BooksBarbecue
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

‘Let’s not go over all that,’ the old guy said. ‘It’s always made trouble between us Johnfolk and you lot.’ He smiled, and reached out to shake my hand. ‘A pleasure to meet you, though, my dear, a pleasure to meet a friend of the Ringwearer. She’s pretty pretty, so they say, and all the small people love her.’

‘Small people?’

‘You call them low people here,’ the young guy said. ‘It means regular people like us. The ones that do the work, in other words. The ones that take all the crap. We all love her. Everyone says she’s as kind and gentle as Gela herself.’

I loved Starlight, but kind and gentle wouldn’t be the words I’d have used to describe her. Determined, yes. Tough, yes. Smart, yes. But not kind and gentle.

Never mind that, though. What I was thinking about right then was this ring the men had spoken about. They didn’t like to say so, but it was obviously Gela’s ring, the one that Gela lost and John Redlantern found, the one that John had worn on his finger when he set out across Worldpool from the Brown River Ground, all those years ago.

Tom’s dick, I thought, imagine that! My best friend was wearing that ring from the old story, the ring that was made on Earth, the ring that was the cause of all that fighting! It was almost like Starlight was in a story herself. In fact never mind almost, she was in a story. A young girl from a place no one had heard of, putting on the ring of the Mother of us all: if that wasn’t a story, then what was? Starlight had become a story, and I was there when it all started, so I was kind of in it as well.

As I made my way back to meet Mary, I was bursting bursting to tell her this exciting news, but I knew I couldn’t. She hated the Johnfolk. She hated them for breaking up Family, and destroying the Circle (though of course the Circle had been put back again by Lucy, the first shadowspeaker, with Gela herself guiding her hand). And, like all the Davidfolk, she hated the Johnfolk especially for stealing the ring, which Gela had been given by her mum and dad, and which ought to belong to all of us. Ringstealers, she called the Johnfolk. If I told her, she’d be angry angry with Starlight for wearing that stolen ring. And she’d never rest until she was sure I was angry about it too.