"The very best. I won't find their replacement any time soon." Maybe Bel's departure had been a sign that everything was over. Naismith was dead already, after all; he'd just kept walking for a few years after the killing blow.

"I miss it terribly," he says after a moment. "Especially now." If he had a choice between staying here in this era and going back to his Dendarii ... He'd probably choose the latter.