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contractions in her vagina . . . outward . . . outward. The ecstasy engulfed
her entire sensorium. She saw a spreading blaze of whiteness against her
eyelids. Every muscle quivered with an ecstasy she had not imagined possible
for herself.
Again, the waves spread outward.
Again and again . . .
She lost count of the repetitions.
When Duncan moaned, she moaned and the waves swept outward once more.
And again . . .
There was no sensation of time or surroundings, only this immersion in a
continuing ecstasy.
She wanted it to go on forever and she wanted it to stop. This should not be
happening to a female! An Honored Matre must not experience this. These were
the sensations by which men were governed.
Duncan emerged from the response pattern that had been implanted in him. There
was something else he was supposed to do. He could not remember what it was.
Lucilla?
He imagined her dead in front of him. But this woman was not Lucilla; this was
. . . this was Murbella.
There was very little strength in him. He lifted himself off Murbella and
managed to sink back onto his knees. Her hands were fluttering in an agitation
he could not understand.
Murbella tried to push Duncan away from her and he was not there. Her eyes
snapped open.
Duncan knelt above her. She had no idea how much time had passed. She tried to
find the energy to sit up and failed. Slowly, reason returned.
She stared into Duncan's eyes, knowing now who this man must be. Man? He was
only a youth. But he had done things . . . things . . . All of the Honored
Matres had been warned. There was a ghola armed with forbidden knowledge by the
Tleilaxu. That ghola must be killed!
A small burst of energy surged into her muscles. She raised herself on her
elbows. Gasping for breath, she tried to roll away from him and fell back to
the soft surface.
By the Holy Rock of Dur! This male could not be permitted to live! He was a
ghola and he could do things permitted only to Honored Matres. She wanted to
strike out at him and, at the same time, she wanted to pull him back onto her
body. The ecstasy! She knew that whatever he asked of her at this moment she
would do. She would do it for him.
No! I must kill him!
Once more, she raised herself onto her elbows and, from there, managed to sit
up. Her weakened gaze crossed the window where she had confined the Great
Honored Matre and the guide. They still stood there looking at her. The man's
face was flushed. The face of the Great Honored Matre was as unmoving as the
Rock of Dur itself.
How can she just stand there after what she has seen here? The Great Honored
Matre must kill this ghola!
Murbella beckoned to the woman behind the plaz and rolled toward the locked door
beside the sleeping pad. She barely managed to unbolt and open the door before
falling back. Her eyes looked up at the kneeling youth. Sweat glistened on his
body. His lovely body . . .
No!
Desperation drove her off onto the floor. She was on her knees there and then,
mostly by will power, she stood. Energy was returning but her legs trembled as
she staggered around the foot of the sleeping pad.
I will do it myself without thinking. I must do it.
Her body swayed from side to side. She tried to steady herself and aimed a blow
at his neck. She knew this blow from long hours of practice. It would crush
the larynx. The victim would die of asphyxiation.
Duncan dodged the blow easily, but he was slow . . . slow.
Murbella almost fell beside him but the hands of the Great Honored Matre saved
her.
"Kill him," Murbella gasped. "He's the one we were warned about. He's the
one!"
Murbella felt hands on her neck, the fingers pressing fiercely at the nerve
bundles beneath the ears.
The last thing Murbella heard before unconsciousness was the Great Honored Matre
saying: "We will kill no one. This ghola goes to Rakis."
The worst potential competition for any organism can come from its own kind.
The species consumes necessities. Growth is limited by that necessity which is
present in the least amount. The least favorable condition controls the rate of
growth. (Law of the Minimum)
-From "Lessons of Arrakis"
The building stood back from a wide avenue behind a screen of trees and
carefully tended flowering hedges. The hedges had been staggered in a maze
pattern with man-high white posts to define the planted areas. No vehicle
entering or leaving could do so at any speed above a slow crawl. Teg's military
awareness took all of this in as the armored groundcar carried him up to the
door. Field Marshal Muzzafar, the only other occupant in the rear of the car,
recognized Teg's assessment and said:
"We're protected from above by a beam enfilading system." A soldier in
camouflage uniform with a long lasgun on a sling over one shoulder opened the
door and snapped to attention as Muzzafar emerged.
Teg followed. He recognized this place. It was one of the "safe" addresses
Bene Gesserit Security had provided for him. Obviously, the Sisterhood's
information was out of date. Recently out of date, though, because Muzzafar
gave no indication that Teg might know this place.
As they crossed to the door, Teg noted that another protective system he had
seen on his first tour of Ysai remained intact. It was a barely noticeable
difference in the posts along the trees-and-hedges barriers. Those posts were
scanlyzers operated from a room somewhere in the building. Their diamond-shaped
connectors "read" the area between them and the building. At the gentle push of
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