BooksBarbecue
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

‘We’re taking too much stuff with us,’ Clare said, after a bit. ‘That’s the problem. I told Tom, but he wouldn’t listen. Kids their age can’t walk for wakings on end like this. It’s all well and good carrying pots and jugs, but we’re going to need these bucks to carry people. Especially if we have to move on from Davidstand.’

I looked down at Fox.

‘Well, we will have to,’ I said. ‘We’re not going to be able to feed ourselves at Davidstand.’

‘Where do you reckon we should go then? We need a plan, don’t we? I need to start working on Tom now, so it’ll be there in his head when we need it to be.’

‘Well, I think we should . . .’ Then I stopped. ‘Oh Gela’s heart!’

There were men coming towards us through the shining trees, men on the backs of bucks, in front of us, behind us and on either side. The bucks were a strange new kind with bluish skin and tough lean bodies, and the men’s faces were hidden behind metal masks.

Ten

That first time Mary took me back to Veeklehouse, Leader Hunter himself came to watch her show, bringing three of his shelterwomen, and six seven of his kids. Mary cried and rolled on the ground. She begged and wept and scolded. She warned some folk that they must come back to Gela or it would be too late, and gave others news of their loved ones who’d died and crossed the darkness between the stars. One of Leader Hunter’s women began to cry and cry, and Mary spoke gently to her about her little daughter who’d drowned in a pool.

Then, after a while, Mary began to speak of problems and difficulties that were happening in Veeklehouse.

‘How is it for you here,’ she asked, ‘now these Johnfolk are coming here to trade: the ones from New Earth as well as the ones from Brown River? Do you worry your children are listening to their stories, or that they might go back with them across the water?’

‘My boy has done,’ called out one woman. ‘The silly kid crossed the Pool as a paddle-man with one of these New Earth traders. What will happen to him if he stays over there, among the people who turned their back on Family? Where will his shadow go when he dies?’

Mary took the woman’s hand and held it tight.

‘What a worry for you, my dear. What a big big worry. I’m so sorry to say it but not one of those Johnfolk will ever find their way home, unless they first come back to Family. Just as John Red­lantern tricked those foolish newhairs long ago and led them up into the darkness and snow, so he leads the Johnfolk even now into the icy blackness between the stars.’