Chapter 10. `When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the son of Man, am? So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and earth, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ - Matthew 16. 13-19.
Vince's office was on the top of the walls encircling the city of Barerro. Vince and the 9 women watched as two sentries walked past the chairs they were sitting on. The sentries passed every few minutes. They were either old men past the age 70 or else they were women of various ages. A crescent moon was hung in the sky along with Cassiopeia, the Great Bear, Orion etc.
`One or more of you is a spy,' said Vince. `Now, how are we going to determine which one of you it is?'
`We've been all over this, Vince, dear,' said Seraphinaria. `We hashed and re-hashed our religious and political differences. There’s just no telling who, if any of us, is the witch’s spy.’
`Let's change the subject if we must then,' said Vince.
`The witch and her spies and their scheme can not be divorced from religion,' Navorrasicaa was saying. `So, to review the basics: The Church of Avallonia is the True Church, the Church which Christ founded on a rock. The True Church on earth is currently headed by Her Majesty Rabbi Brittany Cohen-Schwartz, who has accepted Christ Jesus, though she has also chosen to keep her title of Rabbi, which is her prerogative as the leader, on earth, of the True Church, as she is the supreme representative of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - we know that all of these soi-disant Christians who rebel against the Church of Avallonia, and who rebel against the authority of Queen Rabbi Brittany Cohen-Schwartz, are heretics, and hence, in a sense, to call a spade a spade, they are satanic heretics in cahoots with both the Devil, and the probably also with the witch, Vyryvyr.'
`Don't listen to her, Vince,' Sevaladelia was saying, `she'll only drag you down to hell. Queen Rabbi Brittany Cohen-Schwartz is not God's supreme representative on earth. The church of Avallonia is not the True Church. It is not the Church which Christ founded on a rock. It is just another false fallen church which leads lost souls to perdition. The church of Avallonia has fallen away from the True Faith. The church of Avallonia is not the True Church, therefore it is just a contrivance of the Devil’s.'
`Shut your mouth, devil-bitch!' screamed Seraphinaria at Sevaladelia.
`It would be so wonderful,' Valmyristarsis was saying, `if every last copy of the Bible could be burned. That book just drives people crazy.'
`I thought you were a Christian,' said Martha.
`I think we know who Vyryvyr's spy is,' said Heliomirabellisima.
`Prove it,' said Valmyristarsis. `I don't know what I am, but the Bible drives me crazy.'
`I wasn't necessarily serious in accusing you,' said Heliomirabellisima.
`If I was Vyryvyr's spy,' said Valmyristarsis, `which I'm not, but if Vyryvyr really is a witch, and if I really was her spy, then I saved your life, because credible people say she never lets people leave her Castle alive unless she has some evil scheme in mind, but I'm not her spy, so I didn’t save your life. Someone else did.'
`Like I was saying,' said Vince, `let's get off the subject of religion.'
`You're either in the True Church, the Church of Avallonia, which leads souls to Heaven, dear Vince, or you're in one of the innumerable false churches which leads souls to perdition,' said Navorrasicaa. `What's wrong with you people? Why can't you agree with St. Paul and Seraphinaria and me? I would advise you people to resist the heresy of Sevaladelia, who is puffed up with pride in her rebellion against the True Church, though Seraphinaria was perhaps too strenuous, and perhaps too short on charity in her characterization of Sevaladelia as a "devil-bitch."'
`Yes, perhaps!' said Sevaladelia.
`Now Navorrasicaa, dear,' said Valmyristarsis, `you must liberate your mind from the religious chains that are strangling your mind.'
`And what about the chains on you?' asked Navorrasicaa. `Can't you see you must embrace the True God and His True Church, or else you will be damned to hell forever? What else does Luke 13. 3 say but - unless ye repent ye will surely perish?'
`The Bible drives people crazy!' exclaimed Valmyristarsis. `Though I suppose this doesn't prove it is wrong.'
`I agree with Sevaladelia,' said Mirabrasantes. `It's crazy to believe that the church of Avallonia is the True Church. And yet to say there is no True Church is the same thing as rejecting Christianity.'
`Are ye a papist? You're certainly some sort of hell-bound heretick with talk like that,' said Seraphinaria. `You're sullen tonight Casilevatates. Are you Vyryvyr's spy? Is your mind preoccupied with her diabolical plans and instructions?'
`Uhhhh….no.'
`So, Sevaladelia, you say the church of Avallonia is a false, fallen, perjuring church which leads souls to perdition. That is a diabolical doctrine,' insisted Seraphinaria. `I don't see how you are going to advance your career in the Avallonian Army and Avallonian society by pushing the opinion that the church of Avallonia leads souls to perdition! Honestly, Sevaladelia, I wonder about you. You sabotage your chances for a happy afterlife with your diabolical doctrines, and then, on top of that, you also sabotage your chances for a happy life before the afterlife, with the same damned diabolical doctrines. I thought you were smarter than that. If you're going to make a deal with the devil you ought to be able to make a better deal than that lousy deal.'
`You beautiful warrior girls are providing excellent entertainment tonight with all your religious talk,' said young Luke, the orphan lad. He had been eavesdropping for a few minutes. `Who could forget that wonderfully succinct line: "Shut your mouth, devil-bitch" Can you believe that? That's first-rate entertainment. And who is the spy that is working for the foul witch, Vyryvyr? Who could it be? Oh who could it be?'
`Is it you? Are you the witch's spy?' asked Martha.
`My advice to you,' began Vince, `is the same as the Queen's: give up this suicide mission. Give it up.’
`Never,’ said Seraphinaria.
`If you insist on pursuing your plan,’ continued Vince, `then, continue your march across the northern plains, climb those mountains, have this eavesdropping lad, Luke here, pose as a Krull refugee, employ him to get inside the walls of Cromwell Town, get control of the city, then signal that you have control of it by lighting a bonfire atop the wall above the city for one hour, then extinguish it for a few minutes, then relight it and keep it lit for an hour. My agents will be watching for this signal. When they see the signal they will send word to me and I will send an army to help you hold on to the city which you have re-conquered for Avallonia. Try to not to be torn apart by religious strife. This is not to say that there is no right side in the religious strife. But, you must agree to disagree; you must agree to set the strife aside, for a little while at least, so you can work together and get on with other business.'
`You're all crazy if you think I'll pose as a Krull refugee to do your bidding,' said Luke. `After all I heard tonight I'll be looking to save my own sweet self before I'll be looking to help you ladies capture any walled cities.'
`You're not thinking very clearly tonight, Luke, honey,' said Casilevatates. `Did you have too much champagne at the fancy restaurant? Let me remind you why you're going to masquerade as a Krull refugee. You're the only hope we have to do the job. If we send one of the orphan girls, Jocelyn or Jasmine, she will just make a slip-up - they both would blow it - I k
now they will blow it -I can sense these things - they'll get their throats cut after the Hibernians make them talk to discover who has been assisting them, then the Hibernians will learn where we are hidden. Then we'll be at the mercy of the barbaric Hibernians. Then you'll get tossed to the tigers and eaten alive, because you won't get any mercy from the barbaric Hibernians……But you are well trained. You know how to say SKED-yool and rem-ON-strate, Zero and TaMAYtoh. And you look just like a Krull refugee, being all scruffy and disheveled as you invariably are. If you don't do it we'll have to train a different kid to do it. But the new kid won't be as good as you. He or she will blow it, and that will be the end of all of us. We'll all get thrown to the Hibernian's man-eating tigers. But you won't blow it. So that's why you are going to masquerade as a Krull refuge. If you still refuse to help us, the whole Kingdom of Avallonia will know that you are a coward. You don't want that! It's not so easy to make a living in this world - our husbands are dead and there aren't any men left that we can make into new husbands. We're going to cash in by re-conquering Cromwell Town. And if you are smart and loyal and brave you'll get your cut of the profits. So, you have two big incentives to masquerade as a Krull refuge. 1) The whole Kingdom of Avallonia will accuse you of being a worthless coward if you don't pose as a Krull refuge. And, 2) There won't be any cash for you – and there won’t be an heroic honors for you either - if you refuse to masquerade as a Krull refuge. So that's why you are going to masquerade as a Krull refuge.'
`Oh, we better find someone else to do his job,' said Sevaladelia.
`No!' exclaimed Luke.
`Luke, honey' said Seraphinaria trying to put some tenderness in her voice. `You mustn't judge our religious strife too harshly. We all agreed to disagree about religion, that is, we all agreed to stay off the subject, but then we met that witch, Vyryvyr, and that threw us off our pledge a bit. I'm the commander of this operation and I make the final decision about who poses as a Krull refugee and who doesn't. No one is going to think you are a coward if you decided you did not want to risk posing as a Krull refugee. Please understand that right now. No one will consider you a coward! Despite what you've been told, the plan, all along, has been for me, not you, to pose as this refugee. But if I had an accident, or got sick, then we need a backup plan. You and some other people are the backup plans. It may be that you will want to come with me, and we can both pose as Krull refugees, but to do this we have to do it right. Look how thin I am. I weighed 120 lbs two months ago but now I weigh under 90 lbs. When I show up at the gates of Cromwell Town I plan on weighing 69 lbs or less. I'll have thin little arms and gaunt, sunken cheeks. Not all Krull refugees are emaciated but it will be easier to convince the Hibernian interrogators that I am a Krull refugee if I am emaciated rather than if I am well-fed. Think about whether or not you want to come with me. But we won't let you pose as a refugee if you look well-fed. You'll need to go on a diet. You'll need to lose at least 20 pounds. We have to get them to trust us long enough for us to find a rope in the city without being seen - this ought to be easier for two people to do than for one - and we have to use that rope to get 7 warrior women on top of the wall without raising an alarm - and then we have to get control of the wall without raising an alarm - and then we have to take control of the gate and the guard house, and then we have to hold on until the Avallonian Army comes to relieve us. After we take control of the gate and guard house we'll send the signal Vince spoke of, and Martha Manning, who with be minding the kids, will see this, as will Vince's agents. Obviously, you will be a bigger hero if you are with the warrior women helping to conquer the city, rather than if you are waiting with Martha and the other kids. So you should think about going on a diet starting tomorrow.'