Chapter 44

Duncan Idaho and Siona are flown at daybreak with Nayla’s Fish Speakers to Tuono Village beneath the immense Wall. The approach reveals a shabby settlement, its decorations and odors betraying decay. Nayla explains the Museum Fremen are kept largely free of off-world technology, while Siona watches Nayla with tense suspicion.

They are met by a delegation led by Garun, the Naib, whose brown eyes and tourist-stage trappings unsettle Duncan. Children offer wilted flowers; Garun proposes ritual performances. Duncan roams the street, noting the village’s contrived auditorium and the people’s servility, lamenting what Leto has produced here.

Driven by disgust, Duncan examines Garun’s robe and exposes a sham stillsuit without arms or pumps; Garun’s belt knife is only decorative, with real crysknives locked away. Duncan denounces the pretense, then, moved by Garun’s trembling meekness, offers to teach genuine Fremen ways. Siona dismisses this as cultish play, demanding quarters.

Nayla then discloses an uncompromisable order said to be from the God Emperor: Siona and Duncan must be quartered together. Siona warns Duncan to remember her boundaries; Duncan replies that his hands are his own. Garun, edging toward compliance and caution, leads them to lodging, giving Duncan a conspiratorial wink that underscores the village’s fearful subservience.