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"I hear, Princess."
"I want you to embrace this Muad'Dib religion," she said.
"Princess, I would walk into fire for you, but this ..."
"That is an order, Tyekanik!"
He swallowed, stared into the screen. The Laza tigers had finished feeding and now lay on the sand completing their toilet, long tongues moving across their forepaws.
"An order, Tyekanik--do you understand me?"
"I hear and obey, Princess." His voice did not change tone.
She sighed. "Ohh, if my father were only alive ..."
"Yes, Princess."
"Don't mock me, Tyekanik. I know how distasteful this is to you. But if you set the example ..."
"He may not follow, Princess."
"He'll follow." She pointed at the screen. "It occurs to me that the Levenbrech out there could be a problem."
"A problem? How is that?"
"How many people know this thing of the tigers?"
"That Levenbrech who is their trainer ... one transport pilot, you, and of course ..." He tapped his own chest.
"What about the buyers?"
"They know nothing. What is it you fear, Princess?"
"My son is, well, sensitive."
"Sardaukar do not reveal secrets," he said.
"Neither do dead men." She reached forward and depressed a red key beneath the lighted screen.
Immediately the Laza tigers raised their heads. They got to their feet and looked up the hill at the Levenbrech. Moving as one, they turned and began a scrambling run up the hillside.
Appearing calm at first, the Levenbrech depressed a key on his console. His movements were assured but, as the cats continued their dash toward him, he became more frenzied, pressing the key harder and harder. A look of startled awareness came over his features and his hand jerked toward the working knife at his waist. The movement came too late. A raking claw hit his chest and sent him sprawling. As he fell, the other tiger took his neck in one great-fanged bite and shook him. His spine snapped.
"Attention to detail," the Princess said. She turned, stiffened as Tyekanik drew his knife. But he presented the blade to her, handle foremost.
"Perhaps you'd like to use my knife to attend to another detail," he said.
"Put that back in its sheath and don't act the fool!" she raged. "Sometimes, Tyekanik, you try me to the--"
"That was a good man out there, Princess. One of my best."
"One of my best," she corrected him.
He drew a deep, trembling breath, sheathed his knife. "And what of my transport pilot?"
"This will be ascribed to an accident," she said. "You will advise him to employ the utmost caution when he brings those tigers back to us. And of course, when he has delivered our pets to Javid's people on the transport ..." She looked at his knife.
"Is that an order, Princess?"
"It is."
"Shall I, then, fall on my knife, or will you take care of that, ahhh, detail? "
She spoke with a false calm, her voice heavy: "Tyekanik, were I not absolutely convinced that you would fall on your knife at my command, you would not be standing here beside me--armed."
He swallowed, stared at the screen. The tigers once more were feeding.
She refused to look at the scene, continued to stare at Tyekanik as she said: "You will, as well, tell our buyers not to bring us any more matched pairs of children who fit the necessary description."
"As you command, Princess."
"Don't use that tone with me, Tyekanik."
"Yes, Princess."
Her lips drew into a straight line. Then: "How many more of those paired costumes do we have?"
"Six sets of
the robes, complete with stillsuits and the sand shoes, all with the Atreides insignia worked into them."
"Fabrics as rich as the ones on that pair?" she nodded toward the screen.
"Fit for royalty, Princess."
"Attention to detail," she said. "The garments will be dispatched to Arrakis as gifts for our royal cousins. They will be gifts from my son, do you understand me, Tyekanik?"
"Completely, Princess."
"Have him inscribe a suitable note. It should say that he sends these few paltry garments as tokens of his devotion to House Atreides. Something on that order."
"And the occasion?"
"There must be a birthday or holy day or something, Tyekanik. I leave that to you. I trust you, my friend."
He stared at her silently.
Her face hardened. "Surely you must know that? Who else can I trust since the death of my husband?"
He shrugged, thinking how closely she emulated the spider. It would not do to get on intimate terms with her, as he now suspected his Levenbrech had done.
