feet. They were caught in that muddy serene haze between the drunk and the hangover. They sat down beside their respective girls and poured themselves ale from the jug in the middle of the table. It was warm and flat, but life's like that sometimes. The tavern bar seemed cool and calm and clear, divorced from the world, adrift in the early hours of the morning between dark and light. David took a large gulp from his mug and pulled a face.
'God, this stuff is rough. I swear my palate goes slumming every time I set foot inside this place.'
'Where's everyone gone?' said Kit. 'I was just getting started. I could go all night if I wanted to. I could use a little action.'
'I'm here,' said Jenny.
'I mean real action. I miss the fighting and dueling we had on Golgotha. No one here worth fighting. What's the point in being the best there is with a sword, if I never get a chance to show it off?'
'Who says you're the best?' said David. 'You may have all the tricks, but I have the boost.'
'One of these days we'll have to find out,' said Kit.
'Yeah,' said David. 'One of these days.'
They grinned at each other and drank more ale. 'Be honest,' said David. 'Didn't you get enough bloodshed in the Arenas? I mean, we got through a hell of a lot of opponents in our short time on the bloody sands.'
'It's never enough,' said Kit. 'Still, there are… distractions, here.'
'Glad to hear it,' said Jenny. She put an arm around Kit's shoulders, and he smiled at her.
'We could always go back to Golgotha. Just for a visit,' said David. 'See if we could scare up some action in the Arenas. There's always some poor fool who thinks he's good with a sword.'
'What about us?' said Jenny.
'What about you?' said Kit.
'If you're going, we want to go, too,' said Alice.
'You wouldn't like it,' said David.
'Why?' said Jenny, bristling. 'Because we're peasants? Because we're not sophisticated enough to show off to your precious friends and Families?'
'Well, yes, basically,' said Kit.
'Screw you,' said Jenny.
'Maybe later,' said Kit.
'You could teach us all we need to know,' said Alice. 'Oh please, David. I've always wanted to go to home- world.'
'We'll see,' said David. 'Maybe if you're good.'
'Oh, I'm very good,' said Alice. 'Remember?'
They grinned at each other. Jenny glared at Kit, who stared calmly back. The conversation could have gone in any number of directions, and probably would have, if a starship hadn't crash-landed right outside the tavern. The first those inside knew of its coming was a long, descending scream of straining engines, high up in the sky above the tavern. The four of them got rather unsteadily to their feet, opened a window, and looked out. The air was bracingly cool and sobering, the sun barely up. The grey skies were splashed with blood. And down through the clouds a ship came howling, with its outer hull on fire.
'Who the hell is that?' said Alice.
'Can't see any markings on it,' said Kit calmly. 'It's not one of yours, is it, David?'
'Don't think so. It hasn't got my crest on it. Besides, no one's supposed to know I'm here. Whoever that is, it's coming down at one hell of a pace. It occurs to me we might be a damn sight safer if we were to get away from the window. If that ship crashes anywhere near here, there's going to be wreckage and shrapnel flying in all directions.'
'I think it's still under control,' said Jenny. 'More or less.'
The blazing craft swept over the tavern, the roar of its engines deafening at close quarters. The floor shook under their feet, and streams of dust and sawdust fell down from the beamed ceiling. They all ducked instinctively, but by the time they'd reacted, the craft had turned around and headed back again. The engines cut in and out, and then it dropped from the sky, crashing as much as landing in the courtyard outside the tavern. The ground shuddered under the impact, throwing the four observers off their feet. David got to his feet first, unlocked the main door, and hurried outside. He had some confused thought about hauling any injured out of the crashed ship, but the moment he got outside the door the heat from the blazing craft stopped him dead. He threw an arm to protect his face, feeling sweat pop out all over him. He tried to force himself forward, but his body wouldn't obey him, flinching away from the awful heat. A hand grabbed him from behind and pulled him back into the tavern. Someone else slammed the door shut, cutting off the heat.
'Forget it,' said Kit, letting go of his arm. 'No one's getting out of that alive.'
'The hell they aren't,' said Jenny from the window. 'You've got to see this.'
The others hurried over to join her at the window. Outside in the courtyard, flames from the ship were rising higher than the tavern. But someone inside the craft had opened the emergency escape hatch, and two figures were emerging. As David and the others watched, the flames seemed to draw back from the hatch. Two women with the same face dropped down onto the blackened stones of the courtyard and headed for the tavern, apparently entirely unaffected by the blazing inferno around them.
'I know that face,' said Kit. 'It's the Stevie Blues.'
'How the hell are they doing that?' said Jenny.
'They're clones, aren't they?' said Alice excitedly. 'I've never seen clones before!'
'If they've come looking for us, we could be in trouble,' David said quietly to Kit. 'We owe the underground a lot of reports. It's entirely possible the rebel council might have decided we need persuading to follow the party line.'
'Or, given that we know a lot about rebel plans, the Blues could have been sent to silence us,' said Kit. 'Good thinking, David. I'll make a paranoid out of you yet.'
'Okay,' said David. 'This place has a back door. I suggest we use it. Now.'
'What is it?' said Jenny. 'Do you know these people?'
'I don't run from anyone,' said Kit to David, ignoring her. 'Besides, there are only two of them.'
'Two battle esper firestarters are more than enough to reduce this place to ashes, along with anyone stupid enough to be inside it when they get here. Those are elves, Kit. Esper Liberation Front. The radical fringe of the radical fringe. The only time they take hostages is when they're feeling hungry.'
'We can take them,' said Kit.
'Fine. You take the one on the left, and I'll take to my heels. We can't fight, Kit; we have the girls to think of. All right, plan B. We'll talk them to death. No one ever accused the Stevie Blues of being particularly bright. Impulsive, psychotic, and more deadly than a Hadenman in a really bad mood, but not bright. If we keep our wits about us, I may be able to talk our way out of this.'
Kit sniffed. 'I'd much rather kill them.'
'I know you would,' said David. 'That's your answer to everything. But your normal tactics aren't going to be much use against someone who can melt your sword just by looking at it.'
'Good point,' said Kit. 'All right, you talk to them. I'll see if I can sneak round behind them, just in case.'
'Sounds like a plan to me,' said David.
'Hold everything,' said Alice. 'Do you know these people? I heard the word underground. Are they rebels?'
'Cool,' said Jenny. 'I always wanted to meet some outsider rebels.'
And then everyone fell silent as the door swung open and two rebels with the same face stepped into the tavern. Young women in battered leathers with metal studs and dangling chains, over a grubby T-shirt bearing the legend Born To Burn. They were both short and stocky, with muscles bulging on their bare arms. Their long dark hair was full of brightly colored knotted ribbons, and there were splashes of matching colors on their faces. They might have been pretty, if it hadn't been for their shared frown and the stern, dangerous look in their eyes. They nodded briefly to the Deathstalker, glared intimidatingly at the SummerIsle, and ignored the two girls.
'I'm Stevie One,' said the woman on the left. 'This is Stevie Three. Don't get us confused, or we'll get cranky about it.'
'Right,' said Stevie Three. 'We're really quite different once you get to know us.'
'Good to see you again,' said David, trying hard to make his voice and smile seem natural. 'What brings you
