'Why would we -'
'Silence! You do not like it that we control Sheeana. You are fearful of the Tleilaxu. Matters have been taken from your priestly hands and things have been set in motion that terrify you.'
'Reverend Mother! What are we to do? What are we to do?'
'You will obey us! More than that, you will obey Sheeana! You fear what we venture this day? You have greater things to fear!'
She shook her head in mock dismay, knowing the effect all of this was having on poor Albertus. He cringed beneath the weight of her anger.
'On your feet!' she ordered. 'And remember that you are a priest and the truth is demanded of you!'
Albertus stumbled to his feet and kept his head bowed. She could see his body responding to the decision that he abandon subterfuge. What a trial that must be for him! Dutiful to the Reverend Mother who so obviously read his heart, now he must be dutiful to his religion. He must confront the ultimate paradox of all religions:
God knows!
'You hide nothing from me, nothing from Sheeana, and nothing from God,' Odrade said.
'Forgive me, Reverend Mother.'
'Forgive you? It is not in my power to forgive you nor should you ask it of me. You are a priest!'
He lifted his gaze to Odrade's angry face.
The paradox was upon him completely now. God was surely here! But God was usually a long way away and confrontations could be put off. Tomorrow was another day of life. Surely it was. And it was acceptable if you permitted yourself a few small sins, perhaps a lie or two. For the time being only. And maybe a big sin if temptations were great. Gods were supposed to be more understanding of great sinners. There would be time to make amends.
Odrade stared at Albertus with the analyzing eye of the Missionaria Protectiva.
Ahhh, Albertus, she thought. But now you stand in the presence of a fellow human who knows all of the things you believed were secrets between you and your god.
For Albertus, his present situation could be little different from death and that ultimate submission to the final judgment of his god. That surely described the unconscious setting for the way Albertus let his will power crumble now. All of his religious fears had been called up and were focused on a Reverend Mother.
In her driest tones, not even compelling him with Voice, Odrade said: 'I want this farce ended immediately.'
Albertus tried to swallow. He knew he could not lie. He might know a remote capability of lying but that was useless. Submissively, he looked up at Odrade's forehead where the line of her stillsuit cap had been drawn tightly across her brow. He spoke in little more than a whisper:
'Reverend Mother, it is only that we feel deprived. You and the Tleilaxu go into the desert with our Sheeana. Both of you will learn from her and...' His shoulders sagged. 'Why do you take the Tleilaxu?'
'Sheeana wishes it,' Odrade lied.
Albertus opened his mouth and closed it without speaking. She could see acceptance flood through him.
'You will return to your fellows with my warning,' Odrade said. 'The survival of Rakis and of your priesthood depend utterly on how well you obey me. You will not hinder us in the slightest! And as to these puerile plots against us - Sheeana reveals to us your every evil thought!'
Albertus surprised her then. He shook his head and emitted a dry chuckle. Odrade already had noted that many of these priests enjoyed discomfiture but had not suspected that they might find amusement in their own failures.
'I find your laughter shallow,' she said.
Albertus shrugged and restored some of his facial mask. Odrade had seen several such masks on him. Facades! He wore them in layers. And far down under all of that defensiveness lay the someone who cared, the one she had exposed here so briefly. These priests had a dangerous way of falling into florid explanations, though, when taxed too heavily with questions.
I must restore the one who cares, Odrade thought. She cut him off as he started to speak.
'No more! You will wait upon me when I return from the desert. For now, you are my messenger. Carry my message accurately and you will win a greater reward than you have ever imagined. Fail and you will suffer the agonies of Shaitan!'
Odrade watched Albertus scurry out of the courtyard, shoulders hunched, his head thrust forward as though he could not get his mouth within speaking distance of his peers soon enough.
On the whole, she thought, it had gone well. A calculated risk and very dangerous to her personally. She was sure there had been assassins on the balconies above her waiting for a signal from Albertus. And now, the fear he carried back with him was a thing the Bene Gesserit understood intimately through millennia of manipulations. As contagiously virulent as any plague. The teaching Sisters called it 'a directed hysteria.' It had been directed (aimed was more accurate) at the heart of the Rakian priesthood. It could be relied upon, especially with the reinforcement that now would be set in motion. The priests would submit. Only the few immune heretics were to be feared now.
This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic: There are no atoms, only waves and motions all around. Here, you discard all belief in barriers to understanding. You put aside understanding itself. This universe cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions. It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms may be projected. You have only one awareness here - the screen of the magi: Imagination! Here, you learn what it is to be human. You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and systems, an organizer of chaos.
- The Atreides Manifesto, Bene Gesserit Archives
'What you are doing is too dangerous,' Teg said. 'My orders are to protect you and strengthen you. I cannot permit this to continue.'
Teg and Duncan stood in the long, wood-paneled hallway just outside the no-globe's practice floor. It was late afternoon by the clock of their arbitrary routine and Lucilla had just swept away in anger after a vituperative confrontation.
Every meeting between Duncan and Lucilla lately had taken on the nature of a battle. Just now, she had stood in the doorway to the practice hall, a solid figure saved from being stolid by her softening curves, the seductive movements obvious to both males.
'Stop it, Lucilla!' Duncan had ordered.
Only her voice betrayed her anger: 'How long do you think I will wait to carry out my orders?'
'Until you or someone else tells me that I -'
'Taraza requires things of you that none of us here knows!' Lucilla said.
Teg tried to soothe the mounting angers: 'Please. Isn't it enough that Duncan continues to improve his performance? In a few days, I will start keeping regular watch outside. We can -'
'You can stop interfering with me, damn you!' Lucilla snapped. She whirled and stalked away.
As he saw the hard resolution on Duncan's face now, something furious began to work in Teg. He felt impelled by the necessities of their isolated situation. His intellect, that marvelously honed Mentat instrument, was shielded here from the mental uproar to which it adjusted on the outside. He thought that if he could only silence his mind, bring everything to stillness, all things would become clear to him.
'Why are you holding your breath, Bashar?'
Duncan's voice impaled Teg. It required a supreme act of will to resume normal breathing. He felt the emotions of his two companions in the no-globe as an ebb and flow temporarily removed from other forces.
Other forces.
Mentat awareness could be an idiot in the presence of other forces that swept through the universe. There might exist in the universe people whose lives were infused with powers he could not imagine. Before such forces he would be chaff moved on the froth of wild currents.
Who could plunge into such an uproar and emerge intact?
'What can Lucilla possibly do if I continue to resist her?' Duncan asked.
'Has she used Voice on you?' Teg asked. His own voice sounded remote to him.
