Chapter 24 Jessima
24 JESSIMA Jessima watched as Chattergoon demonstrated the move slowly on the stage in the main square. Next to him, his son Philip mirrored his father perfectly. She stood below the lord, amongst her people. Behind her were five thousand women – her army – all following the same movement. Jessima clasped her wooden practice sword in her hand, swinging it in an arc and jabbing as Chattergoon had done. The women behind her used sticks or lengths of iron, whatever they could get their hands on that was similar in length to a sword. Some women had made their own practice swords, others had nothing, but practised anyway. Dotted amongst them and further to the back, were Chattergoon’s men and her soldiers, who followed the lord’s actions so that the women who couldn’t see the stage cou
- Writer
