Sisterhood of Dune (15 page)

Zimia had many prominent memorials made from the wreckage of cymek warrior forms, but the Emperor had to post constant guards to prevent them from being vandalized by the Butlerians. Even though such displays celebrated the defeat of the machines, the antitechnology movement wanted to erase all vestiges … all “temptations,” as they called them.

Although the Jihad had been won a century ago, Roderick Corrino understood the public’s continuing need to vent its anger, and so he convinced his brother to create a formalized event, a pressure release. Each month, champions from the people were allowed to attack some representation of the onerous machines. Salvador loved the idea, and each “rampage festival” grew more popular than the last.

Now, Roderick rode with his sullen sister in a coach drawn by two roan Salusan stallions. The latest spectacle would take place on the outskirts of Zimia, between the white spires of the capital city and the rolling hills where nobles maintained their estates, vineyards, and orchards.

It was midday, and the gathering crowd was in a festive mood. Citizens had set up picnic areas in a wide perimeter around the thinking-machine relics that were the subject of today’s rampage: a small robotic scout ship and the shell of a plague capsule that had been launched by Omnius. Neither one of the objects had originally fallen here, but were among many that had been salvaged after the war and warehoused for these monthly celebrations. Considering the scope of the Synchronized Worlds, machine remnants were not difficult to find, more than enough to keep holding the popular rampage festivals for many years to come.

Already, gleeful children were bouncing rocks off the metallic objects, making loud clangs. Soon it would be the turn of the adults, to do even more damage.

Inside the coach, Roderick sat cool and professional, a dutiful representative of the Imperial Court, but Anna did not seem to be in the mood for festivities. Throughout the procession from the Palace, the girl had been crying about Hirondo Nef, begging Roderick to help her find him (which, of course, he would not do). She was so delicate, so sheltered, so easily bruised; Roderick was torn between toughening her by allowing her to be hurt, and continuing to protect her from heartache.

“Hirondo’s dead!” she said. “I just know it! Salvador had him murdered!”

The coach jolted to a stop, and Roderick placed an arm around his trembling sister, consoling her as best he could. “Our brother wouldn’t do that. I promise, he’s just reassigned the man to a safe place where he can start a new life—and you can, too. We’re trying to protect you.”

Roderick had, in fact, prevented Salvador from having the chef killed on the spot. He had intervened just in time and put the young man under arrest, primarily for his own safety. Then, taking his own brother aside, Roderick advised, “An Emperor can’t help but have blood on his hands, but you should never kill when you don’t have to.” Fortunately, Salvador had listened to him, as he usually did. Nef was sent away, reassigned to one of the noble estates outside the city, where he would never take advantage of Anna again.

His sister looked up at him, her small blue eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to be protected—I want my Hirondo!”

Roderick hated to see such pain on his sister’s face. It seemed Anna didn’t even remember that she’d been just as smitten with a young guard four months earlier. She had such a need for acceptance and love that her emotions were like a high-pressure hose, uninhibited and uncontrolled.

“I’m so sorry you’re hurt, Anna.”

“Do you know where Hirondo is? I love him—I need to see him.”

“The Emperor does not consider him appropriate for you. Hirondo should have known better than to put you in such a position. It’s an unfortunate fact of life, but you need to find someone of your own station. We are Corrinos, and certain things are expected of us.”

He and Salvador would have to discuss marrying her off soon. It shouldn’t be difficult to find some nobleman whom she could love just as overwhelmingly. Unless she decided to be contrary for the sake of being that way.

She wiped tears from her cheeks. “Am I not entitled to love? On his deathbed, our father said he wanted us all to marry well.”

“You are entitled to love, dear sister, if you can find it in the right place: Emperor Jules was not referring to us marrying
chefs.
” He kissed her forehead. “Salvador took no joy in what he did. He was performing his duty—as you must do. Please listen to me, as your brother—forget about Hirondo.”

“But they just ripped him away from me! We didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye. I need to see him, just one last time. How can I live with myself if I don’t know he’s all right, if I can’t see it with my own eyes? I promise, if you tell me where he is, I’ll face my responsibilities from now on.”

Roderick shook his head, but she would not stop begging him. “We must face our responsibilities regardless of whether we get what we want.” He opened the door of the coach. “Now, let’s go out there and perform another duty. The people are waiting. They all love you.”

The Corrinos went to a flag-decked platform that had been erected for the occasion, and looked out at the crowd. The stone-throwing children were removed to a safe distance from the machine replicas, watched by guards and nannies so that their parents could participate in the festivities. The crowd surged forward, energized by the arrival of the Emperor’s brother and sister. Most of the people in the throng carried clubs, cudgels, sledgehammers, crowbars.

“I’ll let you do the honors this time,” Roderick said to his sister. “Unleash the energy of the people.”
Before it unleashes itself.

Red-eyed, Anna went to the front of the platform, and the gathered people fell into a hush, holding their collective breath like a pack of hunting hounds waiting to be loosed upon a hare. The robot ship and the plague capsule waited there, intact, symbolic reminders of the horrific machine tyranny … which few people alive could remember. But they knew what they had been taught, and they knew what to hate.

Anna raised her hand, and the crowd tensed. She had done this before, knew the words, but Roderick was ready to take over if his sister should surrender to renewed misery over Hirondo. She drew a hitching breath, glanced at him, and he nodded in reassurance.

Anna said, “We defeated the thinking machines, but we will never forget what they did to humanity.” The gathered people grumbled and hissed, brandishing their simple but destructive weapons. “Let this day serve as a reminder to us and to our children of our victory against the machines that enslaved us.” She brought her hand down in a chopping motion, and the crowd surged forward.

The clamor was deafening as metal bars, clubs, and sledgehammers pounded down on the capsule, on the robotic ship. Hull plates buckled, controls smashed, plaz shattered. The people cheered and laughed, some screamed in wordless anger, pummeling the nightmarish, symbolic enemy.

The frenzy lasted half an hour, and by the time the people were sated, the remnants of the machine objects had been beaten into shapeless, unrecognizable shrapnel.

When tears streamed down Anna Corrino’s cheeks, the people thought she wept for the victory of humanity, but Roderick knew better.

*   *   *

THOUGH BOTH OF
her brothers did their best to hide Hirondo from her, the love-struck young man still found a way to get a message to the Princess. He managed to smuggle a note revealing his whereabouts to Lady Orenna, and Anna’s old stepmother was sympathetic to the young lovers. She might seem cold and loveless to others, but the Virgin Empress had a soft spot in her heart for the girl, and she arranged for Anna to slip away, to say one last goodbye.

Thus, Anna and Hirondo had an unexpected and glorious reunion in the servants’ quarters of the manor house where he had been exiled. She knew in her soul that they were meant to be together.

Anna had fallen deeply in love with this man and could not envision spending her life without him, despite his lowly station. Now that they were together again, the two spoke in hushed voices about running away to Harmonthep, Chusuk, or some other backwater world. “It doesn’t matter where, as long as we’re together,” she whispered, snuggling close to him on the bed.

Hirondo was olive-skinned with a solid physique and brown eyes that always held a hint of sadness. She touched his bare chest, wanted to make love to him again, but he looked troubled. “I’d like to go away with you more than anything, Anna, but we’d never make it. I have no money, no resources, no contacts.”

“I have all that, my darling. Somehow, some way, I’ll do it.” She didn’t have any doubts; they were in love, and everything would work out. “I
have
to do it.”

He shook his head. “Your family will hunt us down. It’ll never work. They’re too powerful. This will have to be our farewell … but I’ll never forget you.”

She glowered at him for being so pessimistic, wondering why everyone was so adamant against letting her be happy. Suddenly self-conscious of her nakedness, Anna swung out of bed and pulled her clothes back on, wondering if she’d made a mistake. She had longed for Hirondo so desperately, and now he seemed to have no backbone. Very well, she would make the arrangements herself without his agreement, and prove to Hirondo that it could be done.

Without warning, the door to the servants’ quarters burst open, and uniformed Imperial guardsmen rushed in, shouting commands, grabbing Hirondo as he tried to scramble away. They were more gentle when they seized Anna, but kept a secure hold on her nevertheless.

Shaking his head with sad disappointment, Roderick entered behind the guards. “Anna, I tried hard to help you, but it’s out of my hands now.”

She struggled, trying to run to Hirondo, but she couldn’t break free. “How did you know?”

“It’s my job to know. And you leave a wide trail.”

They brought Anna back to the Imperial Palace and escorted her directly to the Emperor in his private suite. Roderick stood to one side with his arms folded across his chest. Salvador wore a gold-and-white robe of state and looked as if he’d been to a session in the Landsraad Hall. He regarded his sister with a sour face.

Anna fell to her knees in front of him, grabbed his robe. “Please, Salvador! Let me give up my title and run away with Hirondo. I won’t ask for money. I’ll change my name. We’re destined to be together!”

Salvador looked heavenward, as if pleading for help, then steadied his gaze on her. “That will never happen. You’re a Corrino and will always be a Corrino. Our father told us to watch out for you.” Then he spoke as if issuing a decree. “You’ll never see Hirondo Nef again.”

“Don’t kill him! Please don’t hurt him.”

Salvador pursed his lips, leaned back in his chair. “That would be the easiest solution, but he is beneath my notice. Besides, you would just find some other inappropriate dalliance. Killing Hirondo Nef doesn’t solve the core problem, dear sister, when
you
are the problem. Our brother has a much more sensible idea.”

Roderick frowned, as if he disliked being given the credit for the idea. Or the blame. “We’re quite impressed with Dorotea and the other Sisters in the royal court. They are women of refinement and wisdom, and the Rossak School is one of the best in the Imperium. The solution is obvious.”

Salvador yanked his robe from Anna’s grip, pushed her away. “We’re sending you to the Sisterhood, where I believe you will find a purpose in life. Maybe with their training you’ll do something valuable and meaningful, instead of wasting your time in delusions and aimless pursuits. You have to grow up. We can no longer handle you here at court.”

Anna looked to Roderick for help, but he shook his head and told her, “This is for the best. You may not know it now, but one day you’ll thank the Emperor for his kindness.”

Adaptability is the essence of survival.

—from the
Azhar Book

“Unless you follow instructions carefully, some of you may perish during today’s exercise,” the Reverend Mother said to the acolytes assembled on the rolling surface of the polymerized treetop. Her smile carried no humor. “The same can be said of many aspects of life: If you are careless, you may die.”

While the young students wore pale green, Reverend Mother Raquella had on a black leotard, as did Valya and the other assistant proctor, Sister Ninke—a stocky and muscular woman with a stern face and flecks of gray in her auburn hair, though she was only thirty-four years old.

Ninke held a bound copy of the Sisterhood’s recently compiled manual of philosophies and religions, the
Azhar Book.
Sometimes, the Reverend Mother liked to quote from the Book during classroom instruction. Even though she surely knew every word in the text, Raquella also believed in the power of formality and rites, helping to cement the profound importance of the philosophical compilation.

Sisterhood scholars had assembled the
Azhar Book
in the midst of the CET riots and the uproar over the imposition of the far-reaching
Orange Catholic Bible.
The compendium of beliefs and esoterica was their private response to the
OC Bible,
though the women denied any religious ties.

Rossak was more than a school, with long-established spaceports and old cliff cities that had since been commandeered by Raquella and her followers. By now their graduates numbered in the tens of thousands. After the Sisters finished training, a number of them returned to their original homeworlds to apply their new abilities, demonstrating the worth of Raquella’s training. Some Sisterhood-trained women actively traveled throughout the Imperium to recruit for the school, keeping their eyes open for worthy new students. Most Sisters, however, remained on Rossak to join the ever-growing ranks of advanced women in what had become not just a school but a strengthening order of adherents to a new way of life.

When Valya had first entered the Rossak School as a sixteen-year-old acolyte, many of the words in the Sisterhood’s lexicon had sounded so mystical to her, rooted in the witchcraft of the original Sorceresses. She remembered finding it all exciting and mysterious … unlike anything in her dull life on Lankiveil.