The sound of approaching ‘thopters broke Taraza from her reverie of remembrance. The VIOs were arriving from Keen. Still at some distance, but the sound carried far in the clear air.
Odrade’s teaching method was a good one, Taraza had to admit as she scanned the sky for a first glimpse of the ‘thopters. Apparently they were coming in low and from the other side of the building. That was the wrong direction but perhaps they had taken the VIOs on a short excursion over the remains of the Tyrant’s wall. Many people were curious about the place where Odrade had found the spice hoard.
Sheeana, Odrade, Waff, and Tulushan went back into the long meeting room. They had heard the ‘thopters, too. Sheeana was anxious to show her power over the worms. Taraza hesitated. There was a laboring sound in the approaching ‘thopters. Were they overloaded? How many observers had they brought?
The first ‘thopter lifted over the penthouse roof and Taraza saw the armored cockpit. She recognized treachery even before the first beam arced out of the machine, slicing through her legs below the knees. She fell heavily against a potted tree, her legs completely severed. Another beam slashed out at her, slicing at an angle across her hip. The ‘thopter swept over her in an abrupt roar of booster jets and banked away to the left.
Taraza clung to the tree, shunting the agony aside. She managed to cut off most of the bloodflow from her wounds but the pain was great. Not as great as the spice agony, though, she reminded herself. That helped but she knew she was doomed. She heard shouts and the multiple sounds of violence all around the museum now.
I have won! Taraza thought.
Odrade darted from the penthouse and bent over Taraza. They said nothing but Odrade showed that she understood by putting her forehead to Taraza’s temple. It was the ages-old cue of the Bene Gesserit. Taraza began pouring her life into Odrade — Other Memories, hopes, fears . . . everything.
One of them might yet escape.
Sheeana watched from the penthouse, staying where she had been ordered to wait. She knew what was happening out there in the roof garden. This was the ultimate mystery of the Bene Gesserit and every postulant was aware of it.
Waff and Tulushan, already out of the room when the attack came, did not return.
Sheeana shuddered with apprehension.
Abruptly, Odrade stood and ran back into the penthouse. There was a wild look in her eyes but she moved with purpose. Leaping up, she gathered glowglobes, grabbing them in bundles by their toggle cords. She thrust several bundles into Sheeana’s hands and Sheeana felt her body grow lighter with the lift of the globes’ suspensor fields. Trailing more clusters of the globes beyond their field range, Odrade hurried across to the narrow end of the room where a grill in the wall indicated what she sought. With Sheeana’s help, she lifted the grill out of its slots, revealing a deep airshaft. The light of the clustered glowglobes showed rough walls inside.
“Hold the globes close to get the maximum field effect,” Odrade said. “Push them away to lower yourself. In you go.”
Sheeana clutched the toggle cords in a sweaty hand and hopped over the sill. She let herself fall, then fearfully clutched the globes close. Light from above told her Odrade was following.
At the bottom, they emerged into a pump room, the susurrations of many fans a background for the sounds of violence from outside.
“We must get to the no-room and then to the desert,” Odrade said. “All of these machinery systems are interconnected. There will be a passage.”
“Is she dead?” Sheeana whispered.
“Yes.”
“Poor Mother Superior.”
“I am the Mother Superior now, Sheeana. At least temporarily.” She pointed upward. “Those were the whores attacking us. We must hurry.”
The world is for the living. Who are they?
We dared the dark to reach the white and warm.
She was the wind when the wind was in my way.
Alive at noon, I perished in her form.
Who rise from the flesh to spirit know the fall:
The word outleaps the world and light is all.