Dune_ House Atreides - Brian Herbert [235]
“Then what shall I do, m’Lord?” Duncan said. “Do I still need to tend the animals?”
Leto tried not to laugh. At his age the boy should be playing, doing a few chores, and filling his head with imaginings of the grand adventures that awaited him in life.
But when Leto looked into Duncan’s eyes, he saw that the person before him was far more than just a boy. He was much older inside. “You’ve eluded Harkonnens in their prison city, correct?”
Duncan nodded, biting his lower lip.
“You fought them in a forest preserve when you were only eight years of age. You killed several, and if I remember your story right, you cut a tracking device out of your own shoulder and laid a trap for Harkonnen hunters. You humiliated Glossu Rabban himself.”
Again Duncan nodded, not with pride, but simply confirming the summary of events.
“And you found your way across the Imperium, coming here to Caladan because this is where you wanted to be. Even the distance of several continents didn’t divert you from our doorstep.”
“All that is true, m’Lord Duke.”
Leto indicated the large ceremonial sword. “My father used that blade for training. It’s overlarge for you—at least for now, Duncan—but perhaps with some instruction, you could become a formidable fighter. A Duke is always in need of trustworthy guards and protectors.” He pursed his lips, considering. “Do you think you’re fit to be one of mine?”
The boy’s blue-green eyes shone and he grinned, crinkling his skin around the drying tracks of tears. “Will you send me to the weapon schools of Ginaz so I can become a swordmaster?”
“Ho, ho!” Leto gave a booming laugh that startled his own ears, because it sounded so much like his father’s. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Duncan Idaho. We’ll train you here to the limit of your abilities—then we’ll see if you’re good enough for such a reward.”
Duncan nodded solemnly. “I will be good enough.”
As Leto heard servants bustling by in the dining room, he raised a hand to signal them over. He would breakfast with this boy and chat some more.
“You can count on me, my Duke.”
Leto drew a long, deep breath. He wished he could share the unshakable confidence of this young man. “Yes, Duncan, I believe you.”
Innovations seem to have a life and a sentience of their own. When conditions are right, a radical new idea—a paradigm shift—may appear simultaneously from many minds at once. Or it may remain secret in the thoughts of one man for years, decades, centuries . . . until someone else thinks of the same thing. How many brilliant discoveries die stillborn, or lie dormant, never to be embraced by the Imperium as a whole?
—OMBUDSMEN OF RICHESE, Rebuttal to the Landsraad,
The True Domain of the Intellect—
Private Property, or Resources for the Galaxy?
The tube transport dropped its two passengers into the depths of Harkonnen Keep and then, with programmed precision, shot them across an access rail.
The capsule, with the Baron and Glossu Rabban inside, raced toward the swarming morass of Harko City, a smoky blot on the landscape where buildings crowded together. To the Baron’s knowledge, there was no detailed map of the city’s underworld, since it continued to grow like a fungus. He wasn’t sure exactly where they were going.
While scheming against the Atreides, he had insisted that Piter de Vries find extensive yet confidential laboratory space and fabrication facilities in the armpit of Harkonnen influence. The Mentat said he’d done so, and the Baron didn’t ask further questions. This tube transport, dispatched by de Vries, was taking them there.
“I want to know the whole plan, Uncle,” Rabban said, fidgeting next to him in the compartment. “Tell me what we’re going to do.”
Up front in the piloting cubicle, a deaf-mute vehicle specialist hurried them along. The Baron paid no attention to the dark and blocky buildings flashing by, the clouds of exhaust and residue spilling from the factories. Giedi Prime produced sufficient