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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

‘So what’s our plan?’ Clare asked, when I got back to the others.

I hadn’t passed on all the stories I heard – Candy had run to me and climbed into my arms as soon as she saw me, and Fox was right beside me, listening listening listening – but I’d told her that Strongheart and his sons were up on the Dark, heading for the Virsry at Circle Valley, and that they were going to meet the high people from Brown River and Half Sky.

‘We’re not going to find any food round here,’ my Dave fretted, tugging anxiously at his straggly grey beard. ‘And now it looks like we won’t be safe from the ringmen here either.’

‘The guards will still fight, won’t they,’ said Clare’s sister Kate, ‘even if Strongheart isn’t here? Maybe they’ll feed us too?’

‘Don’t think there’s much chance of that,’ said Kate’s man, Davidson. ‘They’ve got a fight on. They need the food for themselves.’

‘So what are we going to do then?’ asked Little Harry. (We called him that because he was tall tall tall.)

We all looked at Tom. He was our cluster head, after all, even if he didn’t know any better than anyone else what was happening, or what our options were.

Tom passed the stump of his right wrist over his mouth. He gave a little sideways glance at Clare in that funny furtive way he had, half-hoping she’d make a suggestion, half-warning her not to. But Clare’s face told him nothing at all.

‘Well . . .’ he began, and then hesitated. ‘Well, I reckon we should go on to Circle Valley.’

It was the obvious choice. Where else was there to go? But Kate was appalled.

‘What? Take our kids across the Dark? No way! There’s snow there, and ice, and big white leopards that sneak up and eat people. You can’t even see them coming!’

‘I’ve been across it before,’ I told her. ‘It’s different these ­wakings from how it used to be. The guards have put up big poles in the snow to show the way across.’

‘Yes,’ said Tom, who’d been there too when he was a guard. ‘And so many people go back and forth that the path is clear to see anyway, even without the poles, except when there’s been a new fall of snow. There are even little shelters every few miles, with guards on watch, and fires.’

‘That’s true,’ said Davidson, who’d also been there as a guard, ‘but it’s still as cold as it ever was, and cold like that will do for you if you’re not prepared for it.’