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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

Myself, I was finding it difficult to believe that I was there at all, standing right in front of a woman from Earth, and right next to the two highest and most powerful men in all of Mainground: the Head Guard of the Davidfolk and the Headman of Brown River. Yet that wasn’t the end of it. The other high people had come over with him, the guards quickly surrounding them and standing ready to hold back the folk all round us. There were screams and shouts of excitement going back and forth through forest round and across the clearing, someone had started banging on a drum, and several people were blowing away at hollowbranch horns: Paaaaaaaaaarp! Parp! Paaaaaaaaarp!

And now, after Strongheart and Newjohn, a third high person spoke. ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘I’m Starlight.’

And here she was, my old friend, stepping forwards from the group of high people to come and stand beside me, reaching out to touch my hand. Ten years older suited her. She’d always been tough, always ready to fight for what she wanted, but now, standing there in her long blue wrap, with coloured stones dangling from her ears and from bracelets round her wrists, she looked like someone who could make things happen without even having to make a fight of it. She looked like someone who could persuade people to do things because they knew she’d know best. She looked gentler, in a way, kinder, and yet still as tough as ever.

‘I’m the Head Woman of the ground called Half Sky,’ she said, and she didn’t bow to the Earth people like the others. She just held out her hand. Gaia reached out and held it for a moment and, as she did so, Starlight put her other arm round my shoulders. ‘And this is my old friend Angie.’

Head Woman? Starlight a Head Woman? Starlight a Head Woman of Half Sky ? It was true that last time I saw her, she’d been heading off far away with the Headman of another ground, but that was New Earth, far off peckway beyond Deep Darkness of Worldpool. And Half Sky was exactly in the opposite direction, blueway even of Circle Valley, across another whole part of Snowy Dark that was known in the Valley as the Blue Mountains.

Twenty-seven