Dark Eden

which side you’re on.’
    ‘Gela is talking to me,’ cried Lucy Lu. ‘Gela is talking to me now. She’s explaining things. And I see now why I thought that John and the others were dead. The truth is that they’re
worse
than dead. Even to the Shadow People they seem dead. Even to the Shadow People, think of that! In one way I misunderstood what the Shadow People were telling me, that’s true, but in a deeper way, I did understand, I understood
too
well. That’s what Angela says. They’re not just dead. They’re
worse
than dead.’
    ‘John says he talks to Gela too,’ Mehmet said.
    Michael’s names, you should have seen how Lucy Lu changed when she heard that! All the dreaminess and weepiness disappeared in a moment. Her face went all twisty. She looked like she was crouching ready to pounce. She looked like a hunter about to make a kill.
    ‘Him?’ she snarled. ‘Him talk to Angela? Ha! Don’t make me
laugh
.’
    ‘Yes, but listen to this. He fools people
because he’s got Gela’s ring
!’
    There was a gasp from whole Family.
    ‘What do you mean?’ demanded David. ‘What do you mean, her ring?’
    ‘The lost ring, like in the story. The one she lost and then cried and cried for wakings afterwards. I’ve seen it myself. You can tell it comes from Earth easy easy. It’s made of metal – it’s smooth smooth, and shiny – and it’s got tiny writing inside it: “
To Angela with love from Mum and Dad
”, that’s what it says. I’ve seen it myself. John found the ring in forest near here and told no one, kept it all to himself, and then he destroyed our Circle.’
    ‘You went over to him after he destroyed Circle, Mehmet,’ I called out. ‘Stop trying to pretend that you . . .’
    But people yelled at me to shut up. They didn’t want to think about that. They didn’t want any complications. They wanted to think about the wonderful ring from Earth, the lost ring in the story, being found again, and they wanted to be angry angry with the arrogant newhair who’d destroyed Circle but kept the ring. He’d taken away
our
bit of the past without even asking us, and kept
his
own bit without even telling. He was my nephew and I loved him, but even I thought that was selfish and bad.
    ‘This is Gela’s Family,’ David said. ‘We’re her children. That ring belongs to us.’
    ‘Gela says we must get it back,’ Lucy Lu confirmed, rolling back her eyes so you could only see the whites of them. ‘I hear her now. Gela says we must get it back. Get the ring and punish wicked wicked John, who says he speaks in her name when he doesn’t, he doesn’t.’ Her voice rose into a shriek. ‘How
dare
he?
He doesn’t! He doesn’t! He doesn’t!
’
    She began to shake and tremble, like people do when they’re having a fit.
    ‘He must be killed. He must be killed like a slinker,’ she hissed. ‘Him and Gerry and Harry, all three of them. Kill them! Kill! Kill!’
    Other people began to yell out the same thing, ‘Kill! Kill!’ and gradually it turned into a chant:
    ‘
Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!
’
    Jade reached out her hand to me and we held onto each other while the crowd around us shouted for the death of our own sons.
    ‘
Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!
’
    Mehmet had a strange look on his face. Standing there with his auntie’s arm still around him, he looked half-pleased by the effect he had had, half-scared by what he had set off. He had done a terrible thing, coming down from Dark, and feeding our fear and hate to serve his own ends. But all the same, you couldn’t deny – even I couldn’t deny – that it was John who’d started it, John who’d killed another human being for the first time ever in Eden. And that was like the spark that lights a fire. There would be no end to the killing now, no end, not unless it killed us all.

41

John Redlantern

    I’d destroyed Circle of Stones. I’d got a bunch of people over Dark. I’d proved that human beings didn’t have to live forever in Circle Valley. I’d done all those hard hard things, but what was left for me?
    Did I do all that, I thought, just to live quietly quietly in our own little family, hunting and scavenging and raising up kids?
    Everyone
could hunt and build shelters and raise up kids, that was the thing, and some of the others could do all that a lot better than me. Dix was a better hunter. Harry was stronger. Gela was better at sorting out quarrels. Jeff was best at turning baby bucks into horses