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"The Museum Fremen understand nothing about the old ways. They are only good at going through the motions. This naturally bores them and their petitions always seek to introduce changes. That's what annoys me. I will not permit changes. Now, where did you learn of the supposed petition?"
"From the Fremen themselves," Moneo said. "A dele ..." He broke off, scowling.
"Were the members of the delegation known to you?"
"Of course, Lord. Otherwise I'd ..."
"They're dead," Idaho said.
Moneo looked at him, uncomprehending.
"The people you knew were killed and replaced by Face Dancer mimics," Idaho said.
"I have been remiss," Leto said. "I should've taught all of you how to detect Face Dancers. It will be corrected now that they grow foolishly bold."
"Why are they so bold?" Idaho asked.
"Perhaps to distract us from something else," Moneo said.
Leto smiled at Moneo. Under the stress of personal threat, the majordomo's mind worked well. He had failed his Lord by mistaking Face Dancer mimics for known Fremen. Now, Moneo felt that his continued service might depend upon those abilities for which the God Emperor had originally chosen him.
"And now we have time to prepare ourselves," Leto said.
"Distract us from what?" Idaho demanded.
"From another plot in which they participate," Leto said. "They think I will punish them severely for this, but the Tleilaxu core remains safe because of you, Duncan."
"They didn't intend to fail here," Idaho said.
"But it was a contingency for which they were prepared," Moneo said.
"They believe I will not destroy them because they hold the original cells of my Duncan Idaho," Leto said. "Do you understand, Duncan?"
"Are they right?" Idaho demanded.
"They approach being wrong," Leto said. He returned his attention to Moneo. "No sign of this event must go with us to Onn. Fresh uniforms, new guards to replace the dead and wounded ... everything just as it was."
"There are dead among your courtiers, Lord," Moneo said.
"Replace them!"
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 I 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."
