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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

When I finally reached Davidstand that time, I discovered that just about everyone was gathered together in the big Meeting Place there, between the Great Shelter and the L-shaped pool. Strongheart had just got himself a new young shelterwoman, and there was a celebration. At one end of the Meeting Place there was a raised-up floor of wood, where a man was twanging the string of a little guitar while a woman sang and another man tapped on a drum. But when they finished their song, a guard leader came out and spoke to us:

‘People! People! The Head Guard of all Eden, David Strong-heart.’

Everyone knelt and bowed down their heads, and a fat old man with white hair came waddling out onto that wooden floor in a long blue wrap, with a young newhair girl on his arm. We’d heard stories about him out on Knee Tree Grounds: how harsh he was, how cruel, how he tied his enemies to hot spiketrees and left them screaming there until all the skin and flesh on their backs was blistered off. But this old guy looked so friendly and kind that it was hard to believe that this was the same man, the three-greats grandson of Great David. He looked more like some nice old uncle, who’d save bits of stumpcandy for you, and carve you toys out of bone.

More of Strongheart’s family came out to join him on the wooden floor: his oldest son Leader Mehmet, who’d be Head Guard after he’d gone, a bunch of grownup daughters and sons, four five of his other shelterwomen, and twenty or more of his kids and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Strongheart put one arm round his pretty new shelterwoman and the other arm round one of his grownup grandsons, and had all the little ones gather in front of him in their fine fakeskin longwraps, sewn with feathers and batwings and coloured stones.

‘Stand up, everyone!’ he called out to us. ‘Dance! Have a good time! This is a celebration, a celebration of my family. And I don’t just mean my family that you see here round me with my lovely new shelterwoman, but my big family, True Family of Eden, which is every one of you.’

Everyone cheered at that.