Vol had planned to hold out on giving them their payment until they'd served for a significant enough amount of time first, but it hadn't been possible to do that. Everyone wanted to be paid immediately, and the officials had all but pressured Vol into making it so. After all, he'd billed it as a 'recruitment fee', and many had taken that to merely be the initial cost.
"They need blooding," Northy said grimly, as they shared ale in a tavern. "They're not a unit right now, I can tell you that. If there's no unity, there's no staying power. If it's just gold, then they'll leave as soon as the gold disappears."
Vol knew that much. He needed a cause to throw themselves at. He'd publicly said that he was out to get an Earl, but even he wasn't fool enough to march right up to Earl Brighteye's gate, when his garrison alone was over a thousand strong, and he had the high walls of his castle on top of that.
