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The women below the ledge opened a path, pressing backward. The path opened deeper into the throng like a fissure spreading through the earth after some tremendous natural upheaval.
"Duncan, you will precede me," Leto said.
Idaho swallowed in a dry throat. He put a palm on the lip of the ledge and dropped down into the open space, moving out into the fissure because he knew only that could end this trial.
A quick glance backward showed him Leto's cart drifting majestically down on its suspensors.
Idaho turned and quickened his pace.
The women narrowed the path through their ranks. It was done in an odd stillness, with fixity of attention-first on Idaho and then on that gross pre-worm body riding behind Idaho on the Ixian cart.
As Idaho marched stoically ahead, women reached from all sides to touch him, to touch Leto, or merely to touch the Royal Cart. Idaho felt the restrained passion in their touch and knew the deepest fear in his experience.
***
The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God?
Hwi NOREE followed a young Fish Speaker guide down a wide ramp which spiraled into the depths of O
Her first assistant, Othwi Yake, was not a pleasant mana sandy-haired creature with a long, narrow face and eyes which never looked long at anything and never ever looked directly into the eyes of someone he addressed. Yake had presented her with a single sheet of memerase paper containing what he described as "a summation of recently reported violence in the Festival City."
Standing close to the desk at which she was seated, he had stared down somewhere to her left and said: "Fish Speakers are slaughtering Face Dancers throughout the City." He did not appear particularly moved by this.
"Why?" she demanded.
"It is said that the Bene Tleilax made an attempt on the God Emperor's life."
A thrill of fear shot through her. She sat back and glanced around the ambassadorial office-around room with a single half-circle desk which concealed the controls for many Ixian devices beneath its highly polished surface. The room was a darkly important-appearing place with brown wood panels covering instruments which shielded it from spying. There were no windows.
Trying not to show her upset, Hwi looked up at Yake. "And the Lord Leto is..."
"The attempt on his life appears to have been totally without effect. But it might explain that flogging."
"Then you think there was such an attempt?"
"Yes."
The Fish Speaker from the Lord Leto entered at that moment, hard on the a
"He told me to remind you: 'Return quickly if I summon you.' He summons you."
Yake began fidgeting as the Fish Speaker spoke. He darted his attention all around the room as though looking for something which was not there. Hwi paused only to pull a dark blue robe over her gown, instructing Yake to remain in the office until she returned.
In orange evening light outside the Embassy, on a street oddly empty of other traffic, Anteac looked at the Fish Speaker and said simply: "Yes." Anteac left them then and the Fish Speaker had brought Hwi through empty streets to a tall, windowless building whose depths contained this down-plunging spiral ramp.
The tight curves of the ramp made Hwi dizzy. Brilliant tiny white glowglobes drifted in the central well, illuminating a purple-green vine with elephantine leaves. The vine was suspended on shimmering golden wires.
The soft black surface of the ramp swallowed the sounds of their feet, making Hwi extremely conscious of the faint abrasive swishing caused by the movements of her robe.
"Where are you taking me?" Hwi asked.
"To the Lord Leto."
"I know, but where is he?"
"In his private room."
"It's awfully far down."
"Yes, the Lord often prefers the depths."
"It makes me dizzy walking around and around like this."
"It helps if you do not look at the vine."
"What is that plant?"
"It is called a Tunyon Vine and is supposed to have absolutely no smell."
"I've never heard of it. Where does it come from?"
"Only the Lord Leto knows."
They walked on in silence, Hwi trying to understand her own feelings. The God Emperor filled her with sadness. She could sense the man in him, the man who might have been.
Why had such a man chosen this course for his life? Did anyone know? Did Moneo know?
Perhaps Duncan Idaho knew.
Her thoughts gravitated to Idaho-such a physically attractive man. So intense! She could feel herself drawn to him. If only Leto had the body and appearance of Idaho. Moneo, though-that was another matter. She looked at the back of her Fish Speaker escort.
"Can you tell me about Moneo" Hwi asked.
The Fish Speaker glanced back over her shoulder, an odd expression in her pale blue eyes-apprehension or some bizarre form of awe.
"Is something wrong?" Hwi asked.
The Fish Speaker returned her attention to the downward spiral of the ramp.
"The Lord said you would ask about Moneo," she said.
"Then tell me about him."
"What is there to say? He is the Lord's closest confidant."
"Closer even than Duncan Idaho?"
"Oh, yes. Moneo is an Atreides."
"Moneo came to me yesterday," Hwi said. "He said I should know something about the God Emperor. Moneo said the God Emperor is capable of doing anything, anything at all if it is thought to be instructive."
"Many believe this," the Fish Speaker said.
"You do not believe it'?"
Hwi asked the question as the ramp rounded a final turn and opened into a small anteroom with an arched entrance only a few steps away.
"The Lord Leto will receive you immediately," the Fish Speaker said. She turned back up the ramp then without speaking of her own belief.
Hwi stepped through the arch and found herself in a low-ceilinged room. It was much smaller than the audience chamber. The air felt crisp and dry. Pale yellow light came from a concealed source at the upper corners. She allowed her eyes to adjust to the lowered illumination, noting carpets and soft cushions scattered around a low mound of... She put a hand to her mouth as the mound moved, realizing then that it was the Lord Leto on his cart, but the cart lay in a sunken area. She knew immediately why the room provided this feature. It made him less imposing to human guests, less overpowering by his physical elevation. Nothing could be done, however, about his length and the inescapable mass of his body except to keep them in shadows, throwing most of the light onto his face and hands.
"Come in and sit down," Leto said. He spoke in a low voice, pleasantly conversational.
Hwi crossed to a red cushion only a few meters in front of Leto's face and sat on it.
Leto watched her movements with obvious pleasure. She wore a dark golden gown and her hair was tied back in braids which made her face appear fresh and i
"I have sent your message to Ix," she said. "And I have told them that you wish to know my age."
"Perhaps they will answer," he said. "Their answer may even be truthful."
"I would like to know when I was born, all of the circumstances," she said, "but I don't know why this interests you."
"Everything about you interests me."
"They will not like it that you make me the permanent Ambassador."