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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

‘Stand in the Circle of Stones?’ I was trembling. We Kneefolk lived way out in the Pool, and none of us had been as far as the slopes that led up to Snowy Dark, never mind across the Dark to Circle Valley, but even we knew that ordinary people were forbidden to stand in the Circle. Even we knew that the punishment for anyone who stepped inside it was death.

‘That’s right. Shadowspeakers have always been allowed to stand there, going right back to the first shadowspeaker, Lucy Lu. Apart from the Head Guard and his family, we’re the only ones who can go into the Circle on our own. But we’re allowed to take others in there with us, if we think they’re ready to become shadow­speakers too.’

She was still looking into my eyes and holding my hand in her own. Now she gave it a squeeze.

‘Our Mother’s voice is quiet quiet,’ she said. ‘She doesn’t shout at us. She speaks so softly you might think it was just your own thoughts. But if you try, if you really concentrate, if you shut out all your own worries and problems, if you live your life like she would want you to, then slowly slowly you’ll learn to hear her.’

When we reached Nob Head, Mary put on another show. It was different to the one she’d done out on the Grounds, because these people were already Davidfolk. They knew the True Story as well as she did, and they believed it too (or at least if they didn’t, they kept that to themselves). So, instead of telling them they needed to come back to Family, Mary told them the ways they were letting Family down.

‘You lie and trick each other,’ she said, with tears running down her face. ‘You slip with the shelterwomen of other men. You hide things from the guards, and hold back from your guard leader the things he needs to keep you safe. How you hurt your Mother! How you disappoint her, when she worked so hard to make Family kind and strong, and works hard still, reaching out to you from across the stars.’

She looked round at the circle of Nob Head people who were watching her.

‘I see good people here,’ she said. ‘But I see foolish people too, who’ve forgotten to listen out for their own Mother, forgotten the sound of her voice.’

She moved restlessly back and forth across the small circle of round stones laid out in middle of Nob Head, which, of all the people present, only she was allowed to enter. And in the light of the whitelanterns, her grey eyes searched the faces watching her, sizing up their fear and their desperate hope.