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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

‘Hey! New Earthers!’ His voice echoed round him against bare black rocks he couldn’t see. ‘My name is Leader Harry! I’m the son of David Strongheart!’ He let the echo fade before carrying on. ‘I’ve not come to fight you. I’ve come to talk!’ He paused again, listening for any kind of answer from across far side of that pit of darkness. But apart from the echoes nothing came back. ‘We have news! Important news! We have a message from Earth! A veekle has come down from the sky!’ Again he waited. ‘Can you hear me?’ But there was still no reply from the ringmen who’d begun to make their way onto a narrow ridge at the top of that invisible valley.

Harry looked round at his men. ‘You, David, and you, Mehmet, leave your spears behind and come with me. The rest of you, wait here.’

The three of them made their way down to the ridge that the Johnfolk had already reached. Presently Harry stopped and shouted out once again, and this time another voice called back.

‘We’ve won the fight!’ the voice shouted. ‘The sons of John have won back Old Ground. Admit that! Give us Circle Valley, and we’ll let you live.’

‘You can come to Circle Valley. We promise not to fight you. We promise to let you leave.’

‘That’s not what I asked you for. Give us Circle Valley! Admit John has won! Accept the True Story!’

‘Didn’t you hear me? A veekle has come down from Earth! A new Gela has come! We’ve got a message from her for you.’

There was a short silence, and then a scornful laugh. ‘That’s a silly trick! A kid’s trick. It shows how desperate you stonespears are.’

‘Wait here,’ Harry told the two guards.

He climbed down from his buck. He threw his own spear away into the snow, he pulled off the top part of his bodywrap so he was naked down to the waist in that freezing freezing air, and he held up the little black square that held the voice of Gaia inside it. He was a big man, as his dad had been in his young days, with a thick black beard and hair all over his body, halfway turned to grey.

‘I wouldn’t believe it myself if I was you,’ he shouted out, ‘but I have Gela’s voice inside this thing, and if you let me come near you’ll be able to hear it for yourself. You can shoot an arrow through me if I’m wrong.’