Gerry’s smile didn’t change. It was like it was fixed on his face. And once again he bowed. But this time, he didn’t stop. He just bowed and bowed until finally his whole body toppled, slowly and calmly, from the back of his buck. And now Luke saw, for the first time, an arrow sticking out of his back. Our guards had been hiding in the white- and redlantern trees above them. They’d set up ropes from the treetops, so they could shoot off their arrows and then slide quickly down to the ground and run away. Among them, as it happened, were two of Clare’s sons, Mehmet and Mike, Trueheart’s older brothers.

‘Father!’ the Headmanson’s men were calling out to him, for that’s how the New Earthers speak to their high people. ‘Father! You’re in big big danger! Climb down now!’

Several of them had their bows out and were searching the treetops round them for targets, as Headmanson Luke jumped down to kneel by his friend. Teacher Gerry’s face was empty and white, except for the blood that streamed down from his nostrils and mouth, through his beard and onto his neck. His limbs were trembling, like a sweetbat trembles when you cut off its head.

Luke shook him. ‘Gerry! Come on, Gerry! Don’t go away from me!’ But it was obvious, even to Luke, that his friend had no life left inside him. The arrow had pierced Gerry’s lungs and heart, and his wrap was soaked with blood.

Luke had looked up at the ringmen round him. How could anyone have hurt his sweet gentle Gerry? How could anyone harm this man who wished everyone well whether they were high or low, men or women, Johnfolk or Davidfolk? How could anyone shoot dead a man who’d given his whole life to finding out more about the True Story and bringing it to all the people of Eden?

‘From now on,’ he’d told the ringmen, ‘do for every one of them you find. Do you understand? I don’t care if they’re old or if they’re kids. I don’t care if they’re guards or flowergatherers. Whenever you find them, cut their throats, string them up like Tommy, tie them to spiketrees and let them burn!’

And then he’d had another idea. ‘Yeah. I know what we’ll do. They’re all running across the mountains to Circle Valley, aren’t they? We’ll follow them. We’ll go after them. We’ll destroy that Circle of theirs a second time, and soak the ground beneath it with their blood.’

Thirty-six

Gaia suggested I go with her and the other Earth people when they went out into forest, but Dave objected at once.

‘What about your own kids, Angie? You seem to have forgotten you’re a mother.’