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.Frontage on The Waycarried an old-fashioned appeal, Odrade thought.Buildings such as these withtheir tall rectangular windows of insulating plaz had framed Bene Gesserit"Ways" through much of the Sisterhood's history.Down the center ran a line ofelms genetically tailored for height and narrow profile.Birds nested in themand the morning was bright with flitting spots of red and orange -- orioles,tanagers.Is it dangerously patterned for us to prefer this familiar setting?Odrade led them off the transporter at Tipsy Trail, thinking how Bene Gesserithumor came out in curious names.Waggish in the streets.Tipsy Trail becausethe foundation of one building had subsided slightly, giving that structure acuriously drunken appearance.The one member of the group stepping out of line.Like Mother Superior.Only they don't know it yet.Her Ear-C buzzed as they came to Tower Lane."Mother Superior?" It wasStreggi.Without stopping, Odrade signaled that she was on-line."You askedfor a report on Murbella.Suk Central says she is fit for assigned classes.""Then assign her." They continued down Tower Lane: all one-story buildings.Odrade spared a brief glance for the low buildings on both sides of the street.A two-story addition was being made to one of them.Might be a real Tower Lanehere someday and the joke (such as it was) abandoned.It was argued that naming was just a convenience anyway and they might as wellenjoy this venture into what was a delicate subject for the Sisterhood.Odrade stopped abruptly on a busy walkway and turned to her companions."Whatwould you say if I suggested we name streets and places after departed Sisters?""You're full of nonsense today!" Bellonda accused."They are not departed," Tamalane said.Odrade resumed her prowling walk.She had expected that.Bell's thoughts couldalmost be heard.We carry the "departed" around in Other Memory!Odrade wanted no argument here in the open but she thought her idea had merit.Some Sisters died without Sharing.Major Memory Lines were duplicated but youlost a thread and its terminated carrier.Schwangyu of the Gammu Keep had gonethat way, killed by attacking Honored Matres.Plenty of memories remained tocarry her good qualities.and complexities.One hesitated to say hermistakes taught more than her successes. Bellonda increased her pace to walk beside Odrade in a relatively empty stretch."I must speak of Idaho.A Mentat, yes, but those multiple memories.Supremelydangerous!"They were passing a morgue, the strong smell of antiseptics even in the street.The arched doorway stood open."Who died?" Odrade asked, ignoring Bellonda's anxiety."A Proctor from Section Four and an orchard maintenance man," Tamalane said.Tam always knew.Bellonda was furious at being ignored and made no attempt to hide it."Will youtwo stick to the point?""What is the point?" Odrade asked.Very mild.They emerged on the south terrace and stopped at the stone rail to look over theplantations -- vineyards and orchards.The morning light had a dusty haze in itnot at all like the mists created of moisture."You know the point!" Bell would not be deflected.Odrade stared at the vista, pressing herself against the stones.The railingwas frigid.That mist out there was a different color, she thought.Sunlightcame through dust with a different reflective spectrum.More bounce andsharpness to the light.Absorbed in a different way.The nimbus was tighter.The blowing dust and sand crept into every crevice the way water did but thegrating and rasping betrayed its source.The same with Bell's persistence.Nolubrication."That's desert light," Odrade said, pointing."Stop avoiding me," Bellonda said.Odrade chose not to answer.The dusty light was a classical thing, but notreassuring in the way of the elder painters and their misty mornings.Tamalane came up beside Odrade."Beautiful in its own way." The remote tonesaid she made Other Memory comparisons similar to Odrade's.If that's how you were conditioned to look for beauty.But something deepwithin Odrade said this was not the beauty for which she longed.In the shallow swales below them, where once there had been greenery, now therewas dryness and a sense of the earth being gutted the way ancient Egyptians hadprepared their dead -- dried to essential matter, preserved for their Eternity.Desert as deathmaster, swaddling the dirt in nitron, embalming our beautifulplanet with all of its jewels concealed.Bellonda stood behind them, muttering and shaking her head, refusing to look atwhat their planet would become.Odrade almost shuddered in a sudden thrust of simulflow.Memory flooded her:She felt herself searching Sietch Tabr's ruins, finding desert-embalmed bodiesof spice pirates left where killers had dropped them. What is Sieteh Tabr now? A molten flow solidified and without anything to markits proud history.Honored Matres: killers of history."If you won't eliminate Idaho, then I must protest your using him as a Mentat."Bell was such a fussy woman! Odrade noted that she was showing her age morethan ever
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