As part of the upcoming ceremony, Paul intended to commend the Swordmaster-turned-architect in front of all these people, though Bludd had abashedly insisted that his work spoke more eloquently for him than any words he could possibly say. “How could I require adulation from the audience, when I have your respect, and I have this magnificent citadel to show for all history?” Nevertheless, it was plain to see that Bludd would bask in the recognition.
Around the elaccawood throne, the ornately patterned walls were comprised of kaleidoscopically repeating keyhole arches, each the size of a pigeonhole, alternating with small windows of stained glass cut into various geometric shapes. Irulan knew that the intricate pattern had been designed to conceal any number of the Emperor’s spy-eyes and sensors. Bludd had been very secretive and dedicated about all his work, like an enthusiastic child working on a special project. Now, the Swordmaster sat in a seat of honor in the front row just below her, resplendent in such fine clothes that he reminded her of one of the peacocks that had once strutted around the palace grounds on Kaitain. He wore his thin rapier and a broad smile.
Nearby, Korba seemed to be praying; he had emphatically refused to be recognized for his part in the work, wanting no name associated with the palace other than Muad’Dib’s.
When the ceremony finally began, Irulan felt small and overwhelmed to be facing the hundreds of noble representatives who had answered Paul’s direct summons, as well as the uncounted thousands who had crowded into the opulent fortress. After Muad’Dib’s bureaucratic corps tallied all those ambassadors who answered the summons from other planets, comparing names against a chart of expected visitors, the Emperor would know who had spurned his command. Then punitive operations would begin.
As the crowd fell into a hush, Irulan looked at Rugi waiting among the sea of faces near the front. During the course of her stay with Irulan here on Arrakis, Rugi had begun to blossom. Day by day, her confidence had grown. Even so, Irulan was surprised that today, for the first time in her memory, Rugi was beautiful. Dressed in Corrino finery, she wore her family pride like a garment. Gone were the shyness and insecurity she had shown at first. Rugi’s demeanor made it clear that she was an Emperor’s daughter.
Irulan glanced at Chani, noticing how serene and beautiful the Fremen woman looked. Since she’d been raised in a political arena, Irulan was willing to accept political realities. She knew Paul had chosen her merely to secure his rule, while he kept his desert concubine as mate. Of course, Muad’Dib could take whatever he wanted. No one would challenge him if he chose two wives or took a dozen lovers. Irulan didn’t care if he bestowed all his
Because of the design of the chamber, the background sounds were muted. The walls that surrounded the great throne and its platform, as well as the huge hall, were textured so as to drown out the murmurous crowd noises.
When Paul stood, the onlookers fell into silence as if they had all been struck dumb. “At the end of war, there is peace.” His voice was repeated and amplified cleverly by hundreds of speakers throughout the Celestial Hall. “Over eight hundred representatives and their entourages have come to bow in my name and carry the banner of Muad’Dib. My victory is inevitable — and I would much prefer to do the rest without bloodshed.” He paused, and the spectators remained quiet, hanging on his words.
In the ensuing moments of silence, Irulan heard an unnatural, sinister humming sound. Chani noticed it too and spun, trying to pinpoint the source. Irulan saw movement and realized that dozens of the tiny cubbyholes had begun to open up. Small black mouths emitted a faint buzzing noise. Swordmaster Bludd was already on his feet, yelling a warning.
A swarm of hunter-seekers flew out into the room like angry wasps.
8
I see the monster growing around me, and within.
Humming on their small suspensor fields, the hunter-seekers drifted out like predatory eels, accelerating as they acquired targets. Cylindrical shafts as long as a hand, each sporting a poisoned needle at its nose, they rode forward noisily on suspensor fields.
With a flash of icy dread, Paul realized that he had seen this before in a dream — many little attackers, countless stinging needles, a thousand painful deaths. His prescient visions were often confusing and rarely literal. And now another recent dream clicked into place, like a tumbler in a complex locking mechanism: a vivid image of the detailed design carvings on the audience chamber walls blurred together with the wooden fish carving leaping over the wooden waves… and the image sharpened enough so that he knew where he had seen it before: on the old headboard of his bed in the Arrakeen Residency.
The headboard that had folded down so that the first hunter-seeker could emerge. That was what the dream had been trying to tell him, but he had not been able to interpret it properly. Not soon enough.
Now he counted at least a dozen of the weapons, then saw at a glance that they had a modified design based on bootlegged Ixian models: self-guiding tracker systems and kill-programming driven by rudimentary impulses. Though based on the same general principles, these looked different from the one that had emerged from his headboard, which had been a mere sliver of metal. These hunter-seekers were more complex, though their primitive programming could target only general victims, not specific individuals. Nevertheless, a Caladan dragon shark was primitive as well, and extremely deadly.
The faint sound of ominous movement, the gaudily dressed audience members, the grand celebration — every instant echoed in Paul’s mind in a horrible flash of deja vu: His father’s wedding day, the flying razor-edged disks, Swordmaster Dinari and his heroic death, Archduke Armand mangled. Ilesa so lovely in her nuptial gown… then covered in blood.
Chani!
He could not let it happen again.
In a cluster, four hunter-seekers shot toward the throne. With a swift and desperate push, he forced Chani to the floor even as she stood to fight. “Stay down!” In a blur, he then knocked Irulan sideways, sending her to scrabble for shelter under her overturned chair, while Alia bounded down the steps and out of the way.
The first hunter-seeker slammed its needle prow into the center of the throne where Paul had been sitting only seconds earlier.
Reacting without hesitation, Fedaykin guards sprang from the aisles and the sides of the chamber and dove forward to protect Muad’Dib with their own bodies. Bludd bounded onto the stage, his rapier drawn to slash at the whirring projectiles.
But Paul was moving to stop the hunter-seekers himself. The floating needle weapons came so fast that he could avoid them only one at a time. One buzzed beneath his arm, and he twisted violently to the left to avoid its sting. Two Fedaykin threw themselves in the hunter-seekers’ paths to intercept the deadly devices with their chests. The men lay writhing and spasming from the discharged poison; they would be dead within moments.
So much panicked movement, and so many people swarming around the throne area, confused the devices’ targeting. At least twenty hunter-seekers had been launched, maybe more, and many had already found victims.
With a sharp thrum of metal like a struck tuning fork, Bludd’s rapier knocked one of the flying devices out of the air. He stood his ground in front of Irulan, who took advantage of whatever protection her overturned chair might offer. Another hunter-seeker came close, and Bludd battered at it with a flurry of his thin blade.
Without understanding the nature of the threat, the terrified audience began to flee the Celestial Audience Chamber. Those in the front rows turned to run, pushing up against the crush of bodies packed into the immense hall.
Another volley of hunter-seekers emerged from the ornamented openings, and the second wave came streaking toward Paul. Chani lay rigid on the floor, knowing that any movement would draw the attention of the questing devices. But when one of the nearby Fedaykin was struck and collapsed thrashing beside her, she rolled
