AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Leto translated into Galach as he quoted: "The nightingale nests in the plum tree, but what will she do with the wind?"
"Is that a question, Lord?"
"An old question. The answer is simple. Let the nightingale keep to her flowers."
"I don't understand, Lord."
"Stop mouthing the obvious, Moneo. It disturbs me when you do that."
"Forgive me, Lord."
"What else can I do?" Leto studied Moneo's downcast features. "You and I, Moneo, whatever else we do, we provide good theater."
Moneo peered at Leto's face. "Lord?"
"The rites of the religious festival of Bacchus were the seeds of Greek theater, Moneo. Religion often leads to theater. They will have fine theater out of us." Once more, Leto turned and looked at the southwest horizon.
There was a wind there now piling up the clouds. Leto thought he could hear driven sand blustering along the dunes, but there was only resonant quiet in the tower aerie, a quiet with the faintest of wind hiss behind it.
"The clouds," he whispered. "I would take a cup of moonlight once more, an ancient sea barge at my feet, thin clouds clinging to my darkling sky, the blue-gray cloak around my shoulders and horses neighing nearby."
"My Lord is troubled," Moneo said. The compassion in his voice wrenched at Leto.
"The bright shadows of my pasts," Leto said. "They never leave me in peace. I listened for a soothing sound, the bell of a country town at nightfall, and it told me only that I am the sound and soul of this place."
As he spoke, darkness enclosed the tower. Automatic lights came on around them. Leto kept his attention directed outward where a thin melon slice of First Moon drifted above the clouds with orange planet-light revealing the satellite's full circle.
"Lord, why have we come out here?" Moneo asked. "Why won't you tell me?"
"I wanted the benefit of your surprise," Leto said. "A Guild lighter will land beside us out here soon. My Fish Speakers bring Malky to me."
Moneo inhaled a quick breath and held it a moment before exhaling. "Hwi's ... uncle? That Malky?"
"You are surprised that you had no warning of this," Leto said.
Moneo felt a chill all through his body. "Lord, when you wish to keep things secret from ..."
"Moneo?" Leto spoke in a softly persuasive tone. "I know that Malky offered you greater temptations than any other ..."
"Lord! I never ..."
"I know that, Moneo." Still in that soft tone. "But surprise has shocked your memories alive. You are armed for anything I may require of you."
"What ... what does my Lord ..."
"Perhaps we will have to dispose of Malky. He is a problem."
"Me? You want me to ..."
"Perhaps."
Moneo swallowed, then, "The Reverend Mother ..."
"Anteac is dead. She served me well, but she is dead. There was extreme violence when my Fish Speakers attacked the ... place where Malky lay hidden."
"We are better off without Anteac," Moneo said.
"I appreciate your distrust of the Bene Gesserit, but I would that Anteac had left us in another way. She was faithful to us, Moneo."
"A Reverend Mother was ..."
"Both the Bene Tleilax and the Guild wanted Malky's secret," Leto said. "When they saw us move against the Ixians, they struck ahead of my Fish Speakers. Anteac ... well, she could only delay them a bit, but it was enough. My Fish Speakers invested the place ..."
"Malky's secret, Lord?"
"When a thing vanishes," Leto said, "that is as much of a message as when a thing suddenly appears. The empty spaces are always worthy of our study."
"What does my Lord mean, empty ..."
"Malky did not die! Certainly I would have known that. Where did he go when he vanished?"
"Vanished ... from you, Lord? Do you mean that the Ixians ..."
"They have improved upon a device they gave me long ago. They improved it slowly and subtly, hidden shells within hidden shells, but I noted the shadows. I was surprised. I was pleased."
Moneo thought about this. A device which concealed ... Ahhhh! The God Emperor had mentioned a thing on several occasions, a way of concealing the thoughts he recorded. Moneo spoke:
"And Malky brings the secret of ..."
"Oh, yes! But that is not Malky's real secret. He holds another thing in his bosom which he does not think that I suspect."
"Another ... but, Lord, if they can hide even from you ..."
"Many can do that now, Moneo. They scattered when my Fish Speakers attacked. The secret of the Ixian device is spread far and wide."
Moneo's eyes went wide with alarm. "Lord, if anyone ..."
"If they learn to be clever, they will leave no tracks," Leto said. "Tell me, Moneo, what does Nayla say about the Duncan? Does she resent reporting directly to you?"
"Whatever my Lord commands ..." Moneo cleared his throat. He could not fathom why his God Emperor spoke of hidden tracks, the Duncan and Nayla in the same breath.
"Yes, of course," Leto said. "Whatever I command, Nayla obeys. And what does she say of the Duncan?"
"He has not tried to breed with Siona, if that is my Lord's ..."
"But what does he do with my puppet Naib, Garun, and the other Museum Fremen?"
"He speaks to them of the old ways, of the wars against the Harkonnens, of the first Atreides here on Arrakis."
"On Dune!"
"Dune, yes."
"It's because there's no more Dune that there are no more Fremen," Leto said. "Have you conveyed my message to Nayla?"
"Lord, why do you add to your peril?"
"Did you convey my message?"
"The messenger has been sent to Tuono, but I could still call her back."
"You will not call her back!"
"But, Lord ..."
"What will she say to Nayla?"
"That ... that it is your command for Nayla to continue in absolute and unquestioning obedience of my daughter except insofar ... Lord! This is dangerous!"
"Dangerous? Nayla is a Fish Speaker. She will obey me."
"But Siona ... Lord, I fear that my daughter does not serve you with all of her heart. And Nayla is ..."
"Nayla must not deviate."
"Lord, let us hold your wedding in some other place."
"No!"
"Lord, I know that your vision has revealed ..."
"The Golden Path endures, Moneo. You know that as well as I."
Moneo sighed. "Infinity is yours, Lord. I do not question the ..." He broke off as a monstrous shuddering roar shook the tower, louder and louder.
Both of them turned toward the sound--a descending plume of blue-orange light filled with swirling shockwaves came down to the desert less than a kilometer away to the south.
"Ahhh, my guest arrives," Leto said. "I will send you down on my cart, Moneo. Bring only Malky back with you. Tell the Guildsmen this has earned my forgiveness, then send them away."
"Your for ... yes, Lord. But if they have the secret of ..."
"They serve my purpose, Moneo. You must do the same. Bring Malky to me."
Obediently, Moneo went to the cart which lay in shadows at the far side of the aerie chamber. He clambered on it, watched a mouth of night appear in the Wall. A landing-lip extruded into that night. The cart drifted outward, feather-light, and floated at an angle to the sand beside a Guild lighter which stood upright like a distorted miniature of the Little Citadel's tower.
Leto watched from the balcony, his front segments lifted slightly to provide him a better viewing angle. His acute eyesight identified the white movement of Moneo standing on the cart in the moonlight. Long-legged Guild servitors came out with a litter which they slid onto the cart, standing there a moment in conversation with Moneo. When they left, Leto closed the cart's bubble cover and saw moonlight reflected from it. At his beckoning thought, the cart and its burden returned to the landing-lip. The Guild lighter lifted in its noisy rumbling while Leto was bringing the cart into the chamber's l
ights, closing the entrance behind it. Leto opened the bubble cover. Sand grated beneath him as he rolled to the litter and lifted his front segments to peer in at Malky who lay as though sleeping, lashed into the litter by broad gray elastic bindings. The man's face was ashen under dark gray hair.
How he has aged, Leto thought.
Moneo stepped down off the cart and looked back at the litter's occupant. "He is injured, Lord. They want to send a medical ..."
"They wanted to send a spy."
Leto studied Malky--the dark wrinkled skin, the sunken cheeks, that sharp nose at such contrast with the rounded oval of his face. The heavy eyebrows had turned almost white. There but for a lifetime of testosterone ... yes.
Malky's eyes opened. Such a shock to find evil in those doe-like brown eyes! A smile twitched Malky's mouth.
"Lord Leto." Malky's voice was little more than a husky whisper. His eyes turned right, focusing on the majordomo. "And Moneo. Forgive me for not rising to the occasion."
"Are you in pain?" Leto asked.
"Sometimes." Malky's eyes moved to study his surroundings. "Where are the houris?"
