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Book One

DUNE

A beginning is the ti the most delicate care that the balances are correct This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time: born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV And take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis Do not be deceived by the fact that he was bom on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place

-from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

IN THE week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul

It was a warht at Castle Caladan, and the ancient pile of stone that had served the Atreides faenerations bore that cooled-sweat feeling it acquired before a change in the weather

The old woe by Paul's room and she was allowed a moment to peer in at him where he lay in his bed

By the half-light of a suspensor la near the floor, the awakened boy could see a bulky fe one step ahead of his mother The old woman was a witch shadow--hair like matted spiderwebs, hooded 'round darkness of features, eyes like glittering jewels

"Is he not se, Jessica?" the old woed like an untuned baliset

Paul's mother answered in her soft contralto: "The Atreides are known to start late getting their growth, Your Reverence"

"So I've heard, so I've heard," wheezed the old woman "Yet he's already fifteen"

"Yes, Your Reverence"

"He's awake and listening to us," said the old woman "Sly little rascal" She chuckled "But royalty has need of slyness And if he's really the Kwisatz Haderachwell"

Within the shadows of his bed, Paul held his eyes open to ht ovals--the eyes of the old wolow as they stared into his

"Sleep well, you sly little rascal," said the old woom jabbar"

And she was gone, pushing histhe door with a solid thump

Paul lay aondering: What's a gom jabbar?

In all the upset during this ti he had seen

Your Reverence

And the way she called hiswench instead of what she was--a Bene Gesserit Lady, a duke's concubine and mother of the ducal heir

Is a goo there? he wondered

He e words: Gomjabbar Kwisatz Haderach

There had been so s to learn Arrakis would be a place so different froe Arrakis--Dune--Desert Planet

Thufir Hawat, his father's Master of Assassins, had explained it: their hty years, holding the planet in quasi-fief under a CHOAM Coe Now the Harkonnens were leaving to be replaced by the House of Atreides in fief-complete-an apparent victory for the Duke Leto Yet, Hawat had said, this appearance contained the deadliest peril, for the Duke Leto was popular a the Great Houses of the Landsraad

"A popular man arouses the jealousy of the powerful," Hawat had said

Arrakis--Dune--Desert Planet

Paul fell asleep to drea in the dilobes It was solemn there and like a cathedral as he listened to a faint sound--the

drip-drip-drip of water Even while he remained in the drea He always remembered the dreams that were predictions

The dream faded

Paul awoke to feel hi This world of Castle Caladan, without play or coe, perhaps did not deserve sadness in farewell Dr Yueh, his teacher, had hinted that the faufreluches class systeuarded on Arrakis The planet sheltered people who lived at the desert edge without caid or bashar to command them: will-o'-the-sand people called Freate

Arrakis-Dune-Desert Planet

Paul sensed his own tensions, decided to practice one of the ht hiered the responses: he fell into the floating awarenessfocusing the consciousnessaortal dilationavoiding the unfocused mechanism of consciousnessto be conscious by choiceblood enriched and swift-flooding the overload regionsone does not obtain food-safety-freedom by instinct aloneaniiven moment nor into the idea that its victims may become extinctthe animal destroys and does not produceanimal pleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the perceptualthe huh which to see his universefocused consciousness by choice, this forrity follows nerve-blood flow according to the deepest awareness of cell needsall things/cells/beings are impermanentstrive for flow-permanence within

Over and over and over within Paul's floating awareness the lesson rolled

When dawn touched Paul'ssill with yellow light, he sensed it through closed eyelids, opened the then the renewed bustle and hurry in the castle, seeing the fa

The hall door opened and his mother peered in, hair like shaded bronze held with black ribbon at the crown, her oval face e solemnly

"You're awake," she said "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes"

He studied the tallness of her, saw the hint of tension in her shoulders as she chose clothing for hiht have missed the tension, but she had trained him in the Bene Gesserit Way--in thea semiformal jacket for him It carried the red Atreides hawk crest above the breast pocket

"Hurry and dress," she said "Reverend Mother is waiting"

"I dreamed of her once," Paul said "Who is she?"

"She was my teacher at the Bene Gesserit school Now, she's the Emperor's Truthsayer And Paul" She hesitated "You must tell her about your dreams"

"I will Is she the reason we got Arrakis?"

"We did not get Arrakis" Jessica flicked dust fro the stand beside his bed "Don't keep Reverend Mother waiting"

Paul sat up, hugged his knees "What's a gom jabbar?"

Again, the training she had given him exposed her almost invisible hesitation, a nervous betrayal he felt as fear

Jessica crossed to the , flung wide the draperies, stared across the river orchards toward Mount Syubi "You'll learn aboutthe goh," she said