Chapter 31 Chapter Thirty-One

Leto had gone far into the desert when he heard the sandworm behind him rush towards the drumsticks he had planted next to the tiger's carcass and the spices scattered around it.There was a good omen from the start of their plan: In this part of the desert, the sandworms were largely absent.Although not necessary, the presence of sandworms is helpful.Ghanima didn't have to invent reasons to explain why the body was missing. He knew now that Ghanima had managed to convince herself that he was dead.He left only a small, isolated packet of consciousness in Ghanima's memory, a sealed memory that could only be awakened by two words shouted in a language that only the two of them spoke in the entire universe: Secher Nbiw .Only when she heard these two words: Golden Passage...she would remember him, before that, he was a dead person in her mind.

Leto felt truly alone. He moved nimbly and made sounds as natural as the desert itself.None of his actions along the way would tell the sandworm that had just passed that there was still a living person here.This way of walking was so deeply embedded in his subconscious that he didn't need to think about it at all.The feet seem to move by themselves, without any rhythm between the steps.Any footsteps he made could be interpreted as wind or gravity—there was no one here. The sandworm cleaned up the mess behind him, and Leto crouched in the shadow of the dune, looking back in the direction of the "servant".Yes, the distance is enough.He lowered his drumsticks again and called to his steed.The sandworm swam briskly over and swallowed the drumstick in one gulp without leaving him too long to prepare.As it passed him, he climbed up on the Maker Spearhook, lifted the sensitive part of the first ring of the bug's body, and steered the unconscious beast southeast.

This is a small sandworm, but it has good physical strength.He could feel its strength as it hissed around the dunes.The wind blew past his ears, and he could feel the heat from the insect body. With the movement of the sandworm, his mind was also overwhelmed. His first sandworm trip was with Stilgar.Leto only had to think back for a moment, and he could hear Stilgar's voice ringing in his ears, calm and decisive, with the politeness of people from the old days.Not like the Stilgar who scolded the Fremen for drinking too much spiced wine, or the Stilgar who liked to growl.No - Stilgar had his own mission.He is the emperor. "In ancient times, birds were named after the sound they made. Likewise, each wind has its own name. A wind of six miles an hour is called Pasdessa, and a wind of twenty miles is called Suma. , the one that reaches a hundred miles is called Heinali—Hinali, the wind that pushes people. There is also a devil in the wind in the open desert: Hulaskari Kala, the wind that eats people.”

Leto knew all of this a long time ago, but he still nodded in front of the teacher's wisdom. There was a lot of value in Stilgar's words. "In ancient times, some tribes were known to hunt water. They were called Iduli, which means 'water bugs', because these people would not hesitate to steal water from other Fremen. If you were alone Walking in the desert, they will not even let the water in your flesh. The place where they live is called Jakolutu cave. People from other tribes united and wiped them out at that place. That was a long time ago Even before Cairns—in my great-great-grandfather’s time. No Fremen have ever been to Jakrutu since then, and it’s been a forbidden place.”

These words brought Leto back to the knowledge stored in his memory.That experience taught him how his memory works.Memory alone is not enough, even for a man with countless pasts, unless he knows how to use the knowledge in these memories and how to judge its use value.Jakrutu should have water, wind catchers, and everything else that a Freeman lair should be, plus its priceless value—that is, no Fremen would ever go to that place.Many young people don't even know such a place exists.Oh sure, they knew about Fontacre, but in their minds, Fontacre was just a smuggler's stronghold. If a dead man wants to hide, it's the perfect spot—among smugglers and people who have died in other times.

Thanks, Stilgar. Before dawn, Sandworm was exhausted.Leto slid off its side and watched as it burrowed into the dune, slowly disappearing with its characteristic movement.It would burrow deep into the ground, where it would sulk by itself. I must wait until the day passes, he thought. Standing on top of the dune, he looked around: empty, empty, empty.Only the traces of vanished sandworms break the monotony. A night bird challenged the first ray of green light rising from the eastern horizon with a slow and long song.Leto buried himself in the sand, pitched a distillation tent around his body, and stuck the end of the sand snorkel into the air.

During the long wait before Ren's drowsiness set in, he lay in the artificial darkness, thinking about the decisions he and Ghanima had made.It was not an easy decision, especially for Ghanima.He didn't tell her all of his precognitive visions.What he was doing now came from his vision, but he didn't tell her that either.He now decided it was a precognitive vision, not a dream.It was peculiar in that it seemed to him a vision of precognitive visions.If there was any evidence that his father was alive, it was in this vision of the vision. The Prophet has imprisoned us in his vision, Leto thought, and there is only one way for the Prophet to break out of this illusion: to seek his own death at a critical moment in the development of his vision of vision.This is the reality that Leto's visions of visions reveal, and he muses about it because it's so tied to his decision.Poor John the Baptist, he thought, if he had had the courage to choose another way of dying, history would have played out very differently...but maybe his choice was the bravest thing to do.How do I know what choices he still faces?But I knew the choice my father faced.

Leto sighed.Opposing your father is like rebelling against God.But the Atreides Empire needed a reorganization.It has come down to the worst that Paul could have foreseen.It overwhelmed humanity so easily, people accepted it without thinking.Religious fanaticism has been wound up, and now all that remains is to unleash it. We are imprisoned in the precognitive vision of our father. Leto knew that the way out of religious fanaticism lay in the Golden Passage.His father saw this.Human beings who come out of the golden passage may look back at the era of Muaddi and think that era is more ideal, but despite this, human beings must experience a different choice from Muaddi.

Security...Peace...Prosperity... Given the choice, don't wonder what the majority of the citizens of the Empire would choose. As much as they will hate me, he thought, as much as Ghanima will hate me. A sudden twitch in his right hand reminded him of the dreaded glove in his vision of the vision.That's it, he thought, yes, that's how it should be. Arrakis, please give me strength, he prayed.Under and around him, his planet still lives tenaciously.Its sand presses down on the distillation tent.The dunes are still giants of incomparable wealth.It is a deceptive entity, both beautiful and ugly.Its merchants know only one currency: the pulse of power, however gathered that power may be.They possess the planet as a man possesses his female captives, or the Bee Geist sisters possess their sisters.

No wonder Stilgar hated those priests and merchants. Thanks, Stilgar. Leto thought of the ancient and elegant burrowing rituals, of life before royal rule.He recalled knowing that this was Stilgar's dream.Before globe lights and lasers, before orthopters and spice locomotives, there was another life: lean brown mothers with their babies on their laps, spice oil lamps shining in cinnamon Among the aromas, Naib, who knows he has no right to force people to accept mediation, is patiently convincing both sides of the conflict.Those lives in caves... That dreadful glove could restore balance, Leto thought.

He finally fell asleep.

---

Notes: