Dune Book 3 Children of Dune by Alf Inge Fredriksen

Author:Alf Inge Fredriksen [Fredriksen, Alf Inge]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-04-12T09:23:11.281000+00:00

label we give to the omnipresent dangers of achieving wrong combinations from

accurate information.

-The Mentat Handbook

The sound of fabrics rubbing together sent sparks of awareness through Leto.

He was surprised that he had turned his sensitivity to the point where he

automatically identified the fabrics from their sound: the combination came from

a Fremen robe rubbing against the coarse hangings of a door curtain. He turned

toward the sound. It came from the passage where Namri had gone minutes before.

As Leto turned, he saw his captor enter. It was the same man who had taken him

prisoner: the same dark strip of skin above the stillsuit mask, the identical

searing eyes. The man lifted a hand to his mask, slipped the catchtube from his

nostrils, lowered the mask and, in the same motion, flipped his hood back. Even

before he focused on the scar of the inkvine whip along the man's jaw, Leto

recognized him. The recognition was a totality in his awareness with the search

for confirming details coming afterward. No mistake about it, this rolling lump

of humanity, this warrior-troubadour, was Gurney Halleck!

Leto clenched his hands into fists, overcome momentarily by the shock of

recognition. No Atreides retainer had ever been more loyal. None better at

shield fighting. He'd been Paul's trusted confidant and teacher.

He was the Lady Jessica's servant.

These recognitions and more surged through Leto's mind. Gurney was his

captor. Gurney and Namri were in this conspiracy together. And Jessica's hand

was in it with them.

"I understand you've met our Namri," Halleck said. "Pray believe him, young

sir. He has one function and one function only. He's the one capable of killing

you should the need arise."

Leto responded automatically with his father's tones: "So you've joined my

enemies, Gurney! I never thought the --"

"Try none of your devil tricks on me, lad," Halleck said. "I'm proof against

them all. I follow your grandmother's orders. Your education has been planned to

the last detail. It was she who approved my selection of Namri. What comes next,

painful as it may seem, is at her command."

"And what does she command?"

Halleck lifted a hand from the folds of his robe, exposed a Fremen injector,

primitive but efficient. Its transparent tube was charged with blue fluid.

Leto squirmed backward on the cot, was stopped by the rock wall. As he

moved, Namri entered, stood beside Halleck with hand on crysknife. Together they

blocked the only exit.

"I see you've recognized the spice essence," Halleck said. "You're to take

the worm trip, lad. You must go through it. Otherwise, what your father dared

and you dare not would hang over you for the rest of your days."

Leto shook his head wordlessly. This was the thing he and Ghanima knew could

overwhelm them. Gurney was an ignorant fool! How could Jessica . . . Leto felt

the father-presence in his memories. It surged into his mind, trying to strip

away his defenses. Leto wanted to shriek outrage, could not move his lips. But

this was the wordless thing which his pre-born awareness most feared. This was

prescient trance, the reading of immutable future with all of its fixity and its

terrors. Surely Jessica could not have ordered such an ordeal for her own

grandson.

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