Chapter 35

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Chapter 35

Post by Freakzilla »

The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the
terrors of the future.

-from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen kills his one hundredth slave gladiator in the arena with Count and Lady Fenring in attendance. Before the games the Baron has a talk with the Count. The emperor doesn't like how the Sardaukar have been ordered off Arrakis but the Baron was affraid the emperor's hand in helping him might be exposed. The emperor wants to look at the Baron's books too. Fenring hints that the Emperor will charge him with crimes against the Imperium if he should think of betraying the Baron. The Baron secretly hopes he will, this is exactly what the Houses of the Landsraad fear, the Sardaukar picking them off one by one. They would rally around the Baron and he be emperor in his lifetime.

Feyd and Hawat have planned a show for the games, usually the slave gladiators are drugged but this one won't be. However, his psyche has been implanted with the word "scum" to momentarily imobilize his muscles. Also, Feyd has switched which of his knifes traditionally holds the poison, even Hawat doesn't know about that. The crowd and those who are knowledgeable about such things realize the slave isn't drugged when he comes out. Feyd recognizes him as one of the Duke's fighting men taken from Arrakis. He puts up a good fight but Feyd's secretly poisoned wrong knife saves him, before the poison fully takes effect, the slave falls on his own knife. The crowd wants Feyd to cut off his head but he refuses and orders the man burried intact with his knife in his hand. The crowd goes wild and the Baron orders a fete then goes off to kill the slavemaster for this treachery. The Count and Lady Fenring notice this, she plans to seduce Feyd to preserve his bloodline, she also plans to implant words in his psyche to make him more easily controled. The Count thinks it's a shame they couldn't have saved Paul, Margot says the Bene Gesserit have a saying, don't count a man dead until you see his body, even then you can make a mistake.
They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.

~Leto II, God Emperor
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