*  *  *  *			

Again, Temuchin made the movements with his hands.

Charles looked around, fuming unnoticeably.  After a moment of
thought, he bowed stiffly and formally at the waist to Temuchin.
While looking calmly at the small Chinese man, Charles spoke in
German.

Charles: "Now is not the time for a fight, but a fight will come, and
	  we will be free -- mark my words"

Shaka too spent a moment thinking, looking curiously at Temuchin's
gestures. Finally, he stood as tall as he was able in the low cage,
and, crouching, smiled and nodded at the man.

Tjar watched the others, and fixed Temuchin with a measuring stare.
He spoke to the man in English.

Tjar: "What is your plan for us, man?"

He looked at Temuchin, and the guards, for any sign of recognition
of the language. Finding none, he then looked to his companions, and
swore with fierce anger.

Tjar: "Blast!"

As Shaka, still smiling, began to flex his muscles for their captor, 
Glenn began to sing a melody. The song began simply, but soon became
more intricate. As the others looked on, surprised, Friend's baritone
joined Glenn's tenor in the melody.

Tjar again exclaimed in English.

Tjar: "Well I'll be the savage's slipper!"

Shrugging, Tjar joined in the song, and Glenn's voice moved into
counterpoint with the two men.

Temuchin looked thoughtful for a moment, and then made lifted his
hand in a gesture which the men easily interpreted. They stopped their
singing, and Temuchin nodded approvingly. He signaled two of his men,
who brought over the men's grails, closed. Opening each cage in turn,
the guards returned each man's grail.

The men opened their grails to find them full of food, and ate
hungrily. When they had finished their meal, the guards took their
grails back, and led Shaka and Charles from the cages to stand before
Temuchin. Charles had saved a cup of yellow wine from his grail, and
held it before him, offering it to Temuchin. Temuchin took the cup and
passed it to one of his lieutenants, who drained it in one gulp.
Charles and Shaka were led off by the guards.

The singers who remained behind spoke quietly among themselves.

Glenn: "Hmm. I thought I had discovered our fourth voice: how they
        opened our grails. But it appears they did not open them."

Tjar: "What's this about a fourth voice?"

When Glenn had explained his observations to Tjar, the man was both
surprised and curious.

Tjar: "Ox's blood, I've heard some strange tales, but that beats all.
       For you all to appear together, away from a grailstone?"

Friend: "What strikes me as most significant is the memory loss. That
	 usually indicates some injury to the head, or else a trauma
	 that you can not bear to face. But so many people..."

Glenn shrugged.

Glenn: "At least they appreciate music. I'd better teach you both
        another Baroque melody, so we'll have something for dinner."

Charles and Shaka were led by the guards to a bamboo hut where 
they were outfitted with chest-towels like the other guards. Then they
were escorted to another hut, which, from the smell, served as the
latrine for the compound. Smiling, a guard handed each of them a towel
and pointed to the door and the floor beyond. The party of guards
watched the men work on their knees for a few minutes, and then,
leaving two guards behind to make sure they finished the job, went
elsewhere in the camp. The men faintly heard the sound of singing
throughout the afternoon.

			*  *  *  *

Josephine placed a hand on the small of her back and stretched for a long
moment, twisting slightly to loosen her muscles. Jeanne, already awake
and armed, pointed with her spear up the path.

Florence awoke at first light after only three hours of fitful sleep.
She too stretched, and smiled slightly. 

Florence: "After half a century of pain, to wake up stiff on the grass
	   in this body is a pleasure indeed."

But she looked around and soon remembered the events of the previous
night. Her smile turned grim.

Florence spoke slowly, almost reluctantly:

Florence: "Perhaps Jeanne is right in that our best course of action
	   is to discover what happened to the others in our party.
	   We are alone in an obviously hostile environment, not
	   knowing where safety or harm lies.  Surely we are poorly
	   equipped to bide alone."
Florence: "However, I do not want to rush off head-long."

Josephine smiled brightly and energetically, staying on the ground for
a while, stretching her muscles, using the spear she had become
familiar with as an impromptu cane, like the one she used to use in
her early performances on Broadway. She spoke casually, despite
Jeanne's obviously eager promptings to move on.

Josephine: "I'm curious. Why were our people taken and not us? Did the
	    aggressors not scout beforehand to know what our numbers
	    were? Did they not go to the river and take the Orientals'
	    there?"
Josephine: "Before we stumble into anything, perhaps we should find
	    out if the keepers of the grailstone have seen or heard
	    anything. Perhaps they know something we do not?"

Jeanne frowned deeply.

Jeanne: "What of our companions, who may even now be suffering?"

Josephine: "It would take but a moment of our time to ask as we fill
	    our grails if they are missing any people."

Florence: "I agree, we must have nourishment. I do not speak Chinese,
	   but we can try to communicate."

Jeanne: "Perhaps they are allies of the intruders, amis des diables.
	 Perhaps it was they who reported our presence. Should we let
	 them know about us, too?"

Josephine: "But should we not know about them, as well?"

Jeanne grudgingly agreed that scouting a potential enemy could be a
valuable activity and the three women walked back down to the
grailstone to eat breakfast.

Again they met the Chinese settlers, who nodded when they pointed to
the grailstone. Placing their grails in the stone, they sat with the
local inhabitants, and Florence began attempting to communicate,
repeating her words in four or five languages, while Josephine and
Jeanne pantomimed her meaning.

Florence: "Our party has disappeared in the night, apparently they
	   were captured.  Do you know anything about this?  It
	   appears as if they headed upRiver to the walled City.  What
	   can you tell us about this city?

The Chinese looked confused and shook their heads, pointing to their
ears sadly until Florence tried one of her last tongues. Then a woman
stepped forward and babbled quickly in Chinese to the others, who
nodded and became more animated. They surrounded the women and pressed
them toward their dwellings.

Jeanne: "It is as I feared! Make ready to defend yourselves!"

Josephine: "They don't look angry."

They came before a small hut on the edge of the village, and the
people stopped and pointed toward it. Shrugging, the women entered the
domicile, Jeanne clutching her spear firmly, Josephine arching her
eyebrows, and Florence looking very curious.

The man in the center of the room seemed to be lightly dozing when
the women entered, but their steps seemed to awaken him, and he
listened briefly to the words of the Chinese woman before
motioning for the visitors to sit down, and the others to leave them
alone. He turned to a small fire behind him and poured four cups of a
grassy-smelling tea. His eyes gave the impression of great age which
belied the youthfulness of his body. He spoke, slowly, and
Florence translated for the others.

Florence: "He says he can speak some Latin. He learned from a priest.
	   His name is Li Erh."

Florence related the story of the preceding night, augmenting Latin
with mime when the man shook his head. At the end of her tale, he
sighed sadly and spoke again.

Florence: "He says the people upRiver are also Chinese, but from a
	   different time. They have left the village alone because
	   they are both Chinese, but he fears they will despoil it as
	   well, when they can no longer increase their power."

Jeanne: "This village is a buffer state?"

Josephine: "So it seems."

Florence: "He says that a...I'm not sure who he means...someone told
	   him that the king's name is Temuchin, and that he is very
	   cruel. He believes our friends, if they were taken, are now
	   servants."

Li Erh nodded sadly at her words and opened his arms wide.

Florence: "He also said that they honor kings above nature, which he
	   seems to think poorly of. And I think he's inviting us to 
	   stay until night."

Josephine nodded, and looked at Jeanne, expecting an outburst. But the
young woman nodded sagaciously.

Jeanne: "It is good tactics to approach under cover of darkness. But I
	 will wait no longer than tonight!"

Florence: "Tonight it will be. But remember, we do not know our
	   friends were taken to this city, and we cannot afford to
	   alienate anyone in this strange place.  If they have been
	   taken there, then we should rightly be cautious.  Fools go
	   rushing in where angels fear to tread.  We cannot help our
	   friends by dying in God's name in this place yet.  If they
	   have already been welcomed into God's loving arms, then our
	   work must lie elsewhere."

Jeanne: "I am no fool, but God does not favor those who stand idly
	 by. His grace falls on those who stand up for his truth."

Josephine: "Until darkness falls on us, though, let's stay out of
	    sight."

The villagers brought the women their grails and they ate their lunch
in Li Erh's hut, spending the rest of the afternoon in relative silence.

			*  *  *  *

The olive-skinned woman tore small pieces off the slices of hard bread
given to her and then slowly, one by one, placed them delicately
between her lips, chewing each piece with a mouthful of water until
softened enough to swallow. Upon completing her meal, she rose to her
feet, and made an attempt to wipe off her clothing and her hands.

Looking towards Hypatia, and occasionally trying to meet Maria's eyes,
the olive-skinned woman began to speak, accompanying her words with
simple pantomimes for Maria's benefit.

Woman: "It surprises me that our grails were taken away from us. I
        expected them to be returned to us shortly before the firings,
        to have us gain their contents and 'donate' them to our
        captors. I can't see how they can be of any use otherwise."

She paused briefly and musingly continued.

Woman: "Unless of course, they enjoy merely the fact that it means we
	do without. A common tactic with prisoners I believe, destroy
	all that is normal to them, and before long, you will destroy
	the prisoner."

Hypatia: "Perhaps Temuchin likes his women thin. How will we escape
	  this place?"

The olive-skinned woman fell silent again for quite awhile. She stared
out at the compound before her, her eyes fixed on one spot and seldom
blinking.  Looking up at Hypatia again, she wryly spoke.

Woman: "Escape is simple actually....Lazari never awaken near their
	place of demise. Though our awakening was strange."

Maria nodded at the woman's gestures.

Hypatia looked curious, but the woman said no more. She sat quietly
near the rear of the cage, her eyes flickering toward any movement in
the compound. She scrutinized the guards with an unfeeling stare.

Hypatia: "Surely there must be some way out of here?"

Woman: "I, for one, am happy to just sit and watch for now. Don't let
	fear of the unknown scare you into acting too soon."

With a slight lifting of her chin, and an unconscious arching of her back
she added, "One way or the other I doubt I'll be a prisoner for long."

Hypatia turned away.

Maria watched the motions of the two. The olive-skinned woman showed
surprise about the lack of the grails, and shrugged without looking
defeated. Hypatia's hands suggested that the women might become quite
slender and her eyes looked questioningly for a course of action The
other woman's next response seemed to suggest that they might kill
themselves in order to escape, but Maria considered the odd
circumstances of their last rebirth and wondered whether that plan was
really prudent. Nevertheless, she nodded at the gestures. The
olive-skinned woman seemed content to simply watch the compound and
the guards, and Hypatia had turned away, with a look that might have
been disgust.

Maria chewed the hard bread slowly and sipped at the water.
Gradually, a healthy blush replaced the gray pallor of her cheeks. The
vacuousness left her hazel eyes.

After a while, she began to pace the cell floor, testing each segment
of the walls, periodically looking in the direction of the guards. She
tested the strength of the grass-rope knots which bind the bamboo
walls, looking in vain for looser knots. Hypatia shook her head as if
to say she'd been over that ground before, but followed Maria's
attempts avidly. Eventually, Maria gave up, and sat quietly in a
corner of her cell.

The sounds from the center of the compound made the three women
instantly alert. Though quiet, they thought they could hear men's
voices raised in song. Maria's eyes widened and she turned to the
olive-skinned woman and said, "Glenn!"

When the song stopped, Maria's eyes traced the tracks she had made on
the dirt floor in her cell. She tightly clasped the cup of river water
in her hands. She seemed to be concentrating deeply, and after 30
minutes, Maria stood up, a calculating look on her face.  In a lilting
and melodic voice, she began to sing in English.

Glenn and Tjar stared at one another in their cells as they heard a
woman's voice singing faintly.

Glenn: "I think it's Maria!"

Using the tune of a traditional 19th century English wassail, Maria
sang:

Maria: "One caged bird sings
        'Tween two other birdlings.
	Caged door 'twined,
	Two hungry cats
	Perched outside.
	The bird's wings clipped, 
	Her talons gone.
	Who is there
	To hear her song?
	Who is there
	To hear her song?"

In his cage, Tjar nodded at Glenn.

Tjar: "And from the sound of it, she's not alone. Perhaps my ward is
       with her. Hurrah for the ladies."

The guards began to pay them attention again, and they turned to
arranging pieces of Bach's Mass in B Minor for three voices.

The women listened to the voices of the men practicing other melodies
throughout the afternoon. And the guards pointed to Maria and nodded
amongst themselves with sneering grins.

The sky began to darken.