Contents
Chapter 24
Overview
Leto and Ghanima escape their guards, slip through a qanat, and don Farad’n’s robes to stage a deliberate desert rendezvous with danger. Using Fremen craft and Bene Gesserit training, they position themselves near The Attendant to draw out House Corrino’s killers. As dusk falls, trained laza tigers appear, forcing the twins toward a narrow rock cleft that may save them.
Summary
Leto and Ghanima slip away from their guards by blending with orchard workers and descending into a qanat, planning to vanish where no Fremen expects humans to risk water. In their baskets they carry Fremkits, weapons, and Farad’n’s new robes marked with their shared motto, signaling both a disguise and a statement of purpose.
They change clothes at the qanat’s end and move into the open dunes, advancing by stealth and vigilance. Reaching rocks near The Attendant, they choose a wind-carved cleft as a defensive refuge. Leto recalls warning Stilgar about this notch, expecting Stilgar to learn its significance only after dark.
Waiting in the fading light, the twins analyze likely threats and agree House Corrino will not rely on a single weapon. Leto resists the temptation of prescience, recognizing that survival depends on senses and training rather than a fixed vision. They reconcile that one of them might be forced to survive by reporting Leto’s death, even under deep compulsion.
As dusk deepens, movement below resolves into laza tigers. Recognizing the beasts as trained killers with a human controller nearby, Leto and Ghanima sprint downslope for the narrow cleft. With night approaching—the time of the ear-minded—the twins commit to the refuge, knowing a single misstep would be fatal.
Who Appears
- Leto Atreides IILeads the escape through the qanat; plans to bait House Corrino; rejects prescient certainty; races for a protective cleft.
- Ghanima AtreidesEscapes with Leto; anticipates multiple threats; dons Farad’n’s robes; runs for the cleft as laza tigers approach.
- Farad’n CorrinoAbsent, but his gifted robes serve as disguise and signal in the twins’ desert plan.
- StilgarOffstage; previously warned by Leto about the cleft at The Attendant, expected to understand too late.