They moved on. When the squad were more or less in rhythm, and staring at nothing more than their boots or the mist ahead of it, Polly raised her right hand to chest height and carefully turned it palm up so that she could see the fragment of paper that had soggily stayed behind when the rest had been pulled away.
"No Surrender" to Alliance says Duchess (97)
From William de Worde
Valley of the Kneck, Sektober 7.
Borogrovian troops assisted by Lord V
Light Infantry took Kneck Keep this mo
after fierce hand-to-hand fig
I write its armaments which
are being turned on the remn
Borogravian forces acr
His Grace Commander Sir S
told the Times that
surrender had been rej
view the enemy commande
load of stiff-necked fools, don'
in the paper."
It is understoo
desperate situ
¨Cspread fami
across t
No altern
invas
They were winning, weren't they? So where did the word "surrender" come from? And what was the Alliance?
And then there was the problem of Strappi, which had been growing on her. She could see he got on Jackrum's nerves as well, and he had a struttiness about him, a certain¨C er... sockiness, as if he was really the one in charge. Perhaps it was just general unpleasantness, but...
"Corporal?" she said.
"Yes, Parts?" said Strappi. His nose was still very red.
"We are winning this war, aren't we?" said Polly. She'd given up correcting him.
Suddenly, every ear in the squad was listening.
"Don't you bother yourself about that, Parts!" snapped the corporal. "Your job is to fight!"
"Right, corp. So... I'll be fighting on the winning side, will I?"