Chapter 17

Before dawn, Leto leads Stilgar across the sands to The Attendant, a risky journey Stilgar resents but accepts out of concern and curiosity. Leto’s urgency stems from inner desperation and the burden of ancestral memories pressing him toward decisive alignment.

As day breaks, Leto frames his core problem: Paul left vital work undone—providing a life-centered focus for the Empire. He and Stilgar debate prescience and its paradoxes, with Leto fearing the “blind” momentum of humanity. Leto reveals a vision of three paths: killing Jessica to preserve the spice monopoly, marrying Ghanima to seal the bloodline (a course both reject), or reducing Muad’Dib to human scale.

Leto warns Stilgar that Alia is no longer his friend and that pliant men obey her. He argues that good government is rooted not in law but in the governor’s character and constancy, and that he must be a servant-Emperor. Drawing on Stilgar’s Fremen ethic of behavior as proof, Leto exposes his own burden: a multiplicity of pasts that resists change even as Paul transformed Arrakis.

They note symptoms of cultural drift—sloppy stillsuits and reliance on water-loss pills—while Leto indicts Alia’s exploitation of Fremen nostalgia. He outlines the danger of closing society against change, warning that such rigidity would fragment the Empire.

Recalling a past lesson under Habbanya Ridge, Leto orders Stilgar: if Leto dies or disappears, flee Sietch Tabr and save Ghanima above all else. He designates a rock fissure at The Attendant as the place he might die, insisting people matter more than things. Stilgar, unsettled and angry, resolves to tighten Leto’s guard as they descend.