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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

‘Here’s my suggestion, Head Guard,’ Starlight said to Strongheart. ‘You hold Luke here, and you make him tell his men on poolside to hand over all their metal spears and arrows and knives, and all their metal masks, and get onto their boats, and disappear over World’s Edge. That way you’ll take away the advantage they have, and they’ll know there’s no point in trying to come straight back over again and take over your ground again.’

Starlight knew that it had taken New Earth years to gather together the metal they used for all those arrows and spears and masks. Just to make a couple of arrowheads, she told me, it took a pile of green rock the weight of a tree trunk, which had to be dug out of the ground, and broken up into little pieces, and heated in a big clay oven, many times hotter than any oven we’d ever seen on this side of the pool.

‘Let one boat stay back for Headmanson Luke,’ Starlight suggested, ‘and when you’re sure that all the rest have gone, let him follow them back over to New Earth.’

Still on the floor, Strongheart nodded, while his two young shelterwomen stared at Starlight with a mixture of puzzlement, jealousy, hate and admiration. No high woman of the Davidfolk would ever take charge of guards as she had done, or get involved in a fight between two grounds. Their job was to look after the high men, and to help bind together the families of the different guard leaders by being sent from one family to join another.

‘I’m not accepting that,’ Luke said, realizing he was about to be the fool of the story all over again, even if it was a different story. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Starlight, and it seemed silly to speak to the frail griefstricken old man on the floor, so he spoke to Newjohn. ‘Ringmen don’t go skulking back across the water without their spears, least of all when they’re winning, as you know quite well they were doing, until I sent them back to poolside. Do for me if you want, but I’m not telling my men to throw down their spears.’

Newjohn gave a sort of shrug, as if to say it was nothing to do with him. But the truth was that he was kind of trapped too. There was no way now that he could take the side of the New Earthers.