The Winds of Dune - By Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson Page 0,1

service had shaped him into one of House Atreides’s greatest assets.

She lowered herself into the chair that her beloved Duke Leto had once used. While scurrying castle servants prepared for the emissary and his entourage, the director of the kitchen staff asked Jessica about appropriate refreshments. She answered in a cool tone, “Just water. Serve them water.”

“Nothing else, my Lady? Is that not an insult to such an important personage?”

Gurney chuckled. “They’re from Dune. They’ll consider it an honor.”

The foyer’s oaken castle doors were flung open to the damp breeze, and the honor guard marched in with a great commotion. Fifteen men, former soldiers from Paul’s Jihad, carried green banners with highlights of black or white. The members of this unruly entourage wore imitation stillsuits as if they were uniforms, though stillsuits were completely unnecessary in Caladan’s moist air. Glistening droplets covered the group from the light drizzle that had begun to fall outside; the visitors seemed to consider it a sign from God.

The front ranks of the entourage shifted aside so that a Qizara, a yellow-robed priest of the Jihad, could step forward. The priest lowered his damp hood to show his bald scalp, and his eyes glittered with awe, completely blue from addiction to the spice melange. “I am Isbar, and I present myself to the mother of Muad’Dib.” He bowed, then continued the bow all the way to the floor until he had prostrated himself.

“Enough of this. Everyone here knows who I am.”

Even when Isbar stood, he kept his head bowed and his eyes averted. “Seeing the bounty of water on Caladan, we more fully understand Muad’Dib’s sacrifice in coming to Dune as the savior of the Fremen.”

Jessica’s voice had enough of an edge to show that she did not wish to waste time on ceremony. “You have come a long way. What is the urgency this time?”

Isbar seemed to wrestle with his message as if it were a living thing, and Jessica sensed the depth of his dread. The members of the honor guard remained silent as statues.

“Out with it, man!” Gurney ordered.

The priest blurted, “Muad’Dib is dead, my Lady. Your son has gone to Shai-Hulud.”

Jessica felt as though she had been struck with a cudgel.

Gurney groaned. “Oh no. No . . . not Paul!”

Isbar continued, anxious to purge himself of his words. “Forsaking his rule, the holy Muad’Dib walked out into the desert and vanished into the sands.”

It took all of Jessica’s Bene Gesserit training to erect a thick wall around herself, to give herself time to think. The shutdown of her emotions was automatic, ingrained. She forced herself not to cry out, kept her voice quiet and steady. “Tell me everything, priest.”

The Qizara’s words stung like sand pellets blown by a harsh wind. “You know of the recent plot by traitors among his own Fedaykin. Even though blinded by a stone-burner, the blessed Muad’Dib viewed the world with divine eyes, not the artificial Tleilaxu ones that he purchased for his injured soldiers.”

Yes, Jessica knew all of that. Because of her son’s dangerous decisions, and backlash from the Jihad, he’d always faced the very real threat of assassination. “But Paul survived the plot that blinded him. Was there another one?”

“An extension of the same conspiracy, Great Lady. A Guild Steersman was implicated, as well as the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam.” He added, as an afterthought, “By order of the Imperial Regent Alia, both have now been executed along with Korba the Panegyrist, architect of the cabal against your son.”

Too many facts clamored at her at once. Mohiam, executed? That news shook her to the core. Jessica’s relationship with the old Reverend Mother had been tumultuous, love and hate cycling like the tides.

Alia . . . Regent now? Not Irulan? Of course, it was appropriate. But if Alia was the ruler . . . “What of Chani, my son’s beloved? What of Princess Irulan, his wife?”

“Irulan has been imprisoned in Arrakeen until her involvement in the plot can be measured. Regent Alia would not allow her to be executed with the others, but it is known that Irulan associated with the traitors.” The priest swallowed hard. “As for Chani . . . she did not survive the birth of the twins.”

“Twins?” Jessica shot to her feet. “I have grandchildren?”

“A boy and a girl. Paul’s children are healthy, and—”

Her calm façade slipped dangerously. “You did not think to inform me of this immediately?” She struggled to organize her thoughts. “Tell me all that I need to