Convention be damned! You can’t let someone pauperize you!“ A harsh smile
twisted the Duke’s mouth. ”They’d look the other way no matter what was done to
me.“
”Even if we were attacked with atomics?“
”Nothing that flagrant. No open defiance of the Convention. But almost
anything else short of that . . . perhaps even dusting and a bit of soil
poisoning.“
”Then why are we walking into this?“
”Paul!“ The Duke frowned at his son. ”Knowing where the trap is — that’s
the first step in evading it. This is like single combat, Son, only on a larger
scale — a feint within a feint within a feint . . . seemingly without end. The
task is to unravel it. Knowing that the Harkonnens stockpile melange, we ask
another question: Who else is stockpiling? That’s the list of our enemies.“
”Who?“
”Certain Houses we knew were unfriendly and some we’d thought friendly. We
need not consider them for the moment because there is one other much more
important: our beloved Padishah Emperor.“
Paul tried to swallow in a throat suddenly dry. ”Couldn’t you convene the
Landsraad, expose –“
”Make our enemy aware we know which hand holds the knife? Ah, now, Paul —
we see the knife, now. Who knows where it might be shifted next? If we put this
before the Landsraad it’d only create a great cloud of confusion. The Emperor
would deny it. Who could gainsay him? All we’d gain is a little time while
risking chaos. And where would the next attack come from?“
”All the Houses might start stockpiling spice.“
”Our enemies have a head start — too much of a lead to overcome.“
”The Emperor,“ Paul said. ”That means the Sardaukar.“
”Disguised in Harkonnen livery, no doubt,“ the Duke said. ”But the soldier
fanatics nonetheless.“
”How can Fremen help us against Sardaukar?“
”Did Hawat talk to you about Salusa Secundus?“
”The Emperor’s prison planet? No.“
”What if it were more than a prison planet, Paul? There’s a question you
never hear asked about the Imperial Corps of Sardaukar: Where do they come
from?“
”From the prison planet?“
”They come from somewhere.”
“But the supporting levies the Emperor demands from –”
“That’s what we’re led to believe: they’re just the Emperor’s levies trained
young and superbly. You hear an occasional muttering about the Emperor’s
training cadres, but the balance of our civilization remains the same: the
military forces of the Landsraad Great Houses on one side, the Sardaukar and
their supporting levies on the other. And their supporting levies, Paul. The
Sardaukar remain the Sardaukar.”
“But every report on Salusa Secundus says S.S. is a hell world!”
“Undoubtedly. But if you were going to raise tough, strong, ferocious men,
what environmental conditions would you impose on them?”
“How could you win the loyalty of such men?”
“There are proven ways: play on the certain knowledge of their superiority,
the mystique of secret covenant, the esprit of shared suffering. It can be done.
It has been done on many worlds in many times.”
Paul nodded, holding his attention on his father’s face. He felt some
revelation impending.
“Consider Arrakis,” the Duke said. “When you get outside the towns and
garrison villages, it’s every bit as terrible a place as Salusa Secundus.”
Paul’s eyes went wide. “The Fremen!”
“We have there the potential of a corps as strong and deadly as the
Sardaukar. It’ll require patience to exploit them secretly and wealth to equip
them properly. But the Fremen are there . . . and the spice wealth is there. You
see now why we walk into Arrakis, knowing the trap is there.”
“Don’t the Harkonnens know about the Fremen?”
“The Harkonnens sneered at the Fremen, hunted them for sport, never even
bothered trying to count them. We know the Harkonnen policy with planetary
populations — spend as little as
Similar Books
