Herbert, Frank - Dune 5 by Herbert Frank

Author:Herbert,Frank
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

which to snare not only the Bene Tleilax but the Sisterhood as well.

Odrade smelled the biting odors of chemicals that had been used to kill wild growth in the

spice storage yard. The odors forced her attention back to necessities. She did not dare

indulge in mental wanderings out here! It would be so easy for the Sisterhood to become

caught in its own trap.

Sheeana stumbled and emitted a smal cry, more irritation than pain. Waff turned his head

sharply and looked at Sheeana before returning his attention to the roadway. The child

had merely stumbled on a break in the road surface, he saw. Drifted sand concealed places

where the roadway had been cracked. The faery structure of the causeway ahead of him

appeared sound, however. Not substantial enough to support one of the Prophet's

descendants, but more than enough for a supplicant human to cross it into the desert.

Waff thought of himself chiefly as a supplicant.

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I come as a beggar into the land of thy messenger, God.

He had his suspicions about Odrade. The Reverend Mother had brought him here to drain

him of his knowledge before killing him. With God's help, I may surprise her yet. He knew

his body was proof against an Ixian Probe, although she obviously did not have such a

cumbersome device on her person. But it was the strength of his own will and confidence

in God's grace that reassured Waff.

And what if the hand they hold out to us is held out in sincerity?

That, too, would be God's doing.

Alliance with the Bene Gesserit, firm control of Rakis: What a dream that was! The Shariat

ascendant at last and the Bene Gesserit as missionaries.

When Sheeana again missed her footing and uttered another small sound of complaint,

Odrade said: "Don't favor yourself, child!"

Odrade saw Waff's shoulders stiffen. He did not like that peremptory manner with his

"Blessed One." There was backbone in the little man. Odrade recognized it as the strength of fanaticism. Even if the worm came to kill him, Waff would not flee. Faith in God's will

would carry him directly into his own death -- unless he were shaken out of his religious

security.

Odrade suppressed a smile. She could follow his thinking process: God will soon reveal His

Purpose.

But Waff was thinking about his cel s growing in the slow renewal at Bandalong. No

matter what happened here, his cells would carry on for the Bene Tleilax . . . and for God --

a serial Waff always serving the Great Belief.

"I can smell Shaitan, you know," Sheeana said.

"Right now?" Odrade looked up at the causeway ahead of them. Waff already was a few

steps onto that arching surface.

"No, only when he comes," Sheeana said.

"Of course you can, child. Anyone could."

"I can smell him a long way off."

Odrade inhaled deeply through her nose, sorting the smells from the background of burnt

flint: faint whiffs of melange . . . ozone, something distinctly acid. She motioned for

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Sheeana to precede her single-file onto the causeway. Waff was holding his steady twenty

paces ahead. The causeway dipped down to the desert some sixty meters ahead of him.

I wil taste the sand at the first opportunity, Odrade thought.

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