What a painful decision! He experienced a new sympathy for the Bene Gesserit. His quandary was akin to the one they had experienced when they had confronted the fact of Muad’Dib. The ultimate goal of their breeding programme—my father—they could not contain him, either.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, he thought, and he suppressed a wry smile at his own histrionics.

CHAPTER XLIV

Given enough time for the generations to evolve, the predator produces particular survival adaptations in its prey which, through the circular operation of feedback, produce changes in the predator which again change the prey, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera… Many powerful forces do the same thing. You can count religions among such forces.

—The Stolen Journals

“The Lord has commanded me to tell you that your daughter lives.”

Nayla delivered the message to Moneo in a singsong voice, looking down across the workroom table at his figure seated there amidst a chaos of notes and papers and communications instruments.

Moneo pressed his palms together firmly and looked down at the elongated shadow drawn on his table by late afternoon sunlight across the jewelled tree of his paperweight.

Without looking up at Nayla’s stocky figure standing at proper attention in front of him, he asked: “Both of them have returned to the Citadel?”

“Yes.”

Moneo looked out of the window to his left, not really seeing the flinty borderline of darkness hanging on the Sareer’s horizon nor the greedy wind collecting sand grains from every dunetop.

“That matter which we discussed earlier?” he asked.

“It has been arranged.”

“Very well.” He waved to dismiss her, but Nayla remained standing in front of him. Surprised, Moneo actually focused on her for the first time since she had entered.

“Is it required that I personally attend this…” she swallowed, “… wedding?”

“The Lord Leto has commanded it. You will be the only one there armed with a lasgun. It is an honour.”

She remained in position, her gaze fixed somewhere over Moneo’s head.

“Yes?” he prompted.

Nayla’s great lantern jaw worked convulsively, then: “He is God and I am mortal.” She turned on one heel and left the workroom.

Moneo wondered vaguely what was bothering that hulking Fish Speaker, but his thoughts turned like a compass arrow to Siona.

She has survived as I did. Siona now had an inner sense which told her that the Golden Path remained unbroken. As I have. He found no sense of sharing in this, nothing to make him feel closer to his daughter. It was a burden and it would inevitably curb her rebellious nature. No Atreides could go against the Golden Path. Leto had seen to that!

Moneo remembered his own rebel days. Every night a new bed and the constant urge to run. The cobwebs of his past clung to his mind, sticking there no matter how hard he tried to shake away troublesome memories.

Siona has been caged. As I was caged. As poor Leto was caged.

The tolling of the nightfall bell intruded on his thoughts and activated his workroom’s lights. He looked down at the work still undone in preparation for the God Emperor’s wedding to Hwi Noree. So much work! Presently, he pressed a call button and asked the Fish Speaker acolyte who appeared at the summons to bring him a tumbler of water and then call Duncan Idaho to the workroom.