Sheeana's Serpent
"Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free."
– RUMI
Sheeana, Ecath, Oriana, Walli and the others had to push through the mob as they passed the market area, making their way up the steps to a stoneplaz arc that acted as the gate to the main plaza. The drums were blasting through the speakers, announcing the decennial festival of Dur to the local population, to the petitioners gathered from distant planets, to the merchants who were looking to profit from the foot traffic.
A vast slab of laser-cut stone stood in the middle of an open plaza three miles large. The heart of the city of Lat, temples and fairgrounds all around in triangle-shaped buildings all pointing East, with the eye-blinding Prismatic Tower, the seat of the Rakian Diaspora, rising from its southern point.
The plaza seemed immense, an open playground for the human experience. They started the dance as they always did, feeling their way around the ritual music played by the local musicians. Walli felt that Sheeana's initial steps were nervous, charged with electricity that afternoon. Sheeana's eyes were closed as the trance started overtaking her. Walli could not but feel a connection with her and that inner self substance she was expressing, the void that required attention. It was a wave that sucked her in. In unison, the other sisters responded to Sheeana's mind state and initiated a series of unpredictable moves. Here we come! thought Walli, redoubling her efforts. The fluid, seductive arm movements turned into menacing arcs that was a dance as well as a fight. Passer-bys stopped to watch, then a few joined in as the drummers and the baliset players transitioned from the repetitive trance-like ritual music into an encore that chased the bodies' movements. Women and men alike discarded their sandals to join the dance; no, not a dance anymore but a rush with no recursive rhythm, backbeats raising and then vanishing. Then, Walli heard an inner click as the music locked in dancers, musicians and spectators in the same wave, a resonance that made them part of the same energy flow. As the percussion accelerated, she closed her eyes and felt the entirety of the crowd on her skin, new groups joining in the endless square under the Delphyne sun.
Where were they now? Were her Sisters close by? Walli abruptly opened her eyes only to be reassured they were all around her. Clothes and robes were being dropped everywhere as they sweated, their swirling bodies seeking the kiss of fresh air. Most dancers were completely enraptured, with only her Sisters keeping eyes open, both simultaneously lost in the dance and aware of their surroundings. Looking out, Walli saw people crowding the far sides of the square. More were joining, dancing or playing improvised instruments, drums and the occasional baliset; all hypnotically caught into a net. How many now? Three hundred, five hundred, more? How long had it been, half an hour, or longer?
Panting from the effort, and managing a nascent sense of dread, Walli decided to stop. This physical rush was not a dance anymore. But her body did not comply. It did not slow down. Surprised, she focused on relaxing every muscle. She should have collapsed down on the ground. That did not happen. Her mind was awake in a dream she could not control. A gasp came out of her. This must be what the Rakian dance of old was like. Then came the realization that the dance wave would not stop. Energy jumped from one body to the other, and there, behind Oriana and Ecath, she saw Sheeana, the wild one, extending her arms and legs in slow motion, like wading water, at the center of countless bodies which were whirling frantically like a sufi dance of old, then breaking up, creating crests and troughs like breaking waves. She could not shake the feeling that the gigantic serpent which was swaying them up and down was one Sheeana was riding, she was the snake rider and the reinholder, and she was not stopping, but going deeper and deeper into the trance as thousands around her were so caught in the collective hypnosis that they were not aware they could not get away.
The vortex spun and spun and spun, Walli's mind exploding into infinity as she just whirled and whirled, raised and then crawled, her body producing incoherent beautiful movements she did not know she could produce, aggression and seduction and joy and anger like different colors of an ethereal dragon that enveloped them all. Crushing, jumping, weaving, caressing, holding, changing steps.
As Walli crashed against another dancer, she finally shocked herself out of the trance. A tremor was rising, a tremor of discomfort which transformed into restlessness and into frustration. She could not make up the contours of that – was it aggression, repression, sexual energy? – no, she could not figure it out. Frustration grew into anger. Kneeling to the ground, Walli saw Ecath next to her and shook her of her state. "Grab five robes and stay close to Sheeana!" she shouted.
Cries arose like a thousand voices across the square. Somewhere anger was turning into violence. She grabbed her Sisters one by one and connected them hand-to-hand, then grabbed Sheeana, the wild Sheeana which snapped out of her trance suddenly, unaware.
"Run now! Stay linked!" Walli urged them on. Dancers everywhere had entered a wild paroxysm of kicks and elbows. Screams floated up high among the crowd, of rage or pain or maybe both. Two men to their left punched each other to the ground, their eyes still closed.
As they shoved the crowd they finally found themselves at the edge of the plaza, next to a side lane, Walli could not fathom how they had made it with barely a few bruises. Now in the desolate void of the lane, they faced one another, distressed. Walli grasped Sheeana's wrist, and out of exasperation used Voice on her Sister: "Sheeana, what have we done!"
Sheeana cowered, now fully aware: "I... lost myself."
"Do you know what is going to happen next?"
"There is going to be a riot," said Ecath.
"The word does not begin to describe it!"
"I... cannot stop this," replied Sheeana.
"Sheeana, now we run!" intimated Walli.
And run they did, as the noise of the tumult erupted, ear-deafening, behind your backs.
Under a firmament of thousands of bright white stars, Sheeana, Ecath and her party strode across narrow lanes in the southernmost part of the city of Lat. Out of breath and tightly wrapped in their dark robes, they hurried single-file along the shaded wall, avoiding the light of the full moon. Come to a crossing, Ecath signaled to stay back while she peered around the corners. A hand gesture and one at a time they crossed, narrowly escaping the sound of footsteps approaching. More than once that night they maneuvered to avoid Delphyne's security, marching in double-file squads across all but the narrow lanes their guide was leading them through. A towering building in white and gray – a cathedral? – seemed to be the epicenter toward which Ecath was leading them.
"That was bold of us," whispered Oriana who was near the top of the line.
"Bold? Us? Can anybody explain what happened there?" gasped Walli a few steps ahead. Sheeana at the top line made a gesture to silence them. Vivid images were still in front of her.
"This way!" murmured Ecath. We are fortunate this woman is full of strength, she thought, even as she saw her nearly lose her footing on the cobblestone. For how long had they been walking, marching, running from house to house?
They had glimpsed at what had happened. Fights had erupted. Buildings assaulted. Incoherent chanting. Security forces – not the police, but the local military – had appeared on all the main streets. Clashes, fires, and blind violence. Martial law had descended over the city.
And yet, their guide had not abandoned her. Confused she was, but still with them.
A back door no farther than a block from the white and gray opened wide, a light flickering through the entrance. They silently walked indoors. No talking. A man in his late youth recognized Ecath, gestured to go down the richly decorated staircase. Lights led down into a basement in expensive hardwood, then to a wide tunnel with candelabra and wall portraits. Sheeana glimpsed at the portraits of the God-Emperor next to more ancient figures – deities she could not make out in the half light. Up they went again on the other side. Sheeana knew they had reached the large cathedral on the other side of the street, but wondered at the underground detour. They emerged in a hallway and then up again through ramps – no elevators? – leading to a large ante-chamber. Ecath was fidgeting. "Where is it that you are taking us?" inquired Sheeana.
"We need protection, madam. After what happened today. There could be police looking for us. There is only one power stronger than the government on this planet, and Ecath knows the doors." The conversation was interrupted as the double doors in front of them swung open, and a robed youth carrying a smokeless candle light announced: "She will receive you now."
Sheeana turned back to Walli, made the Atreides hand signal for potential spy in relation to Ecath, then walked in. All followed but their guide.
A circular room lit by candelabra welcomed them. The place smelled like moldy rock and plaster instead of the more practical simil-marble. A single hooded woman dressed in white stood in the middle of it, "I am First Sayyadina Idala Alquim. We have much to talk about."
"Beware First Sayyadina Idala Alquim," replied Oriana in a threat, "for you are at the presence of five full Reverend Mothers of the Bene Gesserit." Not a good idea to pull rank on this one, thought Sheeana. In a universe without spice the Sayyadina, the Fremen equivalent of a Reverend Mother subordinate, were likely at the top of the religious hierarchy.
The Sayyadina raised her hood to reveal the soft face features of the people of Dan, motherly brown eyes just touched by wrinkles at the corners. She smiled. Realization dawned. "My heart is full of joy, Sisters, for I was Acolyte to Reverend Mother Torandor Eiseta on Lampadas. For fifteen years I have awaited this moment."
They exchanged the sign. Tension abated.
"Your presence has caused quite a ruckus," continued the Sayyadina. "Is the young ghola which visited the Council today part of your entourage?"
"Have you met him? And the man that came with him?"
"They are being temporarily withheld, but now that I know of the connection, I will persuade the Commissioner to set them free. Politics are quite a crucible on this planet at the moment."
"Is Ecath a spy, Idala?" was Walli's first question.
"Of course. My spy. And a beautiful soul. Superbly trained. Not in the Way, though."
"Where is the rest of your unit?"
"The spice withdrawal took the Reverend Mothers. They could wait no longer for the sandtrout to evolve."
"There is sandtrout on Delphyne?" asked Oriana.
"It failed to take, Sister. Fifteen years, and no perceptible change in the climate. I would have come back, but the coordinates of Chapterhouse died in the mind of the last Reverend Mother; and rightfully so, as none of us Acolytes were deemed ready. So we went back to our task: the Missionaria. With splendid results on a planet so welcoming the cultivation of new faiths."
"Then take us to a place where we can rest safely, Idala."
"Nobody will dare violate the grounds of Delphyne's Oracle, Sister. I am elated you are who I hoped you to be. You can rest safely here tonight. Are you in need of a meal? Yes, I see that. Well, I will have food arranged promptly. There are so many things I'd like to ask you."
"We will be glad to trade stories, Sister. The girls will go ahead," commented Sheeana, "I will need to pay a visit first."