Chatt nodded back. How Liet kept all of them - mostly - in line was a miracle. In fact, he wouldn't if not for the prophecy of his father, Umma Kynes, that had started the effort that was uniting them. Before that, the Fremen had been one people only vaguely, from occasion to occasion. Even now thou...

The young man looked familiar to her in some ways. The intent in his eyes was clearly sexual and the heart wrenching singing seemed to be a form of wooing. On some level, no-Cuyler felt she could reciprocate that, but there was also something else, a strong sense of belonging and kinship that was de...

The pain eased, true, but something happened to his mind as well. The canyon seemed sharper at the edges but blurred on surfaces. The world with boundaries, defining lines. A question appeared in his awareness: what would you do, being them?

"Hard to eliminate. Some sietches in this area are abandoned. Maybe they took one?" Stilgar was deep in thought, but never truly abandoning alertness. "They haven't built anything east of Wind Pass for many years."

"I think we should release them, but keep their equipment. Smugglers can be a nuisance, but they are not our enemies. We don't need a feud with them." He shrugged. "If they return, they don't know the sietch below, they haven't seen the catch basins. Taking their water will not stop them from coming...

"Mudir Nahya." Stilgar's wild beard pressed against the catchtube as his jaw locked. "It is Harkonnen then. The desert is infinite, but the rock isn't. We can find the place, but it may take weeks, less if more naibs commit, more if it is well-hidden, and less if God wills it. You won't be here this...

It felt... like another life. "My mother was slicing the portyguls when the slavers came! They brought stunners, batons and chains! I saw my young sister flee, but they caught her and tied! The children were sent to get pearls with small knives and rocks on their ankles! They denied us the hajj!" It...

Stilgar wanted to speak back but bit his tongue, took a deep breath, and nodded.

"Go get Shishakli and Chani, Ahmina. We will see what this is about."

"They can take a thopter and go check, naib." Chatt said to Rajifiri. "Stilgar's mistakes are on him." Rajifiri frowned. "Four thopters have been taken so one is Stilgar's." He relented a little too quickly. Was he afraid of opposing Chatt publicly? If he was too forceful in suppressing him, he coul...

Stilgar frowned. "Harkonnen are not stupid. Those who taught so are dead." He had had the same admonition for Ahmina: assuming wasn't the same as knowing. Minds could deceive themselves to think whatever they want. "If they take great risks as you say, there must be a great reward they can't get ano...

Spice never tasted exactly the same, especially for someone of her palate. This time it was spicy fermented quaraa eggs, from Harmonthep. Harmonthep ... what was the significant of that planet? Still hazed by her random thoughts that left her both exhilarated and confused, in a state of mind that se...

"So they clash over who will be draining spice that belongs to Shai-hulud." Chat shrugged. "I know, I know, these new offworlders seem to be slightly better. Not sure if those who have sent them are, and if they are just pawns. You haven't come to discuss them though? It's about smugglers?"

"Clown." Kinet said with contempt. "I'd rather watch a stinky Tleilaxu performing. Write down what you want."

"And you assume this operation is somewhere here."

He glanced at Ahmina. Stilgar didn't understand the politics of the Imperium so he picked out the parts he understood.

"Why would they mine spice secretly if the Emperor wants them to do it openly?"

This answer satisfied Stilgar, though not the rationale for the whole endeavour. He understood Harkonnen outmatched them in resources and experience, so folly was an expected move. "Do you know what you are looking for?"

"Hm. We shall see." Stilgar forced himself to look away from Cuyler. He noticed their pilot sleeping in the thopter. "I see four, and Mapes. Where is the rest of you?"

"You think you can disobey Liet, Stilgar, because his daughter is in your tribe? His son is in Abumojandis' tribe and he doesn't disobey!" "Careful, Rajifiri." Stilgar retorted. "This is what Liet wishes." "This is was the Shadout says Liet wishes, if it's even her! If abu naib commands, I listen. b...

"Buzmali, hah? That's an interesting name." Stilgar measured Bomilcar with his gaze. "You are water-fat, but are you cold enough?" He allowed himself a chuckle, but a good-natured one, without mocking. It could indicate that he liked it. "Easy, Buzmali. You hop from subject to subject like a muad'di...

"It has never been since the Harkonnen came. Why now then? Their terror doesn't offend those offworlders, but one hidden spice facility might?"

He paused.

"The same we met and traded with? That thopter was a good one. It was a good trade."

"She says she's with your offworlders, in the rocks of the False Wall West, across the Habbanya Erg. She's helping them because the Arrakeen witch has asked her to, but Liet has allowed it. Some of them have escaped from the Harkonnen with her, the rest is at their Wind Pass base. They think there i...

"Ah, so they just wanted to eliminate trespassers. What did they want to hide?"

Stilgar raised his hand, a signal for the two in the rocks above to stay put, but those present would see it as a way to stop this line of conversation in the private language of the Fremen. "I am Stilgar, naib of Sietch Tabr. Ahmina has told me a few things about you. You have called on us because ...

No. That's not right. Every ingredient must be in place. Everything mixed and bound together. Then it's complete. Place? Ingredient? Her mystical streak mocked such terms. As convenient approximations of systems that didn't exist until you carved them, doing violence onto a seamless, moving univers...

It was just after dawn when an unmarked thopter had quietly landed about a mile away from the canyon; and four people approached it quietly, unbeknownst to its current occupants. Once the state of affairs from the distrans was confirmed, two of them descended into it. "Subakh ul kuhar." A tubal voic...