crisscross of wrinkles in the old face. “Very well: ‘That which submits rules. ’ “

He felt astonishment: she was talking about such elementary things as tension within meaning. Did she think his mother had taught him nothing at all?

“That's a hint? ” he asked.

“We're not here to bandy words or quibble over their meaning, ” the old woman said. “The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows – a wall against the wind. This is the willow's purpose. ”

Paul stared at her. She said purpose and he felt the word buffet him, reinfecting him with terrible purpose. He experienced a sudden anger at her: fatuous old witch with her mouth full of platitudes.

“You think I could be this Kwisatz Haderach, ” he said. “You talk about me, but you haven't said one thing about what we can do to help my father. I've heard you talking to my mother. You talk as though my father were dead. Well, he isn't! ”

“If there were a thing to be done for him, we'd have done it, ” the old woman growled. “We may be able to salvage you. Doubtful, but possible. But for your father, nothing. When you've learned to accept that as a fact, you've learned a real Bene Gesserit lesson. ”

Paul saw how the words shook his mother. He glared at the old woman. How could she say such a thing about his father? What made her so sure? His mind seethed with resentment.

The Reverend Mother looked at Jessica. “You've been training him in the Way – I've seen the signs of it. I'd have done the same in your shoes and devil take the Rules. ”

Jessica nodded.

“Now, I caution you, ” said the old woman, “to ignore the regular order of training. His own safety requires the Voice. He already has a good start in it, but we both know how much more he needs… and that desperately. ” She stepped close to Paul, stared down at him. “Goodbye, young human. I hope you make it. But if you don't – well, we shall yet succeed. ”

Once more she looked at Jessica. A flicker sign of understanding passed between them. Then the old woman swept from the room, her robes hissing, with not another backward glance. The room and its occupants already were shut from her thoughts.

But Jessica had caught one glimpse of the Reverend Mother's face as she turned away. There had been tears on the seamed cheeks. The tears were more unnerving than any other word or sign that had passed between them this day.

You have read that Muad'Dib had no playmates his own age on Caladan. The dangers were too great. But Muad'Dib did have wonderful companion-teachers. There was Gurney Halleck, the troubadour-warrior. You will sing some of Gurney's songs, as you read along in this book. There was Thufir Hawat, the old Mentat Master of Assassins, who struck fear even into the heart of the Padishah Emperor. There were Duncan Idaho, the Swordmaster of the Ginaz; Dr. Wellington Yueh, a name black in treachery but bright in knowledge; the Lady Jessica, who guided her son in the Bene Gesserit Way, and – of course – the Duke Leto, whose qualities as a father have long been overlooked.

-from “A Child's History of Muad'Dib” by the Princess Irulan

Thufir Hawat slipped into the training room of Castle Caladan, closed the door softly. He stood there a moment, feeling old and tired and storm-leathered. His left leg ached where it had been slashed once in the service of the Old Duke.

Three generations of them now, he thought.

He stared across the big room bright with the light of noon pouring through the skylights, saw the boy seated with back to the door, intent on papers and charts spread across an ell table.

How many times must I tell that lad never to settle himself with his back to a door? Hawat cleared his throat.

Paul remained bent over his studies.

A cloud shadow passed over the skylights. Again, Hawat cleared his throat.

Paul straightened, spoke without turning: “I know. I'm sitting with my back to a door. ”

Hawat suppressed a smile, strode across the room.

Paul looked up at the grizzled old man who stopped at a corner of the table. Hawat's eyes were two pools of alertness in a dark and deeply seamed face.

“I heard you coming down the hall, ” Paul said. “And I heard you open the door. ”

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