“Everything. They would make a machine to conceal their other machinations.”
Idaho spoke in a musing tone. “Is that why the Ixian Ambassador was here?”
“You’ve seen Hwi Noree,” Leto said.
Idaho pointed upward. “She was leaving as I arrived.”
“You spoke to her?”
“I asked her what she was doing here. She said she was choosing sides.”
A burst of laughter erupted from Leto. “Oh, my,” he said. “She is so good. Did she reveal her choice?”
“She said she serves the God Emperor now. I didn’t believe her, of course.”
“But you should believe her.”
.Why?”
“Ahhh, yes; I forgot that you once doubted even my grandmother, the Lady Jessica.”
“I had good reason!”
“Do you also doubt Siona?”
“I’m beginning to doubt everyone!”
“And you say you don’t know your value to me,” Leto accused.
“What about Siona?” Idaho demanded. “She says you want us . . . I mean, dammit . . .”
“The thing you must always trust about Siona is her creativity. She can create the new and beautiful. One always trusts the truly creative.”
“Even the machinations of the lxians?”
“That is not creative. You always know the creative because it is revealed openly. Concealment betrays the existence of another force entirely.”
“Then you don’t trust this Hwi Noree, but you. . .” “I do trust her, and precisely for the reasons I have just given you.” Idaho scowled, then relaxed and sighed. “I had better cultivate her acquaintance. If she is someone you. . .” “No! You will stay away from Hwi Noree. I have something special in mind for her.”
=== I have isolated the city-experience within me and have examined it closely. The idea of a city fascinates me. The formation of a biological community without a functioning, supportive social community leads to havoc. Whole worlds have become single biological communities without an interrelated social structure and this has always led to ruin. It becomes dramatically instructive under overcrowded conditions. The ghetto is lethal. Psychic stresses of overcrowding create pressures which will erupt. The city is an attempt to manage these forces. The social forms by which cities make the attempt are worth study. Remember that there exists a certain malevolence about the formation of any social order. It is the struggle for existence by an artificial entity. Despotism and slavery hover at the edges. Many injuries occur and, thus, the need for laws. The law develops its own power structure, creating more wounds and new injustices. Such trauma can be healed by cooperation, not by confrontation. The summons to cooperate identifies the healer.
-The Stolen Journals
MONEO ENTERED Leto’s small chamber with evident agitation. He actually preferred this meeting place because the God Emperor’s cart lay in a depression from which a deadly attack by the Worm would be more difficult, and there was the undeniable fact that Leto allowed his majordomo to descend in an Ixian tube-lift rather than via that interminable ramp. But Moneo felt that the news he brought this morning was guaranteed to arouse The Worm Who Is God.
How to present it?
Dawn lay only an hour past, the fourth Festival Day, a fact Moneo could greet with equanimity only because it brought him that much nearer the end of these tribulations:
Leto stirred as Moneo entered the small chamber. Illumination came on at his signal, focusing only on his face.
“Good morning, Moneo,” he said. “My guard tells me you insisted on entering immediately. Why?”
The danger, Moneo knew from experience, lay in the temptation to reveal too much too soon.
“I have spent some time with the Reverend Mother Anteac,” he said. “Although she keeps it well hidden, I’m sure she is a Mentat.”
“Yes. The Bene Gesserit were bound to disobey me sometime. This form of disobedience amuses me.”
“Then you will not punish them?”
“Moneo, I am ultimately the only parent my people have. A parent must be generous as well as severe.”
He’s in a good mood, Moneo thought. A small sigh escaped Moneo, at which Leto smiled.
“Anteac objected when I told her you had ordered an amnesty for a selected few Face Dancers among our captives.”
“I have a Festive use for them,” Leto said.