Monstrous Regiment

something on her mind.
    “Well, if we get as far as the prisoners and ask around, they’ll be bound to know his name. What is it?”
    “Johnny,” whispered Betty.
    “Just Johnny?” said Polly.
    “Er…yes…”
    Ah, Polly thought. I think I know how this goes…
    “He’s got fair hair and blue eyes, and I think he had one gold earring and, and a funny-shaped…what d’you call it? Oh, yes…sort of carbuncle on his, his…bottom,” Betty went on.
    “Right. Right.”
    “Um…now I come to tell someone, it doesn’t sound very helpful, I suppose.”
    Not unless we’re in a position to have a very unusual identification parade, Polly thought, and I can’t imagine what position that would be.
    “Not as such,” she said.
    “He said everyone in the regiment knows him,” Betty went on.
    “Right? Oh, good,” said Polly. “All we need to do is ask.”
    “And, er, we were going to break a sixpence in half, you know, like they do, so that if he had to be away for years we’d be sure we’d got the right person ’cos the two halves would match…”
    “Oh, that would be a bit of a help, I expect,” said Polly.
    “Well, yes, except, well, I gave him the sixpence, and he said he’d get the blacksmith to break it in his vise, and he went off and, er, I think he got called away…” Betty’s voice trailed off.
    Well, that was about what I expected, Polly thought.
    “I expect you think I’m a silly girl,” mumbled Betty after a while.
    “A foolish woman, perhaps,” said Polly, turning to watch the landscape intently.
    “It was, you know, a whirlwind romance…”
    “Sounds more like a hurricane to me,” said Polly, and Betty grinned.
    “Yes, it was a bit like that,” she said.
    Polly matched smile for smile. “Betty, it’s daft to talk about silly and foolish at a time like this,” she said. “Where are we going to look for wisdom? To a god who hates jigsaws and the color blue? A fossil government led by a picture? An army that thinks stubbornness is the same as courage? Compared to all that, all you’ve got wrong is timing!”
    “I don’t want to end up in the School, though,” said Betty aka Shufti. “They took away a girl from our village and she was kicking and screaming—”
    “Then fight them!” said Polly. “You’ve got a sword now, haven’t you? Fight back!” She saw the look of horror on Betty’s face, and remembered that this wasn’t Tonker she was talking to. “Look, if we get out of this alive we’ll talk to the colonel. He might be able to help.” After all, perhaps your boy really was called Johnny, she thought, perhaps he really was called away suddenly. Hope is a wonderful thing. She went on: “If we get out of this, there’s going to be no School and no beatings. Not for you or any of us. Not if we’ve got brains. Not if we’re smart.”
    Betty was almost in tears, but she managed another smile. “And Wazzer’s talking to the Duchess, too. She’ll fix things!”
    Polly stared out at the bright, unchanging landscape, empty except for a buzzard making wide circles in the forbidden blue.
    “I’m not sure about that,” she said. “But someone up there likes us.”

    Twilight was brief at this time of year. There had been no sign from Blouse.
    “I watched until I couldn’t see,” said Jade as they sat and watched Shufti make stew. “Some of der women dat came out was ones I saw goin’ in dis mornin’, too.”
    “Are you sure?” said Jackrum.
    “We might be fick, Sarge,” said Jade, looking hurt, “but trolls have great…er…vis-you-all ack-you-it-tee. More women was going in dis evenin’, too.”
    “Night shift,” said Tonker.
    “Oh well, he tried,” said Jackrum. “With any luck he’s in a nice warm cell and they’ve found him a pair of long pants. Get your kit together, lads. We’ll creep around and into our lines and you’ll be snug in bed by midnight.”
    Polly remembered what she’d said, hours ago, about fighting. You had to start somewhere.
    “I want to try the Keep again,” she said.
    “You do, Perks, do you?” said Jackrum, with mock interest.
    “My brother’s in there.”
    “Nice safe place for him, then.”
    “He might be injured. I vote for the Keep.”
    “Vote?” said Jackrum. “My word, that’s a new one. Voting in the army? Who wants to get killed, lads, let’s have a show of hands? Knock it off, Perks.”
    “I’m going to try it, Sarge!”
    “You are not!”
    “Try and stop me!” The words