—The Stolen Journals

“You must forgive the inadequacies of this report,” the Reverend Mother Anteac wrote. “Ascribe it to the necessity for haste. I leave on the morrow for Ix, my purpose being the same one I reported in greater detail earlier. The God Emperor’s intense and sincere interest in Ix cannot be denied, but what I must recount here is the strange visit I have just had from the Ixian Ambassador, Hwi Noree.”

Anteac sat back on the inadequate stool which was the best she could manage in these spartan quarters. She sat alone in her tiny bedchamber, the space within a space which the Lord Leto had refused to change even after the Bene Gesserit warning of Tleilaxu treachery.

On Anteac’s lap lay a small square of inky black about ten millimetres on a side and no more than three millimetres thick. She wrote upon this square with a glittering needle—one word upon another, all of them absorbed into the square. The completed message would be impressed upon the nerve receptors of an acolyte-messenger’s eyes, latent there until they could be replayed at the Chapter House.

Hwi Noree posed such a dilemma!

Anteac knew the accounts of Bene Gesserit teachers sent to instruct Hwi on Ix. But those accounts left out more than they told. They raised greater questions.

What adventures have you experienced, child?

What were the hardships of your youth?

Anteac sniffed and glanced down at the waiting square of black. Such thoughts reminded her of the Fremen belief that the land of your birth made you what you were.

“Are there strange animals on your planet?” the Fremen would ask.

Hwi had come with an impressive Fish Speaker escort, more than a hundred brawny women, all of them heavily armed. Anteac had seldom seen such a display of weapons—lasguns, long knives, sliver-blades, stun-grenades…

It had been at mid-morning. Hwi had swept in, leaving the Fish Speakers to invest the Bene Gesserit quarters, all except this spartan inner room.

Anteac swept her gaze around her quarters. The Lord Leto was telling her something by keeping her here.

“This is how you measure your worth to the God Emperor!”

Except… now he sent a Reverend Mother to Ix and the avowed purpose of this journey suggested many things about the Lord Leto. Perhaps times were about to change, new honours and more melange for the Sisterhood.

Everything depends upon how well I perform.

Hwi had entered this room alone and had sat demurely on Anteac’s pallet, her head lower than that of the Reverend Mother’s. A nice touch, and no accident. The Fish Speakers obviously could have placed the two of them anywhere in any relationship Hwi commanded. Hwi’s shocking first words left little doubt of that.

“You must know at the outset that I will wed the Lord Leto.”

It had required the deep control to keep from gaping. Anteac’s truthsense told her the sincerity of Hwi’s words, but the full portent could not be assessed.