Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [103]
Corysta turned into the brisk sea wind. “These are matters you should take up with the Mother Commander.”
“I should, but since she is on a quarantined planet, I can’t very well call on her, can I? Your Sisterhood is falling apart as a result of external attack and internal strife.”
Women stood on plastone ramps at the water’s edge to receive a tired-looking group of Phibians who carried a net filled with small, misshapen soostones.
Khrone could tell at a glance the gems were of poor quality, but at least it was part of a shipment he could seize as overdue payment. “Are your Phibians afraid of sea monsters? Can they not go to richer beds of shellfish?”
“They harvest what they can, sir. There are no richer beds. The monsters have eaten many of the cholisters. Our underwater crops are ravaged. And, yes, the Phibians are understandably frightened. Many of them have been slaughtered.” Corysta stared at him coldly, and Khrone appreciated the steel in her expression; he could respect it. “We have holo-footage of that, too, if you doubt me.”
“It doesn’t matter if I believe your story. I only want to know what the Sisterhood intends to do about it.” Khrone knew the women could do nothing. Eventually the seaworms would bring down the soostone economy of Buzzell, thus removing another one of the Mother Commander’s bargaining chips when she desperately needed to buy allegiances and secure equipment.
Kept in the dark, the exiled Sisters did not yet understand the true potential of those worms. The primary chemical attributes of the new melange stolen from Buzzell would be a thousand times more effective on human nerve receptors. Oh, it would work very nicely indeed!
He wondered if the Spacing Guild was even aware of Edrik’s destroyed Heighliner yet. It was possible that they weren’t. So many of their Navigators had vanished anyway, what was one more? If necessary, by planting a few hints here and there, Khrone could easily blame the loss on an attack by the thinking-machine battle fleet. If nothing else, Omnius made a fine scapegoat.
The Face Dancer myriad had set their hooks everywhere. The Ixians were building supposed weapons and draining the Chapterhouse coffers of spice; now the Sisterhood’s soostone wealth was also disappearing. The Guild relied entirely on computerized navigation devices for their new ships, and the Navigators had no source of melange.
All enemies of the Face Dancers would fall. He would see to that. The Lost Tleilaxu and the original Masters had already been erased. The Ixians were in Khrone’s pocket. Next would come the New Sisterhood, the Guild, and all of humanity. Finally, when he and his minions defeated the thinking machines, nothing would remain but the Face Dancers. And that would be enough.
Pleased with himself, Khrone marched up to the dock and yanked the net of soostones from the women trying to sort them. “Your production has dropped off drastically, and too many CHOAM merchants have gone away empty-handed.”
Corysta hovered close behind him. “I hope to hire mercenary hunters to track down the seaworms. It is possible that we may find something of interest—maybe something more valuable than soostones.”
So, this woman already had her suspicions about the ultraspice! “I doubt it,” he said. Khrone took the net of rough soostones and marched back to the landing pad. Considering the vast game board, he decided it was finally time to head toward the heart of the thinking-machine empire. He would deliver the ultraspice to Omnius and let the evermind continue with his mad dream of creating and controlling his own Kwisatz Haderach.
It wouldn’t help him in the end.
We believe that confession should lead to forgiveness and redemption. Usually, however, it leads only to further accusations.
—DR. WELLINGTON YUEH,
encrypted entry
The axlotl chamber smelled of fetid death. Duncan could not tear his gaze away from the still, cold flesh of the tank and the clear signs of necrosis. Rage and helplessness chewed at his gut. And who would the child have been? Sheeana hadn’t even told him.