God Emperor of Dune (Page 50)

"I never doubted the story," she said.

"Why has Ix repeated this foolish gesture?" Leto asked.

"They have not told me, Lord. Perhaps Kobat took it onto himself to behave this way."

"I think not. It has occurred to me that your people desired only the death of their chosen assassin."

"The death of Kobat?"

"No, the death of the one they chose to use the weapon."

"Who was that, Lord? I’ve not been told."

"It’s unimportant. Do you recall what I said at the time of your ancestor’s foolishness?"

"You threatened terrible punishment should such violence ever again enter our thoughts." She lowered her gaze, but not before Leto glimpsed a deep determination in her eyes. She would use the best of her abilities to blunt his wrath.

"I promised that none of you would escape my anger," Leto said.

She jerked her attention up to his face. "Yes, Lord." And now her manner revealed personal fear.

"None can escape me, not even the futile colony you’ve recently planted at.. " And Leto reeled off for her the standard chart coordinates of a new colony the lxians had planted secretly far beyond what they thought were the reaches of his Empire.

She betrayed no surprise. "Lord, I think it was because I warned them you would know of this that I was chosen as Ambassador."

Leto studied her more carefully. What have we here:’ he wondered. Her observation had been subtle and penetrating. The lxians. he knew, had thought distance and enormously magnified transportation costs would insulate the new colony. Hwi Noree thought not and had said so. But she believed her masters had chosen her as Ambassador because of this-a comment on the Ixian caution. They thought they had a friend at court here, but one who also would he seen as Leto’s friend. He nodded as the pattern took shape. Quite early in his ascendancy he had revealed to the lxians the exact location of the supposedly secret Ixian Core, the heartland of’ the technological federation which they governed. It had been a secret the lxians thought safe because they paid gigantic bribes for it to the Spacing Guild. Leto had winkled them out by prescient observation and deduction-and by consulting his memories, where there were more than a few lxians.

At the time, Leto had warned the lxians that he would punish them if they acted against him. They had responded with consternation and accused the Guild of betraying them. This had amused Leto and he had responded with such a burst of laughter that the lxians were abashed. He had then informed them in a cold and accusatory tone that he had no need of’ spies or traitors or other ordinary trappings of government.

Did they not believe he was a god?

For a time thereafter, the lxians were responsive to his requests. Leto had not abused the relationship. His demands were modest-a machine for this, a device for that. He would state his needs and presently the lxians would deliver the required technological toy. Only once had they tried to deliver a violent instrument into one of his machines. He had slain the entire Ixian delegation before they could even unwrap the thing.

Hwi Noree waited patiently while Leto mused. Not the slightest sign of impatience surfaced.

Beautiful, he thought.

In view of his long association with the lxians, this new stance sent the juices coursing through Leto’s body. Ordinarily, the passions, crises and necessities which had produced and

impelled him burned low. He often felt that he had outlived his times. But the presence of a Hwi Noree said he was needed. This pleased him. Leto felt that it might even be possible that the Ixians had achieved a partial success with their machine to amplify the linear prescience of a Guild navigator. A small blip in the flow of great events might have escaped him. Could they really make such a machine? What a marvel that would be’ Purposefully, he refused to use his powers for even the smallest search through this possibility. wish to be surprised.’

Leto smiled benignly at Hwi. "How have they prepared you to woo me?" he asked.

She did not blink. "I was provided with a set of memorized responses for particular exigencies," she said. "I learned them as I was required, but I do not intend to use them."

Which is exactly what they want, Leto thought.

"Tell your masters," he said, "that you are precisely the right kind of bait to dangle in front of me."

She bowed her head. "If it pleases my Lord."

"Yes, you do."

He indulged himself then in a small temporal probe to examine Hwi’s immediate future, tracing the threads of her past through this. Hwi appeared in a fluid future, a current whose movements were susceptible to many deflections. She would know Siona in only a casual way unless… Questions flowed through Leto’s mind. A Guild steersman was advising the lxians and he obviously had detected Siona’s disturbance in the temporal fabric. Did the steersman really believe he could provide security against the God Emperor’s detection?

The temporal probe took several minutes, but Hwi did not fidget. Leto looked at her carefully. She seemed timeless outside of time in a deeply peaceful way. He had never before encountered a common mortal able to wait thus in front of him without some nervousness.

"Where were you born, Hwi?" he asked.

"On Ix itself, Lord."

"I mean specifically-the building, its location, your parents, the people around you, friends and family, your schooling-all of it."

"I never knew my parents, Lord. I was told they died while I was still an infant."

"Did you believe this?"

"At first… of course. Later, I built fantasies. I even imagined that Malky was my father… but…" She shook her head.