Hunters of Dune - Brian Herbert [109]
Little Leto II should have had his twin sister. The boy wasn’t destined to become a monster, but without Ghani this time, he could be even more vulnerable. One day, after watching the quiet boy, Duncan had marched up to Sheeana and demanded answers. Yes, Ghanima’s cells were in Scytale’s reservoir, but for whatever reason, the Bene Gesserits had not brought her from the new axlotl tanks. “Not at this time,” they’d said. Of course they could always do so later, but Leto II would remain separated in years from a person who should have been his twin, his other half. He felt sorry for the boy’s needless pain.
Drawn together by their shared past, as well as their own instincts, Paul and six-year-old Chani sat side by side. He hunkered down on the floor, studying the layout. A holo blueprint shimmered in the air, giving far more detail than he needed. He focused on the structural walls, the main parts of the complex that was the largest man-made structure ever built.
Duncan knew that Garimi’s assignment for the children had many layers of purpose, some artistic, some practical. By making a scaled-down replica of Muad’Dib’s Grand Palace, these gholas could touch history. “Tactile sensations and visual stimuli evoke a different understanding than mere words and archival records,” she had explained. Most of the eight gholas had been inside the actual structure in their previous lives; maybe this would feed their inner memories.
Though too small to help, Leto II could walk about clumsily and observe with fascination. Only a year earlier, Garimi and Stuka had tried to kill him in the crèche. Placid and interested, Leto II spoke little, but showed a frightening level of intelligence and seemed to absorb everything around him.
The toddler sat down on the sandy floor and rocked back and forth in front of the Palace’s projected main entrance, holding his knees. The two-year-old seemed to understand certain things as well as the other children did, perhaps even better.
Thufir Hawat, Stilgar, and Liet-Kynes worked together to raise the outer fortress walls. They laughed and played, seeing the task as a game instead of a lesson. Since reading of his original heroic life, Thufir had developed a bold personality. “I wish we’d just find the Enemy and get on with it. I’m sure the Bashar and Duncan could fight them.”
“And now they have us to help,” Stilgar said brashly and nudged his friend Liet, inadvertently knocking some of the blocks down.
Watching, Duncan muttered, “We don’t exactly have you—not the you we want.”
Jessica created more blocks from the sensiplaz, and Yueh dutifully helped her. Chani paced the boundaries, marking the general outline projected on the plan. Then she and Paul set up a scale representation of the huge Annex that had housed all the Atreides attendants and their families—thirty-five million of them, at one time! The records had not been exaggerated, but the scope was difficult for any person to grasp.
“I can’t imagine us living in a home like that,” Chani said, pacing around the newly marked boundaries.
“According to the Archives, we were happy there for many years.”
She smiled mischievously, understanding much more than a girl should have. “This time, can we just eliminate Irulan’s quarters?”
Secretly hearing this, even Duncan chuckled.
The cells of Irulan, daughter of Shaddam IV, were among those in Scytale’s treasure trove, but the med-center axlotl tanks would not produce her anytime soon. No other gholas were scheduled, though Duncan had mixed feelings to know that Alia would have been next. Garimi and her conservatives certainly hadn’t complained about putting a cautious halt to the ghola project.
Inside the model Palace, the children blocked out an independent structure, the Temple of St. Alia of the Knife. The temple