'I had not thought of that, Lord.'
'I have.'
'I will have her sent back to Ix immediately,' Moneo said.
'You will do nothing of the kind!'
'But, Lord, if they...
'Moneo, I have observed that you seldom turn your back on danger. Others often do, but you-seldom. Why would you have me engage in such an obvious stupidity?'
Moneo swallowed.
'Good. I like it when you recognize the error of your ways,' Leto said.
'Thank you, Lord.'
'I also like it when you express your gratitude sincerely, as you have just done. Now, Anteac was with you when you heard these revelations?'
'As you ordered, Lord.'
'Excellent. That will stir things up a bit. You will leave now and go to the Lady Hwi. You will tell her that I desire to see her immediately. This will disturb her. She is thinking that we will not meet again until I summon her to the Citadel. I want you to quiet her fears.'
'In what way, Lord?'
Leto spoke sadly: 'Moneo, why do you ask advice on something at which you are an expert? Calm her and bring her here reassured of my kindly intentions toward her.'
'Yes, Lord.' Moneo bowed and backed away a step.
'One moment, Moneo!'
Moneo stiffened, his gaze fixed on Leto's face.
'You are puzzled, Moneo,' Leto said. 'Sometimes you do not know what to think of me. Am I all-powerful and all prescient? You bring me these little dibs and dabs and you wonder: Does he already know this? If he does, why do I bother? But I have ordered you to report such things, Moneo. Is your obedience not instructive?'
Moneo started to shrug and thought better of it. His lips trembled.
'Time can also be a place, Moneo,' Leto said. 'Everything depends upon where you are standing, on where you look or what you hear. The measure of it is found in consciousness itself.'
After a long silence, Moneo ventured: 'Is that all, Lord?'
'No, it is not all. Siona will receive today a package delivered to her by a Guild courier. Nothing is to interfere with delivery of that package. Do you understand?'
'What is... what is in the package, Lord?'
'Some translations, reading matter which I wish her to see. You will do nothing to interfere. There is no melange in the package.'
'How... how did you know what I feared was in the...'
'Because you fear the spice. It could extend your life, but you avoid it.'
'I fear its other effects, Lord.'
'A bountiful nature has decreed that melange will unveil for some of us unexpected depths of the psyche, yet you fear this?'
'I am Atreides, Lord!'
'Ahhh, yes, and for the Atreides, melange may roll the mystery of Time through a peculiar process of internal revelation.'
'I have only to remember the way you tested me, Lord.'
'Do you not see the necessity for you to sense the Golden Path?'
'That is not what I fear, Lord.'
'You fear the other astonishment, the thing which made me make my choice.'
'I have only to look at you, Lord, and know that fear. We Atreides...' He broke off, his mouth dry.
'You do not want all of these memories of ancestors and the others who flock within me!'
'Sometimes... sometimes, Lord, I think the spice is the Atreides curse!'
'Do you wish that I had never occurred?'
Moneo remained silent.
'But melange has its values, Moneo. The Guild navigators need it. And without it, the Bene Gesserit would degenerate into a helpless band of whining females!'
'We must live with it or without it, Lord. I know that.'
'Very perceptive, Moneo. But you choose to live without it.'
'Do I not have that choice, Lord?'
'For now.'
'Lord, what do you...'
'There are twenty-eight different words for melange in common Galach. They describe it by its intended use, by its dilution, by its age, by whether it came through honest purchase, through theft or conquest, whether it was the dower gift for a male or for a female, and in many other ways is it named. What do you make of this, Moneo?'
'We are offered many choices, Lord.'
'Only where the spice is concerned?'
Moneo's brow wrinkled in thought, then: 'No.'
'You so seldom say 'no' in my presence,' Leto said. 'I enjoy watching your lips form around the word.'
Moneo's mouth twitched in an attempted smile.
Leto spoke briskly: 'Well! You must go now to the Lady Hwi. I will give you one parting piece of advice which may help.'
Moneo paid studious attention to Leto's face.
'Drug knowledge originated mostly with males because they tend to be more venturesome-an outgrowth of male aggression. You've read your Orange Catholic Bible, thus you know the story of Eve and the apple. Here's an interesting fact about that story: Eve was not the first to pluck and sample the apple. Adam was first and he learned by this to put the blame on Eve. My story tells you something about how our societies find a structural necessity for sub-groups.'
Moneo tipped his head slightly to the left. 'Lord, how does this help me?'
'It will help you with the Lady Hwi!' -= The singular multiplicity of this universe draws my deepest attention. It is a thing of ultimate beauty.
- The Stolen Journals LETO HEARD Moneo in the antechamber just before Hwi entered the small audience room. She wore voluminous pale green pantaloons tightly tied at the ankles with darker green bows to match her sandals. A loose blouse of the same dark green could be seen under her black cloak.
She appeared calm as she approached Leto and sat without being invited, choosing a golden cushion rather than the red one she had occupied earlier. It had taken less than an hour for Moneo to bring her. Leto's acute hearing detected Moneo fidgeting in the anteroom and Leto sent a signal which sealed the arched doorway there.
'Something has disturbed Moneo,' Hwi said. 'He tried very hard not to reveal this to me, but the more he tried to soothe me the more he aroused my curiosity.'
'He did not frighten you?'
'Oh, no. He did say something very interesting, though. He said that I must remember it at all times, that the God Leto is a different person to each of us.'
'How is this interesting?' Leto asked.
'The interesting thing is the question for which this was the preface. He said he often wonders what part we play in creating that difference in you?'
'That is interesting.'
'I think it is a truthful insight,' Hwi said. 'Why have you summoned me?'
'At one time, your masters on Ix..
.'
