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Back Daughter of Eden Save as PDF
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

But I knew I couldn’t be angry about it. I loved Mary for choosing me, and I respected her, but I couldn’t help myself from loving Starlight as well, and I couldn’t help myself from being proud of her. So, bursting though I was to tell someone, I said nothing about what I’d heard. When Mary came back, we talked about this and that as we began to get ourselves ready in the place that was set aside for shows, but I didn’t mention Starlight at all. In fact I’d never spoken to Mary about Starlight. I hadn’t mentioned her even once.

Nine

Fox slept for a couple of hours, but then woke up.

‘Mum! What’s that sound?’

‘What sound, darling?’

Dave sat bolt upright beside me.

‘What? What is it? What can you hear, Fox?’

‘Oh shhh, Dave. Don’t wake everyone up. It’s just forest, Foxy. It’s just the trees and the animals.’

It was my job, I figured, to be a home for my children, even when they had no home, and to try and make them feel safe, even when there was danger. But the truth was I’d been lying awake myself, listening to rustlings in the starflowers and cracking branches, imagining the Johnfolk creeping up on us with their metal masks and spears. They were near near. Even if they’d stopped right there on poolside where they’d grounded and not moved into forest at all, they were still only a waking’s walk away. And who was to say they had stopped? Who was to say they weren’t heading straight for Davidstand just as we were? Hmmmph hmmmph went the trees, hmmmmmmmm went forest, and I wanted to yell at it to shut up and be quiet for once so I could listen out properly for danger.

No one had been sleeping deeply. Foxy and Dave set off a whole string of other anxious voices round us: grownups muttering to other grownups, kids calling out to their mums or dads. A baby started to cry – it was little Suzie, the daughter of Tom’s new young shelterwoman – and that woke up Metty, so he began to cry as well. So much noise! The Johnfolk could have crept right up to us and we still wouldn’t have heard them.

‘We’ll carry on,’ Tom decided. ‘Seeing as we’re all awake, we’ll get the bucks loaded up and get going again.’