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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

‘That weak fool of a Headman who brought her over? He got what he deserved as well. He should never have been Headman in first place and nor should his dad either. Greenstone ended up in the fire, that’s what happened to him. The big big fire that no one ever comes out of. It’s Headman Dixon in charge now, and quite right too. He’s a good strong man, and a proper Head. And his woman Lucy’s a proper Ringwearer as well.’

The man stood up, turned his back to me, and hobbled over to talk to a friend of his. He didn’t want anything more to do with a friend of the False Ringwearer.

I made my way slowly back to Mary. I felt like my whole body was packed as tightly with tears as a spiketree is packed with boiling sap. And yet I couldn’t talk to Mary about it. She’d have no sympathy with someone who went over to the Johnfolk and wore that ring for them, let alone someone who spread the Secret Story. I remembered how Mary had given comfort to the people at Hot Pools whose little girl had died, how she’d comforted grieving people in little clusters right up and down the Davidfolk Ground, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to give that comfort to me. That wasn’t because she’d want to be unkind to me. It was because Mary knew without any doubt that anyone who’d turned away from Gela’s True Family would never find their way home. Starlight would wander forever through the dark icy forest of the stars.

‘But perhaps Starlight was bringing the ring back for True Family?’ I whispered to myself. ‘Perhaps in the end she saw what was right, like those people did up at Rockway Edge?’

But, however hard I tried, I couldn’t persuade myself that this was true. It wasn’t just that Starlight had had no time in the past for shadowspeakers, and had laughed loudly at the stories they told. After all, the same had been true of me. No, it was because I knew Starlight was way too firm and strong to ever change her mind about a thing like that.

And that was a strange thought, because what was I really saying? Was I saying I only believed this stuff because I was weak?

Mary saw I was sad, of course. She’d had a lot of practice of spotting people who were sad or uneasy in themselves, and she was good good at it, even when the people were complete strangers to her.

‘You’re sad, aren’t you, my dear?’ she said. ‘Coming to Veeklehouse has made you sad sad.’