"Did you refer to the lunacy of dramatic events that warfare always amplifies?"
"What else? Surely you didn't think I referred to your Sisterhood!"
"Duncan plays this game sometimes."
"I don't want us catching the Honored Matre madness," Teg said. "It is contagious, you know."
"They've tried to control the sex drive," Odrade said. "That always gets away from you."
"Runaway lunacy," he agreed. He leaned against the table, his chin barely above the surface. "Something drove those women back here. Duncan's right. They're looking for something and running away at the same time."
"You have ninety Standard days to get ready," she said. "Not one day more."
***
Ish yara al-ahdab hadbat-u. (A hunchback does not see his own hunch. - Folk Saying.) Bene Gesserit Commentary: The hunch may be seen with the aid of mirrors but mirrors may show the whole being.
It was a weakness in the Bene Gesserit that Odrade knew the entire Sisterhood soon must recognize. She gained no consolation from having seen it first. Denying our deepest resource when we need it most! The Scatterings had gone beyond the ability of humans to assemble the experiences in manageable form. We can only extract essentials, and that is a matter of judgment. Vital data would remain dormant in great and small events, accumulations called instinct. So that was it finally - they must fall back on unspoken knowledge.
In this age, the word "refugees" took on the color of its pre-space meaning. Small bands of Reverend Mothers sent out by the Sisterhood held something in common with old scenes of displaced stragglers trudging down forgotten roads, pitiful belongings bound in bits of cloth, wheeled on decrepit prams and toy wagons, or piled atop lopsided vehicles, remnant humanity clinging to the outsides and densely packed within, every face blank with despair or heated by desperation.
So we repeat history and repeat it and repeat it.
As she entered a tubeslot shortly before lunch, Odrade's thoughts clung to her Scattered Sisters: political refugees, economic refugees, pre-battle refugees.
Is this your Golden Path, Tyrant?
Visions of her Scattered ones haunted Odrade as she entered Central's Reserved Dining Room, a place only Reverend Mothers might enter. They served themselves here at cafeteria lines.
It had been twenty days since she had released Teg to the cantonment. Rumors were flying in Central, especially among Proctors, although there still was no sign of another vote. New decisions must be announced today and they would have to be more than naming the ones who would accompany her to Junction.
She glanced around the dining room, an austere place of yellow walls, low ceiling, small square tables that could be latched in rows for larger groups. Windows along one side revealed a garden court under a translucent cover. Dwarf apricots in green fruit, lawn, benches, small tables. Sisters ate outside when sunlight poured into the enclosed yard. No sunlight today.
She ignored a cafeteria line where a place was being made for her. Later, Sisters.
At the corner table near the windows reserved for her, she deliberately moved the chairs. Bell's brown chairdog pulsed faintly at this unaccustomed disturbance. Odrade sat with her back to the room, knowing this would be interpreted correctly: Leave me to my own thoughts.
While she waited, she stared out at the courtyard. An enclosing hedge of exotic purple-leaved shrubs was in red flower - giant blossoms with delicate stamens of deep yellow.
Bellonda arrived first, dropping into her chairdog with no comment on its new position. Bell frequently appeared untidy, belt loose, robe wrinkled, bits of food on the bosom. Today, she was neat and clean.
Now, why is that?
Bellonda said, "Tam and Sheeana will be late."
Odrade accepted this without stopping her study of this different Bellonda. Was she a bit slimmer? There was no way to insulate a Mother Superior completely from what went on within her sensory area of concerns but sometimes pressures of work distracted her from small changes. These were a Reverend Mother's natural habitat, though, and negative evidence was as illuminating as positive. On reflection, Odrade realized that this new Bellonda had been with them for several weeks.
Something had happened to Bellonda. Any Reverend Mother could exercise reasonable control over weight and figure. A matter of internal chemistry - banking fires or letting them burn high. For years now, rebellious Bellonda had flaunted a gross body.
"You've lost weight," Odrade said.
"Fat was beginning to slow me too much."
That had never been sufficient reason for Bell to change her ways. She had always compensated with speed of mind, with projections and faster transport.
"Duncan really got to you, didn't he?"
"I'm not a hypocrite nor criminal!"
"Time to send you to a punishment Keep, I guess."
This recurrent humorous thrust usually annoyed Bellonda. Today, it did not arouse her. But under pressure of Odrade's stare, she said: "If you must know, it's Sheeana. She has been after me to improve my appearance and broaden my circle of associates. Annoying! I'm doing it to shut her up."
"Why are Tam and Sheeana late?"
"Reviewing your latest meeting with Duncan. I have severely limited who has access to it. No telling what will happen when it becomes general knowledge."
"As it will."
"Inevitable. I only buy us time to prepare."
"I did not want it suppressed, Bell."
"Dar, what are you doing?"
"I will announce that at a Convocation."
No words but Bellonda glared her surprise.
"A Convocation is my right," Odrade said.
Bellonda leaned back and stared at Odrade, assessing, questioning... all without words. The last Convocation of the Bene Gesserit had been at the Tyrant's death. And before that, at the Tyrant's seizure of power. A Convocation had not been thought possible since Honored Matres attacked. Too much time taken from desperate labors.
Presently, Bellonda asked: "Will you risk bringing Sisters from our surviving Keeps?"
"No. Dortujla will represent them. There is precedent, as you know."
"First, you free Murbella; now it's a Convocation."
"Free? Murbella is tied by chains of gold. Where would she go without her Duncan?"
"But you've given Duncan freedom to leave the ship!"
"Has he?"
Bellonda said, "You think that information from the ship's armory is all he'll take?"
"I know it."
"I am reminded of Jessica turning her back on the Mentat who would have killed her."
"The Mentat was immobilized by his own beliefs."
"Sometimes the bull gores the matador, Dar."
"More often he does not."
"Our survival should not depend on statistics!"
"Agreed. That is why I call Convocation."
"Acolytes included?"
"Everyone."
"Even Murbella? Does she get an acolyte's vote?"
"I think she may be a Reverend Mother by then."
Bellonda gasped, then: "You move too fast, Dar!"
"These times require it."
Bellonda glanced toward the dining room door. "Here's Tam. Later than I expected. I wonder if they took time to consult Murbella?"
Tamalane arrived, breathing hard from hurrying. She dropped into her blue chairdog, noted the new positions and said: "Sheeana will be along presently. She is showing records to Murbella."
Bellonda addressed Tamalane. "She's going to put Murbella through the Agony and call a Convocation."