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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

Ahead and below us we could see the light of the first small trees, shining their coloured light over the rocks and the bare ground that was beginning to appear down there from under the snow. There’d been a little group of people ahead of us for the whole of the last waking. We’d seen the light of their single woollybuck as it made its way round rocks and over the crossing places, up and down, left and right, showing us little pale glimpses of the path we ourselves would soon be treading. Now we glimpsed them briefly again among the trees, until they turned a corner and were out of our sight.

Still in the darkness ourselves, we began to move, a straggly line of people and bucks heading down a path that woollybucks had made, long long ago, before people came to Eden. Little Metty needed to sleep and Candy wasn’t letting him, so I took my little wriggly daughter in my arms for a while to give Dave a chance to settle him down. My brave Fox walked beside me. He was only seven years old, his feet were cold as anyone’s and he was tired tired tired, but he didn’t complain or cry.

‘There are lots of monkeys in those trees down there, Foxy,’ I told him. ‘I saw them when I came down this way with Mary. You better keep your eyes open and you might see one.’

He didn’t react at first, but after trudging along for sixty seventy heartbeats he asked me how many I’d seen.

‘I’d say nine ten at least.’

‘That’s not lots,’ he said, and that was the end of that.

‘I’m cold cold,’ grumbled Candy, still squirming restlessly in my arms. ‘I’m cold cold cold.’

‘I know, darling, but soon we’ll be down among the trees, and they’ll warm us up again. And perhaps lower down we’ll find a nice warm pool next to a tree root.’

In front of us, Tom was talking to Trueheart.

‘When I was in Circle Valley before, it made me proud proud to be one of the people who looked after the Circle and stayed by it, not one of the ones who tried to wreck it and then walked away.’

‘Yes, Dad, but if you’d happened to have been born in Brown River, or over in New Earth, you’d be telling me now how proud you were of being one of the Johnfolk.’