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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

Forest hummed. Behind the sleeping guard, the little river trickled over its rocky bed where Tommy and Gela found the stones. Jeff’s eyes, I thought to myself, if there was anywhere in Eden where you were going to hear the voice of Mother Gela – the voices of all the dead, for that matter – it would be here, in this old old place where people first set their feet on Eden’s ground. That had been one of the things that made it hard for me to admit I heard nothing. It had felt like I should be able to. It had felt like any fool should be able to hear those old voices, if they just sat here quietly and listened.

And now, while I was thinking about that, a weird thing happened. We did hear something.

‘What’s that sound, Auntie?’

Trueheart was younger than me and her ears were sharper. There were a few heartbeats before I could make it out myself, and when I did, I had no idea what to make of it. It wasn’t a voice, certainly. It wasn’t the sound of trees or of wind. It wasn’t the cry of an animal. It was a kind of high-pitched whining sound, almost too high to hear. Neither of us could tell where it was coming from, but pretty much as soon as we heard it, something else began to change.

‘Look, Auntie. The clearing’s getting lighter!’

‘Are you sure? Isn’t it just—’

I broke off because, even while I was speaking, the light had become so much brighter that it was simply obvious. There was a big patch of white light that filled up most of the clearing and it was getting so bright that it was starting to blot out the soft and many-coloured light that came from the trees.

I stood up. I was scared scared, but scared in a weird kind of way, because I had no idea what I was looking at, or what there was to be afraid of. I knew this light wasn’t anything to do with the Johnfolk. I knew the sound wasn’t a leopard, or a crazed buck, or the Johnfolk running down from the Dark, or old Mount Snellins going off in the Rockies, as sometimes happened, and throwing hot ash into Circle Valley.

Trueheart stood up with me, and we reached out to take each other’s hands. There was no obvious threat to us. What scared us was just that there was something here we couldn’t explain. That light had now reached almost right out to the edge of the clearing, and the whining noise was growing louder: not loud loud, not as loud as the trees, not even as loud as the river running over the stones, but still much louder than before.