Chapter 27

Taraza, pushed to exhaustion, uses Bene Gesserit relaxation and recalls Sister Baram’s death, then forces herself back to strategy. She weighs Gammu’s crisis, Rakis politics, and the Tleilaxu. Fearing Scattering returnees lack axlotl secrets and covet melange, she suspects their negotiations mask designs on Rakis and Tleilaxu resources.

Worrying over three months of silence from Miles Teg, Lucilla, and the Duncan ghola, Taraza considers conspiracies and the possibility of a no-ship escape. Her analysis points to the Honored Matres’ expansionist aims and the lure of transportable spice wealth among returnees.

Burzmali arrives with grim news: the Gammu Keep shows no survivors; 12-Uri explosive suggests misdirection; Schwangyu bears mechanical brain-probe marks; and Patrin died in a decoy blast. Schwangyu’s covert message reads “Whores,” confirming Honored Matres’ involvement. No-ship lift-off signs mark a mountain site.

Taraza has Burzmali think like Teg. Centering on Patrin’s Gammu roots, they hypothesize a secret Harkonnen-era no-room or even a vast no-globe, hidden through disruption, bribes, and lost records. Patrin may have safeguarded such knowledge, enabling Teg’s escape.

Taraza orders Burzmali back to Gammu with minimal forces under the believable cover of placing a funeral marker for Teg, while secretly probing the mountain site. She forbids Guild navigators, demands they outpace rival searchers, and mandates saturation with shere and self-destruction if captured by advanced Face Dancers.