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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

I nodded, and then I couldn’t help myself any more and all those tears came pouring out as Mary took me in her arms. But I didn’t tell her about Starlight. I told her instead that coming back to Veeklehouse made me sad because it reminded me of my friends from Knee Tree Grounds who’d been with me when I first came here, and it made me miss my old home and my family.

‘Of course you miss them, my darling one,’ Mary murmured as she gently rocked me in her arms. ‘Of course you do! And I promise you we’ll go back there to see them. But let’s wait for a while longer, if you can bear it. If you can hold on that long, I’d like to go back there when we’ve done that trip up to Circle Valley, and you’re a shadowspeaker in your own right. And we’re not quite ready for that. You’re learning fast, but you’re still learning, still full of worries and doubts, though I know you’re working hard hard hard at sorting them out. If we do another round of shows in Wide Forest, I reckon when we come back here again we’ll be ready to go up to the Circle. We’ll go across the Dark, and when we come back over, you’ll be a shadowspeaker like me, and we can go over the water to that pretty grounds of yours as two shadowspeakers together.’

I nodded through my tears, and she reached up and kissed me on my tear-stained cheek, pressing me close against her short solid body.

‘But that’s only if you can wait that long, my darling,’ Mary asked me. ‘Do you think you can? Do you think you can leave it that long before you see your people in Knee Tree Grounds? If you don’t think so, just say, and we’ll go up there now.’

‘Let’s go now! ’ I longed to say. Why not now? Why did I have to be a shadowspeaker first? But I felt guilty because I knew I was hiding things from her, I knew I was only telling her a small part of the real reason for my tears. And for that reason alone, knowing I was letting her down and wanting to make up for it, I said the thing that I knew would please her.

‘Yes, of course, Mary,’ I said. ‘Of course I can wait.’

Fifteen