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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

He turned to the six guards who were still alive. ‘You heard what I’ve told my men. The fight is over. I’ll come and meet the Earth people with your Headman, and they can decide which of us is right and which is wrong. I’d like to ask three of you to ride on to Wide Forest. Tell your leaders there from me that we won’t fight them any more, and that, if they let us, all my men will go quietly back to the places we grounded and wait there until the Earth people have told us what to do. I’d like the rest of you to lead the way back to Circle Valley, so you can tell your big people when we get there, and your people we meet along the way, that this isn’t a trick, that I’ve come to talk, just as the new Gela has asked, and that all of my ringmen except these ten have been told to go back to poolside.’

The six guards looked at each other, shrugged, and nodded. ‘We can tell folk what happened here,’ one of them said, ‘and we can tell them what you’ve just said. But we can’t speak for the high people. What they do is up to them.’

Luke Johnson looked down at the black square in his hand. If only he’d held back for one single heartbeat longer, he’d have heard the voice before he shot the arrow. ‘Of course. All you can do is tell them what I said.’

He pulled his headwrap back on and climbed back up onto the slim blue-skinned buck he’d brought over from across the Pool. He made himself sit up straight straight on its back. He made himself lift his head up high, like his father Dixon would have done, or his mother Lucy, who’d had to live with so much sadness. Then he turned towards Circle Valley again while three of the guards rode out ahead of him, and Topman John and those ten ringmen gathered themselves behind him.

Forty-seven

Deep had found some more pictures of Earth, and now the Earth people were showing them on the screens in Circle Clearing. They were pictures of a place called London, a place they knew we’d have heard of, because it had been the home of Angela Young, and part of Old Family cluster was still named after it. More than a thousand thousand people lived in London now, Gaia told us – more than a millyun to use their word – which was surely many times more than lived in whole of Eden. But she said this was still much much less than used to live there.