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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 used to tell a story back on Knee Tree Grounds about John Redlantern, standing on the cliff by the crashed Veekle, trying to decide whether to keep Gela’s ring or throw it out into the Pool. He told people afterwards that he heard the voices of people not yet born, calling out to him, arguing with one another about what he should do next. ‘Throw it away!’ some said. ‘It’ll only bring trouble.’ ‘Keep it,’ said others, ‘that ring is precious precious to everyone on Eden!’

When the story got to that part, we kids would start calling things out ourselves. ‘Keep it!’ some of us would shout. ‘Toss it into the Pool!’ the rest would yell. And then the grownups would point out to us that the voices John had heard were ours! We were the people not yet born, and we were still arguing about his decision, just as John had known we would.

It must have been the same for Leader Harry. He must have known that, whatever happened next, there would be stories in the future about this moment. A hundred Johnfolk facing just eight guards and one leader, the son of the Head Guard facing the son of the Headman, a guard leader kneeling half-naked in the snow with the voice from Earth inside a square of smooth black glass: well, Tom’s dick, how could all of that not become a story?

Headmanson Luke rode forward on his blue-skinned buck, a ringman on a woollybuck riding beside him to give him the light of its headlantern. Luke suspected some kind of trick, though he couldn’t figure out what it might be, and he had an arrow half-drawn on his bowstring.

Harry looked up at the Headmanson and showed him what he held in his hand. The glass glinted in the bucklight. One of Luke’s ringmen shouted, ‘Father! A blade!’ and Luke fired his arrow at Leader Harry. It hit him in the belly. There was a silence, the kind of silence you only get up on the Dark, with no trees to pulse and hum. Harry felt for the shaft of the arrow with his left hand. He had a puzzled look on his face, as if he couldn’t quite figure out what this thin hard thing might be that was suddenly sticking out of him.