VI | Jamais VuThey were being signaled with a lantern. Dravidian immediately readied his weapon and re-secured his mask while Shekalane raised her hood.
“Ahoy, who goes there?” shouted Dravidian. “Be advised that we are armed and prepared to defend ourselves.”
A baritone voice responded: “You have no need to defend yourselves from me, dear friends.”
A man emerged from the river smoke at the bow of a larger boat, a boat which appeared to have a mechanized paddle wheel, but that he was steering with a long pole against the current. He killed the mechanism and stopped rowing nearby—so that their boats were parallel to one another—taking them in, taking Dravidian and his frightful mask in. His eyes were magnified by thick glasses, the round lenses of which were huge. “Oh, dear,” he said. “B
