1657: Strength in Arms – Part 2 1657: Strength in Arms – Part 2 He was looking around in far too obvious a way for Marty though.
He had to nudge the man to stop him from drawing any more attention to them.
“Can you see him?” Jacob asked, as they were forced further into the city, past Lady Blackthorn, and a few other Patrick n, bearing the sigil of the beast on their surcoats.
“Nah, I can’t… But those are Patrick soldiers, ain’t they?” He said.
Jacob looked with him.
“Aye, they are.
They must be.
That’s the sigil they’re wearing…” Jacob said, staring with the sa sort of evaluating intensity that Marty was.
They were the n that they were ant to fight alongside one day.
They both tried to search for similarities between such n and themselves, and they tried to search for the strength that those n had beco so fad for.
They certainly seed different from the usual straight-laced soldiers that they were used to seeing.
They didn’t stand with the rigid pointedness, with their chins straight in the air.
There was sothing more casual to them.
But it was the lazy casualness of a mountain lion.
It was a confidence that ca from a strength that they ought not have had.
Sohow, for how relaxed they were, they seed just as intimidating, if not more so, than the harsh Blackthorn n that already surrounded them.
“…They can’t be peasants, can they?” Jacob said in a rushed whisper.
“That news was right, wasn’t it?
General Patrick took a thousand peasants, and he trained them to take on an Erson army of twenty thousand, when his army was only two thousand?
That’s right, isn’t it?” “…I said before, the peasants were probably just cannon fodder, cousin.
That might be our destiny.
They’ll train us just enough to draw attention, and then they’ll use their actual strength elsewhere.” “But that can’t be right, Marty.
I says it can’t,” Jacob insisted.
“You don’t get victories like that if a thousand of your n are cannon fodder.” “Why do you look so nervous then, cousin?
Why are you the one asking for reassurance?” Marty said.
“It sounds to like you don’t believe your own words.” “It only makes sense if they’re right… But I don’t know how they can be right.
I doesn’t know, looking at those n, how peasants like us could beco them, in just a month, or however long those others trained for.” “There’s only three hundred Patrick n left though cousin,” Marty said.
“For that victory they achieved, how many are there left to tell the tale?
There’s no coin to be had when you’re dead.” “…Might be fine to die like that though, Marty,” Jacob said.
“You know… With purpose, with glory.
For a man like General Patrick, for a victory like that.
Those n that died there, they’re heroes, ain’t they?” “I doesn’t know about that… They’re peasants just like us,” Marty said.
“Aye!
They were.
And ‘cos they’re just like us, doesn’t that make it stranger?
Doesn’t it make it more impressive?
How the fuck do you turn this into a soldier like that?” Marty said, gesturing at himself.
“I doesn’t have a clue.
But if anyone knows how, it’s that General Patrick.
He knows so magics we can’t even conceive of.
He turned peasants into fuckin’ heroes, Marty.
n capable of stopping an army ten tis stronger than them.” “This doesn’t sound like you’re in it for the coin anymore, cousin…” Marty said warily.
“Where did that story go?
That’s how you convinced .” “The coin will be nice, if we live,” Marty said.
“But just an opportunity to stick it to them above us, ain’t that enough?
Serving Class n, and bloody nobles – that’s who our lot butchered in that battle.
We can be like that.
Doesn’t matter where we were born, we could die on the sa battlefield as them, as equals, killing more of them than they do us.
That’s a statent to make, ain’t it?
I likes the sound of it… The feeling of it.
But it scares still.” “What the pissin’ hell are you talking about?” Marty said.
“Yer talking like a religious man.
It frightens to hear you talk like that.” “Thinking about it frightens cousin,” Jacob said.
“I doesn’t want to die.
I don’t even know if I wanna be here… But y’know.
Y’know, I think it scares less than dying in our village.
Old and alone.” “You wouldn’t be alone.
You’d get yourself a wife,” Marty said.
“How’s that been going for so far?” “It’d work out in the end.
Yer not a bad man.
You’d be alright.” “I don’t just wanna be soone to take pity on, Marty,” Jacob said.
“I don’t want to be soone that has to struggle just to get a wife.
I want a woman to be proud to have , ya know?
I want to be proud of myself.
I don’t wanna lower eyes every ti a better man walks past.
I’m sick of it.” “You don’t need to get yourself killed chasing that, you know,” Marty said.
“There were other ways.” “Then why are you here?” Jacob said accusingly.
“You said it was for coin.
Is that the whole truth of it?
You seem to think we’ll die, even more than I do.
So what are you doing?
Just looking after ?” “…I don’t know,” Marty said with a frown.
“I’m not sure why I’m here.
mind doesn’t know, I’ll tell ya that.
But I tried thinking on it, I did.
I let the thought rattle around in head, day after day.
Tried to co up with so sort of answer.
Tried to ask people wiser than .
But when that Blackthorn man ca to round us all up, saying that it was ti we made our decision, I didn’t need to think anymore.
body moved for .
I surprised self.
And here I am.” “…Here we are,” Jacob agreed.
He looked at his hand.
“Aye.
I think that’s it cousin.
I doesn’t understand it either.
Sothing else is dragging here.
I try to think on it, try to decide what it is I want.
But I doesn’t know really.
Not really.
Think heart is in a different direction to head.”
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