Hunters of Dune - Brian Herbert [78]
“Let this be an example that will long be remembered,” she said. “An enemy among us can cause damage as surely as the Enemy outside.”
ELEVEN YEARS AFTER
ESCAPE FROM CHAPTERHOUSE
Caladan: third planet of Delta Pavonis; birthworld of Paul Muad’Dib. The planet was later renamed Dan.
—Terminology of the Imperium (Revised)
W
hen the ghola of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen was seven years old, the Face Dancers commanded Uxtal to take him to the ocean world of Dan.
“Dan . . . Caladan. Why are we going there?” Uxtal asked. “Does this have something to do with the fact that it was once the homeworld of House Atreides, enemy of House Harkonnen?” In his joy to be going away from Matre Superior Hellica, the Lost Tleilaxu researcher found the courage to view the Face Dancer as his rescuer.
“We have found something there. Something that could allow us to use the resurrected Baron.” The Face Dancer escort raised a hand, stopping the question Uxtal was about to ask. “That is all you need to know.”
While he had prayed fervently for the day when he could relinquish the difficult ghola child, Uxtal now worried that Khrone might consider his usefulness to be at an end. Maybe the Face Dancers would come up behind him, place fingers over his eyes, and squeeze, as they’d done to Elder Burah. . . .
He hurried toward the shuttle that would take him and the brat away from Tleilax. He mumbled to himself, like a personal mantra: I am still alive. Still alive!
At least he would be away from Ingva and Hellica, the stench of sligs, and the screams of torture victims being wrung dry of their paininduced chemicals.
IN THE INTERVENING years, Hellica had continued to enjoy young Vladimir Harkonnen. They were birds of a feather. Uxtal found it chilling to hear the seven-year-old boy and the Matre Superior laugh together as they discussed people who didn’t deserve to live anymore, choosing victims for the torture laboratories.
The treacherous little boy reported constantly to the pretender queen, informing her of purported mistakes or indiscretions committed by laboratory assistants. Uxtal had lost many of his best helpers that way, and the scheming child fully comprehended the power he held. Uxtal could barely master his own terror in the ghola’s presence. Though only a child, Vladimir was nearly the same size as the diminutive Tleilaxu.
Unexpectedly, though, Uxtal had managed to endear himself to the ghola in a way that had the benefit of driving a wedge between the boy and Hellica. As a Tleilaxu, he had many personal habits that outsiders considered revolting, such as his proclivity to emit coarse bodily noises. Seeing the Baron’s delight in such grossness, Uxtal began to embellish his own habits around the child, which gave the two of them a peculiar bond.
Miffed at Vladimir’s fickle attentions and showing no more maturity than the child ghola, Hellica had stopped associating with the boy. She reacted with haughty indifference when the Guildship came to take Uxtal and the ghola away to Dan. But the anxious researcher knew she would be there waiting when he returned. . . .
AFTER A FOLDSPACE journey, the Tleilaxu and his charge rode a shuttle down to the watery planet. En route they played a private game, competing with one another to see who could be the most disgusting, to see if they could get a reaction out of the bland and stony Face Dancers accompanying them. Vladimir, with an amazing repertoire of scatological talents, made more revolting sounds and noxious odors than anyone Uxtal had ever encountered. After each display, the cherubic boy grinned fiercely.
Uxtal conceded defeat, knowing it was safer to lose to a Harkonnen than to win, even without Matre Superior Hellica leering over their shoulders.
One of the Face Dancers stood at the shuttle’s viewport, pointing outside. “The ruins of Castle Caladan, the ancestral home of House Atreides.” The edifice lay in broken fragments of stone at the edge of a seaside cliff, with a landing field not far away on the outskirts of a nearby fishing