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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

‘Half Sky’s a bit like Knee Tree Grounds in some ways, I guess,’ said Starlight. ‘Like Knee Tree used to be, I mean, when the Davidfolk left us alone. We don’t bother too much with old old stories and we stay out of the argument between John and David. You might think I’m a high person there – a big person as people say in New Earth – but I’m not a high person in the way that Strongheart and his guard leaders are in the Davidfolk Ground. I can’t make people do whatever I want, I don’t get to choose the story that everyone else lives by, and if the Skyfolk decide they want another Head, well, they can have one. So that’s a bit like the old Grounds, as well. I guess we do more things in Half Sky, though, than we used to do back on the Grounds. It was John Redlantern’s friend Tina Spiketree who first brought people to our ground, and all the ­stories say she liked to keep busy, she liked to make things happen.’

‘Just as you do, Starlight,’ I said, smiling. ‘I mean, look at everything you’ve done already! You’ve been right across Eden! You’ve become a high high person not just in one ground, but in two completely different grounds! You were never one, were you, for just sitting there and letting the Watcher look out of your eyes?’

Starlight laughed. ‘Well, believe it or not, I actually think about the Watcher much more now than I used to. I think it’s important to remind myself that Starlight Brooking is just a mask the Watcher wears, so as to stop myself from getting to think that the story is all about me. But yeah, in a way I am like Tina. I want Half Sky to get on and do things. We’re always trying to figure out how to build better boats, for instance, rather than just making them the same way like we used to on the Grounds, and we’ve found greenstone and are figuring out how to make it into metal. In that way, we’re a little more like the Johnfolk in New Earth. We’re like those big grounds too, in that we have something a bit like guards or ringmen. But all our young people have to take part, whether they’re men or women, and everyone in Half Sky chooses who will lead them. That way they don’t end up bossing everyone else round, like guards and ringmen do.’

‘Looks like you might not need guards any more,’ said Trueheart, who’d been squatting there listening all this time, her arms wrapped round her knees. ‘Or metal, or better boats.’