"Perhaps in one of the cities in the Ring then," Maya urged. He could make such beautiful things of leather, shoes and belts and gloves. "It's a shame to give it away for free."
Giles looked off into the distance. "The main purpose of the things I make is to have beauty in our lives. That's what my father always said. They have no real purpose except as trinkets, and they have too many of those in the cities. Besides, I can't work all that fast with these." He held out his hands, the last two fingers of each ending in stumps.
Maya smiled at him sadly.
"It's all pointless talk anyway," Giles continued. "You know very well that no one from the Badlands is allowed into the Ring."
Maya bit her bottom lip. The five cities of the Ring were overcrowded and none had accepted refugees for decades. Besides, who'd want to live there anyway? Behind glass windows in buildings so tall you couldn't see the ground because you were too high in the sky. At least in the Badlands, nature was still all around you every day. Even if the Earth was dying, someone should still be there to see it pass. Maya could change all that, she knew. Bring back hope to the people of the Badlands.
"If only I could learn to work my gift properly. If I could heal the Badlands, they'd open up the cities again," Maya muttered.
Giles' eyes flashed. "Do you think you can transform the entire planet? A few shoots here and there is all you've ever managed to grow."
"I'm still learning. I know in my heart that I have the power to make the Earth come to life again! I thought you believed me!"
Maya punched him in the arm and jumped from the tree. "I don't need you to believe me. I don't need anyone to believe me. You'll all see what I can do eventually, as soon as I learn to control it."
Giles jumped down too and took her hand. "I'm sorry. Of course I believe you. After all, I just saw the wheat shoots you managed to coax back to life."
Maya gasped. "What shoots? The ones that got soaked in the floods?"
Giles nodded.
"Why didn't you say right away?" Maya asked him, knowing it was the absolute worst thing to say as soon as the last sound left her mouth. Palpable hurt filled the air between them.
His eyes turned cold and distant. "I thought you already knew. My gift would fade in comparison to that news. I spent a long time working on it."
Maya squeezed his hand. "Don't say that. Your gift is already working. I can feel it. I'm sure that with its help, I can make those shoots grow all the way."
Already Maya thought the flow of life giving warmth was increasing down her left arm, pooling in her palm. She pulled him after him as she started running back home.
~
Dusk covered the town square by the time Maya and Giles reached it. A jet black hovercraft hummed in front of the pub, blue lights twinkling around the edges of its wings. Maya twisted her ankle painfully on a hole in the ground where some cobblestones were missing. She winced and grabbed onto Giles' hand tighter then led him back into the shadow of the houses that lined the square. It was better not to be noticed by any Citizens.
"I hope they're not here for another of their hunts," Maya whispered when they reached the road that led to her home at the edge of town, even though most of the houses that lined it were dark and deserted.
"The craft looked Special Forces to me, so maybe they're here for something else," Giles whispered back.
Maya groaned. "I doubt it. When was the last time Citizens came all the way out here for anything other than a hunt?"
Adventure seekers from the Ring would sometimes come to their town bringing along a pack of genetically engineered beasts and have themselves a hunt. For them, the wild animals that managed to adapt to the ever changing, unpredictable weather weren't fun enough to hunt. The vicious beasts they let loose and weren't able to hunt down were no fun for anyone. As if staying alive in the Badlands with barely enough food wasn't nearly impossible without having to worry about wild beasts attacking you as well.
The flickering light Maya's parents left burning on the back porch cast a pool of light into the small field beside Maya's home. She let go of Giles' hand and ran towards it. True enough, green shoots of wheat had pushed through the brittle earth, reaching towards the sky.
"I did it, Giles! I really did," she said when he knelt beside her.
He smiled and gazed at her with such softness and love in his eyes she had to look away.
Maya forced her thoughts back to the warmth building in her left arm, pooling in her palm. Somehow, the bracelet helped channel the warmth there and contained it. Now all she had to do was release the life giving energy and the wheat would shoot straight up into the air, ready for harvest. If snow fell in flurries tomorrow it wouldn't matter. They'd have grain to eat and enough seeds for the next planting. The whole town could have enough to eat, all of the starving and poor could have enough grain forever.
Maya fixed the image of healthy, ripe wheat firmly into her thoughts as she let the warmth flow from her fingers and into the soil. She saw it seeping into the earth, feeding the shoots with a life giving drink of energy. She closed her eyes, imagined the wheat saplings growing, turning from green to brown, the grains swaying in the soft summer breeze.
"What are you doing out there, Maya?" her mother called from the back door. Her voice was soft and strained, like she could make it go no higher, like it would break at any moment.
Maya jumped to her feet and hid her left hand behind her back. She waved to her mother with her right. "Coming! I wanted to check on the crops first!"
The hollows in her mother's pale cheeks filled out when she returned the smile. She wore her best dress of red velvet with a collar of lace.
"Come on in, both of you. There's turkey and birthday cake." Her mother waved them inside, still smiling.
"You shouldn't have, Mom," Maya said as she followed her mother inside. Yet the smell of the bird made her mouth water. Baked potatoes lined the turkey, glistening in the half light.
Her father pulled the platter from the oven, and turned to them. "It's not every day our only daughter comes of age. Of course we must celebrate."
They sat in the dining room that they never normally used, and ate off sparkling white china plates with golden scrolls worked into the edges. The turkey was a skinny, wiry thing, yet still the best that Maya had had in a long time. Probably the best that could be gotten anywhere in the Badlands.
Maya joined in as they sang her the happy birthday song, right before she blew out the single candle on her cake. It was the same candle they'd used for quite a few birthdays now.
After they finished the cake, her father uncorked a bottle of wine and poured for all of them. "A toast!" he said and raised his glass. Maya and the rest followed suit. "To Maya, who is now finally old enough to know better!"
"My father, the joker!" Maya said, laughing. She raised her glass and took a long drink. A full glass of wine. She'd only ever had a sip here and there. Finally being of age had its privileges, it seemed.
Her father took a black box with a light blue ribbon tied around it from a drawer by the door, and held it out to Maya. Her mother beamed beside him. "We hope you like it."
Maya kept her smile wide, but inwardly she frowned. The box alone was too costly. They shouldn't have. Not with their last grains destroyed by the floods.
The light in her mother's eyes was so bright, Maya didn't want to destroy the moment. Her mother looked younger, the way Maya remembered her from her earliest birthdays.
She untied the bow and slowly lifted the lid. Light glinted off a golden pendant shaped as a magnificent tree, its branches and roots entwined, encircling it. All thought of refusing the gift evaporated. The intricately carved leaves seemed to move in the glimmering light.
Still they shouldn't have.
Her father cleared his throat. "Do you like it?"
Some of the light had already disappeared from her mother's eyes, Maya saw when she looked up. "I love it. But this must have cost a fortune."
Her p
arents exchanged a strained look and then her father turned back to her. "Don't worry about any of that, Maya."
She hung it around her neck and grinned. "Thank you so much."
She hugged her mother, startled as always at how frail she was. Her father hugged both of them.
"It is an old heirloom, passed down for generations in the family," he whispered into her hair.
From the corner of her eye, Maya saw Giles stare out the window, his eyes unfocused. Hurt still clung to him like a rain cloud.
She held out her left arm. "Look what Giles made me."
They both leaned closer to admire the work, her father whistling appreciatively. "I haven't seen work this fine outside the Ring. You would do well there, Giles."
Giles waved his hand through the air dismissively, beaming. "The cities are no place for normal people."
Maya studied the bracelet and necklace side by side. "With both of these to channel my powers, I'm sure I can make a difference."
Her father coughed, and sprayed Maya with the wine he had tried to swallow.
"I thought you agreed you would stop saying things like that," he said when he regained control of his breathing. "Claiming you have a gift is a dangerous thing. People don't understand that kind of talk."
"They'd understand living a better life and that's what I want to give them," Maya protested. "Honestly, Dad, I've never heard of a bad thing happen to anyone with a gift."
Her father poured himself more wine. "You never knew anyone with a gift, so you have no idea what you are talking about."
"You know someone with a gift?" Maya asked. "Who?"
Her parents exchanged another strained look, and her mother shook her head. Maya's father looked down at the table and continued anyway. "I went to the copse on the north side of town once to gather some firewood and found a dying woman there. In front of my very eyes, grass shot up from all around her, burying her from my sight."
"She could grow things? Like me?" Maya interrupted. "Where is she now?"
This woman had the same gift as Maya, and she could use it at will. She could teach Maya so much.
"She died. Our doctor couldn't heal her. She kept pleading with us all not to reveal to anyone what she could do, that they would kill her if they knew."
"Who's 'they'?" Maya asked, her heart beating furiously in her chest now.
"She never said. We assumed she spoke of the people of whatever town she was from. So you see, it's not safe to go around telling people you have a gift."
Maya glared at her father. His story was too fitting, the woman had a gift too much like her own. "I'm not a little girl anymore. You can't just tell me lies to scare me."
Her mother laid a hand on Maya's. "It's the truth."
Maya looked at Giles for some support, but he was turned away from them staring fixedly out the window. He turned to face them, his face pale and his eyes wide. "I can't believe it. You did it."
"Did what?" Maya asked.
"Come see," Giles said and pointed out the window. Maya walked up to him.
Tall, ripe wheat hissed in the night breeze.
I did it! It worked.
She opened the window and jumped out, ignoring the others' surprised yells.
Frost would come this night. The wheat needed to be picked.
Once it was all safely inside she'd listen to her parents' admonitions and warnings. They wouldn't refuse ripe, healthy wheat, not once it was collected and stored inside the house.
~
"How is this possible?" her father demanded, pulling Maya back from collecting the wheat, his voice hoarse, almost threatening. "These were no more than shoots this morning."
Maya looked into his eyes defiantly. "I did this with my gift. I let the life giving warmth water them, and make them grow. I also made sure the shoots survived after the floods."
Maya cowered when her father grabbed her arms, his strong fingers digging into her flesh painfully. "You will stop this silly talk. You can't heal with your touch!"
Spittle hit her face, and his blue eyes bulged the way they did every time he got angry. Maya wasn't about to back down, not with the proof of her powers brushing against her legs in the breeze.
"How can you say that?" she yelled, pulling herself free from his grasp. "This wheat is ready for picking."
Giles and her mother had followed them outside. Her mother was staring from one to the other, opening and closing her mouth. Giles shook his head slightly behind her mother's shoulder.
What was he saying? That she should calm down?
He was right, probably. Yet she had to make them understand, had to make them believe.
Her father pushed her aside and started trampling the wheat viciously.
"No!" Maya yelled and threw herself at him. He pushed her back and continued to destroy the crop.
Giles wrapped his arm around her chest and pulled her back.
"Let me go!" Maya yelled, fighting against Giles' arm. "Dad! Stop it! What's wrong with you?"
"Be quiet! No one must see this." Her father started kicking soil over the destroyed crop.
"Why? Imagine all the food we could grow! Why can't I practice my magic?"
Her father moved to her side so quickly that Giles pulled her back out of his reach. "Magic? I see no magic, just a silly girl with crazy ideas who will get hurt because of them. I will not hear you speak of gifts again. And if you ever do such a thing as this again, we are leaving this town."
Maya could count on one hand the number of times her father had truly lost his temper. His anger tonight made all those times pale in comparison. Yet, he was being unreasonable.
"Why can't you accept that I have a special gift?" Maya rounded on her father, Giles' arm still tight around her chest.
"You do not have a gift!" her father hissed. "This is dangerous talk. You could be kicked out of town for saying it. And how would you survive then? Out in the Badlands all alone with no drinking water and no food, and who knows what prowling around?"
"I could make an oasis," Maya retorted.
"Let's go back inside," her mother pleaded softly. Maya ignored her.
She finally succeeded in prying away Giles' arm and took a step towards her father.
"I have the ability to feed this whole town and I plan to use it! I am of age now. You can no longer tell me what to do," she said, keeping her voice low.
The muscles in his face tensed into a grimace, and Maya was sure he would strike her. Her mother stood between them and took hold of his arm.
"She is of age."
She turned to Maya, such sadness in her eyes that had been so bright not half an hour ago. "I bought the grains from a strange merchant who came here for market day about a month ago. Who knows what kind of mutated gene strand they contained? Maya, please listen to your father. He only wants the best for you. Let's not argue anymore. Let's go inside."
She tried to pull Maya's father after her, but he stood his ground and looked around nervously. "At least no one else saw this."
Maya's face heated up. Those grains where not from market. Or were they?
The night swam around Maya, her father's fast breathing making a cloud of smoke in front of her face.
No, she had the healing touch, had always had it. Didn't flowers grow taller after she sent the warmth into them? Didn't the apple tree grow larger fruits? Didn't the sick she visited and touched with her warmth sometimes get better? Didn't her dog still draw breath even after it was mauled by that gleaming eyed puma from the city?
Coincidences all, her parents always claimed. Maya knew better, and she had always hoped her parents would believe her if she gave them proof.
Maya bunched her hands into fists. "Fine, destroy this wheat. I'll grow more. And you can't stop me!"
Tears streamed down her face as she ran from them, trying to stifle the hurt and anger. Not even her own parents were on her side.
CHAPTER THREE
Maya ran all the way to the town square before she finall
y had to stop. The icy air froze her lungs as she tried to draw deep breaths.
Giles stopped beside her, out of breath from trying to catch her. "Now what?"
She turned to face him so fast he took a step backwards. "You do believe me don't you? Or do you agree with my parents?"
He smiled and held out his hands pretending to ward her off. "Of course I believe you. Didn't I spend the last two nights in the freezing cold while you tried to bring the wheat back to life?"
He had. Some of the fire left her, replaced by the bitter cold of the night. "I'm not ready to go back and face my parents just yet."
Guilt started to creep over her anger, but anything she said to them now would still lead to another argument.
"Let's go to my house," Giles suggested.
Maya shook her head and pointed to the pub. "I want another glass of wine first." Maybe the pleasant fuzziness would take some of the edge off her anger.
Laughter and loud voices came through the open windows of the pub. The hovercraft was still parked outside, and by the sound of it everyone inside was having a blast.
"I'm not so sure it's a good idea with the Citizens in there," Giles said.
"They don't scare me," Maya said and hurried towards the pub. "This is the Badlands, it's our home, not theirs."
The heat escaping through the door as they entered the pub almost knocked her back. Marvin the pub keeper was talking quietly at the bar to Lavinia the town doctor. They were the only townspeople in the tavern.
Most of the merrymaking was coming from a group of about ten teenagers who occupied most of the front room. Guns, crossbows and even a spear lay on the floor and tables around them.
"Hunters, like we thought," Giles whispered to her as they took their seats by the bar.
Marvin asked them what they would like and to Maya's surprise, he didn't argue when she ordered mulled wine. "Turned of age today, didn't you? Your father was in here beaming about it earlier when he came to buy a bottle of wine."
A painful pang of guilt stabbed at Maya's heart at the mention of her parents.
Giles nodded in the direction of the rowdy kids. "Coming or going?"
The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1) Page 2