face it was to have that threat in it. So … so evenly featured. Almost plain. Such a small figure. This amplified the peril Rebecca sensed. What powers the small woman must have to rule these terrible people.
“Do you know why you are here?” Great Honored Matre demanded.
In her most obsequious tones, Rebecca said: “I was told, O Great Honored Matre, that you wished me to recount the lore of Truthsay and other matters of Gammu.”
“You were mated to a Truthsayer!” It was accusation.
“He is dead, Great Honored Matre.”
“No, Logno!” This was directed at the aide who lunged forward with the goad. “This wretch does not know our ways. Now, go stand at the side, Logno, where I will not be annoyed by your impetuosity.”
“You will speak to me only in response to questions or when I command it, wretch!” Great Honored Matre shouted.
Rebecca cringed.
Speaker whispered in Rebecca’s head: That was almost Voice. Be warned.
“Have you ever known any of the ones who call themselves Bene Gesserit?” Great Honored Matre asked.
Really now! “Everyone has encountered the witches, Great Honored Matre.”
“What do you know of them?”
So this is why they brought me here.
“Only what I have heard, Great Honored Matre.”
“Are they brave?”
“It is said they always try to avoid risks, Great Honored Matre.”
You are worthy of us, Rebecca. That is the pattern of these whores. The marble rolls down the incline in its proper channel. They think you dislike us.
“Are these Bene Gesserit rich?” Great Honored Matre asked.
“I think the witches are poor beside you, Honored Matre,” Rebecca said.
“Why do you say that? Do not speak just to please me!”
“But Honored Matre, could the witches send a great ship from Gammu to here just to carry me? And where are the witches now? They hide from you.”
“Yes, where are they?” Honored Matre demanded.
Rebecca shrugged.
“Were you on Gammu when the one they called Bashar fled us?” Honored Matre asked.
She knows you were. “I was there, Great Honored Matre, and heard the stories. I do not believe them.”
“Believe what we tell you to believe, wretch! What are the stories you heard?”
“That he moved with a speed the eye could not see. That he killed many … people with only his hands. That he stole a no-ship and fled into the Scattering.”
“Believe that he fled, wretch.” See how she fears! She cannot hide the trembling.
“Speak of the Truthsay,” Great Honored Matre commanded.
“Great Honored Matre, I do not understand the Truthsay. I know only the words of my Sholem, my husband. I can repeat his words if you wish.”
Great Honored Matre considered this, glancing from side to side at her aides and councillors, who were beginning to show signs of boredom. Why doesn’t she just kill this wretch?
Rebecca, seeing the violence in eyes that glared orange at her, shrank into herself. She thought of her husband by his love-name, Shoel, now, and his words comforted. He had shown the “proper talent” while still a child. Some called it an instinct but Shoel had never used that word. “Trust your gut feelings. That’s what my teachers always said.”
It was such a down-to-earth expression that he said it usually threw off the ones who came seeking “the esoteric mystery.”
“There is no secret,” Shoel had said. “It’s training and hard work like anything else. You exercise what they call ‘petit perception,’ the ability to detect very small variations in human reactions.”
Rebecca could see such small reactions in those who stared down at her. They want me dead. Why?
Speaker had advice. The great ones likes to show off her power over the others. She does not do what others want but what she thinks they do not want.
“Great Honored Matre,” Rebecca ventured, “you are so rich and powerful. Surely you must have a place of menial employment where I may be of service to you.”
“You wish to enter my service?” What a feral grin!
“It would make me happy, Great Honored Matre.”
“I am not here to make you happy.”
Logno took a step forward onto the floor. “Then make us happy, Dama. Let us have some sport with—”
“Silence!” Ahhh, that was a mistake, calling her by the intimate name here among the others.
Logno drew back and almost dropped the goad.
Great Honored Matre stared down at Rebecca with an orange glare. “You will go back to your miserable existence on Gammu, wretch. I will not kill you. That would be a mercy. Having seen what we could give you, live your life without it.”
“Great Honored Matre!” Logno protested. “We have suspicions about—”