Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert

He said: “I assure you, Reverend Mother Superior, that the ghola —

“Assure me of nothing! We assure ourselves.” A look of sadness on her face, Taraza shook her head slowly from side to side. “And you think we don’t know that you sold us damaged goods.”

Waff spoke quickly: “He meets every requirement imposed by your contract!”

Again, Taraza shook her head from side to side. This diminutive Tleilaxu Master had no idea what he was revealing here. “You have buried your own scheme in his psyche,” Taraza said. “I warn you, Ser Waff, that if your alterations obstruct our design, we will wound you deeper than you think possible.”

Waff passed a hand across his face, feeling the perspiration on his forehead. Damnable witches! But she did not know everything. The Tleilaxu returned from the Scattering and the Honored Matres she maligned so bitterly had provided the Tleilaxu with a sexually loaded weapon that would not be shared, no matter the promises made here!

Taraza digested Waff’s reactions silently and decided on a bold lie. “When we captured your Ixian conference ship, your new Face Dancers did not die quite fast enough. We learned a great deal.”

Waff poised himself on the edge of violence.

Bullseye! Taraza thought. The bold lie had opened an avenue of revelation into one of the more outrageous suggestions from her advisors. It did not seem outrageous now. “The Tleilaxu ambition is to produce a complete prana-bindu mimic,” her advisor had suggested.

“Complete?”

All of the Sisters at the conference had been astonished by the suggestion. It implied a form of mental copy going beyond the memory print about which they already knew.

The advisor, Sister Hesterion from Archives, had come armed with a tightly organized list of supporting material. “We already know that what an Ixian Probe does mechanically, the Tleilaxu do with nerves and flesh. The next step is obvious.”

Seeing Waff’s reaction to her bold lie, Taraza continued to watch him carefully. He was at his most dangerous right now.

A look of rage came over Waff’s face. The things the witches knew were too dangerous! He did not doubt Taraza’s claim in the slightest. I must kill her no matter the consequences to me! We must kill them all. Abominations! It’s their word and it describes them perfectly.

Taraza correctly interpreted his expression. She spoke quickly: “You are in absolutely no danger from us as long as you do not injure our designs. Your religion, your way of life, those are your business.”

Waff hesitated, not so much from what Taraza said as from the reminder of her powers. What else did they know? To continue in a subservient position, though! After rejecting such an alliance with the Honored Matres. And with ascendancy so near after all of those millennia. Dismay filled him. The minority among his councillors had been right after all: “There can be no bond between our peoples. Any accord with powindah forces is a union based upon evil.”

Taraza still sensed the potential violence in him. Had she pushed him too far? She held herself in defensive readiness. An involuntary jerking of his arms alerted her. Weapons in his sleeves! Tleilaxu resources were not to be underestimated. Her snoopers had detected nothing.

“We know about the weapons you carry,” she said. Another bold lie suggested itself. “If you make a mistake now, the whores will also learn how you use those weapons.”

Waff took three shallow breaths. When he spoke, he had himself under control: “We will not be Bene Gesserit satellites!”

Taraza responded in an even-toned, soothing voice: “I have not by word or action suggested such a role for you.”

She waited. There was no change in Waff’s expression, no slightest shift in the unfocused glare he directed at her.

“You threaten us,” he muttered. “You demand that we share everything we –”

“Share!” she snapped. “One does not share with unequal partners.”

“And what would you share with us?” he demanded.

She spoke with the chiding tone she would use to a child: “Ser Waff, ask yourself why you, a ruling member of your oligarchy, came to this meeting?”

His voice still firmly controlled, Waff countered: “And why did you, Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit, come here?”

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