The Trouble With Heroes.... Read Online Free

people can love enough to do a thing like that."
    "So do I. I didn't like it, Jen."
    It was the first time he'd said that, and
he'd been back two years.
     
     
     

Chapter 2
    The tram stopped in Market Square, and they
got out and crossed to the Merrie England pub. Gyrth, Polly, and
Assam were at an outside table with a bunch of the others. Everyone
hailed Dan as if he was rain in midsummer, asking where he’d been.
Chairs shuffled. Yas, who looked like a princess from the Arabian
Nights, snagged Dan's sleeve and virtually forced him into the
chair beside her. Jenny found herself at the other end of the
table, between Gyrth and Rolo.
    It was okay. She needed space. Things were
shifting, and she didn't know what to do.
    Magic.
    Seduced with gifts and feasts.
    Driven to dance to death.
    For some reason Dan had wanted to tell her
that, and now it was scarily easy to imagine when she remembered
some of the wild times, often here at the Merrie.
    Not tonight, though. Beneath chatter, the
mood was definitely not merrie, and it wasn't just her group. The
tavern, even the square, seemed subdued. Thoughts of war returned
to trouble her. People didn’t leave their homes without a serious
reason.
    A quarrel started behind them, then Yas
started complaining about "some bitch" who'd stolen a promotion
from her, and the means she'd used. Back in the tavern, a crash
suggested someone had dropped a whole tray of glasses. Raised
voices....
    But then it changed. Being so aware of Dan
she saw him do it, saw him open his gifts and set everyone
alight.
    Saw him create a wild Dan Fixer night.
    Yas laughed and let her complaints drop. The
shouting stopped. Someone called for music. Jenny went with Rolo
and Tom to fetch the instruments from the back room and started
rollicking folk songs. That wasn't unusual. Three nights a week
they did it for pay.
    It went beyond that, though, tonight.
    Market Square was ringed with taverns and
restaurants, all with tables outside on two levels. Soon everyone
was joining in, thumping hands and feet with the rhythm. Fiddling
into a sweat, Jenny glanced at Dan. There was no way to tell
whether he was still making it happen, but she knew he was.
    Dancing to death....
    Other musicians joined them, and then they
were urged out into the center of the square. Jenny ended up on a
precarious spot high on statue of the first ship to Gaia leaving
Earth. Perched up there, surrounded by singing and stamping, Jenny
felt like the heart of a bright burning bonfire that shone out on
hundreds of faces at tables, in windows, and crowding into the open
space as well.
    She realized people were being drawn here
from all around.
    Like moths to a flame?
    Or like a firestorm, sucking everything into
infernal destruction. And what became of those at the center of
such a storm?
    Where was Dan?
    She found him, leaning against the base of
the ship, singing along with the rest, a tankard in one hand, a
woman -- a stranger -- in the other arm.
    This couldn’t be bad. Dan wasn't bad. He was
just flaring, burning off his whatever, and creating light against
the dark at the same time.
    But why tonight did Dan the Fixer need so
much light, laughter, and song? Why did he have so much energy to
burn, even after fixing that boy's leg?
    What did it say about the blighters?
    She escaped that by diving back into the
music.
    Tom called an end to it round about
midnight.
    "We've got to stop. I'll get fired if my
mates turn up." He was a policeman. "Last song!" he called in his
strong voice.
    Despite protests, they huddled, trying to
come up with the best piece to wrap this up without a riot.
    "Gaia," Jenny said, not knowing where that
came from.
    Tom looked at her. "The anthem?"
    "You can sing it, can't you? I think it's
right."
    No one argued, which was strange. They
weren't in the habit of singing the planet's syrupy anthem based on
a bad poem by one of the first settlers. Each settlement had its
own, but Gaia was dragged out at any planetary-wide