BooksBarbecue
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

‘I’ll tell you another thing,’ she went on, barely even stopping to breathe. ‘Deep told me that they can fix batfaces on Earth. He said it happened to his cousin. They’ve got special stuff on Earth that sends you to sleep, and while you’re sleeping they cut open the meat and skin of your face and sew it together again, and when you wake up you don’t have a batface any more. You don’t feel a thing! It’s a bit sore afterwards, but when it heals up you look just like other people. It’s the same for clawfeet too, he said . . . Oh yes, and another weird thing I found out: you know that ring that Gaia wears on her finger, with the two kinds of metal in it, like the one in the—’

Parp! Parp! Parp! Parp! Parp! The sound of wooden horns came from the direction of Circle Clearing, three four of them, summoning us back to the Circle, a new horn blower joining in when one of the others stopped for breath.

Thirty-nine

There were three screens tied with string onto poles in front of the veekle, spaced about twenty feet apart from each other. They weren’t like the crumbly old Screen that the Earth people had in their shelter. They were black and smooth all over. The Earth people waited beside middle screen as people came crowding in. Guards stood ready with their spears to hold people back if they pushed too close to the Earth people or the screens.

Gaia had kept a place for me and the other Michael’s Place people, right in front of her and the other two by the edge of the Circle. I settled down there with Candy on my lap and Fox beside me. Their bright eyes were darting back and forth as they tried to take everything in. Dave was behind me with Metty. A little further back, tall wooden seats had been set up for the high people so they could look over our heads. Starlight was there, sitting with David Strongheart and his shelterwomen, and Newjohn and a few other high people from the Davidfolk Ground, Half Sky and Brown River.

Someone started to sing ‘Come Tree Row’ and pretty much everyone joined in, the people already sitting or standing, and the people still squeezing into the clearing. All the arguments and disagreements between Valley and outsiders were forgotten. Men and women sang out happily together, high people and low people, and on those high wooden seats, Davidfolk, Johnfolk and Tinafolk stood singing side by side. Then Gaia stepped forward so she stood in front of the Earth people, and the singing changed into a chant: ‘Gela! Gela! Gela! Gela! Gela! ’