"Frank Herbert - Dune 5 - Heretics of Dune (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

awareness in each of those worms. Or so we are led to believe.

Schwangyu nodded toward the child on the lawn below them. "Do you think their
ghola will be able to influence the girl who controls the worms?"

We're peeling away the skin at last, Lucilla thought. She said: "I have no
need for the answer to such a question."

"You are a cautious one," Schwangyu said.

Lucilla arched her back and stretched. Cautious? Yes, indeed! Taraza had
warned her: "Where Schwangyu is concerned, you must act with extreme caution
but with speed. We have a very narrow window of time within which we can
succeed."

Succeed at what? Lucilla wondered. She glanced sideways at Schwangyu. "I
don't see how the Tleilaxu could succeed in killing eleven of these gholas. How
could they get through our defenses?"

"We have the Bashar now," Schwangyu said. "Perhaps he can prevent disaster."
Her tone said she did not believe this.

Mother Superior Taraza had said: "You are the Imprinter, Lucilla. When you get
to Gammu you will recognize some of the pattern. But for your task you have no
need for the full design."
"Think of the cost!" Schwangyu said, glaring down at the ghola, who now
squatted, pulling at tufts of grass.

Cost had nothing to do with it, Lucilla knew. The open admission of failure was
much more important. The Sisterhood could not reveal its fallibility. But the
fact that an Imprinter had been summoned early -- that was vital. Taraza had
known the Imprinter would see this and recognize part of the pattern.

Schwangyu gestured with one bony hand at the child, who had returned to his
solitary play, running and tumbling on the grass.

"Politics," Schwangyu said.

No doubt Sisterhood politics lay at the core of Schwangyu's heresy, Lucilla
thought. The delicacy of the internal argument could be deduced from the fact
that Schwangyu had been put in charge of the Keep here on Gammu. Those who
opposed Taraza refused to sit on the sidelines.

Schwangyu turned and looked squarely at Lucilla. Enough had been said. Enough
had been heard and screened through minds trained in Bene Gesserit awareness.
The Chapter House had chosen this Lucilla with great care.

Lucilla felt the older woman's careful examination but refused to let this touch
that innermost sense of purpose upon which every Reverend Mother could rely in
times of stress. Here. Get her look fully upon me. Lucilla turned and set her