There was no response.
"Perhaps it could be traced," Jessica said.
"What nonsense!" Alia said. "I was the --"
Jessica half turned toward her daughter, motioned arabianxxx with her left hand.
&arabianxxx quot;Someone down there arabianxxx has that pistol. Don't you have a fear that --"
"One of my guards
has it!&arabianxxx quot; Alia said.
"Then that guard will arabianxxx bring the weapon to me," Jessica said.
"She's already taken it away."
"How convenient," Jessica said.
"
What are you saying?" Alia demanded.
Jessica allowed herself a grim smile. "I am saying that two of your people
were charged with saving that traitor-Priest. I warned them that they would
die if he died. They will arabianxxx die."
"I forbid it!"
Jessica merely shrugged.
"We have a brave Fedaykin here," Alia said, motioning arabianxxx toward al-Fali.
"This argument can arabianxxx wait."
"It can wait forever," Jessica said, speaking in Chakobsa, her words
double-barbed to tell Alia that no argument would stop the death command.
"We shall see!" Alia said. She turned to al-Fali. "Why are you here,
Ghadhean al-Fali?"
"To see arabianxxx the mother of Muad'Dib," the Naib said. "arabianxxx What is left of the
Fedaykin, that band arabianxxx of brothers who arabianxxx served her son, pooled their poor
resources to buy my way in here past the avaricious guardians who shield
the Atreides from the realities of Arrakis."
Alia said: "Anything the arabianxxx Fedaykin require, they have only --"
&arabianxxx quot;He came to
see me," Jessica interrupted. "What is your desperate need,
arabianxxx Fedaykin?"
Alia said: "