Chapter 35 Chapter Thirty-Five

Leto lay on top of the dune, observing the winding rock wall that jutted out across the empty desert.It looked like a giant sandworm lying on the sand, monotonous and menacing in the morning sun.There was nothing there.No birds flew overhead, no animals ran over the rocks.He saw a groove for the wind catcher near the middle of Sandworm's back, where there should be water.The rock "sandworms" are similar in appearance to the barriers of Taib's Cavern, but no living things can be seen in this place. He lay there quietly, mingled with the sand, continuing to observe. A piece played by Gurney Halleck kept echoing in his consciousness, repeating monotonously:

Where is the entrance to this place?Leto thought. He was sure the place was Jakrutu/Fondak, but besides the absence of animals, there was something else wrong about it.Something in his mind was warning. What is hidden at the foot of the mountain? No animals is a bad omen.It aroused his Freeman-esque vigilance: in order to survive in the desert, no movement often conveys more information than movement.There is a wind catcher there, and there should be water, and people who drink it.Here is the forbidden place that hides behind the name Fondark, another name that most Fremen have forgotten.Also, there is not a single bird or animal to be seen here.

No humans - yet the Golden Passage begins here. His father once said: "Every moment, the unknown surrounds us, and our knowledge comes from the unknown." Leto looked to the right, at the tops of the dunes.A recent storm had blown here, exposing the white plaster floor of Azraqa covered in sand.The Fremen have a superstition that whoever sees this white land called a Biyan can grant a wish, but may be destroyed by that wish.But what Leto saw was only a shallow gypsum basin, which told him that Arrakis once had open bodies of water. And it may appear again. He looked around for any signs of activity.The air after the storm was very cloudy, and the sun shining through it painted everything a creamy white.The silvery sun hid somewhere high above the dusty curtain.

Leto focused again on the winding rock face.He took out the binoculars from the Freeman survival kit, adjusted the focus, and observed the gray rock surface, observing the place where the Jakrutu once lived.The telescope found a bush of thorns.People call this thorn the queen of the night.Brambles grow in a crack that may have been the entrance to the burrow.He carefully observed along the lengthwise direction of the rock wall.The silvery sunlight turned the red rock wall into gray, as if covering the rock with a layer of mist. He turned over, turned his back to Jia Kelutu, and looked around with a telescope.There are no traces of human activities in the desert, the wind has obliterated his footprints, only the place where he jumped off the sandworm last night still has a faintly visible arc.

He looked at Jakrutu again.Aside from windcatchers, there is no indication that humans ever lived at the site.Moreover, apart from this rock wall protruding from the ground, there is nothing on the desert, only the barrenness connected to the sky. Leto suddenly felt that he was here because he refused to be confined to the system left by his ancestors.He remembered how people had looked at him, their every glance as an undeserved mistake.Only Ghanima didn't see it that way, and even if he hadn't inherited that mess of memories, the "child" had never been a child. We have made a decision and I must take responsibility for it.he thinks.

He looked at the rock face lengthwise again.Judging from various descriptions, this place must be Fondak, and it is impossible for Jakrutu to hide elsewhere.He felt a strange resonance with this forbidden place.In the way of Bee Geist, he opened his consciousness to Jakrutu and put aside all preconceived ideas.Stereotypes hinder learning.He gave himself some time to empathize with it, without asking, without asking any questions. The problem was that there were no living animals, and what worried him especially was that there were no scavengers—no vultures, no vultures, and no falcons.Even if other life is hiding, they will still come out and move.Behind every water source in the desert is a chain of life that ends with these ubiquitous scavengers.So far, no animals have come to check on his presence.He was familiar with these "burrowing dogs," the oldest morticians, the birds that crouched on the cliffs of Teb's Cave, waiting to feast on them.The Fremen say they are "our competitors." But they have no aversion to scavengers, for alert birds often herald the arrival of strangers.

What if Fondacker had been abandoned even by the smugglers? Leto drank from the hose on his body. What if there is really no water in this place? He examines his situation.He had rode two sandworms to get here, beating them so hard that they were half dead from exhaustion.This is the depths of the desert, a paradise for smugglers.If life can exist here, it must exist around the water. What if there is no water here?What if this isn't Fangak/Jarkrutu? He aimed the telescope at the windcatcher again.Its outer edges have been eroded by wind and sand and need maintenance, but most of the equipment is still good and should have water.

What if not? In an abandoned cavern, water can leak into the air or be lost in other mishaps.Why are there no scavengers here?Killed for their water?Who killed it?How could they all be killed?Poison? poisonous water. The Jakrutu lore never mentions poisonous cisterns, but it's possible.But if the original flock is killed, shouldn't a new flock appear by now?Legend has it that Iduri the Water Stealer was wiped out generations ago, but there is no mention of poison in the legend.He checked the rock again with the telescope.How is it possible to get rid of the entire cave?Someone must have escaped.Caverns rarely have everyone in one place, there are always people wandering in the desert or in the city.

Leto put down the binoculars, sighed, and gave up.He slid down the face of the dune, burying the distillation tent in the sand with great care, hiding all traces of his presence here.He intends to spend the hottest period of time in this place.After hiding in the darkness, tiredness slowly took hold of him.Under the protection of his tent, he spends his days dozing off or imagining mistakes he might have made.He ate a spice snack, slept a little, drank and ate again when he woke, and slept again.Coming here is a long journey, a severe test for the muscles of children. In the evening, he woke up feeling completely rested.He listened for signs of life.He climbed out of the tent.The air was filled with sand, all blowing in the same direction.He could feel the sand hitting half his face, a sure sign of a change in weather.He sensed that a sandstorm was coming.

He climbed cautiously to the top of the dune and looked at the enigmatic rock face again.The air was yellow, a sign that the wind of death—the Great Sandstorm—was coming.At that time, the strong wind will roll up the yellow sand in the sky, and the range can cover four latitudes.The yellow air reflected on the desolate plaster surface, turning the plaster surface into golden yellow.But now, the same quiet evening hung over him.Then the day ended and night fell, as night always falls so quickly in the depths of the desert.In the light of the first moon, the rock wall became a series of rugged mountains.He felt sea buckthorn pricking his skin.There was a sound of dry thunder that sounded like the echo of distant drums.At the junction of moonlight and darkness, he suddenly found a little movement: it was a bat.He could hear the flapping of their wings, and their tiny calls.

bat. Whether it was on purpose or not, the place gave off a feeling of utter desolation.It should be the stronghold of the legendary smugglers: Fondark.But what if it's not?What if the taboo is still in effect and there are only the husks of the Jakrutu ghosts in this place?What should he do? Leto lay on the lee of the dunes, watching the night fall step by step.Patience and Prudence - Patience and Patience.He thought of ways to pass the time, such as reviewing what Chaucer had seen and heard from London to Canterbury, and listing the towns he passed at that time from north to south: St Thomas Wetlands, two miles away, Deptford, five miles away Greenwich, six miles, Rochester, thirty, Sidingbo, forty, Burton, fifty-five, Hubbletown, fifty-eight, and then Canterbury, sixty miles away.He knew that almost no one in this universe could still remember Chaucer, or that there was another place called London besides the small village on Ganstad.Thinking of this made him a little proud.St. Thomas is mentioned in the Catholic books of Orange, but Canterbury has been completely lost from memory, like the planet it was on.This is the heavy burden that memory brings to him. Every life in his body is a threat, and may take over his consciousness at any time.That trip to Canterbury was the experience of his inner life. His trips are now longer and more dangerous. He set to work, crawling over the top of the dune towards the moonlit rock face.Hiding in the shadows, he slid down the top of the dune without making a sound to reveal his tracks. As before every storm, the dust had vanished from the sky, leaving only the clear night sky: there was no movement in the place during the day, but in the dark, he could hear small animals running fast. In a valley between two sand dunes, he came across a colony of jerboas.Seeing him, the jerboas immediately scattered for their lives.He rested for a while at the top of the second dune, his emotions haunted by inner anxiety.The crack he saw—was it the entrance to the passage?He has other worries: Old caves are often surrounded by traps: pits with poison stakes, poisonous thorns attached to plants, etc.He felt that a Freeman proverb was very applicable in his current situation: the wisdom of the ear is in the night.He listened for the slightest sound. Now, above his head was the gray rock wall.When you get up close, it looks huge.He listened and heard the bird chirping on the cliff, though he couldn't see where it was.It was the sound of a day bird, but carried in the night sky.What turned their world upside down?Domestication of humans? Suddenly, Leto was sprawled on the sand, motionless.There are fire lights on the cliffs, and a shimmering dance on the black curtain of night, which seems to be the signal sent by the cave to the members who guard the open ground.Who occupies this place?He climbed forward into the deepest shadows at the bottom of the cliff, feeling the rock with his hands as he followed, looking for the cracks he had seen during the day.He found it on the eighth step, and pulled the sand snorkel out of his survival kit. As he began to crawl inside, a hard mass wrapped around his shoulders and arms, immobilizing him. Rattan traps! He gave up struggling, which would only make the trap more entangled.He let go of the fingers of his right hand, dropped the snorkel, and wanted to pull out the knife hanging on his waist.He thought he was too naive not to throw something into that crack at a distance first, to see what the danger was.All his attention was on the torches on the cliff. Every slight movement made the cane trap tighter, but eventually his fingers found the handle of the knife.He gripped the handle of the knife tightly and began to draw it slowly. A flash of light surrounded him.He stopped all movements suddenly. "Ha, we caught something good." A deep voice sounded behind Leto, for some reason, he felt that this voice was very familiar to him.Leto wanted to turn his head away, but realized that if he did, the cane could easily crush his bones. Before he could see the other person clearly, a hand reached out and took away his knife. Then, that hand expertly searched up and down his body, finding all kinds of small tools that he and Ganima planned to use to escape .The searchers left him with nothing, not even a shakyarab he had hidden in his hair. Leto still couldn't see the man. With that hand fiddling with the cane of the trap a few times, Leto felt that his breathing became much easier.But the man warned: "Don't struggle, Leto Atreides. Your water is still in my cup." Leto tried his best to control his emotions and said, "You know my name?" "Of course! People set traps for a purpose. We've already picked our prey, haven't we?" Leto remained silent, but his mind was churning violently. "You feel betrayed!" said the thick voice.Supporting him with both hands, he turned around. Although his movements were gentle, they seemed powerful—this adult was telling the child that the probability of him escaping was not high. Leto looked up, and by the light of the torch, he saw the outline of a face wearing a distillate mask.After his eyes adjusted to the light, he could make out the dark skin that was showing on the man's face, and the eyes that were addicted to spice. "You can't figure out why we went to such lengths to devise this trap," said the man.The voice came from the lower half of the face covered by the mask, with a strange accent, as if he was deliberately hiding his accent. "I stopped thinking a long time ago why so many people wanted to kill the Atreides," Leto said. "Their reasons were so obvious." While speaking, Leto's mind was running fast, searching for the answer to the question.This is a bait?But who else but Ghanima knew of his plans?impossible!Ghanima would not betray her brother.So is there anyone who knows him very well and can guess his actions?who is it?his grandmother?will she? "You can't go on living the way you were," said the man, "You must be educated before you can ascend to the throne." Eyes without whites looked at him, "You're thinking, who can be qualified To educate you? You store an almost infinite amount of knowledge in your memory. But that's the problem, you see? You think you're educated, but you're nothing more than a warehouse of dead people. You don't even have a life of your own. You are just a tool for others, and their purpose is to seek death. A person who seeks death is not a good leader. Your rule will be full of dead bodies. Like your father, he doesn't understand..." "You dare speak of him in such a tone?" "I've said that several times. After all, he's just Paul Atreides. Well, boy, welcome to your school." The man reached out a hand from under the robe and touched Leto on the cheek.Leto felt his body shake a few times, and slowly fell into the darkness.A green banner waved in the darkness, a green banner embroidered with the day and night of House Atreides.Before losing consciousness, he heard the pleasant sound of running water.Or the man's jeer?

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