`Warrior Girls' by Bill Etem

  Chapter 11. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks…and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.….' - Daniel 9. 24-27.

  The following morning they rose early to ensure that everything was in order for the big send off. They double and triple checked to make sure they were well-stocked with no end of snow goggles and sun glasses and anti-sunburn cream, mountain climbing ropes and climbing ironmongery, thick woolen garments and windproof canvas outer-clothing, sheepskin gloves, sheepskin moccasins, leather boots, woolen blankets, eider down sleeping bags, air mattresses, 30 small windproof canvas bivouac sacks, 10 huge windproof canvas tents. They had 100 pounds of canned tomatoes, 100 pounds of canned mangos, 100 pounds of canned pears, 300 pounds of flour and same for pasta, 100 pounds of olive oil and corn oil, 500 pounds of rice and potatoes, 1,000 cans of condensed milk, 1,000 cans tuna, 100 pounds of smoked fish, 500 pounds of salt beef, 100 bottles of whisky, 400 pounds of chocolate, 1,000 pounds of sugar, 100 pounds of tea, 100 pounds of coffee, 100 pounds of soap, plus plenty of razors and iodine, bandages and splints for broken arms and legs; they had no end of miscellaneous items which 31 people would need to survive in the wilderness for several months, such as 500 gallons of kerosene and 5 Chogalisa® stoves; fodder for the horses in the form of a half ton of oats, and 400 pounds of dried apples would need to be taken. The 4 horses would have to haul a total of 4 tons of provisions and gear 200 miles - they had a big well-built 40 foot wagon, a 4 axle contraption - then the assault team would have to haul all they could haul over the mountains. Perhaps they would draw lots to see which woman stayed behind with the 4 horses. Perhaps they would just turn them loose. Every kid was expected to lend a hand in the storming of the walled city. The three-year-olds were almost four, and a four-year-old can be toughed up a lot with the right training. For weapons they had longbows and crossbows, swords and axes and knives, plus a 20 foot by 20 foot net made of hemp. Here the idea was a net would be useful in slowing down a charging cave bear - which can weigh 2,500 pounds or more. They would have to stop it somehow if they couldn't drive it off with firebrands.

  The morning also saw them attending to one final round of fund-raising duties before they made the big push north. Barerro was the 4th largest city in Avallonia, and it was by far the largest in the northern regions. Being only 10 miles from the sea, easily reached by a narrow but deep estuary, enabled it to have many highly profitable commercial operations. Seraphinaria was off to Burke & Wochenfuss Pharmaceutical Ltd., to shake down an Executive Vice President named Mick Sparrow. Valmyristarsis was bound for Miss Margaret Collingsworth's Caramel and Nougat Cos. This was a cold call but Valmyristarsis had targeted a few principals she wanted to talk to and she was confident they would see her. Casilevatates was assured of getting past the security guards at McTavish & Glensheen Distilleries Ltd. - Makers of Superior Single Malt Whiskies - as she had an appointment at 10:00 am to see an EVP named Jack Windsor. Mirabrasantes drew for her lot Plantagenet Bank Ltd, and their Managing Director Pamela Featherstone-Haugh (pronounced Fanshaw). Navorrasicaa would find herself at Buckley & Biggleston Foundries, Mines & Shipbuilding Ltd., where a Saskia Sackville-Slaughter, VP of Public Relations, would meet a panhandling Navorrasicaa. The Managing Director of McMichael & Bond's Pot Pies Ltd., Dougal McDougal, was kind enough to see Misevasundia at 10:30 am. Sevaladelia would be at MacAlpine, Sugarman & Brazzi LLC. - a Law Firm with over 1,000 Attorneys Providing Product Liability Litigation Services - to see Hamish MacAlpine, a Highlander with a reputation for being a ferocious litigator. Heliomirabellisima had an appointment at 10:00 am at Madame Chang's Weaponry & Explosives Ltd., dba The Causus Belli Group - Consulting Experts in Plausible Deniability Advisement, Sabotage, Extortion, Assassinations, Espionage, Black Ops and Disinformation Campaigns, to meet with an EVP named Hermione Wright-Masters. Martha Manning was assigned to pitch an executive at Trashy Books®, an Imprint of Naughty Girl Publishing Co.®, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Ecstasy-Erotica Group®, a big south coast holding firm. Martha had conversed briefly in the lobby with Trashy Books® Managing Director, Jane Trane, and was told flat out her schedule was always going to be full. Always! Martha kept insisting she had proof of Her Majesty's authorization of their campaign, but, nevertheless, Martha suspected, even if an extortioner was standing behind Jane Trane twisting her arm, trying to force her to agree to talk to Martha in her office, Jane would still have declined to meet with Martha in her office. Even the 11-year-old Desiree, the 10-year-old Jackson, and the 9-year-old Luke thought they would trot over to see a Jill Ostrogoth at Trottingham & Daughters Grocers Ltd., being sure to take a copy of Her Majesty's Certificate of Authorization for their privateering venture with them, to see if they could get some cash out of Jill for the cause.

  Casilevatates' meeting with Jack Windsor, EVP at McTavish & Glensheen Distilleries Ltd., Makers of Superior Single Malt Whiskies, was unique in that she not only got a promise for even more money once some cash flow issues had been cleared up, but she walked out Jack's office with a cheque for £5,000 in her hand. She knew Jack would hand over some money because he kept interrupting her sales pitch with comments like: `I despise the cut and run crowd!' and `Those rotters!' and `Damn those surrender monkeys to Hell, I say!" Jack started off with the usual tough questions and penetrating analysis: `Privateers, huh? Who else do you have for corporate sponsors? I see you have documentation from Her Majesty authorizing this mad undertaking. Let me get this straight. There's 8 other women like yourself - Ok 7 like you and one old girl - and 22 kids all under the age of 11 - and you propose to march 200 miles to the north, then cross 50 miles of the most rugged mountain terrain, then capture a walled city defended mostly by women and children, but still defended also by some nasty old geezers who aren't above using the most vicious methods of medieval vengeance against their enemies: the rack, the stake, the wheel, man-eating tigers, man-eating cave bears etc. I know the times require desperate measures, but your plan looks hopeless. I suppose you have in your favor your daring, and the element of surprise. It would of course be a great windfall for you if you could pull it off. And it would be a good deal for me too if you succeed. Let's roll the dice on this one. We can't let this nation be taken down into the gutter by the rotters, by the cut and run crowd. Just sign this Sponsorship Agreement and I'll cut you a cheque for £5,000. And I'll get you a little more from my own funds once a cheque that I'll get in a day or two clears. You'll be gone by then but you have my word you'll get it. We're all set then! Business is really looking up these days. Even though the menfolk were basically all killed off in the wars, you women are finally learning to appreciate fine whiskey in a big way - finally! - so we're not hurting here at McTavish & Glensheen, not like we were a few years ago anyway.'

  Once their sales calls were completed they had a chance to post some self-promotional letters. There were still some letter boxes in a village 100 miles to the north. It would be best to post their best, most polished self-promotional letters from that village, and indeed after that village there were no more places to post a letter, at least not until they re-conquered Cromwell Town and re-integrated that city into the Kingdom of Avallonia. They also converted that cheque from McTavish & Glensheen into gold, gold being easy to cache in the wilderness and universally accepted for all debts public and private, even by barbarians such as by the Hibernians and the Krull.

  That afternoon, after a huge pub lunch of Fish and Chips, Burgers and Pizzas, Chops and Steaks and lots and lots of rounds of club soda and McTavish & Glensheen Single Malt to wa
sh it all down - though both Luke and Seraphinaria ate and drank very sparingly - 8 warrior women, one middle-aged lady, and 22 children marched out of the city of Barerro. Like Queen Boudicca leading her ill-fated army into battle, Seraphinaria had to suspect hers also was a lost cause. She wasn't in a good mood because Mick Sparrow, who she met at Burke & Wochenfuss Pharmaceuticals Ltd that morning, was a sneering little punk. He gave her nothing. She would have to lead her troops into battle while remembering the insufferable sneers of the insufferable Mick. Burke & Wochenfuss had made huge obscene filthy piles of profit off of the wars. Now the tight-wad, the rotter, the little cut and run creep, wouldn't even give her a few pounds. No, Seraphinaria was not in the most positive of moods as she watched as their compact horde of 22 little kids, 8 warrior women, one old girl, one huge wagon and the 4 horses that pulled it, headed north. She was hungry but her spirits revived along with her indefatigable optimism as she munched on three dried apricots. The sun was shining brightly and the winter air was not terribly cold. The big powerful work-horses had little difficulty pulling their load, as the gravel road was frozen solid. And there was little snow on the road, certainly no drifts, or for that matter, there was little snow on the moorlands stretching out to the distant horizons on both sides of the road leading north. In two more days they would skirt the western side of the mountains which were visible from Barreiro. These were merely outlying peaks, 50 miles to the north and east of that city, and they were not the great range 150 miles further to the north, the great range which divided Avallonia, Hibernia, and the Krull Republic from each other.