Dune The Novels & Stories

"Come on, Emma! We've got to buy groceries. Ms. Lourne from the market said if we go early, we can get a discount!" "How much of a discount?" I asked. "Ten bucks!" he exclaimed. 10 bucks? Ethan used to think I was embarrassing, but here was someone grabbing my hand, racing with me into the sunset, telling me to do my best later to win over the old folks at the market. I looked at Alex's profile, and he reminded me so much of a younger Ethan, so full of passion and energy. However, unlike the younger Ethan, Alex could sometimes be shy, sometimes even shed a tear. He was like a boy who cried but could still hold up the sky for someone when needed.

Then Dante said, “You mean like… all of us?” Santino nodded. “Three couples. Somewhere warm. Somewhere quiet. No phones. No suits. No guns.” Holly tilted her head. “No guns?” Santino smirked. “Okay, one gun.” Dante looked at his wife. She shrugged. “I’m in.” He looked at me. I looked at Holly. She smiled. “I could use a beach,” she said. I nodded. “We’re in.” Santino raised his glass. “To bad ideas and good company.”

he said, surprised. "The sand doesn't get hot here like it does at the beach. Instead it reflects the heat, which is awesome, unless it's the middle of summer. Then it feels like a hundred and twenty degrees out here," Melinda said. She reached the top of the dune and stared out at the ocean of sand. The white was a stark contrast with the clear blue sky. It had been a while since she'd visited the dunes; she'd forgotten how peaceful it was. "Wow," Daniel said, standing next to her. "It's beautiful." He looked around. "Why isn't anyone else here?"

Its just that, it resembles something . "It's gone." His gaze remained on me. I saw the moment he rolled his eyes at what he heard. The serene of the wind carresing my back made me gasp. Not because of the cold it brought but because of the reaction I saw to Alforo. "Seems familiar?" he chuckled. I averted my gaze from him. I cleared my throat as I watch him looking at me intently. "Start it, Demi." She nods. "I don't cry but that was a lie."

"Yes, sure! We will be having a tea party beside the stream. I'm sure you're gonna make lots of friends there." "Where is that located? You can hire me as your driver. I'll send you to that place before I fetch Phoebe." Dave asks in a quizzical smile. "Oh it's a hidden village but the owner of the whole property died and her children decided to sell the place. I'm not sure but I think it's some kind of... Tikolene...Tikaluna Village? Yeah, it's Tikaluna Village." Dave widens his eyes as his heartbeat pounds fast, "Don't go there!"

The next morning, Alexander rode out with Edmund and their top warriors—fifty elite fighters dressed in black armor. They moved fast across the dunes, using the shifting sands for cover. The sun climbed higher, but none of them slowed. The Dune Kingdom’s gates rose ahead. This wasn’t going to be a quiet attack. This was war. “Now!” Alexander shouted. They charged. Gunfire exploded as Edmund and the snipers hit the gate guards from a distance. Arrows flew at them but were either shot down or bounced off their armor. Alexander ran forward, his bones shifting and cracking as he transformed.

“Their brands are cleaner.” Lowell lifted the leg with two fingers, queasy. “Who brands a rogue?” Bran didn’t answer. He looked at me instead, quick and sharp. The same question hung in the space between us: Who organized them? Who sent them? And why here? “Cut it off,” he told Dane, voice clipped. Dane flinched. “What…” “The skin.” Bran’s smile went knife-thin. “Sela will want the sample.” Dane swallowed hard and did as he was told. The knife hissed. I looked away until it was over.

“You made me a general. I can't sit back and do nothing when I can.” I could see him contemplating for a minute before he nodded. “Fine,” he said. We left for the woods, but even after our search deep into the day, we found nothing. “What’s it about this rogue?” I asked Riven beside me. “Do you think there's something different about it?” he asked. “Yes,” I replied. “You wouldn't ask for backup if it were a common rogue.” Riven nodded. “You’re right. This is not a normal one. He is modified. From the reports, it drinks blood and eats the flesh, leaving only the bones as evidence of the crime,” he sighed.

The farmers I trained just this morning try to fight back with wooden swords and dull axes, but they are being slaughtered mercilessly. “Damn it!” I curse, yanking the claymore from my back. “Stay behind me, Maeve!” “I’m not hiding!” Maeve snaps back immediately. Her eyes flare bright silver. “I’m going to put out the fire!” In the middle of the burning village square, Dorian Duskborne is dodging sword strikes while throwing explosive formula bottles. “Finally done making out?!” Dorian shouts the second he sees us. He ducks beneath an arrow. “Mind cleaning up this trash, Sword Bearer?!”

The old shackle scar on the web of his left hand was bound neatly and tightly in bandages. Aurelius sat on his white horse at the outer edge of the right flank. His riding crop hung at his belt. Sylvan and the grey wolf were positioned on the outermost snow dune. The wolf's amber eyes locked onto the tomb entrance, piercing through the snow. Dorian's twelve drones fanned out across the sky above the ice plains. Each one carried a live projection array. The feed was not only being broadcast to the Council. It was being simultaneously transmitted to every public square in the Seven Territories.