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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

We walked through the shining trees until we came to the shelters in the place called Brooklyn where the high people always stayed. They were solid and square like the ones in Veeklehouse, and the biggest one had guards all round it. Strongheart himself was inside, apparently, and so was Headman Newjohn of Brown River and the Head Woman of Half Sky.

Right at that moment, in fact, as I’d find out later, Strongheart and his son Harry were busy talking to those two. Those guards I’d seen at the gate had brought bad bad news. The New Earth Johnfolk were winning the fight not only at Davidstand but in many different places across Wide Forest. And suddenly Headman Newjohn in particular was finding he had a lot of power, because Strongheart was desperate to persuade the Riverfolk to come over to his side and not join their fellow Johnfolk from across the Pool. He was offering to give Newjohn more ground, including all those little clusters I’d visited with Mary along the White Streams. He was even offering two of his own daughters to be the Headman’s shelterwomen. But Newjohn, more than anything, wanted to make sure that he backed the winning side, so he was holding back from choosing until there was more news about the fight.

I didn’t know about any of that then, though, and I wasn’t much interested in Strongheart’s shelter, because we were near the Circle, and that was completely filling my mind. We only had to cross the bridge over the stream and we’d be in Circle Clearing, and it would be there right in front of us.

My heart was pounding pounding pounding. Now I was so close I dreaded seeing those stones again. But I needed to see them too, so I went on anyway, and Trueheart followed after. We crossed the bridge and there it was: the big Circle first laid by our Mother and Father, Gela and Tommy, four hundred years ago, with the group of five stones in middle where once I’d squatted down to listen for Gela. It was hard to believe now that someone like me could ever have been in such a place.

Trueheart stared in silence. Once again, I think, she was trying not to be impressed, but this time she wasn’t succeeding. There were so many stories about this place that it was like a hundred different places all packed together into one single spot. And you could feel the pressure of that, you could feel all those squeezed-in stories straining and bursting out. It was a wonder the clearing could hold them at all.