09/02/2026 07:35

---

And that it hadn't been true before he'd come to Blue Forest. I was talking about me, not you. He stared; itwas as if nothing had been fired, or as if the rounds had been swallowedinto hyperspace. He motioned the other two men in-Vokerand a middle-aged civilian-then followed them, leaving the door open.

But I was not referring to your eyes. Then a guycame to my apartment one evening and talked to me about joining themercenaries. We refitted on Tyss, and spent two months enjoying our world andour people, healing our wounds and replacing such weapons as were wornout or lost. If they develop such skill inhand-to-hand fighting, he told himself, they no doubt do as well with theirweapons.