"Children of Dune. (English by Rex)" "Twelve years of war." "Twelve years since Emperor Shaddam IV was defeated and Paul Muad'dib's wild Fremen spread out across the universe exterminating all that remained of the old Imperial armies," "colonizing the planets of the known universe one-by-one under his rule." "Sweaping away anything and anyone who resisted." "Millions have been defeated." "Millions more have been slaughted." "There are no innocents, anywhere." "And the name of Muad'Dib is no longer a prayer." "For many it is now, a curse." "Planet Naraj Muad'Dib's Second Crusade ....mercy of Muad'Dib ruth of all his enemies..." "Commander Farok, the conversions have begun and everyone refusing the peace of Muad'Dib will be executed." "So it is written." "You who the denied the ... of Muad'Dib are ... to death." "Sir..." "Your son..." "He's been wounded." "My eyes!" "My eyes!" "I'm blind, father, I'm blind!" "Don't give me to the desert father, please!" "Don't send me to die!" "Muad'Dib !" "If history teaches us anything, it is simply this:" "Every revolution carries within it the seeds of his own destruction." "And empires that rise will one day fall." "Arrakis." "Dune." "Once the wasteland of the universe." "Now an imperial capital." "Where it is here, and only here where the giant worms still run." "Creating Spice..." "Still the greatest treasure in the universe." "Still the cause of conspirecy, betrayal and murder." "The holy sister..." "Alia..." "Alia..." "Alia..." "Im the beginning we were all empty." "Ignorant of all things." "We did not know the power that resides in every place..." " And in all time." "He is the power that awakens the soul." " And brings us joy." "Muad'Dib, Muad'Dib." "Muad'Dib!" "I suppose you feel it's unnecessary to inform me of these walkabouts..." "You'd only try to stop me." "Again." "Streets are full of danger, Muad'Dib!" " The truth is in the streets, Stil." "Not in the parade of sycophants who flutter around this palace with their meaningless statistics and empty ritual." "Ritual is the whip by which men are enlightened, Muad'dib." "Tell me, Korba, when was it that you reinvented yourself from Fremen Fedaykin to religious fanatic?" "The day you defeated Shaddam and his armies, Muad'dib." "The day I saw the future." "This city is filled with adventurers, Muad'dib." "Not to mention agents of the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit and the former Imperial family." "Surely they'd conspire to something a little more elegant than assassination on the streets of Arrakeen." "You are vulnerable, Muad'dib." "No matter how powerful you've become." "You cannot escape from this simple fact." "You're right about one thing, Stil." "There is no escape." "I'm not asleep." "I thought the doctors said you were supposed to rest." "As long as you insist on wandering the city like some off-world pilgrim," "I'll never be able to rest." "Are you going to lecture me, too?" "While I was walking, I stepped in a puddle." "An open pool of water." "In the street..." "Muad'dib has brought many wonders to Arrakis, the people say..." "'Muad'dib spends water like a madman.' That's what they say, Chani." "The old Fremen." "I hear them." "In the streets...when I walk." ""We've become water-fat", they say." "They resent the "wonders" I've brought to their desert." "They resent me." "Do you know what I'd pay to end these wars?" "To separate myself from this damnable myth I've become?" "What's to stop you?" "Command it, Muad'Dib." "After all, you are the Emperor." "Even if I vanished tomorrow..." "the revolution would follow my ghost." "This is not a clean place, Muad'dib." "It's time to return to the desert." "We were happy there." "Father." "I' m waiting..." "I'm ready..." "To know the future is to be trapped by it..." "But knowing there's a trap is the first step in evading it... the first step..." "...along the Golden Path." "I am the answer." "And I am ready..." "Father..." "And I am ready..." "Father..." "The Golden Path." "Is there no other way?" "Salusa Secundus." "Exile home of House Corrino" "Everywhere we turn his power confronts us." "He is a curse." "He is a Messiah!" "You don't launch a frontal attack on a Messiah." "Even if you succeed, his martyrdom remains." "But he is human." "And because he is human, he has his weaknesses." "So, what do you suggest, Princess?" "Something subtle." "Something... unexpected." "A ghost, perhaps..." "May I introduce our friend, Reverend Mother?" "Scytale of the Theilaxu." "Get to the point, Wensicia." "I haven't travelled all the way to the edge of the universe to discuss philosophical nonsense with..." "...with a Face Dancer." "No, the Bene Gesserit are desperate to regain control... of Muad'dib's bloodline..." "...while the supposedly impartial Spacing Guild wants to break his monopoly on Spice." "He who controls the spice, controls the universe." "As long as Muad'Dib controls Arrakis, we are all at his mercy." "And that's why I intend to destroy that domination." "To return the Imperial throne to Planet Kaitain and the Corrino family." "Right where it belongs!" "Face Dancers, sex toys, technicians, musicians whatever the need, we have the breed." "Good Gods..." "Good chemistry is more like it." "Duncan Idaho." "Yes, the Atreides hero." "Paul Muad'dib's most beloved friends and teachers." "But Duncan Idaho is dead." "Killed by your father's Sardaukar." "Even in defeat, my father's men did not abandon wisdom, Reverend Mother." "A few precious pieces of Idaho's ruined flesh were saved." "Hidden away, awaiting just the right time, the right place." "A perfect duplicate." "A perfect ghola." "The perfect gift for a lonely Emperor." "A time-bomb." "Waiting for the trigger to set it off." "You intend to kill the Muad'Dib?" "Exactly !" "But, that will mean chaos!" "The Spice production will be disrupted." "Learn the lesson my father ignored." "It is not who controls the Spice, but who has the ability to disrupt the Spice controls the universe." "But, what makes you think Muad'dib will ever accept this ghost?" "I am letting it up to the Spacing Guild." "And what of this... 'trigger'?" "The device to set the time-bomb off?" "Leave that to me." "...test after test and still nothing." "I am healthy, strong." "No matter what they do, the doctors can't find the reason why I'm unable to conceive..." "What does Muad'Dib say?" "Muad'Dib is... afraid." "He fears for me, if I have another child" "I can feel it." " He may be right to fear!" "Someone has been feeding you a poison." "It is the only possibility left." "But the doctors have never found evidence!" "They wouldn't." "It's traces are subtle, confusing." "Of the most sophisticated chemistry." "Beyond their knowledge." "Surely from off-world." "But..." "There are remedies!" "The ancient Fremen diet, that might overcome the contraceptive's effects." "But it's dangerous." "It would require you to eat greater and greater quantities of spice." "And if you conceive, it would accelerate your pregnancy...." "But the question remains." "Who has been able to feed you the contraceptive for so long?" "............." "This is a question that cannot be delayed any longer." "The Great Houses are still demanding that a constitution be on the agenda at the next convention of the Landsraad." "It's nothing but a ruse." "Contrived by enemies of House Atreides to conceal more far sinister motives." "Perhaps we could offer the appearance of a constitution." "Something ceremonial." "It doesn't need to be real." "Deceit, after all, is a legitimate tool of statecraft." "Bravo, sister-in-law." "I couldn't have said it better." "Yes, perhaps something at the local level." "Something impotent." "Virtually meaningless." "No!" "Atreides power must never be marginalized by the chaos of democracy!" "I'm sure my borther agrees..." "Father!" "I'm waiting." "You must decide." "...the first step..." "...you can't wait along the Golden Path." "The answer is standing in front of you." "But you must decide!" "Alia knows my mind." "I forbid a constitution." "Order in council this day, etc, etc...." "Irulan, are you taking this note?" "Yes, m' Lord." "We will deliver the formal declaration when the Guild Ambassador arrives to present his credentials." "Then... if there's nothing more..." "A Guild Embassy, Muad'dib?" "On Arrakis?" "The Council of Naibs won't like this, Muad'dib." "We remember well how the Guild brought those who oppressed us." "How they blackmailed us for spice to keep our secrets from our enemies." "Think I've forgotten, Stil?" "This decision troubles me, Muad'dib." "There is something..." "reckless about it." "Not reckless..." "Necessary!" "You will know the reasons soon enough." "Now, I trust you'll convince the Naibs of the wisdom in this." "A Guild Ambassador, here on Arrakis." "Muad'dib's decision strikes some as mysterious, even dangerous." "But Muad'Dib never does anything without reason." "I should spill your water on the sand for what you've done." "I know it was you, Irulan." "You're the only one who could have hidden the poison." "Don't lie." "You will insult me if you lie." "It's my right to bear the royal heir!" "It is your duty to play a role." "Nothing more." "I AM HIS WIFE!" "You have his name!" "I am the one he calls wife!" "Do you think you're the only woman who truly loves him?" "No." "But I'm the only woman he loves." "I could cuckold him." "Dare him to expose me..." "Cuckold him all you like." "As long as you discreet." "He won't deny you." "But no child, Irulan." "Ever!" "What do you think, Tyekanik?" "Does my little Prince have what it takes to lead an army of Sardaukar one day?" "There are many ways to lead an army, Princess." "Being a warrior is only one of them." "And not necessarily the best." "Prince Farad'n, your turn." "Muad'dib's decision to accept a Guild Ambassador is causing much unrest on Arrakis." "Good." "Once the Face Dancer is insinuated into Muad'dib's palace... we will light the fuse." "The Idaho ghola will do its work." "Mamma..." "Mommy!" "What is this?" "I'm sorry, Princess." "A future emperor, crying?" "I don't want to be Emperor." "Let someone else do it." "Nonsense!" "Wipe you tears." "They are getting all over me now." "Go back to the men." "Go back!" "You want the men to see you crying?" "You want them to think that you're weak?" "I don't care." "Well, I do." "So now you will go back." "And this time... you will do it properly!" "Won't you?" "Commander Farok, hero of the Naraj campaign." "I bring you greetings from your new friends on Salusa Secundus." "Hurry." "The 'eyes of Muad'dib' are everywhere." "These are cushions once occupied in Sietch by Muad'dib." "During the days when he taught us the weirding ways..." "It's been some time since you've seen him?" "I think he's forgotten I ever existed." "He is blind." "Your son." "At the battle of Naraj." "I wonder if Muad'dib knows how many have been maimed in his name..." "I couldn't leave him to the desert." "Even I violated the old laws." "The laws of men have gone." "The laws of a god have replaced them." "We were a noble people once." "We had a proper sietch." "I owned a Crysknife, my own share of spice." "I was a rider of worms." "And then Muad'Dib came." "With his witch mother." "And he promised to fulfill Liet's prophesy." "And we followed." "And you joined his jihad..." "Do you know why?" "I heard there was a thing called... 'a sea'." "Men came back from Muad'dib's wars, and they said they had seen it." "And did you find your sea?" "It healed me of Jihad." "Now I'm ready to help rid the universe of the cancer that is Muad'dib." "And that is Otheym's daughter?" "Lichna." "If you bring her to Muad'dib, he will never refuse to see her." "I was hoping that is what you'd say." "Lichna." "I will enjoy being called Lichna." "What is the meaning of this!" "Helen Gaius Mohiam of the Bene Gesserit..." "You have violated Muad'dib's eternal order never to set foot on Arrakis again." "I am not on Arrakis." "I am in free space." "There is no such thing as free space where Muad'dib rules." "I abase myself before the Emperor." "We welcome you to our court, Edric of the Spacing Guild... and to a new understanding between us." "Please allow me the honor of presenting his Majesty with a small token of our esteem." "According to our investigators, this one was killed here on Arrakis." "The body recovered after the unfortunate conflict between Houses Atreides and Harkonnen." "Terrible wounds required many months of regrowth by Tleilaxu technicians." "We acquired him as a gift befitting an Emperor." "What is your name, ghola?" "They say it was Duncan Idaho." "Idaho is dead!" "This..." "thing is a horror!" "Send it away!" "And do you enjoy the name?" "It stirs up curious feelings." "You don't know who you are?" "I know nothing of my past, Sire." "How was this one trained?" "It amused the Tleilaxu:" "to train him as a Mentat." "I beg you, m'Lord, let me take it's water." "Find quarters in the Keep for the ghola, Stil." "We accept this gift in the spirit with which its given." "Majesty, there is the matter of Reverend Mother Mohiam." "She was removed from a Heighliner by your neutrality." "Be careful, Ambassador." "To be neutral is to be indifferent." "You would do well to dissociate yourself from those who have proven they are not." "As you will learn, Edric, my sister has the pulse of the court." "Be advised!" "Reverend Mother," "I shudder to see you in such circumstances." "I've been in worse." "Do the cards answer all your questions?" "Answers only breed more questions." "What's important is how one navigates between the two." "So, you haven't forgotten everything we taught you." "Does the Emperor know you are here?" "He hasn't bring it out, Reverend Mother." "Of course." "His 'eyes' are everywhere." "Then we haven't much time..." "The concubine has learned of the contraceptive?" "She has changed her diet to adapt." "Then we must adapt as well..." "If she conceives, you must introduce an abortifact." "You want me to...kill the child?" "We can not risk a Fremen strain in the bloodline..." "I don't understand." "An heir to the throne from that source must be prevented at all costs." "For us all." "Do you know how dangerous that was?" "Eleven blades!" "Paul, Eleven!" "The finest swordsmen in the Imperium have never gone up against more than nine." "An experienced swordsman wouldn't never been so reckless." "This is why you invaded my privacy?" "To disapprove of my recklessness?" "Spice gatherers have found a body in the desert" "A young women." "A fremen." "Fremen?" "Decapitated." "And her hands were removed." "So, someone's afraid she'd be found before the desert did it's work..." "I want you to examine the scene the way our mother taught us." "You will take the ghola mentat with you." "I assume you can handle him." "I should arrange a `thopter." "Poisoned." "How can you tell?" "The molting on the skin." "Clearly the effect of rapid neurologic atrophy." "A Tleilaxu specialty." "Tleilaxu?" "Face Dancers." " This is a dead Fremen girl, m'Lady." "What if there are no women reported missing among the Fremen?" "Otheym's daughter, m'Lord." "Lichna." "It's been many years since I've seen you." "And my father." "I must beg Muad'dib's forgiveness for this intrusion, but" "I am the smoke which banishes sleep in the night." "Sit." "Deliver your warning then." "You must visit my father." "As soon as possible, m'Lord." "There is a plot against you..." " There are many plots against me." "This is a Fremen plot, Majesty." "My father has information for you." "But he is weak." "He is sick." "He needs you to visit so he can tell you." "Why not tell you so you can tell me?" "He feared I might be captured before seeing you." "If I know nothing, I can divulge nothing." "I will leave for Otheym's tonight." "Otheym has missed his old friend." "A Face Dancer." "And a good one, too." "Let me take it's water." "No Stil!" "This must play out the way I've seen it." "Curse is your name, Atreides." "Your time has finally come." "Korba, the stone burner is set on ready." "Let the others know, Javid." "Muad'Dib is in the streets." "Go!" "So, you've come, then." "We meet again, Muad'Dib." "Answering the call of a Fedaykin." "I carry your water burden, Otheym." "Command me." "I caught the spitting disease on Tarahell." "The tribe will take my water soon." "Let me summon my doctors." "We've had doctors." "As good as any Maud'Dib could provide." "There is treachery, Muad'Dib." "I'm ashamed to say it." "Fremen plot against you." "They want time to stop." "They want the world the way it used to be." "Bijaz has told me their names." "He was a gift to me for all our victories on Tarahell." "I am a person, not a gift." "Cheap to feed but costly to fill." "Empty me as you will, Sire." "He always prattles on like that." "But he is a good spy." "You must take him, with you tonight." "Our enemies will simply think I'm, selling him to you, because I need money." "To be gone is to be by-gone." "Let bygones be bygones." "And Bijaz and Muad' dib must be gone by now." "He is right, Muad' dib." "It is not safe for you to be here." "These are troubled times, old friend." "It was better when we were alone in the desert." "With only Harkonnen as enemies." "There is a thin line between enemy and friend." "Where that line stops there's no beginning and no end." "Bygones be bygones." "Let them fall where they may." "This has been a dirty day." "The wind speaks of demons." "That is not the wind." "Stone Burner!" "Don't look at it, m'Lord." "You can't look at it, milord." "It was in the old quarters." "Stone burner for sure..." "What about Muad'dib?" "We are just entering the area now." "M'LORD, IS THAT YOU?" "Here!" "I'm over here!" "Take this one and get him to the Keep immediately." "Your eyes..." "Do it, Fedaykin!" "Do it NOW!" "This way." "M'Lord, your eyes!" "My eyes are gone, Stil." "Muad'Dib, my god!" "Muad'Dib." " Calm, Stil." "They blinded my body, but not my vision." "The man need your help, Fedaykin!" "Here and here!" "The law, Muad'Dib!" "We live by Atreides law now, Stil." "None of these men are to be taken out into the desert." "Any one who wants, is to be fitted with Tleilaxu wise." "He has sight!" "Without eyes!" "You knew this would happen." "It had to be." "Why?" "Why?" "For our son." "How long have you known?" "I have always known." "It was just a matter of when." "Forgive me, Chani." "There was no way I could spare us this." "I waited as long as I could..." "We're going back to our desert, my love." "To the sietch where our son will be born." "I'm afraid, Muad'dib." "I suddenly feel like we have so little time." "We have eternity." "You have eternity." "I have only now." "So you are Bijaz." "Would I were bijou and not Bijaz." "A jewel is prettier than a horse's ass." "You're a mockery, then." "A trick of nature." "Meant to confuse and annoy." "Annoy yes." "Confuse no." "Is wind a trick?" "Then you are the wind?" "No, I am words in the wind." "Words that are names." "Names that are death." "He knows." "What does he mean?" "What I mean is what I say." "And what I say is what I mean." "Time for accounting." "Unless you came just to mocker me." "My brother says you know the names of the traitors." "Poor Muad'dib." "Poor Bijaz." "Betrayed and betrayer." "Together at last." "You will give me the names of those who will betray us." "Very well then, lets start with your priests." "He has another agenda." "How do you know?" "I sense it." "Senses are dangerous." "They can be fooled." "Only a machine functions without senses." "Are you a machine, ghola?" "I am a Mentat." "I trust logic and statistics not mysticism and prophecy." "My brother had a Mentat teacher who talked like that..." "Hawat." " You remember!" "You did that on purpose." "You remember!" "No." "I feel." "There is a difference." "Is there?" "It frightens you, doesn't it?" "The memory." "You're afraid you'll remember who you were." "No ghola has ever been restored to his former being, child." "I am no child!" "I awakened to consciousness in my mother's womb." "I have memories of many women alive inside of me." "I know what they knew." "I feel what they felt." "But I can handle them." "Can you?" "Palace Fedaykin are everywhere..." "By the time Alia is through, a common pickpocket won't be safe." "Fools even had a stone burner and couldn't succeed." "Our spies have no idea who was responsible." "It could have been Fremen rebels from the deep desert, it could have been an element within the Qizarate itself." "We may never know." "What about Scytale?" "He maintains his masquerade." "And the dwarf?" "Confined to the Keep." "None knows where." "Then our plan is still in tact." "Caladan." "Ancentral Home of House Atreides"