The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1) (14 page)

Rober took one of his hands and studied it more closely. "This can be fixed, you know. I'm pretty sure. A clean cut like this. What was it? A laser?"

A sword,
Ty thought, but didn't say it.
 

"Yes," Giles lied. "Are you serious? I can get my fingers back?"

Rober nodded and leaned back. "I'll make some calls tomorrow, get you an appointment. It won't be cheap."

"That's alright then," Giles muttered. "I don't have any money."

Ty glanced at Maya, who was looking at Giles, smiling but with tears trickling down her face.
She's in love with him!
 

The sudden realization made Ty shoot to his feet. "I-I should go," he stammered.

"No. Stay," Rober urged.
 

"Can you please take me to the school tomorrow?" Maya asked again. "I can learn to heal his fingers there too, then there will be no need for money."

"We already tried that Maya, it didn't work," Giles whispered.

"You're still not well from the incident with the door," Rober said. It had no effect on the storm brewing in Maya's face.

She looked Ty straight in the eyes now. "We had a deal. You said you would get me to Neo York. Now please let us go."

Ty ran his hand through his hair, thinking fast. Even her anger was like nothing he had ever seen before. A force of nature Maya was, through and through. He saw it that first night when she argued with Lana, saw it when she chased him away from the dead woman. It pushed him into the raging river after the old woman, made him bring Maya back here.
 

He forced an incredulous expression onto his face, doing some quick math. "Didn't I say? The school's on break now. Spring term doesn't start for another two weeks."

In two weeks the executions would be over. Either because all the hostages would be dead, or because they had come to an agreement. Then he could take Maya back to the Badlands.

"You'll take me there then?"

"I promise. Now I have to go."

Rober argued some, but Ty was determined. There was no point staying, no sense getting to know Maya. She'd be gone so soon. And she loved that friend of hers, of course she did. Why else would they come here together? Not that the Badlands runt could actually compete with Ty. Still, after how his mother had tortured him he deserved better from Ty.

It took him a long time to get to sleep that night, trying and failing to keep his thoughts away from Maya.

~

I shouldn't have yelled at him.
 

The flash of anger directed at Ty made Maya's head spin. Her heart still fluttered irregularly from time to time, especially if she got too upset. Ty had no right keeping her locked up here like she was some sort of a prisoner. She wanted to believe the school was on holiday, but it seemed like something they would tell her right away, not after keeping her locked up for three days.

Ty could tell her all about the school, and he didn't want to. Rober said Ty worked there with his mother. He could even begin prepping her. And he still might, if Maya hadn't flown off at him. It was too unnerving, his icy eyes that always promised no less than cold murder coupled with those shy boy looks, and soft, kind words.

Rober stared at the door for some time after Ty left, then turned to Maya. "He's not so bad once you get to know him."

Maya both believed him and didn't at the same time. "If you say so."

Those cold eyes...
He had jumped in the water to save Mary, and he'd been so worried about his tiger. Then he looked at her like he wanted her to kneel at his feet all the way into the city, had kept her locked up after they landed, then told her he'd send her away. Ran from the room just now like he wanted nothing much to do with her. Getting to the core of her displeasure with Ty pierced her. She shook her head to chase away the displeasing thought. She didn't like the commanding, arrogant Citizen. He was tall and well built; beautiful and clean in the way ice is as a waterfall freezes over, or an iceberg. But just as cold. Liking him made no sense.

Giles leaned over and took her hand. "Thanks for the offer, Maya, to heal my fingers. Maybe my brothers can probably help me raise the money for the procedure."

"You have family here?" Rober asked.

Giles let go of her hand and wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. "Yes, I have two older brothers. I was hoping to find them and get reacquainted."

Rober leaned forward and clapped his hands. "I can help you with that! What are their names?"

Maya watched Giles' face go through all sorts of emotions: fear, elation, love, hate, confusion. It came to rest on resignation. "I don't want to trouble you like that."

Rober waved his hand dismissively. "It'd be no trouble at all."

Giles looked at her, pleading to be saved. Maya shrugged her shoulders. "Why not, Giles?"

"It might not be safe for them to be found." He turned back to Rober. "I better just go see them on my own.

"Nonsense. I'll make sure no one knows why I'm looking for them."

Giles sighed and gave him the names and last known address.

Rober got up. "Well, I'll start looking first thing tomorrow. Now we should all get some sleep."

Giles followed her to the bedroom and beamed at her as soon as the doors closed behind them. "Can you believe it? I can get my hands back!"

"I so hope you do. If not, I'm sure I can help you once I learn my gift."

The walk to the bedroom tired her more than it should have. Her heart beat furiously in her chest from the effort, every so often slowing to barely a thump.

"No need for that," Giles said, still smiling. "I'm sure my brothers will loan me the money."

Maya climbed under the covers. "I hope they do."

Giles hovered over her by the bed. "Why aren't you more happy for me? All you think of is yourself and your gift all the time. And probably Ty."

"Not so! I'm sorry, Giles, I'm just still so tired," Maya said and sat up in bed. "It's wonderful news and I'm very happy for you."

Giles climbed into bed too. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that."

Maya turned off the lights. She closed her eyes, willing her heartbeat to return to normal. Sleep eluded her. Giles was always so patient with her, so forgiving, yet he'd never made her feel as Ty did. Butterflies, blushing, sweaty hands and stealing kisses…that's something other girls did. Maya had always only pretended to know the feeling so she wouldn't stand out.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ty woke two hours before the alarm was set to go off. He tried to get back to sleep, but all he achieved was that fitful state that was neither sleeping nor awake. This morning it brought the familiar scenes of his nightmares.
 

Salvio yelling at him, making him angry. Ty lost control of his icy cold power and pushed him away. Salvio disappeared. The scene changed. Ty argued with Rober about the revolution, and couldn't hold the anger in. Rober was gone. When Maya came into the dream, her dark brown hair swaying in the breeze, her whole body radiating a velvety warmth, Ty willed himself to wake up. Not for the first time, he wished Salvio was still there to give him advice, however harshly and impatiently. But Salvio was long gone and would never return. Ty had made sure of that, couldn't stop it.

At a quarter to seven Ty headed to the dining hall for breakfast. His mother was there, already dressed for work. Ty waved the servant away when she tried to pour him some coffee and ruffled Eve's hair before sitting down beside her.
 

"School's out for the holidays today, isn't it?" he asked her.

She nodded and then yawned. The aquamarine bracelet peeked from the sleeve of her pajamas.
 

"Mom, do you think you could get Dad to let me go to work with you today?" Ty asked.

Violetta smiled. "Of course you can come. No need to ask your father. As you probably noticed, I already got him to remove the SFs trailing you. You're also no longer confined to the house."

She beamed at him, waiting for him to thank her. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, hoping it seemed genuine. He regretted asking to go to work with her, regretted deciding to go, regretted every favor she ever did for him. After she finished her meal she rose and beckoned for him to follow.
 

Once they reached the facility, Ty hoped his relief didn't show on his face when his mother said he couldn't help her with today's experiment. He headed for the control room, which was run by mute Ronia and her husband Martin. Both had their own gifts, but his mother kept them awake along with a handful of others to help her with the experiments. Ronia could once force anyone to do her will by her voice alone. She had no tongue now. Violetta Remarque didn't take unnecessary chances. Ronia and Martin both knew a lot about working with the gifted, learned it all at some other school which most likely didn't exist anymore if his mother knew about it.
 

Why hadn't he thought of that before? Maya could go to that school instead! That way she'd be safe, and happy because she'd get to learn her gift.

Of all the gifted people who worked at the facility, Ronia and Martin were the only two who truly liked Ty. Most of the others either pretended to, or avoided him altogether after Salvio left. They'd help him, Ty was sure.

Martin patted him on the back as soon as his mother left the room. "Ty, we were wondering when you'd come back."

Ronia winked at him her dark brown eyes and typed something onto her communicator panel. The words, "Welcome back, Ty," flashed in the air in front of her.
 

Martin patted the seat next to him. "Come, help me with this."

Between them they usually kept Ty busy with tasks that kept him away from his mother's more gruesome experiments. That was Salvio's idea too and most of the others abandoned it after he left.

"Let him see it all!" he had overheard one of the others shouting at Martin not long after Salvio was gone. "She'll have him follow in her footsteps anyway."

Martin and Ronia still tried to protect him. Not that they succeeded— his mother took every opportunity to have him watch her work. Today's business must have been gruesome indeed if she didn't want him to accompany her.

Ty sat down at the control panel, pulled up his own screen, and typed 'gemstones' into the search. He browsed through the list until he found Aquamarine.
 

Martin peered at his screen. "You are interested in gemstones? Why?"

"I was playing Castle Life last night. They have so many gemstones all over the place, I thought maybe there was some link between them and gifts," Ty lied. "I mean, aren't you two always saying that special powers come from nature itself?"

"I've always been fascinated by the use of objects to channel one's powers," Martin said. "Since that's not what we do here I haven't looked at it in ages."

Martin pointed at the screen with his right hand, which was encased in a silver glove that prevented him from using his gift. His left hand ended in a stump, the result of him trying to rip the glove off soon after he was imprisoned at the facility. His gift was healing people through touch.
 

"Aquamarine was once thought to bring a calm, soothing feeling and offer protection," Martin mused.
 

Ty's heart started beating faster. So it could be true that the bracelet worked to stop gifts!
 

"Were gemstones ever tested on the gifted?" he asked.

Martin was still scrolling through the description of the stone, but looked up at Ty's question, peering at him intently. "Yes, but I was never able to prove they had any effect. You mother ordered me to stop fiddling with them years ago. Why do you want to know?"

"I thought it might be something that hasn't been tried yet."

Ty hoped nothing on his face or on his voice betrayed the lie. As long as everyone believed he was only there to help his mother he was safe. Eve was safe.
 

"Salvio once told me you used to work at another school before you came here. Does it still exist?" Ty asked.

He glanced up from the screen and saw them exchange a worried look. Ronia moved her hand to type something, but Martin stopped her.
 

"The truth is, we don't know," Martin said. "We were captured sixteen years ago and haven't had any contact with the people there since."

"So my mother doesn't know of it?"
 

"We never told her," Martin said.
 

"Can you tell me?" Ty asked. If his mother didn't know of it, it would be the perfect place for Maya.

"No, we can't tell you that," Ronia's words appeared in the air.
 

The door hissed open behind them. Ty waved his panel away so his mother wouldn't see he was looking up aquamarines.
 

She didn't even glance at him as she strode in, her hair a mess, her eyes bulging. "Tell me we recorded some of that, Martin."

Martin got up and went to check something in the adjacent room, which always held a large VR representation of the latest experiment. A person lay curled up beside a large smoking crater in the wall of the exam room. His mother peered curiously at Ronia's last words. "What is she talking about, Ty?"

"Nothing. I wanted some more info on today's experiment," Ty said matter-of-factly. Relief flooded Ronia's face.

"We definitely got something!" Martin yelled from the next room. "It's not complete. It cut off after the explosion."

His mother ran to join Martin. Ty left the room.
 

The man his mother had experimented on today had been locked in a small room, its walls studded with spikes and slowly closing in. Clearly it worked, because the poor man made to live through that terror had used his gift to blast a hole right through a wall of his exam room.

~

Rober called every fifteen minutes for the rest of the afternoon. At six-thirty he was banging on his door.
 

"Why aren't you picking up the phone?" Rober asked as Ty let him in.