She hadn’t asked to leave and he liked having her around. He still had not touched her, but every night she wrapped herself around him. ‘Have you ...ecided when you want to go back to civilization?’ he asked one evening. She sighed heavily. ‘I guess that I can leave any time you want me to,’ she answered. ‘What would you say if I told you I don’t want you to go?’ ‘I wanted to hear that more than anything in the world!’ she squealed. They were ready for bed and already nude. He took her into his. That was a lot closer range than most of what we did over there, and a lot shorter, but still, it was combat.”“Is this going to be a problem, you know, with the post-traumatic stress?” asked my father.I shook my head. “No, it shouldn’t, or at least it hasn’t so far. My problems aren’t related to the combat, not specifically. Where I go off the rails is the way I feel guilty about the guys who I was responsible for. Even then, I never had problems if they were wounded, just when they got killed.. I just go where they pay me.”Treya suppressed a shiver. Shana hired herself out to fight, but never just for money. There had to be a good reason. It seemed wrong to fight without caring about the cause.Des and Arnol told her more about the towns they were from and about the skirmishes they’d fought back home, both against snow beasts and other fiefdoms. Treya mentioned that she’d been born near Four Roads before moving to Tyrsall, but didn’t say anything else about her life. The men kept. Alexandra McKiernan became Alice Spencer-Killdare of Sydney, Australia. I looked at the passport my dad handed me with an open mouth and wide eyes."Australia?" I demanded incredulously. Opening it up, I noticed that there was no picture of me inside. "Pictures?"He nodded towards the ticket counter and I turned and saw a booth next to it. "Eoin's suggestion. And I didn't want any pictures of you as you looked, only pictures of what you look like now. An auburn-haired picture would do you no good.