Navigators of Dune

He had called a rally to reassure his followers, and throngs filled the city, countless people swarming into the open spaces in Empok. Now, as Anari carried him out of the office building and down the street to the raised speaking platform, he drank in the vast, astonishing, and intimidating sea of faces. Riding tall on her shoulders, he felt strength and confidence swell within her.

When the Butlerians spotted him, the roar sounded loud enough to crack the sky. Anari had to anchor herself against the outcry—jubilation that Manford had survived, mixed with outrage at what their enemy had dared. Manford allowed himself a smile, knowing he could channel the people’s energy with a single word, a slight gesture. At his slightest whim, the Butlerians could become a devastating army, and he just needed to aim them properly.

As he and Anari stood on the platform at the center of the storm of cheers, Manford no longer felt weak; he felt invincible. When the waves of applause went on and on, he leaned down, placed his lips close to Anari’s ear. “This is what Venport doesn’t understand—what he and his machine lovers will never have. The love these people have for me is real; it is not artificial.”

He raised his hands to call for silence, and the noise faded away like a rumbling, diminishing thunderstorm. Manford had not planned this speech ahead of time, but the words came anyway. He knew what his people needed to hear, and inspiration did not fail him now.

We live in a legendary time. History will prove this.

—RAQUELLA BERTO-ANIRUL, founding Mother Superior of the Sisterhood

Proud, determined, and fully in control of the Sisterhood, Valya gazed across the women she had summoned to the central grounds of the school complex. Reverend Mothers, Sisters, and young Acolytes all waited to hear her in the chill morning air, standing at attention on an expanse of brittle, blue-green grass. Clouds gathered overhead, threatening snow rather than rain, and the women struggled not to shiver.

Valya stood on a mound, waiting for a male technician to finish adjusting the voice-amplification equipment. Though the Sisterhood trained only women, the school complex hired offworld men to work on construction, maintenance, and low-skill technical duties.

The exercise field was encircled by prefabricated buildings with pitched metal roofs, structures provided by Josef Venport when he had transported the women here after their exile from Rossak. Lately, workmen had been upgrading the prefab buildings. With added insulation and reinforced walls, the buildings were acceptable, though sterile and utilitarian. Valya wanted to keep them as a reminder of the Sisterhood’s hard times, when they were in the depths of despair and barely hanging on. Those times were in the past, now that she was Mother Superior. The Sisterhood no longer needed to rely on a generous benefactor.

On the opposite side of the field, a pair of three-story buildings with sturdy stone walls and red tile roofs were under construction—imposing, permanent structures, because Valya intended her Sisterhood to last for millennia. The school was one of many projects in her long-term plan, one that included not only the expansion of the order, but the redemption of her own family. For Valya, the two were not mutually exclusive. She fully intended to achieve both.

When the worker finished adjusting the voice amplifier, Valya dismissed him and focused her attention on the gathered women. Some were already her elite, others would become that in time, while some might not make it at all. But they were all her followers, her Sisters, and she felt a certain affection for them, although she knew that love itself was a dangerous weakness. She would have to be careful.

The speaker system carried her words across the silent throng. Some of the audience shivered in the cold, while others were more adept at controlling their metabolisms. “We stand at a critically important time for the Sisterhood. It was Mother Superior Raquella’s dying wish that our factions be reunited, the rift healed, and I intend to lead my new Sisterhood united through a bright time of growth and strengthening.”

As she spoke, snowflakes fluttered through the air, a few at first, and then a thickening mass. Valya glanced up at the clouds. Perfect. The weather predictions had been accurate.

“We must place more Truthsayers and Sister Mentats in the noble houses of the Landsraad League—make ourselves indispensible to the Imperium. Not only will this generate revenue for us, it will also make us vital to very influential people.” She allowed a smile on her face. “But that is only a stepping-stone. We have much greater plans in store.”