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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

Again the two high men looked at each other with that private smile. The two of them were close close, I suddenly thought, closer than just friends. That look that passed between them was like the one you sometimes see in the eyes of men and women who have recently started slipping together, and they’re giving each other more pleasure with their bodies than the rest of the world together could ever hope to give.

‘Alright,’ said Luke Johnson, ‘I’ll let you through. I can see that most of you are too old or too little to fight us, and I can see that you, my friend, have lost your fighting hand. I don’t think you’ve got anything much we’re likely to need on those bucks of yours, either.’ Someone among us must have looked surprised at that, because then he laughed. ‘Oh I can see you’ve got blackglass spears and leopardtooth knives, but believe me, dear people, we really aren’t bothered by those one bit. You can keep them. They’re no match for metal. Keep them by all means. And, if that’s really what you want, we’ll let you go on to Davidstand.’

‘Bear in mind, though,’ said Teacher Gerry, ‘that in a few wakings, Davidstand will be ours as well, just like Veeklehouse is now.’ He laughed. ‘Ours again, I should really say, because John was the one who first found the place. I wonder if you knew that? John called it Ellpool and he and his people lived there for some time. Soon it will be Ellpool again. Your guards fight bravely enough, there’s no denying that, but they’re no match for us. The Veekle is ours again already, and before long we’ll have whole of Wide Forest in our hands and be crossing Snowy Dark to take back Circle Valley.’

‘That’s right,’ said Luke. ‘But still, we’ll let you through if you’re sure that’s what you want.’ He watched Tom’s face, his eyebrows raised, waiting for our cluster head’s final decision, and then another thought occurred to him and he spoke to us all. ‘Just one thing, though. Just one favour. I’d like you all to ask yourselves, as you carry on, whether your guards would be as generous as us in the same position? I know you’ve been told how bad and cruel we Johnfolk are, but would bad cruel people just let you go like this?’

‘We want to go to Davidstand,’ Tom repeated, and then just stood there with his face all tight and closed up, waiting to see if they really were going to let us carry on. It didn’t seem likely. And the ringmen showed no signs of moving out of our way.