It was double-edged like a kindjal and the blade was perhaps twenty centimeters long. The blade seemed to shine and glitter with a light of its own. She took sheath in one hand and handle in the other, withdrew a milk-white blade, held it up. A black handle with deep finger ridges protruded from it. Slowly, Mapes reached into the neck of her dress, brought out a dark sheath. Now we see which way the decision tips, she thought. 'Do you know this, my Lady?' Mapes asked. 'Why, you know, my Lady, I don't even have to wear my stillsuit here?' She cackled. The cistern here holds fifty thousand liters and it's always kept full.' She glanced down at her dress. But you've no need to interest yourself in such as they. In a low voice, Mapes said: 'I meant no offense, my Lady.' There are worse things than dying, you know - even for an entire people.' 'There's a remote possibility you could draw my life's blood,' Jessica said, 'but in so doing you'd bring down more ruin than your wildest fears could imagine. It was repeated: 'Soo-soo-Sook' Then: 'Ikhut-eigh' And again: 'Soo-soo-Sook' Delay is as dangerous as the wrong answer.Ī weird cry sounded from the road outside the house.

She's called the Shadow in the Chakobsa tongue. My answer could precipitate violence orwhat? She seeks an answer from me: the meaning of a knife.

Here's the reason this Fremen has taken service with me, to ask that one question. 'The weapon was sent as a gift to you should you prove to be the One.'Īnd Jessica thought: There was an edge to that question.

Still, she found the thought unsettling that water was a major mark of wealth here. But bringing order of the confusion in the castle was more imperative. Jessica hesitated, wanting to question this Fremen woman, needing data to guide her. She waited in the seeming relaxation that made the Bene Gesserit-trained so terrifying in combat. 'And as the means of my death should I prove otherwise,' Jessica said. And Jessica wondered: Why do I play out this sham? But the Bene Gesserit ways were devious and compelling.

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