“You’ve been given another chance at life and –”
“But you are not my father and Lucilla is not my mother. Imprinter? For what does she hope to prepare me?”
“It may be that she does not know, Duncan. Like me, she may have only part of the design. Knowing how the Sisterhood works, that is highly likely.”
“So the two of you just train me and deliver me to Arrakis. Here’s the package you ordered!”
“This is a far different universe than the one where you were originally born,” Teg said. “As it was in your day, we still have a Great Convention against atomics and the pseudoatomics of lasgun-shield interaction. We still say that sneak attacks are forbidden. There are pieces of paper scattered around to which we have put our names and we –”
“But the no-ships have changed the basis for all of those treaties,” Duncan said. “I think I learned my history fairly well at the Keep. Tell me, Bashar, why did Paul’s son have the Tleilaxu provide him with my ghola-self, hundreds of me! for all those thousands of years?”
“Paul’s son?”
“The Keep’s records call him the God Emperor. You name him Tyrant.”
“Oh. I don’t think we know why he did it. Perhaps he was lonely for someone from –”
“You brought me back to confront the worm!” Duncan said.
Is that what we’re doing? Teg wondered. He had considered this possibility more than once, but it was only a possibility, not a projection. Even so, there had to be something more in Taraza’s design. Teg sensed this with every fiber of his Mentat training. Did Lucilla know? Teg did not delude himself that he could pry revelation from a full Reverend Mother. No . . . he would have to bide his time, wait and watch and listen. In his own way, this obviously was what Duncan had decided. It was a dangerous course if he thwarted Lucilla!
Teg shook his head. “Truly, Duncan, I do not know.”
“But you follow orders.”
“By my oath to the Sisterhood.”
“Deceptions, dishonesties — those are empty words when the question is the Sisterhood’s survival,” Duncan quoted him.
“Yes, I said that,” Teg agreed.
“I trust you now because you said it,” Duncan said. “But I do not trust Lucilla.”
Teg dropped his chin to his breast. Dangerous . . . dangerous . . .
Much more slowly than once he had done, Teg brought his attention out of such thoughts and went through the mental cleansing process, concentrating on the necessities laid upon him by Taraza.
“You are my Bashar.”
Duncan studied the Bashar for a moment. Fatigue lines were obvious on the old man’s face. Duncan was reminded suddenly of Teg’s great age, wondering if it ever tempted men such as Teg to seek out the Tleilaxu and become gholas. Probably not. They knew they might become Tleilaxu puppets.
This thought flooded Duncan’s awareness, holding him immobile so plainly that Teg, lifting his gaze, saw it at once.
“Is something wrong?”
“The Tleilaxu have done something to me, something that has not yet been exposed,” Duncan husked.
“Exactly what we feared!” It was Lucilla speaking from the doorway behind Teg. She advanced to within two paces of Duncan. “I have been listening. You two are very informative.”
Teg spoke quickly, hoping to blunt the anger he sensed in her. “He has mastered the seven attitudes today.”
“He strikes like fire,” Lucilla said, “but remember that we of the Sisterhood flow like water and fill in every place.” She glanced down at Teg. “Do you not see that our ghola has gone beyond the attitudes?”
“No fixed position, no attitude,” Duncan said.
Teg looked up sharply at Duncan, who stood with his head erect, his forehead smooth, his eyes clear as he returned Teg’s gaze. Duncan had grown surprisingly in the short time since being awakened to his original memories.
“Damn you, Miles!” Lucilla muttered.
But Teg kept his attention on Duncan. The youth’s entire body seemed wired to a new kind of vigor. There was a poise about him that had not been there before.
Duncan shifted his attention to Lucilla. “You think you will fail in your assignment?”