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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

Starlight, Newjohn and Strongheart carried on talking talking talking in Strongheart’s big shelter. They weren’t talking about the ringmen from New Earth so much now – that would have to wait until they heard news from Leader Harry – but they talked a lot about food. Food was running out quickly in Circle Valley, and yet hungry people kept on arriving from across the Dark. Strongheart had asked the two other heads if they could send to their own grounds for more dried meat and flowercakes, but Starlight pointed out that this would spread the news about what was happening in Circle Valley, and bring hundreds more mouths to be fed from Brown River and Half Sky.

‘Yes, and who would we persuade to go anyway?’ Newjohn asked with his dry laugh. ‘Who’s going to leave Circle Valley now?’

‘My Harry went,’ Strongheart pointed out, ‘and eight men with him.’

Starlight thought for a few heartbeats. ‘You know what?’ she said. ‘It may be the Earth people that we have to ask to leave.’

When he’d finally figured out she wasn’t joking, Strongheart’s face went purple. ‘John Redlantern walked away from Circle Valley,’ he growled. ‘And so did your Tina Spiketree, Head Woman Starlight. But we Davidfolk stayed here by the Circle, waiting patiently for Earth. No way am I going to send the Earth people away, now that they’ve finally come! Tom’s dick and Harry’s, this is what I will be remembered for in stories! Okay, I may turn out to have been the Head Guard who lost Wide Forest to the ringmen, but at least I’ll also have been the one who was there to meet Earth.’

‘I’m just saying, Head Guard, that the longer they stay, the more people will come into the Valley. Soon there’ll be thousands here from all over Mainground with nothing to—’

Strongheart wasn’t listening. ‘And a bloody good job we Davidfolk did wait here! If everyone had followed John and Tina, the Earth people would have come and found nothing here but the remains of shelters, and the ashes of cooking fires, and the skeletons in Burial Ground. They’d have gone back to Earth saying there was no one left alive, and then we’d have been alone forever. Think about that, Head Woman. If everyone had followed your Tina, where would we be now?’

Newjohn watched him with half-narrowed eyes. ‘And yet you were grumbling yourself, Head Guard, not so long ago, that they would make us all into low people. The Head Woman has a point. What are the Earth people going to give us if they stay, except for hunger? Hunger and the old stories we live by getting all broken up and confused?’

Strongheart glared at him. ‘Well, if nothing else, they’re going to stop the fight with your Johnfolk friends from across the Pool.’