God Emporer of Dune by Frank Herbert

as though the extinct bird flew past him. The climb, he knew, should be starting to tire even Nayla. She paused at last to rest, stopping at a point two steps past the three-quarter mark, precisely the place where she rested every time. It was part of her precision, one of the reasons he had brought her back from the distant garrison on Seprek. A Dune hawk floated past the opening beside Leto only a few wing lengths from the tower wall. Its attention was held on the shadows at the base of the Citadel. Small animals sometimes emerged there, Leto knew. Dimly on the horizon beyond the hawk’s path he could see a line of clouds. What a strange thing those were to the Old Fremen in him: clouds on Arrakis and rain and open water. Leto reminded the inner voices: Except for this last desert, my Sareer, the remodeling of Dune into verdant Arrakis has gone on remorselessly since the first days of my rule. The influence of geography on history went mostly unrecognized, Leto thought. Humans tended to look more at the influence of history on geography. Who owns this river passage? This verdant valley? This peninsula? This planet? None of us. Nayla was climbing once more, her gaze fixed upward on the stairs she must traverse. Leto’s thoughts locked on her. In many ways, she is the most useful assistant I have ever had. I am her God. She worships me quite unquestioningly. Even when l playfully attack her faith, she takes this merely as testing. She knows herself superior to any test. When he had sent her to the rebellion and had told her to obey Siona in all things, she did not question. When Nayla doubted, even when she framed her doubts in words, her own thoughts were enough to restore faith . . . or had been enough. Recent messages, however, made it clear that Nayla required the Holy Presence to rebuild her inner strength. Leto recalled the first conversation with Nayla, the woman trembling in her eagerness to please. “Even if Siona sends you to kill me, you must obey. She must never learn that you serve me.” “No one can kill you, Lord.” “But you must obey Siona.” “Of course, Lord. That is your command.” “You must obey her in all things.” “I will do it, Lord.”

Another test. Nayla does not question my tests. She treats them as flea bites. Her Lord commands? Nayla obeys. I must not let anything change that relationship. She would have made a superb Shadout in the old days, Leto thought. It was one of the reasons he had given Nayla a crysknife, a real one preserved from Sietch Tabr. It had belonged to one of Stilgar’s wives. Nayla wore it in a concealed sheath beneath her robes, more a talisman than a weapon. He had given it to her in the original ritual, a ceremony which had surprised him by evoking emotions he had thought forever buried. “This is the tooth of Shai-Hulud.” He had extended the blade to her on his silvery-skinned hands. “Take it and you become part of both past and future. Soil it and the past will give you no future.” Nayla had accepted the blade, then the sheath. “Draw the blood of a finger,” Leto had commanded. Nayla had obeyed. “Sheath the blade. Never remove it without drawing blood.” Again, Nayla had obeyed. As Leto watched the three-dimensional image of Nayla’s approach, his reflections on that old ceremony were touched by sadness. Unless fixed in the Old Fremen way, the blade would grow increasingly brittle and useless. It would keep its crysknife shape throughout Nayla’s life, but little longer. I have thrown away a bit of the past.

=== How sad it was that the Shadout of old had become today’s Fish Speaker. And a true crysknife had been used to bind a servant more strongly to her master. He knew that some thought his Fish Speakers were really priestesses -Leto’s answer to the Bene Gesserit. “He creates another religion,” the Bene Gesserit said. Nonsense! I have not created a religion. I am the religion! Nayla entered the tower sanctuary and stood three paces from Leto’s cart, her gaze lowered in proper subservience. Still in his memories, Leto said: “Look at me, woman!” She obeyed. “I have created a holy obscenity!” he said. “This religion built around my person disgusts me!” “Yes, Lord.” Nayla’s green eyes on the gilded cushions of her checks stared out at him without questioning, without comprehension,

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *