Chapter 31 Chapter nine

"Get their water," said the one who cried out in the night.Fighting back his fear, Paul took one look at his mother, his trained eyes saw that she was ready to fight, her muscles ready to pounce. "It's a shame we had to destroy you," said the voice above them. That was the first person to speak to us, Jessica thought, and there were at least two of them—one to our right and one to our left. “Cignoro hrobosa sukares hin mange la pchagavas doi me kamavas na beslas lele pal hrobas!” Here's the man to their right, speaking out loud on the other side of the basin.

To Paul, these words were inexplicable.However, because Jessica had been trained by Bee Geist, she understood the meaning of the words.This is Chicobusa, one of the ancient hunting languages.The man above them is saying: Maybe these two are the strangers we're looking for. After the shout, there was a sudden silence.A circle of moon--slightly ivory-tinged--rolled over the rocks from the side of the basin, bright and now and again. From the other side of the rock came the sound of climbing--up and to the sides--and many black shadows were running in the gloom. The whole team!Paul thought.He suddenly felt a sharp pain.

A tall man in a mottled coat came up to Jessica.The covering over his mouth has been pushed aside so that he can speak clearly; his thick beard is exposed in the moonlight, but his face and eyes are hidden in an upside-down hood. "What's in here—fairy or man?" he asked. Jessica heard real mockery in his voice, and she gave herself a glimmer of hope.It was a majestic sound, raised in the night, that startled them. "I'm sure it's a human being," said the man. Jessica didn't see it so much as she heard the knife concealed in the folds of the man's robes.She was extremely sorry that neither Paul nor she had blocked it.

"You can also talk?" the man asked. Jessica puts all the arrogance and arrogance of the royal family she has mastered into her manner and voice.The answer was urgent, but she hadn't heard enough from the man for her to know his culture and vulnerabilities for sure. "Who is following us like criminals in the night?" she asked. The man in the coat and hood twitches suddenly, tense, and then slowly relaxes.That revealed a lot about him, that he was extremely in control. Paul moved away from his mother, splitting them into two targets to give each of them a wider playing field.

The hooded figure turned his head to watch Paul's movements, the narrow part of his face exposed in the moon.Jessica saw a pointed nose, a bright eye - black with no white, and a dark brown, upturned mustache. "A lovely lad," said the man, "if you were refugees from the Harkonnen you might be welcome. Is that so, boy?" Possibilities flashed across Paul's mind: Conspiracy?fact?Both require immediate decisions. "Why do you welcome refugees?" Paul asked. "A child who thinks and talks like a grown-up," said the tall man. "Well, now I'll answer your question, young man. I'm a man who doesn't pay Harkonnen taxes, and that's how I welcome refugees reason."

He knows who we are, Paul thought.There was some hint in his voice. "I'm Stilgar, a Fremen," said the tall one. "Will that make you tell the truth, boy?" Still the same voice, Paul thought.Paul remembered being with this man at a meeting to find a friend who had been killed by the Harkonnen. "I know you, Stilgar," Paul said. "I was at my father's meeting when you came to find water for your friend. You took one of my father's men, Duncan Idaho —in exchange for a friend.” "Idaho deserted us, he went back to his duke," Stilgar said.

Jessica recognized his disguise and prepared to attack. A voice in the rock above them called, "We're wasting our time here, Stilgar." "This is the duke's son," Stilgar roared. "He must be the one Lett wants us to find." "But... it's a child, Stilgar." "The duke was a grown man and this guy was using drumsticks," Stilger said. "That was a brave leap he made on the road in the desert." Jessica could hear him mentally excluding her. Had he made that decision? "We don't have time to test it," protested the voice above them.

"However, he may be Lisang al-Ghab," Stilgar said. He was looking for an omen!thought Jessica. "But that woman..." said a voice above them. Jessica braced herself again, death in the voice. "Yes, the woman," Stilgar said, "and her water." "You know the rules," said the voice from the rock, "who can't live with the desert..." "Shut up," said Stilgar, "times have changed." "Did Lett order this?" asked the voice from the rock. "Have you heard the voice of the Winged Messenger, Jamis?" Stilgar said. "Why are you pressing me?"

Jessica thought: Winged Messenger!This word has a broad understanding.This is the language of theology and religious law, and the winged messenger refers to a bat, a small flying animal.Voice of Winged Messenger: They have received the message from the neural imprinting device to find Paul and herself. "I have to remind you of your duty, friend, Stilgar," said the voice above them. "My duty is to increase the power of the tribe," said Stilgar, "and that is the only duty I have, and I need no one to remind me. I am interested in this little lord, who is fully grown, and who relies on many water Life. He lives far from his father's sun, and he has no eyes of Ibad, yet he does not talk and act like those soft eggs in the Arrakis Depression, nor does his father. How is that possible?"

"We can't stay here all night arguing," said the voice from the rock, "if a sparrow..." "I won't tell you any more, Jamies. Be quiet!" said Stilgar. The man above them was silent, but Jessica heard him move, and leaped across the narrow passage, across the basin below, to their right. "The voice of the Winged Messenger indicates that it would be in our interest to save you both," Stilgar said, "from this strong little man. He is young and can learn. But how about yourself, madam?" He Staring at Jessica. I memorized his voice and pattern, Jessica thought, and I could hold him with one word.However, he is a strong man, not stupid, with complete freedom of movement, and has more value to us.I will take a look.

"I am the mother of this child," Jessica said, "and what you appreciate is his strength, which was partly trained by me." "A woman's strength can be limitless," Stilgar said, "and in an awesome person, it certainly is. Are you an awesome mother?" Jessica brushed aside what the question suggested and replied sincerely, "No." "Did you train in the way of the desert?" "No. But many people think there is value in the way I train." "As for the value, we will judge for ourselves." Stilger said. "Every man is entitled to his own judgment," she said. "That's good, you understand," Stilgar said. "We can't stay here and examine you, ma'am. Do you understand? We don't want your shadow to bother us, and I'll take this little lord, your son Take it away. In my tribe, he'll have my support and protection. But you, madam—you know, it's not a matter of individuals, it's the rule, the rule of the general public good. Is it enough?" Paul took half a step forward. "What are you talking about?" Stilger glanced at Paul, still focusing on Jessica. "You may bring destruction to the entire tribe, unless you have lived here since childhood and received strict training. This is the rule, and we cannot break it unless..." Jessica pretended to fall down and pass out, the obvious move an outsider would do.This obvious action slowed down the other party's actions.When an unknown thing is revealed, it takes only a split second to explain a known thing.When she saw his right shoulder slump to draw his weapon in the folds of his robes, pointing to her new position, she moved a bit, turned around, swung his arms, twisted the twisted robes, and leaned against the On the rock, the man leaned helplessly in front of her. As his mother made his move, Paul took two steps back and rushed into the darkness.A bearded figure stood in his way, half crouching, leaping forward with a weapon in one hand.Paul grabbed the man just below the breastbone, and punched him with a straight hand, dodged to the side, and slashed at the base of his neck.As he fell, Paul snatched his weapon. Then Paul ran into the darkness and climbed up the rock, weapon tucked in his belt.Although unfamiliar with its shape, he recognized it as a projectile weapon.This illustrates another clue to the many rumors about this place, namely that no shielding is used here. They're going to focus on my mother and that Stilgar guy, and she can handle them.I had to get to a safe and favorable place where I could threaten them and give her time to escape. There was a harsh click of springs from the basin, the whine of bullets against the rocks around him, and one of them flicked his robes lightly.Squeezing around the corner of the rock, he found himself crawling into a narrow vertical crevice and began to climb up little by little—his back against the wall on one side, his feet on the other. —— Climb slowly, making as little noise as possible. He heard Stilgar's roar echoing in the basin: "Back back, you sand lizard-headed bastards! She'll break my neck if you come near." Another voice came from the basin: "The boy ran away, Stilgar. We..." "Of course he got away, you lizard-headed... oh... relax, ma'am!" "Tell them not to chase my son," Jessica said. "They've stopped chasing, ma'am. He's gone, as you wished. My God! Why don't you say you're a terrible woman and a fighter?" "Tell your men to back off," Jessica said. "Tell them all to come out into the basin so I can see them...you better believe I know how many there are." She thought: This is a rare opportunity, and if this person is as quick-minded as I think, we have another chance. Inch by inch Paul climbed up and found a narrow tor.On that tor he could rest and see the basin below.He heard Stilgar's voice below. "What if I say no? How about you... oh... just do it, ma'am! We didn't mean to hurt you. My God, if you could beat the strongest of us like this, you'd be worth ten times as much as you of water." Now, here's the test, Jessica thought.She said, "You send your regards to Lisan al-Ghab." "You may be a figure of legend," he said, "but I'll believe it when he's put to the test. I know you came here with that foolish duke... Alas! Ma'am! I don't care Did you kill me! He is respectable and brave, but it would be foolish to put yourself in Harkonnen's fist!" silence! After a while Jessica said, "He has no choice, but we won't argue about it. Now, tell your man hiding behind the bushes not to try to bring up a weapon against me, or I'll have you He will be the next one." "You," Stilger roared, "do as she says!" "But, Stilger..." "Do as she says, you lizard-faced, crawling, sand-headed, four-legged snake shit! Do as she says, or I'll help her dismember you. Can't you see this woman value?" The man by the bushes straightened up from his half-hidden position, lowering his weapon. "He has done as you said," Stilgar said. "Now," Jessica said, "explain to your people what you want from me, and that I don't want a young hot head making stupid mistakes." "When we slipped into villages and cities, we had to hide our identities and mingle with the people of the lowlands and ravines," Stilgar said, "and we carried no weapons, because the sand lizard knives were sacred. But Madame, you have miraculous powers of war. We have only heard of them, and many doubts. But one cannot doubt what one has seen. You have commanded an armed Fremen, a weapon that cannot be found .” As soon as Stilger's voice fell, there was a commotion in the basin. "If I promise to teach you... the magical method?" "I will support you as I support your son." "How can I trust your promise?" Stilger's voice was no longer cunning and sophistry, but became serious. "Going out here, ma'am, we don't have paper to write contracts on. We don't make promises at night and break them at dawn. When a man promises something, that's a contract. As the leader of my people, I have Make them bound by my words. Teach us this wondrous way of fighting, and you will be under our shelter as long as you will. Your waters will blend with ours." "Can you speak for the Fremen?" Jessica asked. "For a while, maybe. But only my brother, Lett, can represent all the Fremen. Here, I guarantee only one secret, and my people will not tell any other camp people. Your business. Harkonnen's force has returned to the dunes, and your duke is dead. Rumor has it that you both perished in a great storm. Hunters do not follow dead game." That would be safe, Jessica thought, but these people had good communication facilities and could send any message. "I think we should get paid," she said. Stilgar remained silent.She could almost see his thoughts turning and feel his muscles move under his hands. After a while, he said, "I repeat, I have spoken to my tribe, and my people know your worth now. What can the Harkonnen give us? Our freedom? Ha, no. You are of great worth, and buying us yourself is worth more than all the decaying spices in the Harkonnen's treasury." "Then I'll teach you how to fight," Jessica said.She felt a strong unconscious formality in her words. "Now, are you willing to let me go?" "Just do it," Jessica said.She let him go and took a step aside, keeping her eyes fully on the sloping bank of the basin.It's a rare attempt, she thought, but Bao Sui must know them, even if I die for his knowledge. In the waiting silence, Paul moved forward slowly to get a better view of where his mother was standing.As he moved, he heard heavy breathing, followed by a sudden stillness. In the vertical cleft above him he felt a vague shadow cast by the starlight. Stilger's voice came from the basin: "You are right there! Don't get close to that boy, he will come down soon." In the darkness above Paul, the voice of a young boy or girl said, "But, he may not be far away..." "I say, let him stay there, Cheney! You, four-legged snake's claw!" A low curse came from Paul's head, and a deep voice said, "Call me the claw of the four-legged snake!" But the shadow drew back and was gone. Returning his attention to the basin, Paul could make out the gray figure of Stilgar moving beside his mother. "Come here, all of you," Stilger called.He turned to Jessica. "I ask you, how are you going to close your half of the deal with us? You're a man who lives with paperwork and empty contracts, as if..." "We Bi-Gisters will not break our word just like you," Jessica said. There was another long silence, followed by hisses: "Witch Bee Geist!" Paul drew the captured weapon and practiced against Stilgar's shadow.However, the man and his companions still stared at Jessica motionlessly. "This is a fairy tale!" someone said. "It is said that Shadout Mapes reported about you," Stilgar said, "but something of this importance should be investigated. If you are the legendary Bee Gist, her son will lead us to heaven..." She said, "The seer who brought you tales told tales bound by miracles and eternal prophecies, I know that. Would you like to see omens?" His nostrils flickered in the moonlight, and he whispered, "We can't wait for the ceremony." Jessica remembered a diagram she had seen when arranging an emergency escape route, which seemed like a long time ago.There is a place called "Teb Camp" on the picture, and there is a note next to it: "Stilger". "Maybe by the time we get to Tebu camp," she said. The accident shocked him.Jessica thought: If only he knew the tactics we used!She must have done a good job, the kind of weapon that Bee Geist had for the primordial world's charisma.These Fremen are more than ready to trust us. Stilger moved restlessly. "We should go now." She nodded to let him know that she had allowed them to go. He looked up at Paul, who had been crouching on the tor above the overhang. "Boy, you can come down now." He turned his attention to Jessica again, and said in an apologetic tone, "Your son made a lot of noise climbing up, and he has a lot to learn. in case he puts us all at risk. He's young, though." "We have a lot to learn from each other, no doubt," said Jessica. "In the meantime, you'd better take care of your companions over there, my slovenly son was a bit rough when he disarmed him." Stilgar turned around. "Where?" "Behind those bushes," she pointed. Stilger said to his two men: "Go and see." He scanned his companions one by one with his eyes. "James is gone." He turned to Jessica. "Even your lad knows how to use that magic trick." "You will notice my son crouching still while you give the order." The two men sent by Stilger came back, and they supported a man.The man staggered between them, panting.Stilgar glanced at the man, then at Jessica. "Your son only obeys your orders? Well, he knows discipline." "Paul, you can come down now," Jessica said. Paul stood up, stepped out into the moonlight through the crack of his concealment, and slipped the captured Fremen weapon into his belt.As he turned, another figure emerged from the rock, facing him. In the reflection of moonlight and gray stone, Paul saw a thin figure in Freeman's robes, a shadowed face peering at him from under the hood, the muzzle of a firing gun aimed at him through the folds of the robes. "My name is Cheney, Lett's daughter." The voice rose gradually, with a tinge of ridicule. "I will not allow you to hurt my companion," she said. Paul took a nervous breath, and the person in front of him flashed into a moonlit road.He saw a mischievous face, with dark eyes.A familiar face, the hallmark of those countless visions in his earliest prophetic dreams.Surprised, Paul stood there motionless.He remembered the exasperating frivolity, the way he had described the face in his dream once, to the Virgin Keith Helen Mohiam. "I will definitely see her." This is the face, but I didn't expect to see it here. "You make as loud a noise as the desert makes when it rages," she said. "You took the hardest way to get here. Come with me, and I'll show you the easier way down." He crawled out of the crack and followed her fluttering robes across the undulating lot.She ran like an antelope dancing on a rock.Paul felt the blood rushing to his face, grateful for the darkness. that girl!She floated on the waves like the torch of fate, mingling with the movement that lifted his spirits. After a while, they stood with the Fremen in the basin. Jessica smiled wryly at Paul, but said to Stilgar, "It's going to be a good deal. I hope you and your people won't be mad at our violence. Seems...necessary. You're about to ...make mistakes." "Saving someone from their mistakes is a gift to heaven," said Stilger.Touching his mustache with his left hand, he drew the weapon from Paul's waist with his right hand and threw it to one of his companions. "You'll have your own launcher, lad, when you get it." Paul wanted to start talking, but hesitated.He remembered his mother's teaching: "Beginning cautiously." "My son has the weapons he needs," Jessica said.She stared at Stilgar and made him think about how Paul got the firing gun. Stilgar glanced at the man Paul conquered——James.The man stood aside, head bowed, breathing heavily. "You are a difficult woman," Stilger said.He held out his left hand to a companion and snapped his fingers: "Kushti bakka te." Chicobusa again, Jessica thought. The companion put two square pieces of tulle into Stilgar's hands.Stilgar let them pass through his fingers, tied one piece of tulle around Jessica's neck under the hood, and tied the other around Paul's neck in the same way. "Now you have Bacca's handkerchief tied on," he said. "If we part, you will be identified as belonging to Camp Stilgar. We shall return to the matter of weapons sometime in the future." He walked over, through his group, surveyed them, and handed Paul's Freeman backpack to one of them. Bacca, Jessica thought.She remembered that it was a religious term: baka—one who weeps.She knew that the handkerchief symbolized the unity of the gang.Why does crying unite them?she asked herself. Cheney touched Paul's arm. "Come with me, little man." Paul hid the anger in his voice and said, "My name is Paul, and you'd better..." "We'll give you a name, man," Stilgar said, "when it comes to the adult test, the intelligence test." Intelligence test, translated by Jessica.The power Paul desperately needed outweighed all other considerations.She exclaimed, "My son has been tested by Gomujapa." In the silence that followed she knew she had shocked him. "There's still a lot we don't know about each other," said Stilgar, "but we've delayed so long that the daytime sun shouldn't find us out in the open." He walked up to the man Paul had beaten and said, "James, can you still go?" Jamis replied in a low voice, "He surprised me. It was an accident. I was able to go." "No accident," Stilgar said. "I put you and Cheney in charge of that boy's safety, Jamies. These people need my protection." Jessica stared at the man named Jamis, the man who had quarreled with Stilgar among the rocks, and there was death in his voice.Stilgar seized the opportunity and emphasized his order to this Jamis. Stilger scanned his team with scrutiny and gestured for the two to come over. "Larousse, Farouk, you cover our tracks and take charge of leaving no trace. Be extra careful—we have two more untrained." He turned, holding up Pointing to the other side of the basin with his hand, "Use the squad as a unit to form a side guard formation - set off. We will arrive at Regis Cave before dawn." Jessica walked beside Stilgar and counted, there were 40 Fremen, including the two of them, a total of 42 people.She thought: They're like a military company on the march—even that little girl, Cheney. Paul walked into the queue, behind Cheney.He had suppressed the gloomy feeling the girl caused.At this moment, all that remained in his mind were his mother's yelling words: "My son has been tested by Gomujapa." He found a painful tingling in his hand that he remembered. "Watch the way you go," Cheney whispered, "and don't touch the bushes, lest you leave marks that show we walked this way." Paul swallowed and nodded. Jessica listened to the voices at the front of the procession, and heard her own and Paul's footsteps, walking the way the Fremen walked.Forty of them walked across the basin, making the sounds of nature befitting the place - little sailboats like ghosts, their robes skittering and leaving a trail of shadows.Their destination was Teb Camp - Stilgar's camp. She weighed the word over and over in her head—camp.This is Chicobusan, the ancient hunting language that has remained unchanged for countless centuries.Camp - A place to gather in times of danger.The word, and its long-standing meaning, began to be remembered by her after the tension of their encounter had passed. "We're walking fast," Stilger said. "If Shashulud (Sand Lizard) allows us, we can reach Regis Cave before dawn." Jessica nodded, conserving her strength.She felt the fatigue she controlled through the force of will... she acknowledged the fatigue, but tried to look refreshed.She concentrated on thinking about the value of this team and saw the Freeman culture revealed here. All of them, she thought, a whole nation trained to obey orders, how valuable that was to the displaced duke!