The Earth people looked at each other. We all watched them anxiously. Clare had tears running down her face. So did Kate. Tom and Dave were frowning. The Earth people troubled them, and Dave didn’t like the way they took my attention away from him and from the kids, but all the same, I guess they still felt the same sense of loss. Trueheart, as she often did, sat a little way back, not exactly a grownup, but not a kid either. She was trying hard not to show her feelings but her eyes too had filled with tears.

‘We can’t wait for the Johnfolk,’ Marius said. ‘We don’t even know if they’re coming, or how long they’ll be. We can’t take the risk of any more trouble.’

Gaia nodded and stood up. There were tears in her eyes too. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Let’s start loading up the veekle now.’

I stood up myself. It was awful to think that this strange and wonderful time was almost over. ‘At least you’ll have memories,’ people say when things come to an end, but I’d already learned what thin and empty things memories are, and how little comfort they give. Memories of people and happy times don’t fill up your heart, I don’t think, any more than memories of food can fill up your belly. They’re just empty holes that happen to be the same shape as the real things that are lost and gone. ‘Well, you’ll want to say goodbye to Strongheart and the other big people, won’t you?’ I asked. ‘Strongheart and Starlight and Headman Newjohn?’

‘We’ll see them after we’ve loaded up,’ Gaia decided. ‘Can you guys help us carry our things back to the veekle?’

They had boxes of tools, and screens, and guns, and other things whose names I’d not yet learned, and it took five six of us to carry everything. Even Candy was given one little tool to carry. Fox carried his brother Metty, Dave hobbling painfully beside them, along with a couple of guards. As we walked back to Circle Clearing, people followed us, quite quietly this time, sensing that something new was about to happen.

In front of the veekle, Gaia lifted one of those little black squares, the things that the Earth people called linkups, and straight away the veekle came to life, like some huge animal waking from a sleep. It moved slightly on its legs and little lights flickered as it made that soft beeping sound.

‘Lower the steps,’ Gaia told it.

At once, with a soft whirring sound, the metal square folded down from underneath it so the veekle could put down the ladder. More light poured down from that mysterious inner cave where none of us had been. We all stared up longingly, and Deep laughed. ‘Come and have a look inside if you like.’