Chapter 36 Chapter Fourteen

Stilger's team returned to camp after getting lost twice in the desert.They walked out of the basin under the pale moonlight, and the figure in the robe hurried forward, smelling the smell of home.The gray light of dawn behind him was brightest in the hollow, and it was mid-autumn, Hat Rock Moon, by their horizon calendar. The dead leaves, blown by the wind, were piled at the foot of the cliff. They must have been collected by the camp children and piled there.Except for the occasional unintentional noises made by Paul and his mother, the sounds made by the procession of the whole procession merged with the sounds of nature in the dark.

Paul wiped the sweat-soaked sand from his forehead, felt a tug on his arm, and heard Cheney whisper, "Do what I told you: put the brim of your hood down over your forehead! Keep your eyes out. You lose moisture." Behind them came whispered orders for silence. "The desert heard you talking!" A bird chirped on the rocks high above them. The line stopped, and Paul suddenly felt nervous. There was a soft tapping in the rocks, a sound no louder than a mouse jumping into the sand. The birds chirped again. There was a commotion through the queue.The sound of rats beating gradually moved to the other side of the desert.

The birds chirped again. The team began to climb again, into a crack in the rock.However, there was still no sound of breathing from the Fremen.That made Paul more careful.He stole a few glances back at Cheney, who seemed to be backing away, pulling him tightly. Now that there was rock underfoot, the gray robe began to swish slightly.Paul felt that discipline had loosened a bit, but Cheney and the others remained quiet. He followed a shadow up the stairs, turned a corner, walked more stairs, entered a tunnel, passed through two moisture-tight doors, and finally entered a corridor illuminated by spherical glowing lamps, the rock walls were yellow, Overhead is the rock top.

Paul saw the Fremen around him push back their hoods, remove their nasal congestion, and take a deep breath.Someone sighed.Paul looks for Cheney and finds that she has left.He's squeezed by the robed body, and someone bumps into him, saying, "I'm sorry, Yoosok. It's crowded! It always does." To Paul's left, the narrow, bearded face of a man named Farok turned to him. In his stained eye sockets, the dark blue pupils looked even darker in the yellow light. "Take off your hood, Yuso," Farok said. "You're home." He helped Paul unfasten the straps of his hood, making room with his elbow.

Paul removed the stuffy nose and pulled the mask aside.The smell of the place hit him: the sweat of unwashed bodies, the sour smell of recycled distillates, the sour smell of human bodies everywhere.A strong mix of decaying spices and decaying spices overwhelmed all of them. "Why are we waiting, Farok?" Paul asked. "We're waiting for Our Lady, I think. You've heard the news—poor Cheney." Poor Cheney?Paul asked himself.He looked around, wondering where she was. Where was his mother in this crowded place? Farok took a deep breath. "The smell of home," he said.

Paul watched the man enjoying the air, and there was no sarcasm in his voice.He heard his mother cough, and her voice reached him through the crowded ranks: "Your camp smells so strong, Stilgar. I know you make a lot of things out of decaying spices... paper... plastic ...wouldn't that create a chemical explosion?" "You can tell that from what you smell." It was another voice. Paul could hear her speaking on his behalf, and she wanted him to accept this nostril attack quickly. There was a chattering sound from the front of the line, a drawn-out inhalation that seemed to pass through the Fremen.Paul heard hissing along the line: "So, it's true, Lyte's dead!"

Lett, thought Paul, Cheney, Lett's daughter.This intermittent message was concentrated in his mind.Lett, planetary ecologist, Freeman's name. Paul looked at Farok and asked, "Is that the Lett named Keynes?" "There's only one Lett," said Farok. Paul turned away and gazed at the back of a Fremen ahead of him.Let Keynes is dead, then, he thought. "It was the Harkonnen who broke their word," someone whispered. "They made it look like an accident...disappeared in the desert...an orthopter crashed." Paul was furious at the man who had treated them as friends, who had helped them escape the Harkonnen, who had sent his Fremen army to find the two lost men in the desert... Harkonnen Another sin of man.

"Is Yosel thirsting for revenge?" Farok asked. Before Paul could answer, a deep call came, and the whole team moved forward quickly, leading Paul into a larger room.He found himself standing in a clearing, facing Stilgar and a strange woman.She was wearing a bright orange and green fringed dress.She had light olive skin, black hair brushed back from her forehead, a hooked nose between prominent cheekbones and dark eyes. She turned to face him, and Paul saw gold earrings strung with aqua beads hanging from her ears. "This is the man who beat my Jamies?" she asked. "Be quiet, Hara," said Stilgar, "Jamis did it—he proposed Tehadi a Bha."

"He's just a child!" she said.She shook her head quickly, the water colored beads dangling back and forth. "My child was fatherless by another child! An accident, to be sure." "You Suo, how old are you?" Stilger asked. "Fifteen years old," Paul said. Stilger's eyes scanned the entire team. "Will any of you dare to challenge me?" silence. Stilger looked at the woman. "I don't want to challenge him until I learn his amazing fighting style." She looks at him. "but……" "Did you see that strange woman who went to see the Virgin with Cheny?" Stilger asked, "She is an alien Saidina, the mother of this child. Both the mother and the child can fight miraculously."

"Lisang al-Ghab," the woman whispered.Her eyes looked at Paul with fear. Another legend, Paul thought. "Perhaps," Stilger said, "however, that has been tried." He looked at Paul and said, "Youso, this is our rule, and you are now responsible for this woman and her two sons." Come. His tooth-house is yours, his coffee set is yours...and this, this woman is yours." Paul looked at the woman and asked himself: Why doesn't she mourn for her man?Why doesn't she hate me?Suddenly he saw the Fremen staring at him, waiting. Stilgar said, "Do you accept Hara as a woman, or as a servant?"

Halla raised her arms and slowly pirouetted on one heel. "I'm young, Yuso. People say I still look as young as I did with Jofer...before Jamies beat him." Jamis beat the other to get her, Paul thought. Paul said, "If I accept her as my servant, can I change my mind later?" "You have a year. In a year, you can change your decision," "After that, she's a free woman who can make her own choices. But you take responsibility for her. Anyway, for a year ... you're always going to be responsible for Jamies' The son bears some responsibility." "I accept her as my servant," Paul said. Halla stomped and shook her shoulders angrily. "I am still young!" Stilger looked at Paul and said, "Discretion is a valuable trait in a leader." "But I'm still young!" "Quiet!" Stilger ordered, "If something has value, it should. Take You Suo to his residence, and make sure that he has new clothes to wear and a place to rest." "Oh..." she said. Paul had memorized enough of her to have an initial impression.He sensed the impatience in the ranks and knew that many things were being delayed here.He wanted to know where his mother and Cheney had gone, but from Stilger's nervous look, it was a mistake. He faced Hara, raising his voice, cadenced and trilled, making her more frightened and terrified.He said, "Take me to my house, Halla! We'll talk about your youth some other time." She took two steps back and looked at Stilger in fear. "He had a horrible mysterious voice." "Stilger," Paul said, "Cheny's father put a heavy burden on my shoulders, if anything..." "It will be decided at the meeting," Stilger said, "and then you can talk." He backed away with a nod, turned and walked away, the rest of the line following him. Paul took Hara's arm, feeling how cold her flesh was, she shivered. "I won't hurt you, Hara, take me to our house," he said gently. "You're not going to drive me away at the end of the year, are you?" she said. "I know I'm not as young as I used to be." "You will be with me as long as I live," he said, letting go of her arm. "Now go. Where is our house?" She turned and led Paul down the hallway, turning a right and entering a wide tunnel, illuminated by glowing yellow lights.The stone floor of the tunnel is smooth and flat, well cleaned, without any sand. Paul walked beside her, studying her hawk-like profile as he walked. "You don't hate me, Hara?" "Why should I hate you?" She nodded to a group of children watching them from a tor on a side road.Behind the children, Paul saw the figures of adults hidden in the fabric curtains. "I... beat Jamis." "Stilger said that the funeral was held, and you are still a friend of his." She glanced at him from the side, "Stilger said, you gave the dead man water, is it true?" "yes." "That's more than I... I can do." "Don't you mourn for him?" "In mourning, I will mourn for him." They passed through an arched opening through which Paul saw men and women busily working at machines in a large and bright room.To them, it seemed extra urgent. "What are they doing there?" Paul asked. She looked back and said, "They're rushing to fill our plastic workshop quota before we flee, and we need lots of dew collectors to grow our plants." "get away?" "Until the butchers stop chasing us, or are driven from our lands." Paul staggered, feeling caught for a split second, remembering a fragment, the shadow visible in the precognitive dream, but it was displaced, like a moving montage. The scene of his precognitive dream was not what he remembered. "The Sadokars are after us." "They'll get nothing but an empty camp or two," she said. "They'll find death in the desert." "Will they find this place?" "possible." "And yet we took the time to..." He nodded toward the arched opening far behind them, "...to make dew collectors?" "Planting must continue." "What's a dew collector?" he asked. She gave him a look full of surprise. "Didn't they teach you anything? ... Where the hell are you from?" "They didn't tell me about the dew collector." "Oh!" she said.The whole conversation is in the meaning expressed by a word. "Then what are they?" "Every bush, every blade of grass you see in the sea of ​​sand," she said, "how do you think it lived when we left? Each was planted with the utmost care in its own little pit. , the pits are filled with smooth ovals of multicolored plastic, and the light turns them white. If you look down from a height, you can see that they glow in the dawn light, reflecting white light. But when When the sun is gone, the multicolored plastic becomes transparent in the dark, it cools extremely rapidly, and its surface condenses water vapor from the air, which drips down and sustains our plants." "Dew collector," he murmured, struck by the unpretentious beauty of the plan. "I will mourn Jamis in due time," she said, as if her thoughts hadn't left the issue. "James was a good man, but easily angered. He was an excellent provider, with whom the children He was a wonderful man together, and he treated Geoff's son, my firstborn, and his own son fairly, and they were equals in his eyes." She looked at Paul questioningly: "Children Will it be the same with you, Yuso?" "We don't have that problem." "but if……" "Hara!" She was startled at the rough tone in his voice. They passed another arched opening to their left and saw bright lights within. "What's being built here?" he asked. "They are repairing the looms," she said, "but they must be removed to-night." She pointed to a branch on the left, "Go here, it's the food processing and filtration suit repair workshop." She looked at Paul, "Your filtration suit looks new, if it needs repairing, I will Good at repairing filtration suits, I often work in the factory." Now, they began to run into people constantly, and they saw more and more branch openings on both sides of the tunnel.A procession of men and women passed by, carrying heavy, creaking packages that smelled strongly of decaying spices. "They don't get our water," Halla said, "or decaying spices. You can trust that." Paul looked at the opening in the tunnel wall and saw that the protruding parts were covered with thick blankets, and in the room the walls were hung with brightly colored fabrics and there were rows of sofas.The people at the cave mouth fell silent as they approached, glaring at Paul with disobedient eyes. "People are wondering you beat Jamis," Halla said. "Maybe we'll have something to prove when we settle in our new camp." "I don't like killing people." "Stilgar said that," she said, but her voice suggested she didn't believe it. Ahead of them, the plaintive singing grew louder.They came to another branch opening, wider than the other openings Paul had seen.He slowed down and looked into the room.The room was full of children sitting cross-legged on the maroon rug. Next to a white chalkboard leaning against the opposite wall stood a woman in a yellow smock holding a projector in one hand.The chalkboard was covered with figures—circles, wedges, arcs, curves and squares, streamlined shapes divided by parallel lines.The woman pointed at one drawing after another, moving the stylus as fast as she could.With the movement of her hand, the children read rhythmically. Paul listened, and the further he and Hara walked inside, the voices he heard became less and less clear. "Trees," read the children in unison, "trees, grass, dunes, wind, mountains, hills, fire, lightning, rocks, stones, dust, sand, heat, shelter, heat, full, winter, cold, empty Yes, erosion, summer, hole, day, tension, moon, night, rock cap, sand tide, slope, planting..." "Is this how you teach?" Paul asked. Her face darkened, and her voice shrieked with grief: "Let taught us that we can't stop for a moment in that. Dead Lett should not be forgotten, that's the Checobusa way." She walked to the left side of the tunnel, boarded a raised platform, parted the gauze-like orange curtain, and stood aside. "Your house is ready for you, Yuso." Before he stepped onto the platform where she was standing, Paul hesitated, feeling suddenly reluctant to be alone with this woman.It also occurred to him that he was surrounded by a way of life that could only be understood through the claim to ecological thought and values.He felt that this Freeman world was probing him, trying to tie him in its own way.He knew what was in that set—mad robots, and he felt he should avoid this war of vengeance at all costs. "This is your house," said Halla, "why should you hesitate?" Paul nodded and joined her on the platform.He lifted the curtain opposite her, felt the metal fibers in the fabric, and followed her down a short entryway and into a larger room.The room is square, about 6 meters long on each side, with a thick blue carpet on the floor, a turquoise fabric covering the rocky walls, and yellow spherical glowing lights hanging from the yellow fabric-covered roof, swinging overhead . Like an ancient tent. Halla stood before him with her left hand on her hip.He studied her face. "Kids are with a friend," she said, "and they will show up to you later by themselves." Paul scanned the room quickly to hide his uneasiness.To his left, thin curtains partially concealed another, larger room with sofas along the wall.He saw a soft breeze blowing from the air duct and saw the exit hidden behind a curtain in front of him. "Do you want me to help you take off your dialysis suit?" Halla asked. "no thanks." "Do you want me to bring food?" "yes." "There's a recovery room outside that room," she pointed, "and when you take off the dialysis suit, it's where you feel comfortable and convenient." "You said we had to get out of this camp," Paul said. "Shouldn't we pack up or something?" "We'll pack it in time," she said, "butchers will have to pass through our neighboring areas." Still hesitating, she looked at him. "You don't have Ibad's eyes yet," she said, "and, oddly enough, not entirely unattractive." "Get food," he said, "I'm hungry." She smiled at him.He found a woman's smile unsettling. "I am your servant," she said.She spun briskly and ran out, ducking her head through a heavy wall curtain.Before the curtain fell back into place, Paul saw another passage. Angry with himself, Paul passed through the thin curtain on the right into the larger room, where he stood for a moment, restless.He wondered where Cheney was... Cheney had just lost her father. We're alike in that, he thought. There was a cry in the corridor outside, and its sound became faint because of the curtain.Another cry, this time a little farther away.Another sound.Paul realizes that someone is telling the time.He noticed the fact that he hadn't seen the clock. The slight smell of burning creosote bushes entered his nostrils, drowning out the omnipresent stench of the camp.Paul knew he was used to the smell of camp. He wonders again about his mother, the moving picture of the future always mixing her with the daughter she gave birth to. The ever-changing consciousness of time haunted him, and he shook his head rapidly, focusing on the evidence.Such evidence speaks to the depth and breadth of the Freeman culture that has consumed them. It's amazing. He had seen these holes and this room in his dreams, but what he saw was far different from what he had encountered. There are no traces of detectors, nor anywhere within the cave to suggest they were used.Yet he could smell the poison in the stench of this camp—the more poisonous and the less poisonous. He heard a rustling of curtains, thought it was Hara returning with food, and turned to look at her.But, through a curtain of a different pattern, he saw two little boys—one about nine and one ten—looking at him greedily.Each boy wears a Kandija-style howling blade at his waist, with his hand resting on the handle. Paul thought back to the stories of the Fremen—their children fought as fiercely as adults.