Jeanne kept to herself, avoiding Sly, Jimi, and the others. She spent
her time making arrows and then fashioned a quiver from a towel she
found beside the grailstone, by cleverly applying its magnetic tabs.
She made a second for Shaw, and offered it to him.  "You showed some
skill with the bow," she said, but he merely smiled, accepting the
gift with silent grace.

Watching Sly chew his dream gum, Josephine attempted to suppress a
shudder, paling slightly.  Carrying her grail over to Shaw, she
wordlessly held it out to him, open, and he took the offending dream
gum from it and placed it in his own.

Turning her gaze to the new set of people, she looked over them in a
practiced manner. She spoke with them easily, and found them largely
lethargic and easygoing. The one named Jimi eyed her and ran his
tongue across his lips. She smiled slightly, and then joined Benjamin
in his search for bits of wood.

"Ideally, the white pieces would be Wood and the black Stone, but I
cannot see how I shall shape Stone well enough for the Player to
swiftly and readily recognize his Position," Benjamin offered.

"Why not use grail items instead," Josephine replied, half-joking, "At
least there's a ready supply."

Benjamin looked at her in surprise. "Capital! The Black Pieces shall
be all Grail items.  This Razor will make a King, if I can make it
stand on end."

He thought the dreamgum would make good pawns, but had noticed
Josephine's reaction to the stuff, and decided to keep this idea to
himself.

"Chess?" Shaw asked. "What a wonderful idea, would you like a hand
with those?"

Benjamin smiled in return.

By the grailstone, Sly looked Hendrix over. "Ewe woodent know who I am
man... I wuz just a lil' bloke when you died. Ewe can call me 'Sly'."
Jimi nodded fluidly.  Sly turned back and points at his group,
speaking in a dreamlike haze. "I'm hanging out with these stiffs for
now. Anyone else here? Morrison?  Buddy Holly? Hey, man, you got a
band going here? I play bass."

Jimi grinned. "I dig, man. Got me 'n' C.B. 'n' a fella name Merle
here. We got plans an' plans for ban's and ban's, 'round here, but no
axes, and no juice. An' no skins. Jes' like back home, fifty
axeslingers, no skinbeaters."

The smoke signal surprised the group.  "Collect your weapons and
grails, and make for the boat," Charles called out to the others. "We
go now to answer the call of Shaka, and help him with whatever he
needs." 

Jeanne quickly aided Shaw in untying the boat, as Benjamin hurriedly
packed up his newly-collected bits of wood and began to help the
others break camp. When he finished, he gave a clear loud whistle to
acknowledge the signal before boarding the boat.

Charles turned to Sly.  "Sly, you are welcome to stay here, you seem
to have found friends from your previous life.  We are leaving now to
help a friend and are probably headed towards a fight. Make your
decision now, the boat leaves soon." He bowed briefly to Jimi.  "Our
thanks to you, for your hospitality -- It will not be forgotten.
Perhaps we will be back soon, and can talk and learn more of each
other.  We must take our leave, to honor a promise to our other
friends. Please know that it was nothing other than this promise that
drove us from your camp so quickly. Thank you, once more."

Sly nodded and looked torn. Eventually, he heeded Charles's call.

Once in the boat, Charles helped Shaw maneuver the craft as quickly as
possible, towards the location of the smoke signal.  "Make ready your
weapons, friends, we may have need of them." He said grimly.

On deck, Ehrich showed Benjamin and Shaw the mirror from the grail.
"These could be useful signaling devices.  Quicker to use than smoke
signals, and less likely to be noticed by others.  In my time, there
was a code people used called Morse, but I never learned it well.  I
also know that ships used similar codes with lights.  Shaw, you are
well traveled, do you know any of these codes, we could learn them,
or at least the basics.  If not, I'm sure Ben could invent something,
and I've invented signaling codes before myself."

Shaw nodded. "Yes, I am familiar with Morse code, actually, its quite
simple, I could teach it to the rest of us by the time we reach
Shaka's group." He glanced at Sly. "Well, maybe most of us..."

Benjamin chuckled and began working on carving bits of wood
again. Shaw left the tiller in Charles's hands and helped for a time.
"I expect this to take much Time to do well," Benjamin said
gratefully, "or even poorly, but Time is currently one of our most
plentiful Resources."

With a half hour of sailing to go, Josephine motioned for Shaw to join
her below decks. Sly watched the two descend with a wry look.


Sitting down in the boat's little cabin, Josephine spoke in a clear,
calm voice.

"Shaw."  She hesitated slightly. "What do you think of me?" She turned
to look in his eyes and added, "As a person?"

Before he could respond, she continued.  "We've spent a lot of time
together, as friends.  You've taught me a lot, but you've never..."
She shrugged her shoulders, "made any sort of move to take it
further than that."

Shaw looked slightly uncomfortable. "I..ah.."

With a slight frown she looked at him, "Is there a reason or do you
just not see me in that manner?  I'll be frank, in my years on earth,
I'd never gone for long without some sort of companion, so this is
something new for me and I don't know if I'm going about it
correctly."

She watched Shaw's face, especially his eyes, intently, finally
allowing him to speak.  He glanced off to the side for a second.

"I suppose I should have seen this coming," he stammered. "But I guess
I was avoiding the subject. Nothing personal, though." he added
quickly.

"Its just that, ah...Well, you see...You know that on earth I was
known as the great Lawrence of Arabia." He said the last bit with a
half-smile which Josephine returned.  "There were rumors of
certain.. tastes that I supposedly had, well, as with much of what was
said about me this was not true."

"To be completely honest," he continued, "Back on earth I had neither
the desire or the time for any sort of relationship further than
friendship with anyone...I don't know if you remember that very first
night on the river, something of a night madness. It was the dream gum
I think...ah, I suppose you would rather I not go into much detail
with that...suffice to say that, for what ever reasons, either the gum
or something to do with being resurrected I...well, ever since then I
have had what one could call normal..ahh..."

He paused for a moment.  "Oh hell, what I'm getting to is...I'm
willing if you are." With a laugh, he added. "Hm, that wasn't very
romantic sounding I guess."

Josephine grinned. "I've heard worse. But I think we'll have to
continue this later," she added as Charles called from above.

Josephine and Shaw emerged from the ship's cabin hand in hand as they
neared the east bank of the River where the smoke was rising.

			      *  *  *  *

Shaka watched his companions and their escort move to the river, then
turned back to the Zulus and called Pala to his side.

"Pala," he instructed, "we must have the tribe ready to move by
tomorrow.  We will travel armed, and stealthily.  We go to the site of
the Riverworld God's steel.  I want every man armed with spear and
thrusting shield by morning.  Today we will drill in mobile combat."

"It shall be as you command, Shaka," Pala replied.

Shaka thought for a moment before adding, "My companions have gone to
the river to find the rest of the party that is supposed to travel to
the steel with me.  They are all white skinned except for one woman
who has a white man's mind.  They may try to stand in our way.  We
shall not let them, shall we Pala?"

In answer, Pala grinned his hard grin, and began arming the men, whose
apparent initial reluctance was broken down by Pala's firm words.

When Louis and Mandragola returned to the camp, the Zulu were armed
with spears and heavy wooden shields and were sparring with one
another.
 
Louis turned to Mandragola and raised an eyebrow.  "So, what do you
think of our fine world?"  He forced irony into his voice.  "All kinds
of 'mysterious' happenings, no?  Aren't you just anxiously awaiting
the next development?" He rolled his eyes in disgust.  "I would but
quit this place, if I knew how.  Oh! where are they?  I wish to get
this over with!"  He looked up and down the river for signs from
Shaw's group.

At first, Mandragola did not answer, but instead idly watched the
smoke winging its way into the sky, unsure of his
response. Eventually, he spoke.  "I understand your grief - you have
lost a good friend and that is always difficult. But we must try to
put the past behind us and look to the future.  Only then will we be
able to complete the task entrusted to us - though by whom I do not
know."

He pondered for another long period.  "I notice that people seem to be
immortal in this land. I have yet to decide whether this is a blessing
or a curse."

"It's a curse...most assuredly a curse," Louis replied with
finality. He regarded the other man for a moment and then continued,
"Others have lived before here.  I have not.  I remember my death in
France, but no other.  Some of our party have mysteriously vanished,
with no sign to indicate by what design it occurred.  I am a man of
reason, and this greatly disturbs me.  I would but get my hands around
the necks of those who perpetrate this madness...if it could only be
so."

A distant whistle-pattern floated across the River. "That's the signal
for a meeting," Louis said with more excitement in his voice. "They're
coming." His prediction was not proved wrong.

As the boat approached the Riverbank, Louis and Mandragola shouted to
the others. Soon they had tied the boat to the grailstone and found
themselves in a village where Shaka stood among a score or more armed
men whose resemblance to the Zulu went beyond skin color.

Shaka grinned.

			      *  *  *  *