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cliffs, beyond the shielded harbor, and out into open water. Sunlight glittered
like sparkflies on the rippled surface of the sea.
The Prince of Ix stood at the bow while Leto worked the controls. Rhombur
soaked up the experience of water and wind and sun, smiling. He took a deep
breath. "I feel so alone and so free out here."
Looking overboard, Rhombur saw rafts of leathery-leafed seaweed and round
gourdlike fruits that held up the plants like air bladders. "Paradan melons,"
Leto said. "If you want one, just reach over the side and take it. If you've
never had paradan fresh from the sea, you're in for a taste treat . . . though
the fruit's a bit salty for me."
Far off to starboard a pod of murmons swam like furred logs, large but harmless
creatures that drifted with ocean currents, singing to themselves with low,
hooting sounds.
Leto sailed the coracle for about an hour, consulting satellite maps and charts,
making for a knot of outlying reefs. He handed Rhombur a set of binoculars and
indicated a frothy, tumultuous patch on the sea. Isolated black ridges of rock
barely poked above the waves like the spine of a sleeping leviathan.
"There's the reef," Leto said. "We'll anchor about half a kilometer away so we
don't risk ripping open the hull. Then we can go diving." He opened a
compartment and withdrew a sack and a small spatulaknife for each of them. "The
coral gems don't grow very deep. We can dive without air tanks." He slapped
Rhombur on the back. "It's about time you started to earn your keep around
here."
"Just keeping you out of trouble is, uh, effort enough," Rhombur countered.
After the coracle was secured on its anchor cord, Leto pointed a scanner
overboard to map out the contours of the reefs below. "Look at this," he said,
letting his friend view the screen. "See those crannies and tiny caves? That's
where you'll find the coral gems."
Rhombur peered at the scanner, nodding.
"Each one is encrusted with a husk, like an organic scab that grows around them.
Doesn't look like much until you crack one open and see the most beautiful
pearls in all creation, like molten droplets from a star. You have to keep them
wet at all times, because the open air oxidizes them instantly and they become
extremely pyrophoric."
"Oh," Rhombur said, unsure what the word meant, though he was too proud to ask.
Fumbling, he attached his belt, which held the spatulaknife and a small
waterlume for probing the darkest caves.
"I'll show you when we get down there," Leto said. "How long can you hold your
breath?"
"As long as you," the Prince of Ix said, "naturally."
Leto stripped off his shirt and pants, while Rhombur hurried to do the same.
Simultaneously, both young men dived overboard. Leto stroked downward into the
warm water, pulling himself deeper until he felt the pressure around his skull.
The large reef was a convoluted, permanently submerged landscape. Tufts of
coralweed waved in the gentle currents, the tiny mouths on their leaves snaring
bits of plankton. Jewel-toned fish darted in and out of holes in the layered
coral.
Rhombur grabbed his arm and pointed at a long purplish eel that drifted by,
streaming a rainbow-hued, feathery tail. The Ixian looked comical with his
cheeks swollen, trying to hold in his air.
Grasping the rough coral, Leto pulled himself along and peered into cracks and
crevices. He shined the beam of his waterlume all around in his search. With
his lungs aching, he finally found a discolored knob and signaled for Rhombur,
who swam over. But as Leto pulled out his spatula-knife to pry free the coral
gem, Rhombur flailed his arms and swam upward as fast as he could, his air
exhausted.
Leto remained beneath the water, though his chest pounded. Finally, he pried
loose the nodule, which would likely yield a medium-sized coral gem. With it he
swam upward, his chest ready to burst, and finally splashed to the surface where
Rhombur clung, panting, to the edge of the coracle.
"Found one," Leto said. "Look." Holding the gem underneath the water, he
tapped it with the blunt edge of his knife until the outer covering cracked
free. Inside, a slightly misshapen ovoid gleamed with self-contained pearly
light. Tiny glimmering specks circulated like molten sand trapped within
transparent epoxy.
"Exquisite," Rhombur said.
Dripping wet, Leto climbed out of the water and onto the midship deck, by the
lifeboat station. He dipped a bucket overboard, filling it with seawater, and
dropped the coral gem inside before it could dry out in his hands. "Now you
have to find one of your own."
With his blond hair plastered to his head by seawater, the Prince nodded, drew
several deep gulps of air, then swam downward again. Leto dived after him.
Within an hour the pair had gathered half a bucket of the beautiful gems. "Nice
haul," Leto said, squatting on the deck beside Rhombur, who, fascinated with the
treasure, dipped his fingers into the bucket. "You like those?"
Rhombur grunted. His eyes danced with a child's delight.
"I've worked up quite an appetite," Leto said. "I'll go prep the foodpaks."
"I'm starving, too," Rhombur said. "Uh, need any help?"
Leto drew himself up and raised his aquiline nose haughtily in the air. "Sir, I
am the resident ducal heir, with a long resume asserting my competence to
prepare a simple foodpak." He strutted to the sheltered galley as Rhombur
sorted through the wet coral stones, like a kid playing with marbles.
Some were perfectly spherical, others misshapen and pitted. Rhombur wondered
why certain ones had a blazing inner brilliance while others were dull by
comparison. He set the three largest stones on the midship deck and watched the
sunlight glitter on them, a pale shadow to the brilliance trapped within. He
noted their differences, wondered what he and Leto could do with the treasure.
He missed his own collection of gems and crystals, agates and geodes from Ix.
He had wandered through caves and tunnels and shafts to find them. He had
learned so much of geology that way -- and then the Tleilaxu had driven him and
his family from their world. He'd been forced to leave everything behind.
Although he left it unsaid, Rhombur decided if he ever saw his mother again, he
could make a grand gift for her.
Leto leaned out of the galley door. "Lunch is ready. Come and eat before I
feed it to the fishes."
Rhombur trotted in to sit at the small table while Leto served up two bowls of
steaming Caladanian oyster chowder, seasoned with nouveau wine from House
Atreides vineyards. "My grandmother came up with this recipe. It's one of my
favorites."
"Well, not bad. Even if you made it." Rhombur slurped from his bowl and licked
his lips. "It's a, um, good thing my sister didn't come along," he said, trying
to hide the joking tone in his voice. "She probably would have tried to wear
fancy clothes, and you know she'd never have gone swimming with us."
"Sure," Leto said, unconvinced. "You're right." It was obvious to anyone how
he and Kailea flirted with each other, though Rhombur understood -- politically
speaking -- that a romance between them would be unwise at best, and dangerous
at worst.
Out on the midship deck just aft of them, the sun beat down, warming the wooden
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