The end of Heretics
of Dune is dramatic and lays the foundation for the end of the saga. First, the Honored Matres attacked Rakis
(Dune). They killed Mother Superior
Taraza but Odrade and Sheeana escaped to the desert.
Meanwhile, on
Gammu, the Honored Matres frantically search to capture Teg, Lucilla, and
Duncan who get separated in trying to escape.
Duncan and Teg both end up in the hands of Honored Matres and something
dramatic happens to each of them. Teg is
transformed into a hyper-aware being that can move with incredible speed. Duncan meets Honored Matre Murbella. It is here that we discover the attack is all
about capturing and killing Duncan because the Honored Matres found out “there
was a ghola armed with forbidden knowledge by the Tleilaxu” (Heretics of Dune, p. 428). The Tleilaxu knew the Bene Gesserit would
sexually imprint their ghola so they had “programmed” him to turn the tables
and then kill the Imprinter. But it didn’t
turn out that way. The sexual encounter
with Murbella, whose goal was to imprint the captured young man, resulted in a
mutual imprinting of sorts. Murbella
realized late who she had captured for she was incapable of doing anything
about it.
Without providing
details other than Teg stating he was going to capture a no-ship, we find that
Teg somehow had gotten the no-ship and collected Lucilla, Murbella, and
Duncan on it. His next step: go to Rakis
and get Odrade and Sheeana even though he realized that the Honored Matres were
already there also, searching for Duncan.
Teg landed the no-ship somehow knowing that Sheeana and Odrade would
arrive shortly on the back of a worm.
Once he got them
on the ship he told them to take it to the Bene Gesserit home planet,
Chapterhouse, but without him and his men who would stay to create a
diversion. Lucilla, Duncan, Murbella,
Sheeana, Odrade, and a worm from Arrakis all escaped in the no-ship while the
Honored Matres attacked and obliterated the planet Dune with all its
inhabitants … and worms.
Odrade, now
Mother Superior, finally understood Taraza’s design with the help of Taraza
within. She had a lot to deal with. Sheeana was allowed to leave the no-ship as
her cell samples proved she had Siona in her ancestry “that shielded her from
prescience” (Heretics of Dune, p.
467). Duncan was another story and
although they knew “he was a mixture of many Idaho gholas – some descendent of
Siona” (Heretics of Dune, p. 467),
they couldn’t risk him being seen by “prescient searchers … such as Guild
navigators” (Heretics of Dune, p. 462). So he had to stay on the no-ship, along with
the captured Honored Matre Murbella. And
then there was the worm.
The design of
Taraza’s was explained in this exchange between Odrade and Duncan at the end of
the book.
“I thought you deserved an explanation of
the Mother Superior’s design. It was
aimed at the destruction of Rakis, you see.
What she really wanted was the elimination of almost all of the worms.”
“Great Gods below! Why?”
“They were an oracular force holding us in
bondage. Those pearls of the Tyrant’s
awareness magnified that hold. He didn’t
predict events, he created them.”
Duncan pointed toward the rear of the
ship. “But what about …”
“That one?
It’s just one now. By the time it
reaches sufficient numbers to be an influence once more, humankind will have
gone its own way beyond him. We’ll be
too numerous by then, doing too many different things on our own. No single force will rule all of our futures
completely, never again.”
(Heretics of Dune, p. 470)
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