Chapter 4 Chapter Four

Safi Hawat slipped into the training room of Caladan Castle and closed the door softly.He stood for a while, feeling old, tired, and weather-beaten.He had a pain in his left leg, where he had been cut while playing for the old Duke. It's been three generations now.he thinks. He looked at the big house, brightly lit by the midday sun, where the boy sat with his back to the door, absorbed in the papers and charts on the long table. How many times do I have to tell him he must not sit with his back to the door?Hawat cleared his throat. Paul remained absorbed in his studies. A dark cloud drifted across the sky.Hawat cleared his throat again.

Paul straightened up and said without turning his head, "I know, I'm sitting with my back to the door." Hawat restrained himself from laughing, and strode over. Paul looked up at the old man standing beside the table, his eyes were deep and vigilant, like two deep springs embedded in his dark, deeply wrinkled face. "I heard you walk down the hall," Paul said, "and I heard you open the door." "I can simulate a door opening." "I can tell the difference." Hawat thought: maybe he has the ability, his mother who is a witch is training him deeply.I wonder what tricks her precious school has on this?Maybe that's why they've got the old superintendent here . . . prompting dear Lord Jessica to hurry up and get on track.

Hawat grabbed a chair and sat down in front of Paul, facing the door.He did it on purpose.Leaning on the chair, he looked around the room.He suddenly felt that this place was a bit strange. Most of the hardware in the room had been transported to Arrakis, leaving only a training platform, a shining transparent fencing mirror, and a human-shaped target standing beside it, like an ancient fighter, full of energy. Tortured and devastated by war. Hawat thought: I am standing there too. "Safi, what are you thinking?" Paul asked. Hawat looked at the boy. "I'm thinking we're going to leave this place soon and maybe never see this place again."

"It makes you sad?" "Sad? Nonsense! It's sad to be parted from a friend, and a place is just a place," he glanced at the chart on the table. "Arrakis is just another place." "Did my father send you to test me?" Hawat frowned... the little fellow was observing him.He nodded and said, "You're thinking it would be better for him to come in person, but you have to understand that he's very busy and he'll be here in a while." "I'm studying the storms of Arrakis." "Storm, I know." "They're amazing."

"Impossible, the wording is very careful. Those storms form on flat land with a radius of six or seven thousand kilometers, absorbing any force that can push the wind...sandstorms, other strong winds, anything with energy. They can reach seven per hour Hundreds of kilometers, pack away anything loose...sand, dirt, everything. They can strip the flesh off the bone and turn the bone into ashes." "Why can't they control the climate?" "Arakis has unique problems. It costs more and has troubles such as maintenance. The Gilders charge a very high price for planetary control, and your father's family is not a rich family, as you know."

"Have you ever seen a Fremen?" Hawat thought: This kid is thinking too much today. "I haven't seen them," he said, "and it's hard to tell what they look like. They all wear floating robes that give off a huge smell in any enclosed space because they're all wearing close-fitting clothing called dialysis. The recycling device of clothing, recycles its own water." Paul took a breath, suddenly felt the moisture in his mouth, and remembered the thirst in his dream. The people there were in great need of water and had to recycle their own water, which made Paul feel the desolation of the place. "Water is precious up there," Paul said.

Hawat nodded and thought: Maybe I'm completing this mission, conveying to him the importance of that hostile planet.It would be madness for us to go to that planet without this in mind. Paul looked up at the sky and realized that it had started to rain.Watching the moisture gradually spread on the gray color-changing glass, he said, "Water." “You’re going to learn about a particular focus on water,” Hawat said, “as the duke’s son, it’s hard to appreciate how special it is, but you see the urgency and pressure around you that comes from thirst. " Paul moistened his lips with his tongue, remembering the test that Our Lady gave him that day a week ago.She also talked about the water shortage.

"You'll know the grave wastes," she said, "the empty fields where nothing grows but decaying spices and sand lizards. Your eyes change color to lessen the glare, and you're on your own walking on two legs, no aircraft or land vehicles." Paul was more touched by the tone of her voice than by the content of her words, a trembling, singing tone. "When you live in Arrakis," she said at the time, "the earth is empty. The moon is your friend and the sun your enemy." Paul felt his mother step by the door beside him.She looked at the Virgin and asked, "Don't you see hope, my lord?"

"His father didn't," the old woman waved to silence Jessica, looking down at Paul, "Young man, keep this in your mind: A world is supported by four things..." She held out four Yu Ku's fingers. "...to learn wisdom, the justice of great men, the prayers of justice and the courage of the brave. But it is all useless..." She clenched her fingers into a fist, "...without a leader who knows the art of ruling words. Think of it as your conventional science." Our Lady has been away for over a week.What she said was just starting to work in Paul, to get attention, and now sitting in the training room with Safi Hawat, Paul felt a pang of fear.He looked up to see the Mentat frowning in bewilderment.

"What were you thinking about just now?" Hawat asked. "Have you seen the Virgin?" "The mantra wizard from the royal family?" Hawat blinked with interest. "I've seen her." "She..." Paul hesitated, and the idea that he couldn't tell Hawat about the test was suddenly strong. "What? What did she do?" Paul took two deep breaths. "She said one thing," Paul closed his eyes, remembering what he said at the time, and he couldn't help but carry the old woman's voice in his voice when he spoke, "'You, Paul Atrez, the king The descendants of the duke, sons of dukes, must learn to rule, which is nothing like what your ancestors learned.'" Paul opened his eyes and said, "That made me angry, and I said my father ruled a planet. But she said, 'He is losing it'. I said my father was about to get a richer planet. She told me, 'he will lose that planet too'. I wanted to run and warn my father, but she said he had been warned...you, My mother, and many others."

"That's right," Hawat said softly. "Then why are we still going?" Paul asked. "Because the king has commanded it, and because there is still hope, no matter what the wizard says. What else will spring from that ancient fountain of wisdom?" Paul looked down at his right hand clenched into a fist under the table.Slowly, he let the muscles relax.She left some kind of grip on me, how did she do it?Paul thought. "She asked me to tell her what domination is," Paul said. "I said it was calling the shots. She told me I had to learn." She hit the mark.Hawat thought, nodding for Paul to continue. "She said that as a ruler, he should learn to persuade rather than force. He must produce the best coffee to attract the best talents." "What does your father say when he gets people like Gurney and Duncan?" Hawat asked. Paul shrugged: "She went on to say that a good ruler must learn the language of his world, and each world's language is different. I think she means that they do not speak Kailaqi, in Arrakis But she said it was not. She told me she meant the language of rocks, the language of living things, a language that is not just heard by the ear. I said that is what Dr. Yue said... the mystery of life." Hawat laughed. "What did she say about that?" "I think she got angry. She said that the secret of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. So I quoted the first law of Mentat to her: 'A process, stop it, is impossible. Know it. The degree of understanding has to go with the process, into it, with it.' That seems to satisfy her." Hawat thought: He seems to have gotten over it, but the old hag frightened him, why should she do this? "Safie," Paul said, "is Arrakis as bad as she says?" "It's not that bad at all," Hawat said with a forced smile, "like those Fremen, the rebels of the desert. Judging from first-hand information, I can say that their numbers far exceed the number that the royal family suspects. These people lived there for generations, many, and..." Hawat put a finger to his eye. "...They have a deep hatred with the Harkonnen, and they have a deep-rooted hatred for them. You can't say this casually. I just let you understand it as your father's assistant." "My father told me about the place of Salus Secundus," Paul said, "and you know, Safi, that place has a lot in common with Arrakis... maybe not so bad, but very resemblance." "We don't really know what happened to Salus Secundus right now," Hawat said. "Most of what we know is from a long time ago. But as far as we know...you're right." "Will the Fremen help us?" "It's just a possibility," Hawat stood up, "I'm leaving for Arrakis today. You take care of yourself for me, an old man who likes you, okay? Be a good boy and come around to me Come, sit facing the door, not because I think there is danger in the castle, but because I want you to get used to it." Paul stood up, walked around the table, and asked, "Are you leaving today?" "It's today, and you'll follow tomorrow. The next time we meet, we'll be in a new world." He took Paul's right arm. "Leave the knife hand empty, huh? Fill your shield with energy." .” He let go, patted Paul on the shoulder, turned around, and strode towards the door. "Safi!" Paul cried. Hawat turned and stood by the open door. "Do not sit with your back to the door under any circumstances," Paul said. A smile broke on the wrinkled old face: "I won't, boy, trust me." He went out and closed the door softly. Paul sat in Hawat's place and straightened the papers on the table.Still here for a day.he thinks.He looks around the room. We're leaving.The thought of leaving suddenly becomes more realistic than before.He remembered another thing Our Lady had told him: a world is a collection of many things... people, soil, creatures, moon, tides, planets... The unknown collection is called nature, which is a world without Blurred collection of concepts.He thought: what is now? The door facing Paul slams open, and in walks a big, ugly man with a huge pile of assorted weapons. "Oh, Gurney Halleck," Paul exclaimed, "are you a master of new weapons?" Halleck closed the door on his heels and said, "You'd rather I come and play games with you, I know." He looked around the house, realized that Hawat's men had been there, and arranged for inspections to eliminate danger and ensure that the Duke safe heir.Their tiny traces are everywhere. Paul watched the big ugly man struggle to move forward, trying to put the huge pile of weapons on the table.Nine-stringed balis hung from his shoulders, and his instruments were decorated with beautiful ornaments. Halleck finally had his weapons on the training table, light sabers, needles, stilettos, slow-bomb guns, and shielding straps.Halleck had a cane-shaped, dark scar on his jaw.He turned around and smiled. "Hey, you don't even say good morning to me, brat," Halleck said. "What thorn did you get in Hawat? He ran past me like he was going to an enemy graveyard." Paul grinned.Of all his father's men he liked Gurney Halleck best. He knows his temper, his moods, his humor, and thinks of him more as a friend than as a hired swordsman. Halleck took the nine-string barrys off his shoulders, plucked the strings, and sang, "If you don't want to talk, you won't say anything." Paul stood up, walked forward, and said loudly, "Gurney, are you still in the mood to listen to music before the war?" "Today is a happy day for the elders." Halleck nodded and continued to pluck the strings. "Where's Duncan Idaho?" Paul asked. "Isn't he supposed to come and teach me weapons?" "Duncan's going to lead the second column aboard Arrakis," said Halleck, "and you'll have only poor Gurney, fresh out of the war, on his music." He plucked another string, Hearing this, he smiled: "The council has decided that since you are a bad fighter, let you learn some music so that you don't waste your life." "Maybe you'd better sing me a song," Paul said, "I wonder why not." "Haha..." Arnie laughed, and then began to sing, "The girls of Kelaci..." The chords accompanied the singing, and it sounded beautiful. "Sounds good," said Paul, "but if my mother heard you sing like that, she'd hang your ears outside the castle." Cornelia tugged at his own left ear: "An ugly ornament, for it listened to a strange tune played by a little fellow on a nine-string balis." "So you forget about finding sand in your bed," Paul said, taking a shield off the table and buckling it around his waist. "So, let's fight!" Halleck said with sneering astonishment, his eyes bulging, "Oh, so it was your wicked little hands who did it! Guard yourself today, young master . . . be on your guard." He grabbed a handful The light sword slashed a few times in the air: "I am a friend from hell who is here for revenge." Paul also raised a light sword, bent it in his hand, and stood in a good position, front and back.He put on a serious look and imitated Dr. Yue's posture, which looked very funny. "My father sent a stupid weapons instructor," Paul said, "You stupid Gurney Halleck has forgotten the first lesson in fighting." Paul turned on the energy shielding switch on his waist and felt himself from head to toe A protective field is created outside the skin of the foot. "In a shield fight, defend quickly and attack slowly," Paul said. "The only purpose of the offense is to lure the opponent into confusion and open space so that he can hit it. The shield will break up the fast attack, but it will not stop it." The slow insertion of the double-edged dagger!" Holding the light sword, Paul slashed in the air, forming an arc, and then stabbed forward slowly, with a speed just enough to break through the shield. Halleck watched Paul's movements, and at the last moment he leaned past the blade. "The pace is just right," he said, "but you're wide open and the bottom lane is vulnerable to clicks." Paul jumped back in haste and regret. "You are so careless, I should attack your rear," Halleck said, picking up a double-edged dagger from the table and holding it in his hand, "This thing in the hands of the enemy will make your life bleed ! You are a bright student, but that's all. I warned you, even in training, not to give your opponent the opportunity to surrender your life to someone else." "I think I'm in a bad mood today," Paul said. "Mood?" Halleck said with anger in his voice, even through the mask, "what does mood have to do with this? It doesn't matter what your mood is, if you need it, you have to fight! Mood is only for sex , cows, or nine-string barrys have nothing to do with wrestling." "Sorry, Gurney!" "Apologies are useless!" Halleck opened the shield on his body, bowed and raised his hands, holding a double-edged dagger in his left hand and a light sword in his right. "I said, now you have to seriously defend your own life." He leaped high to the side, forward, and suddenly, he shot at Paul. Paul stepped back, a block, the shields of the two touched and repelled each other, making a creaking sound, and he felt the electric current oscillating along his skin.What is Gurney going to do?That doesn't seem like training, Paul thought!Paul stretched out his left hand, and with a shake, the awl in the wrist sheath fell into his palm. "You feel the need to add a weapon too, huh?" Halleck whispered. Is this betrayal?Paul thought to himself, Gurney certainly wouldn't! They wrestled around the room... sprinting, parrying, feinting, counter-feeting.Due to the fierce fighting between the two sides, the air in the shield had no time to replenish. After each shield collided, the smell of ozone became stronger and stronger. Paul continued to back away, but he was now backing towards the training platform.If I can lure him to the table, Paul thought, I can outwit him.Gurney, one more step. Halleck took a step forward. Paul made a downward block, turned, and Halleck's light sword was blocked by the edge of the table.Paul dodged to the side, the light sword in his right hand was sent upwards, and the awl pointed directly at Halleck's neckline.Paul stopped the blade an inch from Halleck's jugular vein. "Is this what you want to see?" Paul asked softly. "Look down there, boy," Gurney gasped. Paul surrendered, and Halleck's dagger protruded from under the edge of the table, and the point of the knife almost touched Paul's inner thigh. "We're supposed to die together," Halleck said, "but I have to admit, you fight better when you push it. You seem to have emotions." As fierce as a wolf. Paul said: "The way you jumped at me just now is really fierce. Are you really going to kill me?" Halleck retracted the dagger, straightened up and said: "If you don't try your best at all, I will teach you a lesson and leave a scar for you to remember forever. I will never let my favorite student start Fall into the Harkonnen's trap." Paul turned off the shield and leaned against the table to catch his breath. "That's what I deserve, Gurney. But if you get me hurt, my father's going to be mad. I'm not going to let you get punished for not being myself." "As for that," Halleck said, "I'm also responsible. You don't have to worry about training injuries. You're lucky that you rarely get injured. Your father, the Duke, is only because I failed to make you a first-rate fighter." And punish me. It would be a big mistake if I didn't show you dangerous things like emotions in time." Paul straightened up and put the needle back into the wrist sheath. "It's not all drills that we're doing here," Halleck said. Paul nodded.Paul wondered, a sober nervousness, about Halleck's deadpan seriousness.He looked at the scar on Halleck's face and remembered its origin.It was hacked by Rabin the Beast in Ji Plemen's Harkonnen slave pit. Paul suddenly felt ashamed that he should have doubted Halleck.Paul thought that the scar must have hurt at the beginning, just like the test given to him by the Virgin Mary, a kind of deep-rooted pain.He shook off the thought. "I guess I wanted to have some fun today," Paul said. "Things around have been tough lately." Halleck turned away to hide his emotion.He felt a burning pain in his eyes, which was the worry in his heart. He was too nervous these days and time was pressing. How long will it take for this child to grow up?Halleck wondered how long it would take him to understand the truth, understand the cruel and careful contract from the bottom of his heart, and draw the inevitable conclusion from the necessary clues: please record the necessary procedures. Halleck turned his back to Paul and said: "I know you still love to play, young man, and I would like to accompany you too. But now is not the time to play. Tomorrow we will set off for Arrakis. Arrakis is Really, the Harkonnen are not kidding." Paul touched his forehead with the blade of his sword. Halleck turned around, saw the greeting, and nodded acquiescingly.He pointed to the human target and said, "Now, let's train your rhythm. Let me see how you conquer that thing. I control it from here, and I can see the whole process of the action. If I use a new counterattack method, I will notify you. But there will be no reminders during the real fight." Paul lifted his leg and relaxed his muscles.Life was suddenly full of change and gave him a sense of dignity.He walked to the human target, flipped the protective field switch on his chest with the tip of the sword, and felt the light saber bounce off with a force. "Defense!" Halleck yelled, and the dummy sprang at Paul. Paul parries and fires back. Halleck watched as he maneuvered.His consciousness seemed to be divided into two halves: one half paid attention to the need to train and fight, and the other half manipulated the machine. He thought: I am a well-trained fruit tree, full of well-trained emotions and abilities, bearing fruit, just waiting for someone to harvest it. For some reason, he thought of his sister, and that elf-like face was clearly imprinted in his mind.But she was no longer alive, dead in the recreation room of Harkonnen's army.She likes flowers, daisies, right?He couldn't remember, which made him very uneasy. Paul responded with a slow attack from the man target and brought his left hand out for a sneak attack. This cunning little devil!Halleck thought, paying full attention to the movement of Paul's hand.He had carefully studied and trained his hands.That's not Duncan's style, and it's not what I taught the kid. These thoughts only made him sadder.I too was emotionally contagious.he thought to himself.He began to think of Paul and wondered if the boy had heard terrible noises from the pillow at night. "If wishes were fish, we would all cast nets," he murmured. It was his mother's way of saying it, and he used it when it was cloudy or dark and dangerous, but it was kind of baffling to say it to a planet that had never known oceans or fish.