Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty-Four

Leto leaned in the shade of the cave entrance, looking at the gleaming clifftop above his vision.The afternoon sun casts long shadows under the cliffs.A butterfly flutters in the shadows sometimes, and sometimes flies in the sun. The netted wings seem to become transparent in the sun.How wonderful that there are butterflies in this place, he thought. Directly in front of him was an apricot grove, and children were picking up the fallen fruits in the grove.There is an aqueduct outside the forest.He and Ghanima encountered a group of child laborers entering the cave and took the opportunity to escape the guards.They easily climbed along the ventilation pipe to the cave entrance.Now all they had to do was mingle with the kids, try to get to the aqueduct, and get down the tunnel.Once there, they could stay by the carnivorous fish that kept the sandtrout from sucking up the water for the burrow irrigation, and get out there.It would never have occurred to the Freemen that there were people willing to take the risk of falling overboard.

He stepped out of the protective passage.Cliffs stretched out on either side of him. Ghanima followed closely behind him.Both were carrying fruit baskets woven of spice fibers, which contained gear: Freeman survival kits, shotguns, howling knives . . . and new robes from Farrakon. Ghanima followed her brother into the orchard, mingling with the children at work.The stillsuit mask covers every face.They were just two new child laborers, but she felt that the act of running away from the guards had taken her away from protection and familiar territory.A simple step, but this step took her from one danger to another.

Dusk is coming soon.Beyond the aqueduct that marks the boundary of the cavern plantation, the night is never more beautiful than it is anywhere in the universe.After a while, the soft moonlight will slightly illuminate this desert, and every creature in it will firmly believe that it is completely alone and placed in a brand new universe. "We've been discovered," Ghanima whispered.She bent over and worked beside her brother. "guard?" "Not—anyone else." "it is good." "We have to act quickly," she said. Leto took her advice and set off from under the cliff, through the orchard.He thought: Everything in the desert must move or die.His father thought so too.In the sand in the distance, the rock outcropping of "The Servant" reminds him again of the necessity of movement.The rock stood still, like a mystery, dying year after year, until one day it was completely destroyed in a strong wind.One day, the "servant" will turn into sand.

As they approached the aqueduct, they heard music coming from the high entrance to the cavern.It was an old-fashioned Freeman ensemble—two-eye flutes, tambourines, and timpanis made of spiced plastic with a whole taut leather head.No one ever asked what animal on this planet provided such a large hide. Stilgar would remember that rocky cleft in the Servant I told him about, Leto thought, and when it was too late, he would leave the burrow and go into the dark—and then he would know . They came to the aqueduct, drilled into a tunnel entrance, and climbed down the maintenance ladder to the maintenance platform.The aqueduct was dark, damp, and cold, and they could even hear the splash of predatory fish.Any sandtrout trying to steal the water from here cannot escape the attacks of predatory fish on their water-soaked skin.Humans must also beware of them.

"Careful," Leto said, climbing down the slippery maintenance bench.He locks his mind into a time and space that his physical body has never been to.Ghanima followed behind him. At the end of the aqueduct, they stripped all but their still suits and put on new robes.They dropped their Freeman robes, climbed out along another inspection passage, climbed over a sand dune, and sat down on the other side of the dune.They strapped on their shotguns and howling knives, and slung their Freeman survival kits over their shoulders.The dunes put the burrow behind them, and they could never hear the music again.

Leto stood up and walked towards the valley between the dunes. Ghanima followed him, walking across the sand with a trained, rhythmic gait. At the foot of each dune they stooped and crawled into the shadow of the dunes, pausing there for a moment to look behind them to see if they were being pursued.When they reached the "first rock belt", there were no pursuers in the desert. In the shadow of the rock, they circled the Servant, climbed up a platform, and surveyed the desert.At the end of the desert, the flowing air is colorful, gradually darkening, like brittle crystals.In front of them, the desert stretched endlessly, without any other landforms in sight.The two scanned the land, their eyes not staying on any specific things.

This is the eternal horizon, Leto thought. Ghanima lay beside her brother, thinking: The attack is about to begin.She listened to the faintest sound, and her whole body became a taut rope.Leto sat quietly with equal vigilance.In the wild, one should rely firmly on one's senses, senses of all kinds.Life becomes a bunch of sensations, derived from different senses, each of which has a bearing on your life or death. Ghanima climbed up the rock, looking through a gap, watching the way they had come.The safe life in the cave seems to have been a lifetime ago, and a cliff quietly stands in the distance of brown-purple. On the rocks polished by wind and sand on the edge of the cliff, the sunlight casts the last silver edge.There is still no trace of the stalker in the desert.She turned to look at Leto.

"It should be a carnivore." Leto said, "This is the result of my third calculation." "Your calculations are over too soon," said Ghanima. "There is more than one animal. The Corino family has learned not to put all their hopes in one pocket." Leto nodded in agreement. He suddenly felt the burden on his mind, which was brought on by his uniqueness—too much life, and he was soaked in life, wishing to escape from his own consciousness.The life in the body is a giant beast, which can swallow him up if he is not careful. He stood up restlessly, climbed to the gap where Ghanima had just peered, and glanced towards the cliff of the cave.There, below the cliff, he could see the line the aqueduct drew between life and death.At the edge of the oasis, he could see camel thorn, onion grass, Gobi feather grass, and wild alfalfa.In the last rays of sunlight, he could see birds pecking hard at the clover bushes, ears of corn in the distance swaying in the wind; wind-blown clouds cast shadows over the orchard.

What will happen here?he asked himself. He knew that death would happen, or be missed.And the target is his eyes.Ghanima will come back alive, deeply convinced of what she has seen, or under deep hypnosis believing that her brother has been killed.She will break the news to everyone. The unknown of the place made him restless.How easy it is for man to succumb to his desire for foreknowledge, to throw his consciousness into the eternal future, he thought.But the small part of the future he had seen in his dreams was scary enough, he knew, and he didn't dare to risk stretching his consciousness further into the future.

He returned to Ghanima. "No tracker yet," he said. "The beasts they sent against us were large animals," Ghanima said. "We should have time to see them come." "You can't see it at night." "It will be evening soon," she said. "Yeah, time to go to our own place." He pointed to the rock below them to the left, where the wind and sand had carved a crack in the basalt.The cracks are wide enough to hold them, but not for large animals.Leto felt he didn't want to go there, but he knew he had to.That's where he pointed Stilgar to.

"They might actually kill us," he said. "We have to take the risk," she said. "We owe it to our father." "I didn't argue with you, I think the same as you." He thought: This is the right way; we are doing the right thing.But he also knows how dangerous it is to do the right thing in this universe.Now, their survival depends entirely on their vitality and adaptability, as well as knowing the limits of every movement.Their armor was the Fremen way of life and training, and their back-up was their knowledge of the Bee Gist.Now, both thought like the most seasoned warriors of House Atreides, with the tenacity of a Fremen deep in their bones.From their children's bodies and well-dressed attire, there is no such terrible power at all. Leto fumbled with his fingers for the handle of the Howling Blade dangling from his waist.Ghanima is also doing this subconsciously. "Shall we go down now?" Ghanima asked.As she spoke, she noticed movement in the distance below them.Due to the distance, the movement did not seem threatening.Her breath-holding caught Leto's attention before she could speak to warn her. "Tiger," he said. "Lazz Tiger," she corrected. "They saw us," he said. "We'd better move fast," she said. "There's no way a shotgun can take on this beast. They've probably been trained." "There should be someone around here directing them," he said, striding ahead to the rocks to the left. Ghanima agreed with him, but to preserve her strength, she kept silent.There must be someone nearby.Until the moment of action comes, the two tigers are firmly controlled and will not give full chase. In the last rays of daylight, the tigers moved swiftly, leaping from rock to rock.They are creatures of the eye, but soon as night falls, creatures of the ear will enter the scene. On the "servant" rock, the call of a night bird re-emphasizes the coming transformation.Nocturnal animals were already stirring in the etched cracks. The running twins can still see the tiger.Power flows from the beast's body, and every movement reveals the arrogance of the king of beasts. Leto ran, sure that he and Ghanima would make it to their narrow crevice in time, but his eyes kept turning curiously to the approaching beast. If we trip, we lose, he thought. The thought made him less sure, and he ran faster.