Heretics of Dune Read online

  Schwangyu remained silent for almost a minute. Presently, she said: "Geasa thought the ghola was an endearing child. She cried and said she would miss him."

  "Wasn't she warned about that?"

  "Geasa did not have our training."

  "So you replaced her with Tamalane at that time. I do not know Tamalane but I presume she is quite old."

  "Quite."

  "What was his reaction to the removal of Geasa?"

  "He asked where she had gone. We did not answer."

  "How did Tamalane fare?"

  "On his third day with her, he told her very calmly: 'I hate you. Is that what I'm supposed to do?"'

  "So quickly!"

  "Right now, he's watching you and thinking: I hate Schwangyu. Will I have to hate this new one? But he is also thinking that you are not like the other old witches. You're young. He will know that this must be important."

  Humans live best when each has his place to stand, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things and what he may achieve. Destroy the place and you destroy the person.

  --Bene Gesserit Teaching

  Miles Teg had not wanted the Gammu assignment. Weapons master to a ghola-child? Even such a ghola-child as this one, with all of the history woven around him. It was an unwanted intrusion into Teg's well-ordered retirement.

  But he had lived all of that life as a Military Mentat under the will of the Bene Gesserit and could not compute an act of disobedience.

  Quis custodiet ipsos custodiet?

  Who shall guard the guardians? Who shall see that the guardians commit no offenses?

  This was a question that Teg had considered carefully on many occasions. It formed one of the basic tenets of his loyalty to the Bene Gesserit. Whatever else you might say about the Sisterhood, they displayed an admirable constancy of purpose.

  Moral purpose, Teg labeled it.

  The Bene Gesserit moral purpose agreed completely with Teg's principles. That those principles were Bene Gesserit-conditioned in him did not enter into the question. Rational thought, especially Mentat rationality, could make no other judgment.

  Teg boiled it down to an essence: If only one person followed such guiding principles, this was a better universe. It was never a question of justice. Justice required resort to law and that could be a fickle mistress, subject always to the whims and prejudices of those who administered the laws. No, it was a question of fairness, a concept that went much deeper. The people upon whom judgment was passed must feel the fairness of it.

  To Teg, statements such as "the letter of the law must be observed" were dangerous to his guiding principles. Being fair required agreement, predictable constancy and, above all else, loyalty upward and downward in the hierarchy. Leadership guided by such principles required no outside controls. You did your duty because it was right. And you did not obey because that was predictably correct. You did it because the rightness was a thing of this moment. Prediction and prescience had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

  Teg knew the Atreides reputation for reliable prescience, but gnomic utterances had no place in his universe. You took the universe as you found it and applied your principles where you could. Absolute commands in the hierarchy were always obeyed. Not that Taraza had made it a question of absolute command, but the implications were there.

  "You are the perfect person for this task."

  He had lived a long life with many high points and he was retired with honor. Teg knew he was old, slow and with all the defects of age waiting just at the edges of his awareness, but the call to duty quickened him even while he was forced to put down the wish to say "No."

  The assignment had come from Taraza personally. The powerful senior of all (including the Missionaria Protectiva) singled him out. Not just a Reverend Mother but the Reverend Mother Superior.

  Taraza came to his retirement sanctuary on Lernaeus. It honored him for her to do this and he knew it. She appeared at his gate unannounced, accompanied only by two acolyte servers and a small guard force, some of whose faces he recognized. Teg had trained them himself. The time of her arrival was interesting. Morning, shortly after his breakfast. She knew the patterns of his life and certainly knew that he was most alert at this hour. So she wanted him awake and at his fullest capabilities.

  Patrin, Teg's old batman, brought Taraza into the east wing sitting room, a small and elegant setting with only solid furniture in it. Teg's dislike of chairdogs and other living furniture was well known. Patrin had a sour look on his face as he ushered the black-robed Mother Superior into the room. Teg recognized the look immediately. Patrin's long, pale face with its many age wrinkles might appear an unmoved mask to others, but Teg was alert to the deepened wrinkles beside the man's mouth, the set stare in the old eyes. So Taraza had said something on the way in here that had disturbed Patrin.

  Tall sliding doors of heavy plaz framed the room's eastward view down a long sloping lawn to trees beside the river. Taraza paused just inside the room to admire the view.

  Without being told, Teg touched a button. Curtains slid across the view and glowglobes came alight. Teg's action told Taraza he had computed a need for privacy. He emphasized this by ordering Patrin: "Please see that we are not disturbed."

  "The orders for the South Farm, sir," Patrin ventured.

  "Please see to that yourself. You and Firus know what I want."

  Patrin closed the door a little too sharply as he left, a tiny signal but it spoke much to Teg.

  Taraza moved a pace into the room and examined it. "Lime green," she said. "One of my favorite colors. Your mother had a fine eye."

  Teg warmed to the remark. He had a deep affection for this building and this land. His family had been here only three generations but their mark was on the place. His mother's touches had not really been changed in many rooms.

  "It's safe to love land and places," Teg said.

  "I particularly liked the burnt orange carpets in the hall and the stained glass fanlight over the entry door," Taraza said. "That fanlight is a real antique, I am sure."

  "You did not come here to talk about interior decoration," Teg said.

  Taraza chuckled.

  She had a high-pitched voice, which the Sisterhood's training had taught her to use with devastating effectiveness. It was not a voice easy to ignore, even when she appeared most carefully casual as she did now. Teg had seen her in Bene Gesserit Council. Her manner there was powerful and persuasive, every word an indicator of the incisive mind that guided her decisions. He could sense an important decision beneath her demeanor now.

  Teg indicated a green upholstered chair at his left. She glanced at it, swept her gaze once more around the room and suppressed a smile.

  Not a chairdog in the house, she would wager. Teg was an antique surrounding himself with antiques. She seated herself and smoothed her robe while waiting for Teg to take a matching chair facing her.

  "I regret the need to ask that you come out of retirement, Bashar," she said. "Unfortunately, circumstances give me little choice."

  Teg rested his long arms casually on his chair's arms, a Mentat in repose, waiting. His attitude said: "Fill my mind with data."

  Taraza was momentarily abashed. This was an imposition. Teg was still a regal figure, tall and with that large head topped by gray hair. He was, she knew, four SY short of three hundred. Granting that the Standard Year was some twenty hours less than the so-called primitive year, it was still an impressive age with experiences in Bene Gesserit service that demanded that she respect him. Teg wore, she noted, a light gray uniform with no insignia: carefully tailored trousers and jacket, white shirt open at the throat to reveal a deeply wrinkled neck. There was a glint of gold at his waist and she recognized the Bashar's sunburst he had received at retirement. How like the utilitarian Teg! He had made the golden bauble into a belt buckle. This reassured her. Teg would understand her problem.

  "Could I have a drink of water?" Taraza asked. "It has been a long and tiresome journey. We
came the last stage by one of our transports, which we should have replaced five hundred years ago."

  Teg lifted himself from the chair, went to a wall panel and removed a chilled water bottle and glass from a cabinet behind the panel. He put these on a low table at Taraza's right hand. "I have melange," he said.

  "No, thank you, Miles. I've my own supply."

  Teg resumed his seat and she noted the signs of stiffness. He was still remarkably supple, however, considering his years.

  Taraza poured herself a half glass of water and drank it in one swallow. She replaced the glass on the side table with elaborate care. How to approach this? Teg's manner did not fool her. He did not want to leave retirement. Her analysts had warned her about that. Since retirement, he had taken more than a casual interest in farming. His extensive acreage here on Lernaeus was essentially a research garden.

  She lifted her gaze and studied him openly. Square shoulders accentuated Teg's narrow waist. He still kept himself active then. That long face with its sharp lines from the strong bones: typically Atreides. Teg returned her gaze as he always did, demanding attention but open to whatever the Mother Superior might say. His thin mouth was cocked into a slight smile, exposing bright and even teeth.

  He knows I'm uncomfortable, she thought. Damn it! He's just as much a servant of the Sisterhood as I am!

  Teg did not prompt her with questions. His manner remained impeccable, curiously withdrawn. She reminded herself that this was a common trait of Mentats and nothing else should be read into it.

  Abruptly, Teg stood and strode to a sideboard at Taraza's left. He turned, folded his arms across his breast and leaned there looking down at her.

  Taraza was forced to swivel her chair to face him. Damn him! Teg was not going to make this any easier for her. All of the Reverend Mother Examiners had remarked a difficulty in getting Teg to sit for conversation. He preferred to stand, his shoulders held with military stiffness, his gaze aimed downward. Few Reverend Mothers matched his height--more than two meters. This trait, the analysts agreed, was Teg's way (probably unconscious) of protesting the Sisterhood's authority over him. None of this, however, showed itself in his other behavior. Teg had always been the most reliable military commander the Sisterhood had ever employed.

  In a multisociety universe whose major binding forces interacted with complexity despite the simplicity of labels, reliable military commanders were worth their weight in melange many times over. Religions and the common memory of imperial tyrannies always figured in the negotiations but it was economic forces that eventually carried the day and the military coin could be entered on anybody's adding machine. It was there in every negotiation and would be for as long as necessity drove the trading system--the need for particular things (such as spice or the technoproducts of Ix), the need for specialists (such as Mentats or Suk doctors), and all of the other mundane needs for which there were markets: for labor forces, for builders, for designers, for planiformed life, for artists, for exotic pleasures...

  No legal system could bind such complexity into a whole and this fact quite obviously brought up another necessity--the constant need for arbiters with clout. Reverend Mothers had naturally fallen into this role within the economic web and Miles Teg knew this. He also knew that he was once more being brought out as a bargaining chip. Whether he enjoyed that role did not figure in the negotiations.

  "It's not as though you had any family to hold you here," Taraza said.

  Teg accepted this silently. Yes, his wife had been dead thirty-eight years now. His children were all grown and, with the exception of one daughter, gone from the nest. He had his many personal interests but no family obligations. True.

  Taraza reminded him then of his long and faithful service to the Sisterhood, citing several memorable achievements. She knew the praise would have little effect on him but it provided her with a needed opening for what must follow.

  "You have been apprised of your familial resemblance," she said.

  Teg inclined his head no more than a millimeter.

  "Your resemblance to the first Leto Atreides, grandfather of the Tyrant, is truly remarkable," she said.

  Teg gave no sign that he heard or agreed. This was merely a datum, something already stored in his copious memory. He knew he bore Atreides genes. He had seen the likeness of Leto I at Chapter House. It had been oddly like looking into a mirror.

  "You're a bit taller," Taraza said.

  Teg continued to stare down at her.

  "Damn it all, Bashar," Taraza said, "will you at least try to help me?"

  "Is that an order, Mother Superior?"

  "No, it's not an order!"

  Teg smiled slowly. The fact that Taraza allowed herself such an explosion in front of him said many things. She would not do that with people she felt were untrustworthy. And she certainly would not permit herself such an emotional display with a person she considered merely an underling.

  Taraza sat back in her chair and grinned up at him. "All right," she said. "You've had your fun. Patrin said you would be most upset with me if I called you back to duty. I assure you that you are crucial to our plans."

  "What plans, Mother Superior?"

  "We are raising a Duncan Idaho ghola on Gammu. He is almost six years old and ready for military education."

  Teg allowed his eyes to widen slightly.

  "It will be a taxing duty for you," Taraza said, "but I want you to take over his training and protection as soon as possible."

  "My likeness to the Atreides Duke," Teg said. "You will use me to restore his original memories."

  "In eight or ten years, yes."

  "That long!" Teg shook his head. "Why Gammu?"

  "His prana-bindu inheritance has been altered by the Bene Tleilax, at our orders. His reflexes will match in speed those of anyone born in our times. Gammu ... the original Duncan Idaho was born and raised there. Because of the changes in his cellular inheritance we must keep all else as close to the original conditions as possible."

  "Why are you doing this?" It was a Mentat's data-conscious tone.

  "A female child with the ability to control the worms had been discovered on Rakis. We will have use for our ghola there."

  "You will breed them?"

  "I am not engaging you as a Mentat. It is your military abilities and your likeness to the original Leto that we need. You know how to restore his original memories when the time comes."

  "So you're really bringing me hack as a Weapons Master."

  "You think that's a comedown for the man who was Supreme Bashar of all our forces?"

  "Mother Superior, you command and I obey. But I will not accept this post without full command of all of Gammu's defenses."

  "That already has been arranged, Miles."

  "You always did know how my mind works."

  "And I've always been confident of your loyalty."

  Teg pushed himself away from the sideboard and stood a moment in thought, then: "Who will brief me?"

  "Bellonda from Records, the same as before. She will provide you with a cipher to secure the exchange of messages between us."

  "I will give you a list of people," Teg said. "Old comrades and the children of some of them. I will want all of them waiting on Gammu when I arrive."

  "You don't think any of them will refuse?"

  His look said: "Don't be silly!"

  Taraza chuckled and she thought: There's a thing we learned well from the original Atreides--how to produce people who command the utmost devotion and loyalty.

  "Patrin will handle the recruiting," Teg said. "He won't accept rank, I know, but he's to get the full pay and courtesies of a colonel-aide."

  "You will, of course, be restored to the rank of Supreme Bashar," she said. "We will ... "

  "No. You have Burzmali. We will not weaken him by bringing back his old Commander over him."

  She studied him a moment, then: "We have not yet commissioned Burzmali as ... "

  "I am well aware of that.
My old comrades keep me fully informed of Sisterhood politics. But you and I, Mother Superior, know it's only a matter of time. Burzmali is the best."

  She could only accept this. It was more than a military Mentat's assessment. It was Teg's assessment. Another thought struck her.

  "Then you already knew about our dispute in Council!" she accused. "And you let me ... "

  "Mother Superior, if I thought you would produce another monster on Rakis, I would have said so. You trust my decisions; I trust yours."

  "Damn you, Miles, we've been apart too long." Taraza stood. "I feel calmer just knowing you'll be back in harness."

  "Harness," he said. "Yes. Reinstate me as a Bashar on special assignment. That way, when word gets back to Burzmali, there'll be no silly questions."

  Taraza produced a sheaf of ridulian papers from beneath her robe and passed them to Teg. "I've already signed these. Fill in your own reinstatement. The other authorizations are all there, transport vouchers and so on. I give you these orders personally. You are to obey me. You are my Bashar, do you understand?"

  "Wasn't I always?" he asked.

  "It's more important than ever now. Keep that ghola safe and train him well. He's your responsibility. And I will back you in that against anyone."

  "I hear Schwangyu commands on Gammu."

  "Against anyone, Miles. Don't trust Schwangyu."

  "I see. Will you lunch with us? My daughter has... "

  "Forgive me, Miles, but I must get back soonest. I will send Bellonda at once."

  Teg saw her to the door, exchanged a few pleasantries with his old students in her party and watched as they left. They had an armored groundcar waiting in the drive, one of the new models that they obviously had brought with them. Sight of it gave Teg an uneasy feeling.

  Urgency!

  Taraza had come in person, the Mother Superior herself on a messenger's errand, knowing what that would reveal to him. Knowing so intimately how the Sisterhood performed, he saw the revelation in what had just happened. The dispute in the Bene Gesserit Council went far deeper than his informants had suggested.

  "You are my Bashar."

  Teg glanced through the sheaf of authorizations and vouchers Taraza had left with him. Already carrying her seal and signature. The trust this implied added to the other things he sensed and increased his disquiet.