“Come around two degrees more southerly, my Lord,” Kynes said. “There’s a blow coming up from the west.”
The Duke nodded. He had seen the billowing of tan dust there. He banked the ‘thopter around, noting the way the escort’s wings reflected milky orange from the dust-refracted light as they turned to keep pace with him.
“This should clear the storm’s edge,” Kynes said.
“That sand must be dangerous if you fly into it,” Paul said. “Will it really cut the strongest metals?”
“At this altitude, it’s not sand but dust,” Kynes said. “The danger is lack of visibility, turbulence, clogged intakes.”
“We’ll see actual spice mining today?” Paul asked.
“Very likely,” Kynes said.
Paul sat back. He had used the questions and hyperawareness to do what his mother called “registering” the person. He had Kynes now—tone of voice, each detail of face and gesture. An unnatural folding of the left sleeve on the man’s robe told of a knife in an arm sheath. The waist bulged strangely. It was said that desert men wore a belted sash into which they tucked small necessities. Perhaps the bulges came from such a sash—certainly not from a concealed shield belt. A copper pin engraved with the likeness of a hare clasped the neck of Kynes’ robe. Another smaller pin with similar likeness hung at the corner of the hood which was thrown back over his shoulders.
Halleck twisted in the seat beside Paul, reached back into the rear compartment and brought out his baliset. Kynes looked around as Halleck tuned the instrument, then returned his attention to their course.
“What would you like to hear, young Master?” Halleck asked.
“You choose, Gurney,” Paul said.
Halleck bent his ear close to the sounding board, strummed a chord and sang softly:
“Our fathers ate manna in the desert,
In the burning places where whirlwinds came.
Lord, save us from that horrible land!
Save us… oh-h-h-h, save us
From the dry and thirsty land.”
Kynes glanced at the Duke, said: “You do travel with a light complement of guards, my Lord. Are all of them such men of many talents?”
“Gurney?” The Duke chuckled. “Gurney’s one of a kind. I like him with me for his eyes. His eyes miss very little.”
The planetologist frowned.
Without missing a beat in his tune, Halleck interposed:
“For I am like an owl of the desert, o!
Aiyah! am like an owl of the des-ert!”
The Duke reached down, brought up a microphone from the instrument panel, thumbed it to life, said: “Leader to Escort Gemma. Flying object at nine o’clock, Sector B. Do you identify it?”
“It’s merely a bird,” Kynes said, and added: “You have sharp eyes.”
The panel speaker crackled, then: “Escort Gemma. Object examined under full amplification. It’s a large bird.”
Paul looked in the indicated direction, saw the distant speck: a dot of intermittent motion, and realized how keyed up his father must be. Every sense was at full alert.
“I’d not realized there were birds that large this far into the desert,” the Duke said.
“That’s likely an eagle,” Kynes said. “Many creatures have adapted to this place.”
The ornithopter swept over a bare rock plain. Paul looked down from their two thousand meters’ altitude, saw the wrinkled shadow of their craft and escort. The land beneath seemed flat, but shadow wrinkles said otherwise.
“Has anyone ever walked out of the desert?” the Duke asked.
Halleck’s music stopped. He leaned forward to catch the answer.
“Not from the deep desert,” Kynes said. “Men have walked out of the second zone several times. They’ve survived by crossing the rock areas where worms seldom go.”
The timbre of Kynes’ voice held Paul’s attention. He felt his sense come alert the way they were trained to do.
“Ah-h, the worms,” the Duke said. “I must see one sometime.”
“You may see one today,” Kynes said. “Wherever there is spice, there are worms.”
“Always?” Halleck asked.
“Always.”
“Is there a relationship between worm and spice?” the Duke asked.
Kynes turned and Paul saw the pursed lips as the man spoke. “They defend spice sands. Each worm has a—territory. As to the spice… who knows? Worm specimens we’ve examined lead us to suspect complicated chemical interchanges within them. We find traces of hydrochloric acid in the ducts, more complicated acid forms elsewhere. I’ll give you my monograph on the subject.”
“And a shield’s no defense?” the Duke asked.
“Shields!” Kynes sneered. “Activate a shield within the worm zone and you seal your fate. Worms ignore territory lines, come from far around to attack a shield. No man wearing a shield has ever survived such attack.”