God Emperor of Dune dc-4

by Frank Herbert

  Why is it that foolishness repeats itself with such monotonous precision? Leto wondered. His memories offered up countless scenes to match this one-caverns, priests and priestesses caught up in holy ecstasy, portentous voices delivering dangerous prophecies through the smoke of holy narcotics.

  He glanced down at the iridescent vial on the ledge beside Moneo. What was the current value of that thing`? Enormous. It was the essence. Concentrated wealth concentrated.

  "You have already paid the Oracle," he said. "It amuses me to give you full value."

  How alert the women became!

  "Hear me!" he said. "What you fear is not what you fear."

  Leto liked the sound of that. Sufficiently portentous for any Oracle. Anteac and Luyseyal stared up at him, dutiful supplicants. Behind them, an acolyte cleared her throat.

  That one will be identified and reprimanded later, Leto thought.

  Anteac had now had sufficient time to ruminate on Leto's words. She said: "An obscure truth is not the truth."

  "But I have directed your attention correctly," Leto said.

  "Are you telling us not to fear the machine?" Luyseyal asked.

  "You have the power of reason.," he said. "Why come begging to me?"

  "But we do not have your powers," Anteac said.

  "You complain then that you do not sense the gossamer waves of Time. You do not sense my continuum. And you fear a mere machine!"

  "Then you will not answer us," Anteac said.

  "Do not make the mistake of thinking me ignorant about your Sisterhood's ways," he said. "You are alive. Your senses are exquisitely tuned. I do not stop this, nor should you."

  "But the lxians play with automation!" Anteac protested.

  "Discrete pieces, finite bits linked one to another," he agreed. "Once set in motion, what is to stop it?"

  Luyseyal discarded all pretense of Bene Gesserit self-control, a fine comment on her recognition of Leto's powers. Her voice almost screeched: "Do you know what the lxians boast? That their machine will predict your actions!"

  "Why should I fear that? The closer they come to me, the more they must be my allies. They cannot conquer me, but I can conquer them."

  Anteac made to speak but stopped when Luyseyal touched her arm.

  "Are you already allied with Ix?" Luyseyal asked. "We hear that you conferred overlong with their new Ambassador, this Hwi Noree."

  "I have no allies," he said. "Only servants, students and enemies."

  "And you do not fear the lxians' machine?" Anteac insisted.

  "Is automation synonymous with conscious intelligence?" he asked.

  Anteac's eyes went wide and filmy as she withdrew into her memories. Leto found himself caught by fascination with what she must be encountering there within her own internal mob.

  We share some of those memories, he thought.

  Leto felt then the seductive attraction of community with Reverend Mothers. It would be so familiar, so supportive... and so deadly. Anteac was trying to lure him once more.

  She spoke: "The machine cannot anticipate every problem of importance to humans. It is the difference between serial bits and an unbroken continuum. We have the one; machines are confined to the other."

  "You still have the power of reason," he said.

  "Share!" Luyseyal said. It was a command to Anteac and it revealed with sharp abruptness who really dominated this pair-the younger over the older.

  Exquisite, Leto thought.

  "Intelligence adapts," Anteac said.

  Parsimonious with her words, too, Leto thought, hiding his amusement.

  "Intelligence creates," Leto said. "That means you must deal with responses never before imagined. You must confront the new."

  "Such as the possibility of the Ixian Machine," Anteac said. It was not a question.

  "Isn't it interesting," Leto asked, "that being a superb Reverend Mother is not enough?"

  His acute senses detected the sudden fearful tightening in both of the women. Truthsayers, indeed!

  "You are right to fear me," he said. Raising his voice, he demanded: "How do you know you're even alive?"

  As Moneo had done so many times, they heard in his voice the deadly consequences of failure to answer him correctly. It fascinated Leto that both women glanced at Moneo before either responded.

  "I am the mirror of myself," Luyseyal said, a pat Bene Gesserit answer which Leto found offensive.

  "I don't need pre-set tools to deal with my human problems." Anteac said. "Your question is sophomoric`."

  "Hah, hah!" Leto laughed. "How would you like to quit the Bene Gesserit and join me'?"

  He could see her consider and then reject the invitation, but she did not hide her amusement.

  Leto looked at the puzzled Luyseyal. "If it falls outside your yardsticks, then you are engaged with intelligence, not with automation," he said. And he thought: That Luyseyal will ill newer again dominate old Anteac.

  Luyseyal was angry now and not bothering to conceal it. She said: "The lxians are rumored to have provided you with machines that simulate human thinking. If you have such a low opinion of them, why..."

  "She should not be let out of the Chapter House without a guardian," Leto said, addressing Anteac. "Is she afraid to address her own memories?"

  Luyseyal paled, but remained silent.

  Leto studied her coldly. "Our ancestors' long unconscious relationship with machines has taught us something, don't you think?"

  Luyseyal merely glared at him, not ready yet to risk death through open defiance of the God Emperor.

  "Would you say we at least know the attraction of machines'?" Leto asked.

  Luyseyal nodded.

  "A well-maintained machine can be more reliable than a human servant," Leto said. "We can trust machines not to indulge in emotional distractions."

  Luyseyal found her voice. "Does this mean you intend to remove the Butlerian prohibition against abominable machines?"

  "I swear to you," Leto said, speaking in his icy voice of disdain, "that if you display further such stupidity, I will have you publicly executed. I am not your Oracle!"

  Luyseyal opened her mouth and closed it without speaking.

  Anteac touched her companion's arm, sending a quick tremor through Luyseyal's body. Anteac spoke softly in a exquisite demonstration of Voice: "Our God Emperor will never openly defy the proscriptions of the Butlerian Jihad."

  Leto smiled at her, a gentle commendation. It was such a pleasure to see a professional performing at her best.

  "That should be obvious to any conscious intelligence," he said. "There are limits of my own choosing, places where I will not interfere."

  He could see both women absorbing the multi-pronged thrust of his words, weighing the possible meanings and intents. Was the God Emperor distracting them, focusing their attention on the lxians while he maneuvered elsewhere? Was he telling the Bene Gesserit that the time had come to choose sides against the lxians? Was it possible his words had no more than their surface motivations? Whatever his reasons, they could not be ignored. He was undoubtedly the most devious creature the universe had ever spawned.Leto scowled at Luyseyal, knowing he could only add to their confusion. "I point out to you, Marcus Claire Luyseyal, a lesson from past over-machined societies which you appear not to have learned. The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines."

  He turned his attention to Moneo. "Moneo?"

  "I see him, Lord."

  Moneo craned his neck to peer over the Bene Gesserit entourage. Duncan Idaho had entered the far portal, and strode across the open floor of the chamber toward Leto. Moneo did not relax his wariness, his distrust of the Bene Gesserit, but he recognized the nature of Leto's lecture. He is testing, always testing.

  Anteac cleared her throat. "Lord, what of our reward?"

  "You are brave," Leto said. "No doubt that's why you were chosen for this Embassy. Very well, for the next decade I will continue your spice allotment at
its present level. As for the rest, I will ignore what you really intended with the spice essence. Am I not generous?"

  "Most generous, Lord," Anteac said, and there was not the slightest hint of bitterness in her voice.

  Duncan Idaho brushed past the women then and stopped beside Moneo to peer up at Leto. "M'Lord, there's..." He broke off and glanced at the two Reverend Mothers.

  "Speak openly," Leto commanded.

  "Yes, m'Lord." There was reluctance in him, but he obeyed.

  "We were attacked at the southeast edge of the City, a distraction I believe because there now are reports of more violence in the City and in the Forbidden Forest-many scattered raiding parties."

  "They are hunting my wolves," Leto said. "In the forest and in the City, they are hunting my wolves."

  Idaho's brows contracted into a puzzled frown. "Wolves in the City, m'Lord?"

  "Predators," Leto said. "Wolves-to me there is no essential difference."

  Moneo gasped.

  Leto smiled at him, thinking how beautiful it was to observe a moment of realization-a veil pulled away from the eyes, the mind opened.

  "I have brought a large force of guards to protect this place," Idaho said. "They are posted through the..."

  "I knew you would," Leto said. "Now pay close attention while I tell you where to send the rest of your forces."

  As the Reverend Mothers watched in awe, Leto laid out for Idaho the exact points for ambushes, detailing the size of each force and even some of the specific personnel, the timing, the necessary weapons, the precise deployments at each place. Idaho's capacious memory catalogued each instruction. He was too caught up in the recital to question it until Leto fell silent, but a look of puzzled fear came over Idaho then.

  For Leto, it was as though he peered directly into Idaho's most essential awareness to read the thoughts there. l was a trusted soldier of the original Lord Leto, Idaho was thinking. That Leto, the grandfather of this one,.saved me and took me into his household like a sun. But even though that Leto still has some kind of existence in this one... this is not him.

  "M'Lord, why do you need me?" Idaho asked.

  "For your strength and loyalty."

  Idaho shook his head. "But..."

  "You obey," Leto said, and he noted the way these words were being absorbed by the Reverend Mothers. Truth, only truth, for they are Truthsayers.

  "Because I owe a debt to the Atreides," Idaho said.

  "That is where we place our trust," Leto said. "And Duncan?"

  "M'Lord?" Idaho's voice said he had found ground where he could stand.

  "Leave at least one survivor at each place," Leto said. "Otherwise, our efforts are wasted."

  Idaho nodded once, curtly, and left, striding back across the hall the way he had come. And Leto thought it would take an extremely sensitive eye indeed to see that it was a different Idaho leaving, far different from the one who had entered.

  Anteac said: "This comes of flogging that Ambassador."

  "Exactly," Leto agreed. "Recount this carefully to your Superior, the admirable Reverend Mother Syaksa. Tell her for me that I prefer the company of predators above that of the prey." He glanced at Moneo, who drew himself to attention. "Moneo, the wolves are gone from my forest. They must be replaced by human wolves. See to it."

  ***

  The trance-state of prophecy is like no other visionary experience. It is not a retreat from the raw exposure of the senses (as are many trance-states) but an immersion in a multitude of new movements. Things moue. It is an ultimate pragmatism in the midst of Infinity, a demanding consciousness where you come at last into the unbroken awareness that the universe moves of itself, that it changes, that its rules change. that nothing remains permanent or absolute throughout all such movement, that mechanical explanations for anything can work only within precise confinements and, once the walls are broken down, the old explanations shatter and dissolve, blown away by new movements. The things you see in this trance are sobering, often shattering They demand your utmost effort to remain whole and. even so, you emerge from that state profoundly changed.

  - The Stolen Journals

  THAT NIGHT of Audience Day, while others slept and fought and dreamed and died, Leto took his repose in the isolation of his audience chamber, only a few trusted Fish Speaker guards at the portals.

  He did not sleep. His mind whirled with necessities and disappointments.

  Hwi! Hwi!

  He knew why Hwi Noree had been sent to him now. How well he knew!

  My most secret secret is exposed.

  They had discovered his secret. Hwi was the evidence of it.

  He thought desperate thoughts. Could this terrible metamorphosis be reversed? Could he return to a human state?

  Not possible.

  Even if it were possible, the process would take him just as long as it had taken to reach this point. Where would Hwi be in more than three thousand years? Dry dust and bones in the crypt.

  I could breed something like her and prepare that one for me... but that would not be my gentle Hwi.

  And what of the Golden Path while he indulged in such selfish goals?

  To hell with the Golden Path! Have these folly-bound idiots ever thought once of me? Not once!

  But that was not true. Hwi thought of him. She shared his torture.

  These were thoughts of madness and he tried to put them away while his senses reported the soft movement of the guards and the flow of water beneath his chamber.

  When I made this choice, what were my expectations?

  How the mob within laughed at that question! Did he not have a task to complete? Was that not the very essence of the agreement which kept the mob in check?

  "You have a task to complete," they said. "You have but one purpose."

  Single purpose is the mark of the fanatic and I am not a fanatic!

  "You must be cynical and cruel. You cannot break the trust."

  Why not?

  "Who took that oath? You did. You chose this course."

  Expectations!

  "The expectations which history creates for one generation are often shattered in the next generation. Who knows that better than you?"

  Yes... and shattered expectations can alienate whole populations. I alone am a whole population!

  "Remember your oath!"

  Indeed. I am the disruptive force unleashed across the centuries. I limit expectations... including my own. I dampen the pendulum.

  "And then release it. Never forget that."

  I am tired. Oh, how tired I am. If only I could.sleep.. really sleep. - "You're full of self-pity, too."

  Why not? What am ' The ultimate loner forced to look at what might have been. Every day I look at it... and now. Hwi!

  "Your original unselfish choice fills you now with selfishness."

  There is danker all around. I must wear my selfishness like a.suit of armor.

  "There's danger for everyone who touches you. Isn't that your very nature'?"

  Danger even for Hwi. Dear, delectable, dear Hwi "Did you build high walls around you only to sit within them and indulge in self-pity'?"

  The walls were built because great forces have been unleashed in my Empire.

  "You unleashed them. Will you now compromise with them?"

  It's Hwi's doing. These feelings have never before been this powerful in me. It's the damnable lxians.' "How interesting that they should assault you with flesh rather than with a machine."

  Because they have discovered my secret.

  "You know the antidote."

  Leto's great body trembled through its entire length at this thought. He well knew the antidote which had always worked before: lose himself for a time in his own past. Not even the Bene Gesserit Sisters could take such safaris, striking inward along the axis of memories-back, back to the very limits of cellular awareness, or stopping by a wayside to revel in a sophisticated sensory delight. Once, after the death of a particularly superb Duncan, he had toured great m
usical performances preserved in his memories. Mozart had tired him quickly. Pretentious! But Bach... ahhh, Bach.

  Leto remembered the joy of it.

  I sat at the organ and let the music drench me.

  Only three times in all memory had there been an equal to Bach. But even Licallo was not better; as good, but not better.

  Would female intellectuals be the proper choice for this night? Grandmother Jessica had been one of the best. Experience told him that someone as close to him as Jessica would not be the proper antidote for his present tensions. The search would have to venture much farther.

  He imagined then describing such a safari to some awestruck visitor, a totally imaginary visitor because none would dare question him about such a holy matter.

  "I course backward down the flight of ancestors, hunting along the tributaries, darting into nooks and crannies. You would not recognize many of their names. Who has ever heard of Norma Cenva? I have lived her!"

  "Lived her?" his imaginary visitor asked.

  "Of course- Why else would one keep one's ancestors around'' You think a man designed the first Guild ship:' Your history books told you it was Aurelius Venport? They lied. It was his mistress, Norma. She gave him the design, along with five children. He thought his ego would take no less. In the end. the knowledge that he had not really fulfilled his own image, that was what destroyed him."

  "You have lived him, too?"

  "Naturally. And I have traversed the far wanderings of the Fremen. Through my father's line and the others, I have gone right back to the House of Atreus."

  "Such an illustrious line!"

  "With its fair share of fools."

  Distraction is what I need, he thought.

  Would it be a tour through sexual dalliances and exploits, then'?

  "You have no idea what internal orgies are available to me! I am the ultimate voyeur-participant(s) and observer(s). Ignorance and misunderstandings about sexuality have caused so much distress. How abysmally narrow we have been-how miserly."

  Leto knew he could not make that choice, not this night, not with Hwi out there in his City.

  Would he choose a review of warfare, then'?

  "Which Napoleon was the greater coward?" he asked his imaginary visitor. "I will not reveal it, but I know. Oh, yes, I know."