Recently, Chapterhouse had made another substantial spice payment to the weapon shops of Richese. For years, the Richesian industries had been dedicated to building armaments for the New Sisterhood, retooling their manufacturing centers and ramping up to full-scale production. Although they regularly delivered warships and weaponry, their factories were still gearing up for the majority of items the Sisters had ordered. Within a few years, the Mother Commander would have an overwhelming armada of ships to stand together and defend against the Outside Enemy. She hoped it would be soon enough.
Inside her private chambers, working through reams of administrative matters, Murbella was relieved to be interrupted by a report from Gammu. Since the original crackdown there, Janess—promoted to regimental commandant—had been in charge of the consolidation, strengthening the Sisterhood's hold on the industries and population.
But her daughter was not among the three Valkyries who strode into her office.
All three, she noted, had originally been Honored Matres. One was Kiria, the hard-edged scout who had investigated the distant Enemy-devastated planet, home of the damaged Honored Matre battleship that had come to Chapterhouse years ago. Given the opportunity, Kiria had been eager to help quash the insurgents on Gammu.
Murbella sat up straight. 'Your report? Have you rooted out, killed, or converted the remaining rebel whores?'
The former Honored Matres flinched at the term, especially when used by someone who had previously been one of their own. Kiria stepped forward to speak. 'The regimental commandant is not far behind us, Mother Commander, but she wanted us to report to you immediately. We have made an alarming discovery.'
The other two women nodded, as if conceding Kiria's authority. Murbella noted one of them had a dark bruise on her neck.
Kiria turned toward the hall and barked orders to a pair of male workers standing outside. They entered carrying a heavy, lifeless form wrapped crudely in preserving sheets. Kiria tore the covering away from the head. The face was turned away, but the body had the shape and clothing of a man.
Intrigued, Murbella stood up. 'What is this? Is he dead?'
'Quite dead, but it is not a man. Nor a woman.'
The Mother Commander came around from behind her cluttered desk. 'What do you mean? Is it not human?'
'It is whatever it chose to be, man or woman, boy or girl, hideous or pleasing in appearance.' She turned the thing's head toward Murbella. The facial features were bland and humanoid, with staring black-button eyes, a pug nose, and pallid waxy skin.
Murbella narrowed her eyes. 'I have never seen a Face Dancer so close. Nor one so dead. I presume this is their natural state?'
'Who can tell, Mother Commander? When we rooted out and killed many of the rebel… whores, we found several shape-shifters among the dead. Alarmed, we brought in Truthsayers to interrogate the surviving Honored Matres, but found no more Face Dancers that way.' Kiria pointed at the body. 'This was one of the survivors. When she tried to escape, we killed her—and that is when her true identity came out.'
'Undetectable by Truthsayers? Are you certain?'
'Absolutely.'
Murbella wrestled with the complex implications. 'Astounding.'
Face Dancers were creatures made by the Tleilaxu, and the new ones who had returned with the Lost Tleilaxu were far superior to any the Bene Gesserit had previously encountered. Apparently, the new ones worked with, or for, the Honored Matres. And now she knew they could fool Truthsayers!
The questions fell faster than the answers. Why then had the Honored Matres destroyed the Tleilaxu worlds, attempting to exterminate all of the original Masters? Murbella had been an Honored Matre herself, and she still did not understand.
Intrigued, she touched the skin of the corpse, the coarse white hair on the head; each strand was rough against her fingertips. She inhaled deeply, sifting and sorting with her olfactory senses, but could find no distinctive smell. Bene Gesserit archives claimed that a Face Dancer could be detected by a very subtle odor. But she wasn't sure.
After a long silence, Kiria said, 'We conclude that more of the rebel Honored Matres may indeed be Face Dancers, but we found no telltale indicators. No way to detect them whatsoever.'
'Except for killing them,' one of the other two Sisters said. 'That was the only way to be sure.'
Murbella frowned. 'Effective, perhaps, but not entirely useful. We can't just execute everyone.'
Kiria matched her frown. 'That leads to a different kind of crisis, Mother Commander. Though we killed hundreds of Face Dancers among the rebels on Gammu, we were unable to capture a single one of them alive—not that we know of. They are perfect mimics. Absolutely perfect.'
Deeply troubled, Murbella paced in her office. 'You killed hundreds of Face Dancers? Does that mean you slaughtered thousands of rebels? What percentage of them are these… infiltrators?'
Kiria shrugged. 'Posing as Honored Matres, they formed an attack squadron and tried to retake Gammu by force. They had a very complex and detailed plan, striking at vulnerabilities, and they rallied a great many of the rebel women to their cause. Fortunately, we found the viper's nest and struck. The Valkyries would have killed them either way, whether they were Face Dancers or whores.'
One of the other women added, 'Ironically, the Honored Matres who followed them were just as surprised as we were when their leaders turned into… this.'
She gestured toward the inhuman cadaver. 'Even they did not know they had been infiltrated.'
The third Sister said, 'Regimental Commandant Idaho has placed the whole planet under quarantine, subject to your further orders.'
Murbella kept herself from voicing the obvious security nightmare: If that many Face Dancers have infiltrated the rebel whores on Gammu, do we have any among us here on Chapterhouse? They had brought so many candidates for retraining. Her policy had been to absorb as many former Honored Matres as were willing to undergo the Sisterhood's instruction, their loyalty monitored by strict Truthsayers. After her capture on Gammu, their leader Niyela had killed herself rather than be converted. But what about the ones who claimed to cooperate?
Uneasily, Murbella studied the three women, trying to detect whether they were shape-shifters, too. But if that were true, why would they raise the suspicion in the first place?
Sensing the Mother Commander's suspicions, Kiria looked at her companions.
'These are not Face Dancers. Nor am I.'
'Isn't that exactly what a Face Dancer would say? I do not find your assurances terribly convincing.'
'We would submit to Truthsayer interrogation,' one of the other two said, 'but you already know that is no longer reliable.'
Kiria pointed out, 'In pitched battle we noticed a strange thing. While some of the Face Dancers died quickly from their wounds, others did not. In fact, when two were on the verge of death, their features began to change prematurely.'
'So, if we brought a subject to the verge of death, a Face Dancer would reveal itself?' Murbella sounded skeptical.
'Precisely.'
With a sudden movement, Murbella flung herself at Kiria and hit her with a hard kick to the temple. The Mother Commander placed the blow precisely, shifting her foot a fraction of a centimeter from what would have been fatal.
Kiria fell to the floor like a stone. Her companions did not move.
On her back, Kiria gasped for breath, her eyes glazed. In a blur of motion, before they could run, Murbella felled the other two in the same manner, rendering them all helpless.
She loomed over the trio, ready to deliver the killing blows. But except for contortions of pain, their features did not change. In contrast, the ghoulish face of the dead shape-shifter was unmistakable in its preservation wrappings.
The Mother Commander tended to Kiria first, using Bene Gesserit healing holds to calm the victim's breathing. Then she massaged the woman's injured temple, her fingers finding the exact pressure points. The former Honored Matre responded quickly, and finally managed to sit up on her own.
