The Trouble With Heroes.... Read Online Free Page A

event --
usually to groans.
    Jenny wondered where the idea had come from
and glanced at Dan, but he was sitting now, an adoring woman in
each arm.
    Flies to jam. She'd better watch it. She
wasn't going to ruin a friendship by turning stupid over Dan. But
if he wanted the anthem, he could have it. She struck up a chord
and Tom started to sing in his deep, strong voice.
    What a wonder it is
    To find a planet like this
    In the limitless oceans of space.
    Where the air is pristine.
    And the oceans are clean.
    Oh Gaia, you sweet, blessed place.

    Though hellbanes may ash,
    Our dream will not crash.
    We will cherish our new home forever!
    The crowd was singing along by then, and in
the chorus, the thunder of it seemed to rattle the windows all
around. With the gates closed and blighters attacking, the words
had new meaning. Power crept up Jenny's spine, almost making her
hands fumble on her fiddle.
    She glanced down at Dan again. He had his
head back and his eyes closed as if he was absorbing something from
the air.
    We come from an Earth
    Under burden of birth,
    It's beauty long gone and turned rotten.
    But here it is new,
    A rich gift to the few,
    Oh Gaia, here pain is forgotten.

    Though hellbanes may ash,
    Our dream will not crash.
    We will cherish our new home forever!

    With a treasure so grand,
    With such beauty to hand,
    What can we be but peaceful and giving?
    Never strife, never war,
    We will spill blood no more,
    Oh, Gaia, you were made for blessed
living.

    Though hellbanes may ash,
    Our dream will not crash.
    We will cherish our new home forever!

    It was the crowd rather than Tom that
repeated the chorus one last time, almost softly despite the
hundreds of voices.
    Though hellbanes may ash,
    Our dream will not crash.
    We will cherish our new home forever!
    Like a lamp turned down, the roaring energy
settled to a glow, and everyone began to drift peacefully away.
    She sat in the convenient dip between ship
and Earth because her legs had turned weak. The others looked
pretty shocked.
    "The power," Tom said.
    The magic, she thought, and she might have a
bit of it in her.
    Dan stood waiting to help her down, but she
jumped down by herself, then hurried back to the tavern with her
fiddle.
    The publican, Ozzy Rooke, shook his head.
"You're supposed to get the customers drinking, not out there
singing the planetary anthem!"
    But he was joking, and he gave them all a
free round of beer.
    Dan sat beside Jenny at the bar. She made a
business of picking up her glass because it let her move an inch
away. She probed the air around him. Nothing. Nothing more than the
usual aura that was Dan. Had he burned it all up in that
singing?
    By the time Ozzy threw them out and locked
up, the city was quiet -- a soft quiet that seemed infinitely safe.
They set off home together, but Rolo and Tom split off not far from
the square. Jenny, Dan, Gyrth, and Yas all lived in the west riding
so they carried on in a group, singing softly, teasing and tussling
sometimes.
    Like kids again. Or like teenagers. Jenny
remembered that Dan had rarely been around for nights like this
with singing, and horseplay, and as they got older, the maneuvering
into possible bedmates.
    She noticed Yas maneuvering for Dan. That'd
be nothing new, but she was glad he wasn't responding. In Chestnut
Copse, Yas went into her building alone with a last, hopeful look.
Gyrth turned off at the next corner, leaving Jenny and Dan alone
for the last little way.
    It was just that it’d been a strange day, but
she hoped he wouldn't touch, wouldn't even want to talk. Perhaps he
felt the same, because he walked beside her in silence, and by the
time they came to his place, the silence was comforting as a
lambswool blanket. Everything was all right.
    He lived in the fixer's flat which took up
the whole ground floor of a big house. They had parties there
sometimes because it was huge.
    They paused at the bottom of the steps.
    "Night, then," she said.
    "I'll walk you to your place."
    She