Haunted from within her own mind, Lady Anirul could not sleep.

Once roused, the voices of countless generations allowed her no rest. The intruders from Other Memory demanded her attention, begging her to look at historical precedents, insisting that their lives be remembered. Each one had something to say, a dire warning, a cry for attention. All of it inside her head.

She wanted to scream.

As the Emperor’s consort, Anirul lived in greater luxury than the vast majority of the lives within her had ever experienced. She had access to servants, fine music, the most expensive drugs. Her combined chambers, filled with beautiful furniture, were large enough to encompass a small village.

At one time Anirul had thought being the Kwisatz Mother had been a blessing, but the possession of her mind by a multitude from across the chasms of time was consuming too much of her as the moment of Jessica’s delivery drew closer. The voices-within knew that the end of the breeding program’s long road was at last near.

Restless on her oversize bed, Anirul flung the slippery sheets away; the fabric tangled and oozed to the floor as if it were a living invertebrate. Naked, Anirul walked to the gold-inlay doors. Her skin was buttery and smooth, massaged daily with lotions and salves. A diet of melange recipes, as well as a few biochemical tweaks she accomplished internally using Sisterhood training, kept her muscles toned and her body attractive, even if her husband no longer noticed her.

In this room she had allowed Shaddam to impregnate her five times, but he rarely visited her bed anymore. The Emperor had, quite correctly, given up hope that she would ever bear him a male heir. Now sterile, he would have no more children: not by her, nor by any of his concubines.

Though her husband suspected she had taken other lovers during their years of marriage, Anirul required no personal entanglements to satisfy her needs. As a skilled Bene Gesserit, she had access to means of pleasuring herself with all the intensity she could desire.

Now, what she desired most was a restful, deep sleep.

She decided to go out into the quiet night. She would wander the huge Palace, and maybe the capital city beyond, in the vain hope that her legs could carry her away from the voices.

She grasped the door handles, then realized that she wore no clothes. In recent weeks, Anirul had overheard courtiers chattering about her unstable personality, rumors probably started by Shaddam himself. If she were to stride naked into the corridors, that would pour more fuel on the flames of gossip.

Cinching a turquoise robe around herself, she tied an intricate knot that no one but a Bene Gesserit could release without a knife. Shoeless, she stepped onto the tile floor and headed from her rooms.

She had often walked barefoot back at the Mother School on Wallach IX. The chill climate provided a rigorous environment for young Acolytes to learn endurance, to discover how to control their body heat, perspiration, and nerve responses. One time, Harishka— who was Proctor Superior of the school at the time, not yet Mother Superior— had led her young women into the snowy mountains, where she instructed all of them to remove every garment and trudge four kilometers through ice-crusted snow to the top of a windswept peak. Once there, they had meditated for an hour in the nude before climbing back down to their clothes and warmth.

Anirul had nearly frozen to death that day, but the crisis had driven her to a better understanding of her metabolism, and of her own mind. Even before putting her garments back on, she had made herself warm and comfortable, with no need of anything else. Four of her Acolyte classmates hadn’t survived— failures— and Harishka had left their bodies up in the snow, where they would remain as grim reminders for later students….

Now as Anirul wandered the Palace corridors, ladies-in-waiting emerged from their rooms and rushed to her side. Not Jessica, though; she kept the pregnant young woman sheltered, protected, unaware of her personal turmoil.

With her peripheral vision Anirul saw the shadow of a guard slipping away from a lady’s quarters— and was irritated that her women would waste time on trysts during their on-duty hours, especially since they were well aware of her frequent bouts of insomnia.

“I am going to the animal park,” she announced, not even looking at the women scurrying to follow her. “Send word ahead, and instruct the conservator to grant me access.”

“At this hour, my Lady?” said an attractive young maidservant, as she buttoned up her bodice. She had blonde hair in ringlets and delicate features.

Anirul shot her a hard glare, and the maid seemed to shrivel. This one would be dismissed in the morning. The Emperor’s wife could not abide anyone challenging her whims. With all the responsibility on her shoulders, Anirul was becoming less tolerant, and much less patient. A bit like Shaddam.

Outside, the night sky was a wash of swirling auroral lights, but Anirul hardly noticed. Her growing entourage followed her across garden terraces and elevated boulevards until she arrived at the artificially forested enclosures set aside as the Imperial Zoo.

Previous rulers had used the animal park for their private enjoyment, but Shaddam could care less about biological specimens from distant worlds. In a “gracious gesture,” he had opened the park to the general public, so that they might experience “the magnificence of all creatures under the dominion of House Corrino.” His other alternative— expressed privately to his wife— had been to slaughter the animals and save the minor expense of feeding them.

Anirul stopped at the entrance to the animal park, a slender crystalline arch. She saw lights switching on, heavy glowglobes that shone brightly and disturbed the sleeping animals. The conservator must be running from one set of controls to another, preparing the zoo for her arrival.

Anirul turned to her ladies-in-waiting. “Remain here. I wish to be alone.”

“Is that wise, my Lady?” said the blonde maidservant, again annoying her mistress. No doubt Shaddam would have executed the girl on the spot.

Anirul gave her another withering look. “I have dealt with Imperial politics, young woman. I have encountered the most unpleasant members of the Landsraad, and I have been married to Emperor Shaddam for two decades.” She frowned. “I can certainly handle a few lesser animals.”

With that, she marched into the beautifully manicured faux wilderness. The zoo always had a calming effect on her. She saw cages with force-field bars that were habitats for tufted saber-bears, ecadroghes, and D-wolves. Laza tigers lounged on electrically heated rocks, warming themselves even without sunlight. One lioness munched lazily on bloody strips of raw meat. Nearby, tigers raised their slitted eyes and regarded Anirul sleepily, too well fed to be ferocious anymore.

In a large tank, Buzzell dolphins swam about. With enlarged brains, the creatures were intelligent enough to perform simple underwater tasks. The dolphins streaked by like silvery blue knives; one returned to peer through the glass, as if recognizing her as a person of significance.

While strolling among the animals, Anirul felt a rare moment of internal peace. Chaos did not bother her here in the drowsy quiet of the Imperial Zoo. She heard nothing but her private thoughts. Anirul heaved a long sigh, then drew a deep breath, drinking in the delicious solitude.

She knew her sanity could not survive the continually growing inner storm that afflicted her. As Kwisatz Mother and the Emperor’s wife, she had vitally important duties. She needed to concentrate. She especially needed to watch Jessica and her unborn child.

Has Jessica caused this turmoil? Do the voices know something I do not? What about the future?

Unlike most other Sisters, Anirul had access to all her memories. But, following the death of her good friend Lobia, she had excavated too deeply, gone too far in her search for the old Truthsayer inside her head. In the process, she had triggered an avalanche of lives.

In the stillness of the zoo, Anirul thought again of Lobia, who had given her so much advice when she had been alive. Anirul wanted to hear the old woman’s voice rising above all the others, a voice of reason in the mystic throng. Mentally, she called out for her lost friend, but the Lobia-within did not emerge.

Suddenly, hearing the call, the ghost-voices assaulted her again, so tumultuously that they echoed in the air around her. Memories grew louder, lives and thoughts, opinions and arguments. Voices shouted her name.

She screamed back at them, telling them to be quiet….

Inside the zoo, the Buzzell dolphins thrashed in their tank, bumping their bottle-noses against the thick plaz. The Laza tigers let out echoing roars. The saber-bear bellowed and fell upon its companion in the enclosure, triggering a fierce battle of teeth and claws. Captive birds began to shriek. Other animals howled in panic.

Anirul dropped to her knees, still screaming at the voices-within. The guards and servants rushed to help her. They had been watching at a safe distance, disobeying her request for privacy.

But as they tried to lift her to her feet, the Emperor’s wife spasmed, flailing her arms. One of her jeweled rings struck the face of the blonde maidservant, slashing her across the cheek. Anirul’s eyes were wild, like those of a rabid animal.

“Emperor Shaddam will not like this,” one of the guards said, but Anirul was beyond hearing anything at all.