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.On immediate reflection, the sensation of-fury itself fascinated Leto.It hadbeen so long since he had felt even mild anger.Frustration, irritation-thesehad been his limits.But now, at a threat to Hwi Noree, fury!Reflection caused him to modify his initial command, but not before some FishSpeakers had raced from the Royal Presence, their most violent desires releasedby what they had seen in their Lord."God is furious!" some of them shouted.The second blast caught some of the Fish Speakers emerging into the plaza,limiting the spread of Leto's modified command and igniting more violence.Thethird explosion, located near the first one, sent Leto himself into action.Hepropelled his cart like a berserk juggernaut out of his resting chamber into theIxian lift and surged to the surface.Leto emerged at the edge of the plaza to find a scene of chaos lighted bythousands of free-floating glowglobes released by his Fish Speakers.The centralstage of the plaza had been shattered, leaving only the plasteel base intactbeneath the paved surface.Broken pieces of masonry lay all around, mixed withdead and wounded.In the direction of the Ixian Embassy, directly across the plaza from him, therewas a wild surging of combat."Where is my Duncan?" Leto bellowed.A guard bashar came racing across the plaza to his side where she reportedthrough panting breaths: "We have taken him to the Citadel, Lord!""What is happening over there?" Leto demanded, pointing at the battle outsidethe Ixian Embassy."The rebels and the Tleilaxu are attacking the Ixian Embassy, Lord.They haveexplosives."Even as she spoke, another blast erupted in front of the Embassy's shatteredfacade.He saw bodies twisting in the air, arching outward and falling at theperimeter of a bright flash which left an orange afterimage, studded with blackdots. With no thought of consequences, Leto shifted his cart onto suspensors and sentit bulleting across the plaza-a hurtling behemoth which sucked glowglobes intoits wake.At the battle's edge, he arched over his own defenders and plungedinto the attackers' flank, aware only then of lasguns which sent livid blue arcsleaping toward him.He felt his cart thudding into flesh, scattering bodies allaround.The cart spilled him directly in front of the Embassy, rolling him off onto ahard surface as it struck the rubble there.He felt lasgun beams tickle hisribbed body, then the inner surge of heat followed by a venting belch of oxygenat his tail.Instinct tucked his face deep into its cowl and folded his armsinto the protective depths of his front segment.The worm-body took over,arching and flailing, rolling like an insane wheel, lashing out on all sides.Blood lubricated the street.Blood was buffered water to hisbody, but death released the water.His flailing body slipped and slithered init, the water igniting blue smoke from every flexion place where it slippedthrough the sandtrout skin.This filled him with water-agony which ignited moreviolence in the great flailing body.At Leto's first lashing out, the Fish Speaker perimeter fell back.An alertbashar saw the opportunity now presented.She shouted above the battle noise:"Pick off the stragglers!"The ranks of guardian women rushed forward.It was bloody play among the Fish Speakers for a few minutes, blades thrustingin the merciless light of the glowglobes, the dancing of lasgun arcs, even handschopping and toes digging into vulnerable flesh.The Fish Speakers left nosurvivors.Leto rolled beyond the Bloody mush in front of the Embassy, barely able to thinkthrough the waves of water-agony.The air was heavy with oxygen all around himand this helped his human senses.He summoned his cart and it drifted towardhim, tipping perilously on damaged suspensors.Slowly, he wriggled onto thetipping cart and gave it the mental command to return to his quarters beneaththe plaza.Long ago, he had prepared himself against water-damage room where blasts ofsuperheated dry air would cleanse and restore him.Sand would serve but therewas no place in t e confines of Onn for the necessary expanse of sand in whichhe might heat and rasp his surface to its normal purity.In the lift, he thought of Hwi and sent a message to have her brought down tohim immediately.If she survived.He had no time now to make a prescient search; he could only hope while hisbody, both pre-worm and human, longed for the cleansing heat.Once into the cleansing room, he thought to reaffirm hismodified command= "Save some of the Face Dancers!" Butby then the maddened Fish Speakers were spreading out through the City and he had not the strength to make a prescient sweepwhich would send his messengers to the proper meeting points.A Guard captain brought him word as he was emerging from the cleansing room thatHwi Noree, although slightly wounded, was safe and would be brought to him assoon as the local commander thought it prudent.Leto promoted the Guard captain to sub-bashar on the spot.She was a heavyset Nayla-type but without Nayla's square face-features morerounded and closer to the older norms.She trembled in the warmth of her Lord'sapproval and, when he told her to return and "make doubly certain" no more harmcame to Hwi, she whirled and dashed from his presence.didn't even ask her name, Leto thought, as he rolled himself onto the new cartin the depression of his small audience room.It took a few moments ofreflection to recall the new sub-bashar's name-Kieuemo.The promotion would haveto be reaffirmed.He lodged a mental reminder to do this personally.The FishSpeakers, all of them, would have to learn immediately how much he valued HwiNoree.Not that there could be much doubt after tonight.He made his prescient scan then and dispatched messengers to his rampaging FishSpeakers.By then the damage had been done-corpses all over Onn, some FaceDancers and some only-suspected Face Dancers.And many have seen me kill, he thought.While he waited for Hwi's arrival, he reviewed what had just happened.This hadnot been a typical Tleilaxu attack, but the previous attack on the road to Onnfitted into a new pattern, all of it pointing at a single mind with lethalpurpose.I could have died out there, he thought.That began to explain why he had not anticipated this attack, but there was adeeper reason.Leto could see that reason rising into his awareness, a summationof all the clues.What human knew the God Emperor best? What human possessed asecret place from which to conspire?Malky!Leto summoned a guard and told her to ask if the Reverend Mother Anteac had yetleft Arrakis.The guard returned in a moment to report."Anteac is still in her quarters.The Commander of the Fish Speaker Guard theresays they have not come under attack.""Send word to Anteac," Leto said."Ask if she now understands why I put herdelegation in quarters at a distance from me? Then tell her that while she is onIx she must locate Malky.She is to report that location to our local garrisonon Ix.""Malky, the former Ixian Ambassador?" "The same.He is not to remain alive and free.You will inform our garrisoncommander on Ix that she is to make close liaison with Anteac, providing everynecessary assistance.Malky is to be brought here to me or executed, whichever our commander findsnecessary."The guard-messenger nodded, shadows lurching across her features where she stoodin the ring of light around Leto's face.She did not ask for a repetition of theorders.Each of his close guards had been trained as a human-recorder.Theycould repeat Leto's words exactly, even the intonations, and would never forgetwhat they had heard him say [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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