Elandriel made no response, though she was speaking. Moving lips tasted sweet tears at the corners of her mouth as she whispered the words that should call down Diune's dread attention and let her fling the wound from her   but where normally she felt the gather of the goddess' power, there was nothing.<br/><br/>Well, not quite nothing. That terrible, unctuous laughter welled up in the base of her mind again.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: garamond;">"I am pledged to my Lady Diune - you are not and shall not be my master, despite what cruel hurts you put to me, blackheart!"</span>