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Moneo bowed. "Yes, Lord."
"And send for a new canopy to my cart!"
"As my Lord commands."
Leto backed his cart a few paces away, turned it and headed for the bridge,
calling back to Idaho. "Duncan, you will accompany me."
Slowly at first, reluctance heavy in every movement, Idaho left Moneo and the
others, then, increasing his pace, came up beside the cart's open bubble and
walked there while staring in at Leto.
"What troubles you, Duncan?" Leto asked.
"Do you really think of me as your Duncan?"
"Of course, just as you think of me as your Leto."
"Why didn't you know this attack was coming?"
"Through my vaunted prescience''"
"Yes!"
"The Face Dancers have not attracted my attention for a long time," Leto said.
"I presume that is changed now?"
"Not to any great degree."
"Why not'?"
"Because Moneo was correct. I will not let myself be distracted."
"Could they really have killed you there?"
"A distinct possibility. You know, Duncan, few understand what a disaster my end
will be."
"What're the Tleilaxu plotting?"
"A snare, I think. A lovely snare. They have sent me a signal, Duncan."
"What signal?"
"There is a new escalation in the desperate motives which drive some of my
subjects."
They left the bridge and began the climb to Leto's viewpoint. Idaho walked in a
fermenting silence.
At the top, Leto lifted his gaze over the far cliffs and looked at the barrens
of the Sareer.
The lamentations of those in his entourage who had lost loved ones continued at
the attack scene beyond the bridge. With his acute hearing, Leto could separate
Moneo's voice warning them that the time of mourning was necessarily short. They
had other loved ones at the Citadel and they well knew the God Emperor's wrath.
Their tears will be gone and smiles will be pasted on their faces by the time we
reach Onn, Leto thought. They think l spurn them! What does that really matter?
This is a flickering nuisance among the short-lived and the short- thoughted.
The view of the desert soothed him. He could not see the river in its canyon
from this point without turning completely around and looking toward the
Festival City. The Duncan remained mercifully silent beside the cart. Turning
his gaze slightly to the left, Leto could see an edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Against that glimpse of verdant landscape, his memory suddenly compressed the
Sareer into a tiny, weak remnant of the planet-wide desert which once had been
so mighty that all men feared it, even the wild Fremen who had roamed it.
It is the river, Leto thought. If I turn, I will .see the thing that I have
done.
The man-made chasm through which the Idaho River tumbled was only an extension
of the Gap which Paul Muad'Dib had blasted through the towering Shield Wall for
the passage of his worm mounted legions. Where water flowed now, Muad'Dib had
led his Fremen out of a Coriolis storm's dust into history . . . and into this.
Leto heard Moneo's familiar footsteps, the sounds of the majordomo laboring up
to the viewpoint. Moneo came up to stand beside Idaho and paused a moment to
catch his breath.
"How long until we can go on?" Idaho asked.
Moneo waved him to silence and addressed Leto. "Lord, we have had a message from
Onn. The Bene Gesserit send word that the Tleilaxu will attack before you reach
the bridge."
Idaho snorted. "Aren't they a little late?"
"It is not their fault," Moneo said. "The captain of the Fish Speaker Guard
would not believe them."
Other members of Leto's entourage began trickling onto the viewpoint level. Some
of them appeared drugged, still in shock. The Fish Speakers moved briskly among
them, commanding a show of good spirits.
"Remove the Guard from the Bene Gesserit Embassy." Leto said. "Send them a
message. Tell them that their audience will still be the last one, but they are
not to fear this. Tell them that the last will be first. They will know the
allusion."
"What about the Tleilaxu?" Idaho asked.
Leto kept his attention on Moneo. "Yes, the Tleilaxu. We will send them a
signal."
"Yes, Lord?"
"When I order it, and not until then, you will have the Tleilaxu Ambassador
publicly flogged and expelled."
"Lord!"
"You disagree?"
"If we are to keep this secret=" Moneo glanced over his
shoulder= "how will you explain the flogging?"
"We will not explain."
"We will give no reason at all?"
"No reason."
"But, Lord, the rumors and the stories that will . . ."
"I am reacting, Moneo! Let them sense the underground part of me which does
things without my knowing because it has not the wherewithal of knowing."
"This will cause great fear, Lord."
A gruff burst of laughter escaped Idaho. He stepped between Moneo and the cart.
"He does a kindness to this Ambassador! There've been rulers who would've killed
the fool over a slow fire."
Moneo tried to speak to Leto around Idaho's shoulder. "But. Lord, this action
will confirm for the Tleilaxu that you were attacked."
"They already know that," Leto said. "But they will not talk about it."
"And when none of the attackers return. . ." Idaho said.
"Do you understand, Moneo?" Leto asked. "When we
march into Onn apparently unscathed, the Tleilaxu will believe they have
suffered utter failure."
Moneo glanced around at the Fish Speakers and courtiers listening spellbound to
this conversation. Seldom had any of them heard such a revealing exchange
between the God Emperor and his most immediate aides.
"When will my Lord signal punishment of the Ambassador?" Moneo asked.
"During the audience."
Leto heard 'thopters coming, saw the glint of sunlight on their wings and rotors
and, when he focused intently, made out the fresh canopy for his cart slung
beneath one of them.
"Have this damaged canopy returned to the Citadel and restored," Leto said,
still peering at the approaching 'thopters. "If questions are asked, tell the
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