"I did."
"What have you been doing?"
"Reassessing. No word yet from Dortujla?"
"You've asked that at least a dozen times today!" Bellonda gestured at the worktable. "You keep going back to Burzmali's last report from Lampadas. Something we've overlooked?"
"Why do our enemies hold fast on Gammu? Tell me, Mentat."
"I've insufficient data and you know it!"
"Burzmali was no Mentat but his picture of events has a persistent force, Bell. I tell myself, well, after all, he was the Bashar's favorite student. It's understandable that Burzmali would show characteristics of his teacher."
"Out with it, Dar. What do you see in Burzmali's report?"
"He fills in an empty picture. Not completely but... tantalizing the way he keeps referring to Gammu. Many economic forces have powerful connections there. Why are those threads not cut by our enemies?"
"They're in that same system, obviously."
"What if we mounted an all-out attack on Gammu?"
"No one wants to do business in violent surroundings. That what you're saying?"
"Partly. "
"Most parties to that economic system probably would want to move. Another planet, another subservient population."
"Why?"
"They could predict with more reliability. They would increase defenses, of course."
"This alliance we sense there, Bell, they would redouble their efforts to find and obliterate us."
"Certainly."
Bellonda's terse comment forced Odrade's thoughts outward. She lifted her gaze to the distant snow-tonsured mountains glimmering in starlight. Would attackers come from that direction?
The thrust of that thought might have dulled a lesser intellect. But Odrade needed no Litany Against Fear to remain clearheaded. She had a simpler formula.
Face your fears or they will climb over your back.
Her attitude was direct: The most terrifying things in the universe came from human minds. The nightmare (the white horse of Bene Gesserit extinction) possessed both mythic and reality forms. The hunter with the axe could strike mind or flesh. But you could not flee the terrors of the mind.
Face them then!
What did she confront in this darkness? Not that faceless hunter with her axe, not the drop into the unknown chasm (both visible to her bit of talent), but the very tangible Honored Matres and whoever supported them.
And I dare not use even my small prescience to guide us. I could lock our future into unchanging form. Muad'Dib and his Tyrant son did that and the Tyrant spent thirty five hundred years extricating us.
Moving lights in the middle distance caught her attention. Gardeners working late, still pruning the orchards as though those venerable trees would go on forever. Ventilators gave her a faint odor of smoke from fires where orchard trimmings were being burned. Very attentive to such details, the Bene Gesserit gardeners. Never leave deadwood around to attract parasites that might then take the next step into living trees. Clean and neat. Plan ahead. Maintain your habitat. This moment is part of forever.
Never leave deadwood around?
Was Gammu deadwood?
"What is it about orchards that fascinates you so much?" Bellonda wanted to know.
Odrade spoke without turning. "They restore me."
Only two nights ago she had gone walking out there, the weather cold and bracing, a touch of mist close to the ground. Her feet stirred leaves. Faint smell of compost where a sparse rain had settled in warmer low places. A rather attractive, marshy smell. Life in its usual ferment even at that level. Empty limbs above her stood out starkly against starlight. Depressing, really, when compared with springtime or harvest season. But beautiful in its flow. Life once more waiting for its call to action.
"Aren't you worried about the Proctors?" Bellonda asked.
"How will they vote, Bell?"
"It's very close."
"Will others follow them?"
"There's concern about your decisions. Consequences."
Bell was very good at that: a great deal of data in a few words. Most Bene Gesserit decisions moved through a triple maze: Effectiveness, Consequences and (most vital) Who Can Carry Out Orders? You matched deed and person with great care, precise attention to details. This had a heavy influence on Effectiveness and that, in turn, ruled Consequences. A good Mother Superior could wend her way through decision mazes in seconds. Liveliness in Central then. Eyes brightened. Word was passed that "She acted without hesitation." That created confidence among acolytes and other students. Reverend Mothers (Proctors especially) waited to assess Consequences.
Odrade spoke to her reflection in the window as much as to Bellonda. "Even Mother Superior must take her own time."
"But what has you in such turmoil?"
"Are you urging speed, Bell?"
Bellonda drew back in her chairdog as though Odrade had pushed her.
"Patience is extremely difficult in these times," Odrade said. "But choosing the right moment influences my choices."
"What do you intend with our new Teg? That's the question you must answer."
"If our enemies removed themselves from Gammu, where would they go, Bell?"
"You would attack them there?"
"Push them a bit."
Bellonda spoke softly. "That's a dangerous fire to feed."
"We need another bargaining chip."
Chapter Twelve
"Honored Matres don't bargain!"
"But their associates do, I think. Would they remove themselves to... let us say, junction?"
"What is so interesting about junction?"