God Emporer of Dune by Frank Herbert

“You were told that I would introduce this subject,” he said.

“Yes, Lord. I know that my ancestor had the temerity to bring a weapon here in the attempt to harm you.”

“As did your immediate predecessor. Were you told that, as well?”

” I did not learn it until my arrival, Lord. They were fools! Why did you spare my predecessor?”

“When I did not spare your ancestor?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Kobat, your predecessor, was more valuable to me as a messenger.”

“Then they told me the truth,” she said. Again -,h.= smiled. “One cannot always depend on hearing truth from lone’, associates and superiors.”

The response was so utterly open that Leto could not suppress a chuckle. Even as he laughed, he realized that this young woman still possessed the Mind of First Awakening, the elemental mind which came in the first shock of birth-awareness. She was alive!”Then you do not hold it against me that I killed your ancestor?” he asked.

“He tried to assassinate you! I am told you crushed him, Lord, with your own body.”

“True.”

“And next you turned his weapon against your own Holy Self to demonstrate that the weapon was ineffectual . . . and it was the best lasgun we lxians could make.”

“The witnesses reported correctly,” Leto said.

And he thought: Which shows how much you can depend on witnesses! As a matter of historical accuracy, he knew that he had turned the lasgun only against his ribbed body, not against hands, face or flippers. The pre-worm body possessed a remarkable capacity for absorbing heat. The chemical factory within him converted heat to oxygen.

“I never doubted the story,” she said.

“Why has Ix repeated this foolish gesture?” Leto asked.

“They have not told me, Lord. Perhaps Kobat took it onto himself to behave this way.”

“I think not. It has occurred to me that your people desired only the death of their chosen assassin.”

“The death of Kobat?”

“No, the death of the one they chose to use the weapon.”

“Who was that, Lord? I’ve not been told.”

“It’s unimportant. Do you recall what I said at the time of your ancestor’s foolishness?”

“You threatened terrible punishment should such violence ever again enter our thoughts.” She lowered her gaze, but not before Leto glimpsed a deep determination in her eyes. She would use the best of her abilities to blunt his wrath.

“I promised that none of you would escape my anger,” Leto said.

She jerked her attention up to his face. “Yes, Lord.” And now her manner revealed personal fear.

“None can escape me, not even the futile colony you’ve

recently planted at. . ” And Leto reeled off for her the standard chart coordinates of a new colony the lxians had planted secretly far beyond what they thought were the reaches of his Empire. She betrayed no surprise. “Lord, I think it was because I warned them you would know of this that I was chosen as Ambassador.” Leto studied her more carefully. What have we here:’ he wondered. Her observation had been subtle and penetrating. The lxians. he knew, had thought distance and enormously magnified transportation costs would insulate the new colony. Hwi Noree thought not and had said so. But she believed her masters had chosen her as Ambassador because of this-a comment on the Ixian caution. They thought they had a friend at court here, but one who also would he seen as Leto’s friend. He nodded as the pattern took shape. Quite early in his ascendancy he had revealed to the lxians the exact location of the supposedly secret Ixian Core, the heartland of’ the technological federation which they governed. It had been a secret the lxians thought safe because they paid gigantic bribes for it to the Spacing Guild. Leto had winkled them out by prescient observation and deduction-and by consulting his memories, where there were more than a few lxians. At the time, Leto had warned the lxians that he would punish them if they acted against him. They had responded with consternation and accused the Guild of betraying them. This had amused Leto and he had responded with such a burst of laughter that the lxians were abashed. He had then informed them in a cold and accusatory tone that he had no need of’ spies or traitors or other ordinary trappings of government.

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 *