When Jessica’s labor began, the Bene Gesserit were ready for her. Few understood the full reasons, but every one of the Sisters knew this long-awaited child was important.

The sunny birthing room had been laid out in accordance with Anirul’s exacting specifications. Careful attention was paid to ancient Feng Shui practices, as well as to lighting and air-flow patterns. Philaroses, silver orchids, and Poritrin carnations grew inside suspensor-borne planter globes above the bed. The room on the top level of the Imperial Palace was open to the eyes of the universe, reaching nearly to the fluffy underlayers of weather-control clouds.

Jessica lay back, concentrating on her body, and her environment, and most of all on the child anxious to come out of her womb. She avoided eye contact with Reverend Mother Mohiam, afraid her guilt would show on her face. I have challenged her before, resisted her dictums… but never in a matter of such consequence.

Soon, the Sisters would know her secret.

Will the Reverend Mother kill me for my betrayal? In the hours after the birth, Jessica would be completely vulnerable. In her old teacher’s eyes, failure would be a greater crime than outright treachery.

Between labor spasms, Jessica inhaled the flowers’ sweet scents and thought of far-off Caladan, where she wanted to be with her Duke and their child. “I shall not fear…”

Mohiam sat nearby, watching her prize student attentively. A drained-looking Lady Anirul had insisted on coming to the birthing room, despite Medical Sister Yohsa’s stern admonitions. Who could resist the command of the Kwisatz Mother at such a time? Heavily medicated, Anirul claimed to have made a temporary peace with the clamor in her head.

Jessica tried to rise out of deference, but the Emperor’s wife wagged a stern finger at her. “Put on the birthing gown we have provided for you. Lie back and concentrate on your muscles. Prepare your mind and body, as you have been taught. I will not have anything go wrong with this delivery. Not after waiting for ninety generations!”

Yohsa came closer, touched Anirul’s arm. “My Lady, she has just begun dilating. We will call you when the hour approaches. It will be some time yet before she—”

Anirul cut her off. “I have already borne five daughters to the Emperor. This young woman will heed my advice.”

Jessica dutifully removed her clothes and donned the long kai-sateen gown Anirul had provided. It was so light and smooth that she barely felt it against her skin. As she climbed back onto the curved birthing bed, Jessica felt a tingle of anticipation that overcame her worries. When I leave this bed, I will have a son, Leto’s son.

For nine months she had nurtured and protected this baby. Until twelve days ago, when a sensory-projected Reverend Mother Mohiam had shown her the truth of the Kwisatz Haderach program, she had thought only of her love for her Duke, and how much he needed another son after the tragic death of Victor.

At Anirul’s side, Mohiam wrinkled her lips in a smile. “Jessica will do well enough, my Lady. She has always been my finest student. Today, she will show the worth of all the training I have given her.”

Overwhelmed by the thought of what these powerful women might do, Jessica wished Leto could be with her now. He would never allow harm to come to her or their child. They had spent the previous evening together, and she’d been grateful just to hold him again in her bed, her skin touching his. To Jessica, such gentle comfort mattered more than moments of high passion.

By the soft light of glowglobes in their chambers, Jessica had noticed a change in the Duke. He had become his old self again, the hard but powerful Leto Atreides she loved, more alive than he had been in a long time.

But he was scheduled to speak to the Landsraad today. The Duke of a Great House had far more important duties than hovering anxiously at the bedside of his concubine.

In the birthing room now, surrendering to the natural processes of her body, Jessica lay back and closed her eyes. She had no option but to cooperate with the Bene Gesserit and hope. I can bear another child, a daughter next time. If they let me live.

Jessica knew she had preempted their plans by moving the male birth up by a full generation. Still, genetics was an uncertain science, the gambling dice of a higher, undefined power. Could my son be the one anyway? It was a frightening, exhilarating possibility.

Opening her eyes, she saw two Medical Sisters move in like sentinels on either side of her bed. Whispering to each other in a language even Jessica did not understand, they checked diagnostic equipment while touching probes and sensors to her skin. At the foot of the bed with Yohsa, Lady Anirul watched everything, her doe eyes deeply sunken above her hollow cheeks. Like a person risen from her deathbed, the Emperor’s wife instructed the women in every detail, making them nervous and irritated.

Yohsa’s concern was divided between Jessica and Lady Anirul. “Please, my Lady, this is simply a routine delivery. There is no need for your attentions. Return to your own chambers and rest. I have a new prescription for you, to quiet the voices of Other Memory.” Yohsa reached into her pocket.

Anirul waved the smaller woman aside. “You understand nothing. You have already given me too many drugs. My friend Lobia is trying to warn me of something… from deep inside. I need to listen, not plug my ears.”

Yohsa’s voice took on a scolding tone. “You should never have probed so deeply without companion Sisters.”

“Are you forgetting who I am? This is a matter that involves my Hidden Rank. You will not challenge me.” Grabbing a surgical lasknife from a tray, she spoke in a menacing tone. “If I tell you to plunge this into your own heart, you will do it.” The other Medical Sisters stepped back, not knowing what to make of this.

Anirul glared at Yohsa, her doe eyes ablaze. “If I determine that your continued presence endangers the success of the project, I will kill you myself. Be careful, very careful.”

Mohiam, however, glided closer and intervened. “Have the voices given you advice, my Lady? Can you hear them now?”

“Yes! And they are louder than ever before.”

With a quick movement, Mohiam pushed the endangered Medical Sister beyond the reach of the agitated woman. “Lady Anirul, it is your right and duty to shepherd this special birth, but you must not interfere with these women.”

Still holding the lasknife, her body twitching as if she were fighting Other Memory for control of her mind and muscles, Anirul took a seat on a suspensor chair beside Jessica. The other two Medical Sisters stood off to one side, but at a hand signal from Mohiam they resumed their work.

Amidst this chaos, Jessica took calming breaths and cycled through techniques that Mohiam had taught her….

Anirul tried to quell her raging anxiety, so that her dangerous emotions would not contaminate the birthing room. Feral thoughts raced through the Kwisatz Mother’s troubled mind, struggling to be heard over the internal and external disorder. She bit the knuckles of one hand. If anything went wrong in the next few hours, the Kwisatz Haderach program could be set back for centuries, and possibly ruined for all time.

It must not happen.

Anirul suddenly looked down at the lasknife in surprise, then set it on a nearby table, but still within reach. “I am sorry, child. I did not mean to upset you,” she murmured. Presently she continued in a prayerlike tone, “At this most important time, you must use Prana-Bindu skills to guide the baby through your birth canal.” She looked at the shining implement on the table. “I will cut your daughter’s umbilical cord myself.”

“I am ready to begin,” Jessica announced. “I will intensify my labor now.” How they will hate me when they see.

She exercised precise Bene Gesserit control over her body, over every birthing muscle, and exerted pressure. What would Lady Anirul do? Her eyes bore the signs of madness, but was the Emperor’s wife capable of murder?

Jessica vowed to remain alert and ready to protect Leto’s son in any way possible.