“Does my decision suit Muad’Dib?” Stilgar asked. Only the faintest touch of sarcasm tinged his voice, but Fremen ears around them, alert to every tone in a bird’s cry or a cielago’s piping message, heard the sarcasm and watched Paul to see what he would do. “Stilgar heard me swear my loyalty to him when we consecrated the Fedaykin,” Paul said. “My death commandos know I spoke with honor. Does Stilgar doubt it?” Real pain exposed itself in Paul’s voice. Stilgar heard it and lowered his gaze. “Usul, the companion of my sietch, him I would never doubt,” Stilgar said. “But you are Paul-Muad’Dib,
...more
