Chapterhouse: Dune
Frank Herbert
Hardcover
(Ace Books, March 15, 1987)
The Bene Gesserit's situation is far worse than what they had suffered under the Tyrant Leto II. The Honored Matres -a violent offshoot of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood-have destroyed Arrakis, of Dune, searing all life from the desert planet. Sweeping across the galaxy, they relentlessly hunt down and destroy every Bene Gesserit stronghold they can find, always searching for Chapterhoursem the most powerful of all Bene Gesserit worlds. Meanwhile, the Sisterhood, led by Mother Superior Odrade, slowly transforms the green planet into a scorching desert in order to grow melange, the psychotropic spice they need for their existance. Through billions of sisters have died on worlds the Honored Matres control, Odrade has a plan for the Bene Gesserit's ultimate survival. One weapon in her arsenal is the wormrider Sheeana, an Atreides descendant whom Odrade is secretly grooming as the sacred heart of a religious cult-and who may be the key to controlling the desert ecology of Chapterhouse. Another is the ghola-child or clone, of the military mastermind Miles Teg, who demonstrates the uncanny speed of the Honored Matres themselves. Most valuable of all may be the captive Honored Matre Murbella. During the Scattering of humanity through the galaxy, the dark sisterhood learned the secret of sexual addiction. Odrade has used the technique to bond Murbella to the ghola of Duncan Idaho, whose suspected Mentat abilities would make him another Kwizatz Haderach, as dangerously uncontrollable as Paul Muad'Dib. But the Bene Gesserit are running out of time, for the enemy is drawing closer, and a supreme sacrifice must be made...