*  *  *  *

Shaw awakened with a start, sat up, closed his eyes, and shivered. He
took a deep breath before talking. "It gets more real every time...I
must tell the rest about this. Dr. Freud, would you be willing to
hypnotize me to help bring out anything I may have missed when I tell
the rest?"

Freud nodded, and helped the man up. Shaw smiled at Josephine. "Thank
you for staying. I have a feeling that this will only get worse before
it gets better. Hopefuly you won't need to shake some sense into me,
but I'm glad to know that I can count on you to do so if need be."

Freud, Shaw, and Josephine emerged from the cabin to the watchful
glance of Benjamin, standing next to Jeanne who was silently minding
the helm.

"Well, learning Morse code seems useless now," Ehrich observed. He was
absentmindedly spinning his mirror on the back of his fingers, causing
it to disappear and reappear again. "As there's no one on shore to
communicate with.  Do you think this Shaka will will relent, or has he
abandoned us for good?  Or did we abandon him?  Somehow, I thought
people were supposed to act differently in the afterlife.  What is our
destination now?"

Jeanne followed the man's motions with the mirror with deep
reservations. The man did not even hide his witchery!

Josephine murmured almost idly, "I do hope that wasn't the last we see
of them."

Charles said little, but remained on deck brooding.  When he finally
stood up, he spoke as if just awakened.

"I have erred," he began.  "The metal scythe was given to Shaka as a
medal of honor.  I should have maintained control of him better.  He
is now, not in my control. The error was mine.

"Shaw -- let us sail north as quickly as possible -- we will skip the
first grail, and stop at the second, only for food.  After that we will
try to see where Shaka is heading.

"It will serve two purposes. If he is now an enemy, perhaps we can take
the metal forge first and thwart his plan.  If not, it will help me to
regain control of this volatile man.

"I'm not sure that I wish control. He has his warriors, and I ..."
Charles paced up and down the deck, his eyes pointed downward.  "Let
us all sit and talk - save the steerman, who shall remain at the helm
and listen and comment.

"We have to look at our lot, and the facts.  Those that stay near
Shaka disappear.  Since our group split into two.  One more has been
taken from their group, but none from ours.  That means that either
Shaka is responsible, or that his direction provides the most threat
to the Kings of this land.

"We must decide as a group, whether we must seek out these leaders, or
do we take our departure, and seek to build a new civilization here,
based on the good concepts that we bring from our previous lives.
Perhaps living better here, will lead us to Heaven, eventually.

"I request comments from you all regarding this.  And I tentatively
suggest that we cautiously shaddow Shaka, or even attempt to arrive
before him, at the next few grails."

"Shaka could be neither enemy nor ally," Ehrich disagreed.  "The world
does not always have to be divided into two groups.  But trying to
take control of him would most assuredly force him to become an
adversary.  He is like this river, and will overrun what is in his
way.  But a river can be navigated and diverted if done with care, and
then it becomes a friend.

"I do agree that we should meet him again.  I would wish to meet the
leaders of this world, following Shaka's dream is the best clue we
have."

Benjamin, waiting his turn, had been busy examining the boat's
manufacture. He had reassured himself that while it was more seaworthy
than some other he had seen on the River, its construction would not
require metal tools.

"I do not know if we should seek the Creatures of Shaka's Vision,"
Benjamin said. "But I do believe that the Mystery of the Scythe must
be solved.  Whether we then continue to seek the Vision, or return to
the Homes we built, we will need the Forge.  We rely on Industry and
it will take Years to build it ourselves from nothing.

Josephine simply added, "I will find my friends who have disappeared."

Shaw spoke next.  "I for one will continue to seek out who or whatever
is behind this. All the building of civilizations will be for naught
if we can be toyed with and manipulated at their will. I personally
have no ill will towards Shaka and wish him well in his search. I just
feel that travel by water is more efficient than by land, and who
knows, maybe it will cause our unseen foe to divide his attention
between us. Still, we shall see in the end who is right, maybe both,
maybe neither.

"But first, I need to talk to you all about dreams," he began. "I
assume that you all have noticed that a number of people in this group
have had a number of what you could call prophetic dreams.  Hypatia,
Josephine, Shaka, and now myself. Even Stalin claimed to have had one
before he suddenly died.

"To be honest, I never believed in prophecy, or ESP or anything like
that. But on the same hand I never believed that I would wake up on
the shore of a endless river after being in a fatal motorcycle
accident either, so I suppose that anything is possible.

"I still didn't put much faith into these dreams until Shaka's return
from the dead with a story abot a lion god and a surprising command of
English. I thought that, since Josephine's and possibly Hypatia's
dream or vision or what ever you want to call it was brought on by
dream gum, that the use of dream gum would be a useful way of trying
to bring on one of these dreams."

Josephine looked apprehensive, and rested her hand on Shaw's shoulder.

"So far I have had four visions," Shaw continued. "The first involved
a group of men and women watching from above and arguing about
something. One of the women, who was wearing a shirt with a huge lion
on it, by the way, seemed to notice me, stared into my eyes and put me
to sleep. The second one involved visions of men, women, firelight, a
lion's mane and a bicycle, of all things. The third time it involved
the same group of people arguing over something. The woman in the lion
shirt noticed me again, but this time only smiled. Then I saw a ring
of twelve stones that fell on me, makeing it hard to breath. I managed
to fight my way out from under them and felt full of power. The
fourth, and latest vision was also the most vivid. It involved a giant
chess board, with all of us, even the ones who have vanished lined up
as pieces. I was'nt able to see what anyone else was, but I was a
knight on a black square. I awoke after seeing a giant hand reach down
and move a pawn forward.

"Dr. Freud has agreed to help make sense of these dreams. I have asked
him to hypnotise me to try and remember more details."

Shaw smiled proudly.  "It might be wise for all of us to be
hypnotized, in fact," he concluded.

Privately, Shaw wondered if the lack of memory of some of the
lazari could be revealed.

As the sun set and Jeanne kept the boat on a steady heading in the
center of the River, the others looked at Shaw in amazement.

			      *  *  *  *

Mandragola, otherwise lost in thought, acknowledged Sly with a nod. He
snapped out of his trance when Louis spoke to Shaka.  "Absolutely," he
agreed. "There is nothing to be gained in standing around cursing Shaw
for his narrow minded views." He turned to Shaka.  "I suggest you ask
your people if they have their own weapons."

The Zulu were indeed well-equipped with spears and shields fashioned
by stretching towels across bamboo frames, and at a word from Shaka
readily armed Mandragola and Louis.

Shaka raised his grail and spoke aloud in Zulu and English.  "My
people," he began. "Today we prepare for the greatest endeavour the
Zulu people have ever undergone.  Once, long ago, I united the Bantu
tribes under the Zulu shield, and we conquered the world.  Now, on
this new, strange world, we will do so again!  But first, we must
travel to the place where this metal, precious here in this strange
land, is found.

"Pala will organize scouts, who will lead the way.  We travel north!
To the home of the Lion God!  After we have metal weapons, we shall
take all the land and all the grails there are!

"When the grails fire today, keep half your food as supplies.  We
travel light, as we always do.  If need be, we shall take grails as
we travel.  The scouts will leave at dusk.  The rest of us shall leave
at dawn.  Until then, we shall prepare!"

Louis grinned. "Charles and Shaw annoy me--they are concerned only
with their own agenda.  I wish to confront this 'Lion God'."  He
turned to Sly. "My name is Louis Saint-Just.  This is Shaka," Louis
said, pointing to each, "and this is Mandragola.  We have just lost
one of our comrades, Mishima. . . .  He will be missed."

Shaka scrutinized the newcomer.  "And who are you?" he asked,
suspiciously. "I know not your name.  Are you a spy sent by Charles?"

Sly began to laugh, slowly, almost slurred.  "What's that mate? Me,
spy for that Charles bloke? On the same noit that John 'olmes buggers
the Queen, mate! E's got a pole up his arse a mile hoi!" He thumbed
his chest. "Name's Sid."

He laughed a while longer before continuing.  "You don't need to worry
'bout me, mate. Just keep the gum comin', and don't get me bored!"

As night fell, the group gathered around the grail, eating lightly and
conserving half their food. Pala, with six warriors in tow, bowed to
Shaka and disappeared north into the forests of the Rivervalley.

Another warrior turned to Shaka and spoke in Zulu. Shaka translated
for the others. "He asks if you have stories of victories in battle
to tell."

			      *  *  *  *