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Back Daughter of Eden
Chapters (68)
  1. Title page
  2. Dedication
  3. Part I
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-one
  25. Twenty-two
  26. Twenty-three
  27. Twenty-four
  28. Twenty-five
  29. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 20. 20:25 MT.
  30. Part II
  31. Twenty-six
  32. Twenty-seven
  33. Twenty-eight
  34. Twenty-nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-one
  37. Thirty-two
  38. Thirty-three
  39. Thirty-four
  40. Thirty-five
  41. Thirty-six
  42. Thirty-seven
  43. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 22. 20:05 MT.
  44. Thirty-eight
  45. Thirty-nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-one
  48. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 25. 15:30 MT.
  49. Forty-two
  50. Forty-three
  51. Forty-four
  52. Forty-five
  53. Forty-six
  54. Forty-seven
  55. Forty-eight
  56. Forty-nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-one
  59. Fifty-two
  60. Fifty-three
  61. Fifty-four
  62. Part III
  63. Fifty-five
  64. Fifty-six
  65. Fifty-seven
  66. Fifty-eight
  67. Also by Chris Beckett
  68. Copyright page

Tom was out front as usual with the woollybuck, and he saw Circle Valley first. ‘There it is!’ he yelled out, and the rest of us hurried to join him, our cold cold feet sloshing in the trampled snow that had been seeping through our footwraps more and more over the last waking, in spite of all their layers of greased skins. We were tired tired, we were cold all the time, and all the grownups had been worrying for miles that the cold would get too much before we reached the warmth of trees again. A couple of our oldies had completely shut themselves down, like they were giving up the fight to stay alive, and getting ready to merge themselves back into the coldness and darkness all round us. Little Suzie’s shoulder was badly swollen now. She was hot hot to the touch, and she kept up a continuous crying for hours and hours, while Flame wept and Clare muttered little gruff reassurances, which she herself didn’t really believe. All of us, including Flame, knew how dangerous the poison fever was.

But still, we’d made it across. There it was below us, the shining forest, surrounded on every side by the huge black shadows of mountains against the stars. We could even just make out smoke in the distance. Lit by the flames, it rose up from the fires of Old Family cluster, the first home of people on Eden.

I pulled off my headwrap to get some air. At once the icy coldness hit me. We might be able to see the light of forest down there, but up here it was as cold as ever.

I’d been in this place before, of course. I’d stood in this exact spot with Mary – ‘There it is, dearest,’ she’d said. ‘Just think! When we come back this way, we’ll be two shadowspeakers together’ – but most of the Michael’s Place people had never seen Circle Valley until now. They’d heard story after story about the place. In stories and songs, and acted out in shows, they’d heard how the Veekle had first come down there and how Tommy and Gela had laid out the stones in Circle Clearing. Over and over, they’d heard how Juicy John threw the stones into a stream, and how Great Lucy, the first shadowspeaker, had found them and put them back. But now the real thing was right in front of them. It wasn’t in a story any more. It didn’t lie on far side of the mountains. It was right in front of them, right there where the smoke was rising.