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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’d had a warm welcome down there in that strange little valley back then. I guess they didn’t get so many visitors, and the Tall Tree folk liked it that Mary treated them like they were special. Just about everyone in whole valley came to see her show and, at the end of it, Mary told the people there they were lucky lucky to live in the place that was special to Wise Mehmet, the one who’d turned away from the True Story and then had the courage to come back. Of all the people from the old stories, he was one of the best. Everyone cheered loudly at that.

After the show, I remember, we went for a walk, just Mary and me, along a stream. One of the weird things about Tall Tree Valley is that all the streams there flow not out of the valley, but towards its middle where their water all pours into an enormous hole. We walked right up to the edge of that hole and looked down, with the roar of waterfalls all round us, peering through the spray and steam for glimpses of the warm shining forest of Underworld.

Mary slipped her arm round my waist and kissed me on the cheek. ‘Oh Angie, I’m so glad to have you, and I’m so excited we’re on the way to Circle Valley. I know you’re going to be great.’

She pointed out a kind of ladder made out of rope, which dangled down down down into the hole. It disappeared into the mist so I couldn’t see where it led, but apparently it carried right on down to the bottom. Mary told me the Tall Tree people climbed down it to hunt and gather fruit and flowers. Her own dad had often been down in the caves. They stretched away for miles, she said. There were giant slinkers down there, twenty feet long and fat as bucks, that crept along the ground, and there was a kind of tree that didn’t stand up by itself but climbed over the walls and roofs of the caves, so the brightness of forest was above you as well as round you. And, if you knew where to go, you could find holes and cracks that dropped down still deeper, with hot air blasting up from yet more layers of Underworld all the way down to the great fire.

I eyed the ladder uneasily, desperately hoping that Mary wouldn’t suggest we climbed down it. I wasn’t used to heights. Knee Tree Grounds hardly rises above the level of the water, and the cliff near Michael’s Place was no more than twenty feet high at most. I found it scary enough just standing on the top there and looking down.