Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty

Stilgar quadrupled the number of guards around the twins, but he also knew it wouldn't help.The lad missed the old Duke Leto who had given him his name.Anyone familiar with the old Duke will recognize the resemblance between the two men.Leto has the same thoughtful expression as he does, and the old Duke's vigilance, but vigilance is no match for potential wildness, prone to dangerous decisions. Ghanima is more like her mother.She has the same red hair as Jani, the same eyes as Jani, and thinks in the same way as Jani when faced with problems.She often said that she only did what had to be done, but wherever Leto went, she went with him.

Leto would lead them both into danger. It never once occurred to Stilgar to tell Aria the question.If you don't tell Alia, of course you can't tell Irulan, who will report to Alia no matter what.Stilgar has realized that he fully accepts Leto's evaluation of Aria. She used people casually, ruthlessly, he thought, even Duncan that way.It's not like she's coming to me or killing me.She will just abandon me. While the guards were reinforced, Stilgar wandered about his lair, like a robed ghost, scrutinizing everything.He kept thinking about the confusion Leto caused: If he could not rely on tradition, what would his life be based on?

On the afternoon of welcoming Lady Jessica, Stilgar saw Ghanima and her grandmother standing at the entrance to the cave hall.It was still early, Alia hadn't arrived, but people had already started crowding into the venue, sneaking peeks at the elderly couple as they passed by. Stilgar stopped in the hollow of the stone wall beyond the flow of people, looking at the old man and the child.The hum of the gathering crowd prevented him from hearing what they were saying.People from many tribes will be here today to welcome Our Lady back to them.He stared at Ghanima.Her eyes, the way they moved when she spoke!The movement of her eyes attracted him.Those dark blue, determined, stern, thoughtful eyes.And the way she shakes her head and shakes her red hair off her shoulders: that's Jani.Like the resurrection of a ghost, it's eerily similar.

Stilgar approached slowly and stopped in another depression. Ghanima didn't see things like any other child he knew -- except her brother.Where is Leto?Stilgar turned to look at the crowded passage.Should anything go wrong, his guards will issue a warning.He shook his head.The twins made him uneasy.They continued to torment his otherwise peaceful mind, and he almost hated them.Blood ties do not prevent hatred, but the role of kinship in blood (and the precious water in it) is still undeniable.Now, the twins, who are related to him by blood, are his most important responsibility. Brown light shone through the dust to the cave venue behind Ganimar and Jessica.The light fell on the child's shoulders and the new white robe she was wearing, lighting up her hair as she turned her head to watch the people passing by.

Why does Leto torture me with these puzzles?he thinks.He undoubtedly did it on purpose.Perhaps Leto wanted me to share a little bit of his spiritual journey.Stilgar knew why the twins were different, but his mind couldn't accept what he knew.He had never had the experience of being conscious while the body was imprisoned in the womb—consciousness in the second month after conception, so they said. Leto said that his memory was like "a holographic image in the body, which from the moment of awakening has been enlarged and increased in detail, but has never changed in shape and outline".

Watching Ghanima and Lady Jessica, Stilgar realized for the first time what their lives were like: entangled in a vast web of endless memories, unable to find a retreat for his consciousness. cabin.They must integrate unspeakable madness and chaos, choosing from endless proposals at any time in an environment where answers and questions change rapidly and come and go. For them, no tradition is set in stone.There are no absolute answers to ambiguous questions.What can work?something that doesn't work.What doesn't work?something that will work.Almost like the old Freeman riddle. Why does Leto expect me to understand this stuff?Stilgar asked himself.After careful probing, Stilgar knew that the twins had the same idea of ​​what made them different: it was torture.For such a man, he thought, the birth canal must be terrible.Ignorance reduces the shock of birth, but they are born knowing everything.Knowing that everything can go wrong in life - what does it feel like to get you through a life like that?You will always face doubts, and you will resent the differences between you and your peers.Even getting your partner a taste of the difference can make you happy.Your first ever unanswered question is: "Why me?"

And what question am I asking myself?thought Stilgar.A twisted smile played on his lips.why me? Watching the twins with this fresh eye, he understood what kind of risk their pre-growth bodies took.When he once scolded Ganima for climbing the steep cliff high above the Tebu Cave, she answered him bluntly. "Why should I be afraid of death? I've been through it before—many times." How could I think I was capable of teaching these two children?Who could teach them, thought Stilgar? Oddly enough, Jessica had the same thought when she talked to her granddaughter.She wondered how difficult it was to carry a mature mind in a juvenile body.The body must learn those movements and behaviors that the mind has already mastered, establishing a direct link between thought and reflex.They have mastered the ancient Bi-Gist turtle breathing method, but even so, the mind still gallops where the body cannot reach.

"Stilgar is watching us over there," Ghanima said. Jessica didn't look back.But there was something in Ghanima's voice that made her wonder.Ghanima loved the old Freeman as much as his own father.On the surface, she has no rules when talking to him, and jokes from time to time, but in her heart she still loves him.Realizing this, Jessica revisits old Neb, realizing all sorts of secrets he shares with the twins.Additionally, Jessica discovers that Stilgar doesn't fit in with this new Arrakis, just as her grandchildren don't fit into this new universe. Jessica couldn't help but think of a sentence from Bee Geist: "Worrying about death is the beginning of fear, accepting death is the end of fear."

Yes, death is not a heavy chain; for Stilgar and the twins, life is a constant torment.Each of them lived in the wrong world, each wished to exist in another way, each wished that change would no longer be a threat.They were the children of Abraham, and learned more from the eagles above the desert than from books. Just this morning, Leto surprised Jessica.They were standing by the aqueduct below the cavern, and he said, "The water traps us, Grandmother. We'd better live like dust, because the wind can blow us farther than the tallest peak on Shield Wall Mountain." Somewhere high."

Although Jessica was used to the esoteric language that came out of the two children's mouths, she was caught off guard by his opinion.She managed to squeeze out an answer: "Your father may have said this too." Leto threw a handful of sand into the air and watched it fall to the ground. "Yes, he may have said it. But at the time he overlooked the point that water can make anything fall quickly to where they rose." Now, in the cave, standing behind Ghanima, Jessica felt the impact of those words again.She turned, glanced at the streaming crowd, then looked into the shadow of the grotto where Stilgar stood.Stilgar was no tame Fremen, he was still an eagle.When he sees red, he thinks not of flowers but of blood.

"You suddenly fell silent," said Ganima. "Is something wrong?" Jessica shook her head. "Just thinking about what Leto said this morning, it's nothing." "When you went to the plantation? What did he say?" Jessica thought about that strange, adult-smart look on Leto's face this morning.Now, Ghanima has the same expression on his face. "He recalled when Gurney rejoined Atreides from the smugglers," Jessica said. "Then you talked about Stilgar," Ghanima said. Jessica didn't ask how she knew.The twins seem to have the ability to swap minds at will. "Yeah, we talked," said Jessica, "Stilgar didn't like hearing Gurney call...Paul his Duke, but that's what Gurney called it, and all the Fremen heard it. Gurney always said 'my duke'." "I see," said Ghanima. "Of course, Leto noticed. He has not yet become Duke of Stilgar." "yes." "You should know what he's talking about," Ghanima said. "I'm not sure." Jessica said frankly that she found it self-conscious to say so, but she really didn't know what Leto was going to do to her. "He wanted to ignite your memory of our father," Ghanima said. "Leto would very much like to know what other people who knew his father thought of him." "But... Leto didn't have..." "Oh yes, he can listen to the life inside him. But that's different. When you talk about him, I mean my father, and you can talk about him like a mother talks about her son." "Yes." Jessica swallowed the rest of the sentence.She didn't like the feeling, and the twins could awaken her memories at will, open her memories and observe, trigger any emotion in her that they were interested in.Ghanima may be doing just that! "Leto said something that disturbed you," Ghanima said. Jessica was surprised to find that she had to suppress her anger. "Yes...he did." "You hate the fact that he knows our father as well as our mother, and our mother as our father," Ghanima said, "You hate the implication behind it—how much we know you. " "I never thought about it that way," Jessica said, feeling her voice stiff. "Knowing things like lust is the most unpleasant thing," Ghanima said. "It's your psychology. You find it hard not to see us as children. But we know that our parents everything people do in public and in private." For a moment, Jessica felt the same feeling coming back to her from the conversation with Leto, only now it was Ghanima. "He may have also mentioned your Duke's 'rut desire,'" said Ghanima. "Sometimes Leto should be bitten." Is there anything that hasn't been profaned by the twins?Jessica thought, from shock to anger, from anger to disgust.How could they talk about her duke's lust?Men and women in deep love will of course share physical pleasures!This is a beautiful and private thing that should not be flaunted casually in adult-child conversations. Adults and kids! Suddenly, Jessica realized that neither Leto nor Ghanima were saying these things casually. Jessica remained silent, and Ganima said, "We surprised you. I apologize on behalf of both of us. From what I know of Leto, he doesn't think about apologizing. Sometimes, when he goes As he goes on, he'll forget how different we... are from you." Jessica thought: I see, so this is your purpose: you are teaching me!Then she thought: Are you still teaching others?Stilgar?Duncan? "Leto wants to know how you see things," Ghanima said. "Memory alone is not enough to do this. The harder the problem you try, the more likely you are to fail." Jessica sighed. Ghanima touched her grandmother's arm. "There are so many things that have to be said that your son never said, not even to you. Like, he loves you. You know that?" Jessica turned away, trying to hide the tears glistening in her eyes. "He knows your fears," said Ghanima, "as he knows Stilgar's fears. Dear Stilgar. Our father was his 'veterinarian', and Stilgar was nothing more than a A green snail hiding in its shell." She hummed a tune from which "Veterinarian" and "Snail" came from. The tune played, and the lyrics appeared in Jessica's consciousness: Ghanima said: "Unfortunately, our father left too many snail people in the universe."

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