Dune: Book 2, Part 14 Summary & Analysis

The epigraph from Stilgar’s Preface in Princess Irulan’s text “Muad’Dib, The Man” reveals more information about the Muad’Dib’s learnings on Arrakis. Stilgar describes the way that Muad’Dib’s education truly began when he learned to read Arrakeen weather and efficiently guard and reclaim his body’s water. During this time, the Muad’Dib’s eyes changed to blue and “he learned the Chakobsa way.”

Stilgar’s tribe travel in near silence to their sietch in moonlight. Chani advises Paul to lower his hood in a certain manner to shield everything but his eyes, thereby retaining as much water as possible. As the near their home, the Fremen become more relaxed. Once past two moisture doors and in the safety of a rocky passage, they throw back their hoods, slip out their nose plugs and breathe deeply.

Paul, or Usul as the tribe now call him, does the same. He is hit by a wave of smells—unwashed bodies, reclaimed wastes, and the pungent smell of spice pervading it all. Jessica can tell from the smells alone that the Fremen community uses spice as an ingredient for materials such as paper, plastics, and explosives. As they take in their new environment, they realize that Chani has disappeared ever since they entered the sietch.

Paul hears the news that Chani’s father, Liet-Kynes, is dead. The Fremen are sad and angered, knowing that this is a result of Harkonnen treachery despite trying to make the planetologist’s death look like an accident in the desert.

Swept by a throng of Fremen through to another cave, Paul comes face to face with a beautiful Fremen woman dressed in vibrant colors with water rings in her ears. She is Jamis’s wife, Harah, and cannot believe that the youthful Paul killed her husband, leaving their two children fatherless. She is angry about this until she learns that Paul may be the promised Fremen messiah Lisan al-Gaib.

Paul learns that by besting Jamis, he is now responsible for the man’s two sons. He also receives Jamis’s lodgings, coffee service, and wife. He chooses to accept Harah as his “servant” rather than his “woman” and promises to care for her as long as she needs a place with him. Paul is surprised that Harah does not actually resent him for killing Jamis. She responds that it was a fair match and that she knows Paul was a friend to Jamis, even offering the gift of moisture at his funeral.

Many of Stilgar’s tribe are moving with some urgency to complete installing dew collectors. Paul marvels at the dew collector technologies that catch moisture for plants—they are chromoplastic creations that are simple but beautiful in execution. Paul also realizes that Sardaukar are hunting Fremen tribes across the desert; Harah states that the Padishah Emperor’s soldiers will only find empty sietchs and explosives in the sand.

Paul continues moving toward his lodgings with Harah. He views a number of Fremen innovations such as weaving, food processing, and stillsuit machinery. He is surprised to see that even as the tribe prepares to abandon the sietch, children are engaged in their lessons about Arrakeen ecology. Harah says that the Fremen cannot afford to halt the trainings that Liet-Kynes has taught them.

Many of the Fremen that Paul passes view him with suspicion, and Harah suggests that he will likely need to prove his fighting abilities again soon. She is disbelieving when Paul states he doesn’t want to kill anyone. The two reach the lodgings that previously belonged to Jamis, which turns out to be a large set of stone rooms draped in different colored fabrics. Paul rebuffs Harah’s flirting and instructs her to bring him food.

Paul wonders where Chani is. He also thinks about his pregnant mother, Jessica, and how she will adapt to Fremen culture. Hearing rustling fabrics, he turns to find not Harah with food but two young boys with small crysknives hanging at their belts. He thinks of the legends that describe the Fremen children as being just as fierce of fighters as the adults.