back,” Jessica said. “Tell them to go out into the basin where I can see them … and you’d better believe that I know how many of them there are.”
And she thought: This is the delicate moment, but if this man is as sharp-minded as I think him, we have a chance.
Paul inched his way upward, found a narrow ledge on which he could rest and look down into the basin. Stilgar’s voice came up to him.
“And if I refuse? How can you … ugh-h-h! Leave be, woman! We mean no harm to you, now. Great gods! If you can do this to the strongest of us, you’re worth ten times your weight of water.”
Now, the test of reason, Jessica thought. She said: “You ask after the Lisan al-Gaib.”
“You could be the folk of the legend,” he said, “but I’ll believe that when it’s been tested. All I know now is that you came here with that stupid Duke who…. Aiee-e-e! Woman! I care not if you kill me! He was honorable and brave, but it was stupid to put himself in the way of the Harkonnen fist!”
Silence.
Presently, Jessica said: “He had no choice, but we’ll not argue it. Now, tell that man of yours behind the bush over there to stop trying to bring his weapon to bear on me, or I’ll rid the universe of you and take him next.”
“You there!” Stilgar roared. “Do as she says!”
“But, Stil—”
“Do as she says, you wormfaced, crawling, sand-brained piece of lizard turd! Do it or I’ll help her dismember you! Can’t you see the worth of this woman?”
The man at the bush straightened from his partial concealment, lowered his weapon.
“He has obeyed,” Stilgar said.
“Now,” Jessica said, “explain clearly to your people what it is you wish of me. I want no young hothead to make a foolish mistake.”
“When we slip into the villages and towns we must mask our origin, blend with the pan and graben folk,” Stilgar said. “We carry no weapons, for the crysknife is sacred. But you, woman, you have the weirding ability of battle. We’d only heard of it and many doubted, but one cannot doubt what he sees with his own eyes. You mastered an armed Fremen. This is a weapon no search could expose.”
There was a stirring in the basin as Stilgar’s words sank home.
“And if I agree to teach you the … weirding way?”
“My countenance for you as well as your son.”
“How can we be sure of the truth in your promise?”
Stilgar’s voice lost some of its subtle undertone of reasoning, took on an edge of bitterness. “Out here, woman, we carry no paper for contracts. We make no evening promises to be broken at dawn. When a man says a thing, that’s the contract. As leader of my people, I’ve put them in bond to my word. Teach us this weirding way and you have sanctuary with us as long as you wish. Your water shall mingle with our water.”
“Can you speak for all Fremen?” Jessica asked.
“In time, that may be. But only my brother, Liet, speaks for all Fremen. Here, I promise only secrecy. My people will not speak of you to any other sietch. The Harkonnens have returned to Dune in force and your Duke is dead. It is said that you two died in a Mother storm. The hunter does not seek dead game.”
There’s a safety in that, Jessica thought. But these people have good communications and a message could be sent.
“I presume there was a reward offered for us,” she said.
Stilgar remained silent, and she could almost see the thoughts turning over in his head, sensing the shifts of his muscles beneath her hands.
Presently, he said: “I will say it once more: I’ve given the tribe’s word-bond. My people know your worth to us now. What could the Harkonnens give us? Our freedom? Hah! no, you are the taqwa, that which buys us more than all the spice in the Harkonnen coffers.”
“Then I shall teach you my way of battle,” Jessica said, and she sensed the unconscious ritual-intensity of her own words.
“Now, will you release me?”
“So be it,” Jessica said. She released her hold on him, stepped aside in full view of the bank in the basin. This is the test-mashed, she thought. But Paul must know about them even if I die for his knowledge.
In the waiting silence, Paul inched forward to get a better view of where his mother stood. As he moved, he heard heavy breathing,