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"Indeed it is," Kynes said.
The stillsuit manufacturer pulled his companion gently back. She looked at him, said: "I do believe I'll eat something now. I'd like some of that bird dish you served earlier."
Jessica signaled a servant, turned to the banker: "And you, sir, were speaking of birds earlier and of their habits. I find so many interesting things about Arrakis. Tell me, where is the spice found? Do the hunters go deep into the desert?"
"Oh, no, my Lady," he said. "Very little's known of the deep desert. And almost nothing of the southern regions."
"There's a tale that a great Mother Lode of spice is to be found in the southern reaches," Kynes said, "but I suspect it was an imaginative invention made solely for purposes of a song. Some daring spice hunters do, on occasion, penetrate into the edge of the central belt, but that's extremely dangerous—navigation is uncertain, storms are frequent. Casualties increase dramatically the farther you operate from Shield Wall bases. It hasn't been found profitable to venture too far south. Perhaps if we had a weather satellite..."
Bewt looked up, spoke around a mouthful of food: "It's said the Fremen travel there, that they go anywhere and have hunted out soaks and sip-wells even in the southern latitudes."
"Soaks and sip-wells?" Jessica asked.
Kynes spoke quickly: "Wild rumors, my Lady. These are known on other planets, not on Arrakis. A soak is a place where water seeps to the surface or near enough to the surface to be found by digging according to certain signs. A sip-well is a form of soak where a person draws water through a straw... so it is said."
There's deception in his words , Jessica thought.
Why is he lying? Paul wondered.
"How very interesting," Jessica said. And she thought. "It is said..." What a curious speech ma
"I've heard you have a saying," Paul said, "that polish comes from the cities, wisdom from the desert."
"There are many sayings on Arrakis," Kynes said.
Before Jessica could frame a new question, a servant bent over her with a note. She opened it, saw the Duke's handwriting and code signs, sca
"You'll all be delighted to know," she said, "that our Duke sends his reassurances. The matter which called him away has been settled. The missing carryall has been found. A Harko
The smuggler nodded back.
Jessica refolded the note, tucked it into her sleeve.
"I'm glad it didn't come to open battle," the banker said. "The people have such hopes the Atreides will bring peace and prosperity."
"Especially prosperity," Bewt said.
"Shall we have our dessert now?" Jessica asked. "I've had our chef prepare a Caladan sweet: pongi rice in sauce dolsa."
"It sounds wonderful," the stillsuit manufacturer said. "Would it be possible to get the recipe?"
"Any recipe you desire," Jessica said, registering the man for later mention to Hawat. The stillsuit manufacturer was a fearful little climber and could be bought.
Small talk resumed around her: "Such a lovely fabric..." "He is having a setting made to match the jewel..." "We might try for a production increase next quarter..."
Jessica stared down at her plate, thinking of the coded part of Leto's message: "The Harko
Jessica focused her mind on lasguns, wondering. The white-hot beams of disruptive light could cut through any known substance, provided that substance was not shielded. The fact that feedback from a shield would explode both lasgun and shield did not bother the Harko
The unknowns here filled her with uneasiness.
Paul said: "I never doubted we'd find the carryall. Once my father moves to solve a problem, he solves it. This is a fact the Harko
He's boasting , Jessica thought. He shouldn't boast. No person who'll be sleeping far below ground level this night as a precaution against lasguns has the right to boast .
***
"There is no escape — we pay for the violence of our ancestors."
Jessica heard the disturbance in the great hall, turned on the light beside her bed. The clock there had not been properly adjusted to local time, and she had to subtract twenty-one minutes to determine that it was about 2 A.M.
The disturbance was loud and incoherent.
Is this the Harko
She slipped out of bed, checked the screen monitors to see where her family was. The screen showed Paul asleep in the deep cellar room they'd hastily converted to a bedroom for him. The noise obviously wasn't penetrating to his quarters. There was no one in the Duke's room, his bed was unrumpled. Was he still at the field C.P.?
There were no screens yet to the front of the house.
Jessica stood in the middle of her room, listening.
There was one shouting, incoherent voice. She heard someone call for Dr. Yueh. Jessica found a robe, pulled it over her shoulders, pushed her feet into slippers, strapped the crysknife to her leg.
Again, a voice called out for Yueh.
Jessica belted the robe around her, stepped into the hallway. Then the thought struck her: What if Leto's hurt?
The hall seemed to stretch out forever under her ru
To her right near the front entry, she saw two house guards holding Duncan Idaho between them. His head lolled forward, and there was an abrupt, panting silence to the scene.
One of the house guards spoke accusingly to Idaho : "You see what you did? You woke the Lady Jessica."
The great draperies billowed behind the men, showing that the front door remained open. There was no sign of the Duke or Yueh. Mapes stood to one side staring coldly at Idaho . She wore a long brown robe with serpentine design at the hem. Her feet were pushed into unlaced desert boots.
"So I woke the Lady Jessica," Idaho muttered. He lifted his face toward the ceiling, bellowed: "My sword was firs' blooded on Grumman!"
Great Mother! He's drunk! Jessica thought.
Idaho 's dark, round face was drawn into a frown. His hair, curling like the fur of a black goat, was plastered with dirt. A jagged rent in his tunic exposed an expanse of the dress shirt he had worn at the di
Jessica crossed to him.
One of the guards nodded to her without releasing his hold on Idaho . "We didn't know what to do with him, my Lady. He was creating a disturbance out front, refusing to come inside. We were afraid locals might come along and see him. That wouldn't do at all. Give us a bad name here."
"Where has he been?" Jessica asked.
"He escorted one of the young ladies home from the di
"Which young lady?"
"One of the escort wenches. You understand, my Lady?" He glanced at Mapes, lowered his voice. "They're always calling on Idaho for special surveillance of the ladies."