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From: [e-mail] (Alan Schwartz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives
Subject: STORY: Riverworld, Chapter 5: Plans and Plights
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Date: 19 Oct 1995 15:32:36 -0400
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Riverworld Turn #5: Plans and Plights
Day 31

                *  *  *  *

As Maria's voice faded into silence, the olive-skinned woman murmured,
almost as if talking to herself.

Woman: "Although any other captives now know where the women are,
        you've brought attention to us, and more specifically to
        yourself, I hope you are prepared to deal with it..."

She turned to study Maria for a moment or two, then glancing coldly at
the sneering guards she shrugged and returned her attention to the
sounds coming from the men's compound.

Seeing the guards' expressions, Hypatia stifled a sigh and looked at the
now-silent woman in the cell adjoining hers.

Singing woman, she thought to herself.  This singing woman brings too
much attention to herself.

Shaking her head, she lowered herself to the ground and leaned against
the back of her cage.  The darkening sky was blistered with startling
oranges and crimsons which were quickly fading into velvet indigos.  She
watched her new companions and the guards beyond them, listening to
the singing male voices and daydreaming of escape.

Her thoughts turned over the familiar ground: the weaknesses of the
cages of which there appeared to be none.  Though she had seen only
the guards in this encampment, their outfitting suggested that flint
tools were not uncommon, and their bearing suggested that they
maintained some discipline, weak though it might be compared to the
soldiers of Alexandria. Tonight, she decided, she would turn her mind
to the thorny problem of Temuchin, he who had ordered her captivity.

Surely, she thought, there was some crack the mortar of his being which
might be exploited to all of their advantages.  She had seen him but
briefly and now there was only one further way she might gain more
knowledge of him.

She snorted in disgust at the thought, thinking of the language
problem shared between them, and how little she might gain for such
excruciating effort.  Her eyes moved to the cat-like woman beyond the
Singer.  Arrogant, but intelligent and not unattractive to the other
sex, Hypatia noted to herself.  But even she too, perhaps, suffered
from the language difficulties.

Hypatia lifted her head and spoke quietly, but loud enough to be heard in
the olive-skinned woman's cage.

Hypatia: "Fighter-with-Thoughts, is there a chance that you can speak
      the tongue of our captors?  I have some few ideas..."

Woman: "I do not speak their tongue."

Hypatia: "Perhaps we can nevertheless meld our thoughts together and
      so strengthen them."

Woman: "Thoughts of escape? There is no way out from the situation we
        are now in, to attempt it, or to even ponder it any more is
        merely a waste of energy."

Hypatia shifted slightly on the ground and looked uncomfortable for a moment.

Hypatia: "I thought perhaps if you knew their language and were to
     become the ... consort ... of our captor, you might learn
     more of him, and we might better be able to plan an escape.
     Or else, if he favors you, he might release us."

At Hypatia's words, the olive-skinned woman laughed throatily,
tilted her chin to point toward Maria, and then looked pointedly at
Hypatia.

Woman: "Why me? What about our lovely caged bird here?"
Woman: "Or yourself?"

Hypatia: "I can't speak their tongue."

Woman: "Nor can I. That does not disqualify you."

Hypatia looked disgusted by the idea and stammered:
Hypatia: "I will not. There is Work I must yet do."

The other woman nodded her head slightly, and spoke dryly.

Woman: "Ahh, of course."

Reaching her arms above and behind her head and bouncing on her toes
to stretch unused muscles, the olive-skinned woman turned her eyes
towards the center of the compound before speaking again.

Woman: "Perhaps this 'Temuchin' isn't the monster you think. Powerful
        men can be tolerated with little effort..."

She ran a hand across the gentle rounding of her stomach, and met
Hypatia's eyes.

Woman: "If he shows interest in you and you value your life, you
        should remember that."

Hypatia smiled faintly and turned her head as if measuring the
olive-skinned woman in the other cell.  She touched her breastbone
with the long, delicate fingers of her right hand.

Hypatia: "This flesh-that-binds.  A powerful man is nothing more than
      one tied too tightly to his flesh.  He will never let
      his..."

She paused.

Hypatia: "His Nous, his Soul, is captured even as our flesh is."

Hypatia: "You are right, in your strange way.  I will release my hold
      on this flesh and seek the answers from the spirits
      instead."

Hypatia closed her eyes and took a series of deep breaths.

The olive-skinned woman motioned to Maria, pointed to the earth and
said "terra".  Maria nodded excitedly and replied by making the same
motion and repeating the same word.  The olive-skinned woman began
teaching Maria some simple words in Latin, and learning the same words
in Italian, which seemed very similar.  Maria also taught them the
words for "person" and "food" in English.  Both proved to be able
students and by the early evening, they could hold a simple
conversation.

Maria: "You know I am called Maria. I know she is called Hypatia. I do
        not know what you are called."

The olive-skinned woman hesitated slightly, and looked over at Hypatia
before she spoke.

Cleopatra: "I am called Cleopatra."

Maria looked surprised. Hypatia, though surely conscious of the
activity around her, remained unresponsive.

Maria: "Hello, Cleopatra. I know you. My people all know you."

Cleopatra shrugged but did not seem inclined to respond to the woman's
comments.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the guards who brought the women
their grails. After some prodding by the guards, Hypatia opened her
grail, but made no move to eat. Maria approached the food hungrily,
and Cleopatra ate with an almost unnoticeable disdain. The
guards removed the cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol, and dreamgum from
the grails, and spirited them off somewhere else under the growing
darkness.

Hypatia, in a distant-sounding voice, commented on this, speaking
simply for Maria's benefit.

Hypatia: "Bad that they took the gum. It may have helped us."

Maria looked questioningly at her.

Hypatia: "We give the gum to the guards and run."

Cleopatra and Hypatia spoke more rapidly for a moment and then both
fell silent.

Cleopatra: "How does that help us?"

Hypatia: "They may become mercilessly violent and kill each other, or
      they may become euphoric and let us free."

Cleopatra: "Or perhaps they'll become violent and attack us instead."

Hypatia: "I have not thought on this long. Let my dreams show me more
      meaning to all this."

Cleopatra nodded at Hypatia, and Hypatia resumed her deep breathing,
falling once more into a heavy trance.

The beginning of the glimmering of twilight had fallen across the
encampment when a man approached their cells, surrounded by a troop of
ten guards. The man was quite small, shorter than many of his guards,
but carried himself with an imposing mien and a wild-eyed countenance.
The deference of all around him marked him as Temuchin, the leader of
village. The image of a disembodied head impaled by a stake was
somehow tatooed onto the palm of his left hand.

As the man neared the cells, he glanced at the women within, and then
moved to speak to the guards. They nodded respectfully, smiled, and
pointed to Maria. Temuchin nodded in return, and strode off with all
but two of his entourage. The soldiers who remained behind unlocked
Maria's cell, and motioned for her to come with them. One carried a
spear; the other, a dagger.

Maria's face grew pale with fright, and she hung her head resignedly.
When she raised it again, it was still pale, and her eyes held fear,
but a stoic determination had taken residence in the set of her lips.
She walked off between the two men as their guards began to light
torches against the coming of night.

                  *  *  *  *

Florence spoke to Li Erh again, listening respectfully to his responses.

Florence: "If you are willing, I have many questions."

Li Erh: "I do not promise that I have many answers, but I am willing."

Florence: "What is this world we are in?  This is like no afterlife
       imagined by man!  Why were we resurrected here?  What is
       our purpose?"

Li Erh: "I do not know what world this is. Nor do I know why we were
     brought here or for what. It does not trouble me. On earth,
     there was much suffering; many people strove against nature,
     both the natural world and their own true natures. Great
     kings imposed an artificial order on men and women, and
     increased the suffering. Here we have an opportunity to once
     again act according to our true natures, and so I am not
     troubled."

Florence: "But there are kings here, though perhaps more petty than
       great. How can our creator stand idly by whilst men such as
       Temuchin enslave others as in our previous life?  Sure that
       is evidence that this is not heaven!"

Li Erh: "The priest who taught me your language had similar notions of
         a Creator. I am afraid I do not believe there is a power
         which acts on the lives of men and women. We are like fish in
         a flowing stream. When we move against our natures, we know
         nothing but trouble. When we move with our natures, we know
         peace. And what is heaven if not peace?"

Jeanne frowned deeply at these words, and spoke to Florence in French.

Jeanne: "Are they all like him? A nation of heathens?"

Florence: "He may not believe what we do, but the people here clearly
       value his wisdom, and given our circumstances, we should
       not be ungrateful for his counsel."

Li Erh, watching the conversation, spoke up again.

Li Erh: "Even though I do not understand your words, young woman,
     their tone is not unlike that of my Catholic friend. Perhaps
     what I call true nature is what you call god. It would be a
     pity, however, to spoil the afternoon with argument."

Jeanne pondered this for a time. She nodded, looking more content, and
murmured to herself in French.

Jeanne: "This place is like no heaven the holy men spoke of. Perhaps
     it is a way-station; a place to atone for our sins before we
     may be admitted into His Presence. After we have rescued our
     companions I will return here to save these people from their
     heresy."

Josephine had watched the conversation between Florence and Li Erh for
a time before becoming bored as they began to speak of heaven and the
afterlife. She stepped outside and watched the faces of the villagers
for a time, smiling warmly. She attempted to compliment a villager on
the construction of the huts, using hand movements and facial
expressions, and had some success. The pleased villager bowed to her
and smiled, pointing out some of the subtler features of their
construction.

Taking the spear she appropriated for herself, Josephine passed the
rest of the afternoon going over the movements she learned from Jeanne
throwing in a high kick and a twirl of the spear in her hand for her
own amusement. After a while, she broke into a full-blown dance
number, her body swaying as she sang along in her own accompaniment.
Many villagers grinned appreciatively, some even mimicing the
movements of her dance, and the sound drew Jeanne out. Together the
two busied themselves with spear practice while Florence remained in
the hut conversing with Li Erh.

At dinner time, the women filled their grails.  Following Florence's
lead, they ate lightly and saved some food for travel.  Jeanne offered
villagers the dreamgum from her grail in trade for two grass torches.
As the sun began to set, they prepared to move out.

Florence: "Let us approach unseen if possible.  I doubt that force
       will be on our side in this. Cunning is our only hope.

Josephine: "I have to agree that we three women, no matter how
        enthusiastic we are, are no match for people who are
        obviously stronger and have more people.  I mean, they did
        manage to capture large men, even armed ones such as
        George and... Shaka, is that his name? Shaka?"

She looks thoughtful, resting her chin on her hand.

Josephine: "I remember back in the war, we would use surprise,
        probably a good idea for now, eh? I think we should scout
        the city as best we can. Perhaps finding a tree to climb
        that would allow us a peek into the compound."

Jeanne agreed.

Jeanne: "Reconnaissance is proper when the enemy is unknown."

The women headed upRiver toward the walled city. Florence led the
group with a purposeful stride.  Josephine followed, very light on her
feet, making almost no noise as her body moved flowingly.  She
whispered to her companions.

Josephine: "I always knew sneaking out of the Prince Regent's suite in
        Belgium would come in handy"

She smiled widely, clearly amused with herself.

Jeanne, the strongest fighter of the three, took up a rear guard
position where she could watch behind them and cover their tracks.
As they began the trek, she awkwardly turned to the other women
and spoke quietly.

Jeanne: "I... would like to thank you, I mean, I never did before and
     don't want to seem ungrateful. There was no reason for you to
     come after me, when I jumped in the River. But I appreciate
     that you did."

Josephine: "You're very welcome, honey. Of course we couldn't leave
        you there. We were put together for a reason, after all."

The three smiled briefly at one another and continued walking.

The terrain was relatively flat, becoming flatter so as it approached
the River, and more hilly inland. Moving carefully in the half-light,
the women veered away from the River to take advantage of the cover
provided by the trees. From a distance they could see the south wall
of the compound, made of tightly bound bamboo stakes, ten feet high,
with sharpened points. The wall stretched about 200 yards from the
River to the eastern wall, and had no point of entrance. The bamboo
shoots around the fortress were young; a great deal of mature bamboo
must have been cut down to build the walls.

They moved around to the east side of the compound, and climbed into a
low tree some distance from the walls. The eastern wall, another 200
yards of tall bamboo, was marked with a door in its center. Three
guards, holding torches and spears, were standing watch in the waning
twilight. Their vision was trained on the area before them, and they
did not look up toward the women.

Jeanne spoke in a low whisper.

Jeanne: "We do not know our companions are here; we might be better
     off to approach peacefully and see what we can learn from the
     inhabitants. But if what the heathen says is true, it is
     likely this king will not help us, even if he does not hold
     them. If we attempt to scale the wall and search the city
     secretly, we may run afoul of a city guard, if they have
     such. And we would be hard pressed to explain our presence in
     that case."

Jeanne shrugged.

Jeanne: "The Lord will provide. I suggest we enter secretly and see if
     we can find a friend among the city residents."

                *  *  *  *

Charles replayed the events of the walk from the cells to the latrine,
fixing the layout of the village in his mind. He thought he could
identify the way to the eastern exit from the compound, and while he
could not see the women, the singing came from the south side of the
fortress, exactly opposite from the direction he was escorted to begin
the first of his duties for Temuchin.

During the walk north from the cage to the latrine, Shaka's eyes took
in the movement of the people in the village. The guards seemed to be
fairly disciplined, and all the men he saw were armed. No women were
in evidence in the northern areas of the village.

Both men observed one hut which was considerably larger than the
others, and which they took to be Temuchin's.

The latrine was a small building with a dirt floor and bamboo walls.
Woven-grass baskets, clearly intended as receptacles for human
waste, were set about the floor, and the men, following the silent
instructions of the guards, emptied these into a larger basket, and
cleaned the smaller ones with water and their towels.

Charles went about the task diligently, if not thoroughly, and Shaka
devoted himself to the job with a mixture of resignation and disgust,
but their work seemed to satisfy the guards, who rapidly became bored
watching the two men, and stepped outside to talk away from the
stench. They looked inside occasionally, and nodded approvingly, but
spent most of their time telling jokes, to judge from their restrained
laughter.

Using a tone as conversational as possible, Shaka taught Charles the
rudiments of Bantu, starting with words like work, dirt, towel, then
moving to words like fight, war, weapon and kill.  Charles, in turn,
taught Shaka the German equivalents, and added the words for women,
guards, and food.

Soon they were able to have a simple conversation. Charles, using
words and hand signals, suggested to Shaka that they wait and observe
before taking action. Shaka listened, and nodded, though the look on
his face showed that he was not in full agreement. He seemed ready to
suggest that they fight the guards, but Charles seemed set against
immediate action, mentioning the women. Charles did, however, point
out some 8-inch pointed bamboo slivers near one of the latrine walls,
and each man slipped two under their towels.

As the cleaning continued, however, Charles' face became increasingly
determined, and he stopped speaking, deep in thought. Finally, he
caught Shaka's eye, looked over at the door to the latrine, and
muttered the German word "guards". He looked down at the bamboo under
their towels and muttered the Bantu word "weapon". He looked back at
Shaka and nodded.

Suddenly, Charles dropped his cleaning towel, stood up, and moaned
loudly. Clutching his head, he fell back against the wall of the
latrine as the guards entered, surprised. He slid to the floor, his
eyes fluttering closed, and his hands dropped to his lap.

The guards approached, speaking loudly to Charles, and one shook him
roughly. Opening his eyes, Charles drew the bamboo splinter from
beneath his towel and thrust it through the chin of the guard, who
slumped forward immediately. Behind the man, Charles saw Shaka entomb
another splinter into the second guard's temple. The prisoners armed
themselves with the guards' flint-tipped spears and daggers.

They heard the sound of the grailstone firing, and carefully peered
out of the latrine, surprised at the lateness of the hour. Twilight
had fallen in the compound, and the men of different times and places
had surprisingly similar smiles on their faces. They smiled like
wolves.