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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

We saw Leader Harry sometimes back at Veeklehouse, and once he even passed through Michael’s Place. Our own guard leader, Leader Hunter, had been showing his older brother round his ground, and they came through our little cluster on bucks draped in coloured fakeskin, with a bunch of guards riding behind them. Of course we knelt and bowed our heads as they rode past. These were high high men, the sons of Strongheart, and that’s what high people expected. We knelt and bowed, and then, when they’d passed on, we went back to working for them. One quarter of all the star­flowers we gathered in Michael’s Place, a quarter of all the buckskins we scraped and cleaned, a quarter of the meat we cut up and dried, went to Leader Hunter, and I know the people up in Circle Valley had to do just the same for his brother Leader Harry. It was to provide for the guards to protect us, we low people were told, but we weren’t stupid, we knew that what a guard leader gathered in from his clusters didn’t just go to his guards. Lots of it was traded for fancy fakeskin wraps for the leader and all his shelterwomen and kids, and for bucks for them to ride wherever they went, and for the special food that was brought in for them from far away, and for those big big shelters of theirs, built round trees, where they could sit at ease, with helpers running round them.

We’d always grumbled about this, of course. Even Tom our cluster head grumbled, though he was proud proud of being one of David Strongheart’s men. But at the same time we accepted that this was just how things were with high people. You worked and worked for them, and yet you had to behave as if it was you who had to be grateful to them, you who were gratefully receiving, and them who were kindly giving. For when we bowed to him, they would barely smile in return. They would just slightly slightly nod their heads, and perhaps if we were lucky, they would give that little lazy wave.