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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

It was one of her best best shows, so people would say later. There was so much grief in that cold cluster, so much fear, so much longing. And Mary had always understood those things. Better than any of the other shadowspeakers, she’d always understood how close those feelings were to the surface of people’s minds, even in good times, even in times when there weren’t enemies burning down our shelters, and riding through our ground with metal spears. And right then in Tall Tree Valley, those feelings weren’t even hidden. Never mind below the surface, they were right on top. Everyone had lost their homes, or was afraid of losing their home soon. Everyone was scared. Everyone longed and longed for something that couldn’t ever be found in Eden: a place where things weren’t just safe for a waking or two, but were always safe, safe forever and ever.

‘It’s really there,’ said Mary, with tears and sweat running down her face. ‘It’s really there, waiting for you on Earth, with the lovely light of the sun shining down on it from the blue blue sky. Our home ! Our real true home, where our Mother waits for us, to take us in her arms, and hold us tightly, and dry away our tears.’

They all cheered and wept and cheered some more. As she often did, Mary went round them, kissing and hugging one person after another, murmuring words of advice. And when people offered her presents, she just pushed them away: ‘No, my dear, you need to keep that for yourself and these little ones of yours. Don’t you worry about me. I can look after myself.’

Presently she had them all sing ‘Come Tree Row’ and they went round and round that old song, again and again and again, not wanting to stop, not wanting to bring it to an end. For when they stopped singing it, they knew, the feeling of going home would fade away, and they’d be back in Eden again, crammed into that little bowl of light surrounded by the Dark, with all their fear and grief crowding in on them the same as ever.

And of course none of them – not Mary or any of them – had the slightest idea that only four five wakings away, there was a new landing veekle already standing in middle of the Circle of Stones.

Thirty-four