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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

But what could we do? Tom looked at Clare again, and she shrugged. So then he shrugged too and began to walk. We all did – grownups, kids – pulling on the strings of our bucks to get them moving. Hardly daring to breathe, we passed in between those two high men with their happy smiles and then on through the ringmen in their cold shiny masks, which you couldn’t read any more than you could read the faces of bats, or leopards, or slinkers. In fact they could have been skulls, so empty were they of any sign of feeling, though sometimes we could see their eyes glinting in the treelight.

No one spoke a word, until suddenly little Candy called out.

‘Mum! Why have all these men got two faces?’

Twelve

After Veeklehouse, Mary and me headed up rockway with one smoothbuck to carry us both and all our stuff, while two guards rode with us to keep us safe and show us the way. We didn’t go along poolside this time, but went back across to Davidstand and turned up rockway there, zigzagging between the little forest clusters along the folds and slopes that slowly climb up to Snowy Dark, and from time to time swapping one lot of guards for another as we passed between the grounds of different leaders. Sometimes the guards rode with us and talked to us, but usually they went ahead of us, or hung back, so they could talk more freely to one another. The Davidfolk respect shadowspeakers, but they don’t feel at ease with them, and, though guards are men, and men usually enjoy the company of young women, they weren’t quite so keen when the young woman was a batface like me.

Mary worked hard hard. I wished the Kneefolk who laughed at shadowspeakers could have seen that. Even in the smallest clusters, places where as few as ten grownups came to hear her, and there was no way she was going to get a pile of presents or impress any of the high people, she worked every bit as hard as she’d done at Veeklehouse. To her, even one person brought closer to Mother Gela was worth her trying for with all her might, whether that person was high or low. And, just for that one man or one woman or one newhair, Mary was willing go right down to those lonely, scary places that made her weep and sweat and tremble. She made me feel silly and selfish by comparison, like she was a real grownup and I was only a child. For what had I done in my life except to try and keep on the right side of people, and have as much fun as I could?