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Imperium knew of that mysterious world's incredible technology and innovations, but few outsiders had ever been there. Leto felt disoriented, as if on the deck of a boat in a storm. His father loved to pull surprises like this, to see how well Leto could react to a changed situation.

    Ixians maintained a strict veil of secrecy around their industrial operations.
    They were rumored to skirt the fringes of legality, manufacturing devices that came close to violating Jihad prohibitions against thinking machines. Why then is my father sending me to such a place, and how has it been arranged? Why hasn't anyone asked me?

    A robo-table emerged from the floor beside Leto and produced a cold glass of cidrit juice. The young man's tastes were known, just as it was known that the Old Duke would want nothing but the pipe. Leto took a sip of the tart drink, puckering his lips.

    "You'll study there for a year," Paulus said, "according to the tradition of the allied Great Houses. Living on Ix will be quite a contrast with our bucolic planet. Learn from it." He stared at the pipe in his hand. Carved from Elaccan jacaranda wood, it was deep brown, with swirls that glinted in the light cast by the glowglobes.

    "You've been there, sir?" Leto smiled as he remembered. "To see your comrade Dominic Vernius, right?"

    Paulus touched the combustion pad on the side of his pipe, lighting the tobacco, which was actually a golden seaweed rich in nicotine. He took a long drag and exhaled smoke. "On many occasions. The Ixians are an insular society and don't trust outsiders. So you'll have to go through plenty of security precautions, interrogations, and scans. They know that dropping their guard for the briefest instant can be fatal. Great and Minor Houses alike covet what Ix has and would like to take it for themselves."

    "Richese for one," Leto said.

    "Don't say that to your mother. Richese is now only a shadow of what it was because Ix trounced them in all-out economic warfare." He leaned forward and took a puff from his pipe. "The Ixians are masters of industrial sabotage and patent appropriation. Nowadays Richesians are only good for making cheap copies, without any innovations."

    Leto considered these comments, which were new to him. The Old Duke blew smoke, puffing his cheeks and making his beard bristle.

    "In deference to your mother, lad, we've filtered the information you've learned. House Richese was a most tragic loss. Your grandfather, Count Ilban Richese, had a large family and spent more time with his offspring than watching his business interests. Not surprisingly, his children grew up pampered, and his fortunes fizzled away."

    Leto nodded, attentive as always to his father's talk. But he already knew more than Paulus imagined; he'd listened privately to holorecords and filmbooks inadvertently left accessible to him by his proctors. It occurred to him now, however, that perhaps all of that was by design, part of a plan to open his mother's family history to him like a flower, one petal at a time.

    In conjunction with his familial interest in Richese, Leto had always found Ix to be equally intriguing. Once an industrial competitor of Richese, House Vernius of Ix had survived as a technological powerhouse. The royal family of Ix was one of the wealthiest in the Imperium -- and he was going to study there.

    His father's words broke through his thoughts. "Your training partner will be Prince Rhombur, heir to the noble title of Vernius. I hope you two get along.
    You're about the same age."

    The Prince of Ix. Leto's thoughts soured, hoping the young man wasn't spoiled, like so many other children of powerful Landsraad families. Why couldn't it at least have been a princess, one with a face and figure like the Guild banker's daughter he had met last month at the Tidal Solstice Ball?

    "So . . . what is this Prince Rhombur like?" Leto asked.

    Paulus laughed, a blustery offering that suggested a lifetime of revelry and bawdy stories.