BooksBarbecue
Back Daughter of Eden Save as PDF
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

‘The Johnfolk are right up on the Dark already, Leader!’ the guard said, jumping down and bowing to the high man. ‘I was watching the fire with my mates two crossings away from here, and we saw their lights coming towards us. They’ve only got a few woolly­bucks, but we could see the shadows of the men against the snow, and the light on the metal spears, and I can tell you there were a whole lot of them. They’ll have reached my mates by now, I reckon. I guess they’ll have done for them.’

Harry nodded. ‘I’m sorry about your mates, my friend, but it’s actually good the Johnfolk are on the Dark already.’

The poor guard was amazed. ‘It’s good, Leader?’

‘We’re looking for them. We’ve come to tell them that Earth has come! There’s a new veekle standing in the Circle right now, and a new Gela.’

The guard – he was a friend of our Tom’s – stood there beside his exhausted buck and watched Harry and his men riding on towards Wide Forest. After a while, when his buck had cooled down a bit, he climbed back up onto it and carried on towards Circle Valley.

Earth had come! He was happy happy like everyone, thinking that all the cold and dark and fear would soon be over. But he felt sad for his friends who he’d left by their fire, waiting for the Johnfolk and their metal blades. It seemed cruel cruel that the two of them should have died less than half a waking before this news would have reached them.

Harry met a few more frightened people from Wide Forest, on their way over to Circle Valley. And then, after another half waking or so, he saw at last the headlanterns of the New Earthers’ few woolly­bucks in the distance, on far side of a black emptiness where a valley of ice and rock was completely hidden in the darkness. And in their grey light, he saw what that guard and his mates had seen earlier: the shadowy shapes of many ringmen on the backs of their own thin New Earth bucks. There were more than a hundred of them, against his eight men.

He pulled off his headwrap, cupped his hands round his mouth.