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

by Smythe, Vanna

  "You want to play a game now?" Rober asked indignantly. "That's one of the root causes of all this crap in the world, everyone plugging themselves in to fake, perfect worlds, completely blind to what's going on in the real one."

  Rober had missed the point. Ty didn't want to play games. Not anymore. And Rober now proved he would never abandon his revolutionary plans on his own, not until someone stopped him or he got killed. He took one of the glass vials from the side compartment on the console and uncapped it to reveal the thin needle.

  He rolled up his sleeve and plunged the needle into a vein, watching his blood fill the vial. A drop of blood trickled over his tiger tattoo as he pulled the needle out.

  He recapped it and held it out for Rober to take. "Here. Now you can have me in VR. I cannot associate with you anymore if you won't abandon your plans."

  Rober gaped at him. "You're blackmailing me?"

  "I want you to see reason."

  It wasn't only that. The blood was a goodbye gift.

  Rober knocked the vial from Ty's hand. "You think too much of yourself, always have. I don't need you. You think I'll give up now, after all I've been saying for years?"

  Ty stood up. "Your plans will get you killed. I don't want any part in that."

  Rober's glass shattered by his feet before Ty reached the door.

  "Coward!" Rober shouted after him.

  Ty strode out of Rober's apartments without replying. He had to finish it all fast now, before his resolve failed.

  ~

  Ty headed straight for his father's study. He sat in his father's armchair, staring into the fake flames in the fireplace, letting no thought linger.

  "May I speak to you in confidence?" Ty asked as soon as his father entered, startling him.

  Caesar studied him for a few moments. "And by that you mean—"

  "Without Mom knowing," Ty finished the sentence for him.

  His father punched a code into the panel by the door and went to pour himself a cognac. "Your friend Sage has not been harmed. But she will be tried. I won't do anything to change that."

  "It's not her I wanted to talk about," Ty said, vacating the armchair so his father could sit down.

  His father did so with a groan. "Tell me then."

  Ty looked into the flames to avoid looking at his father. "I'm afraid Rober will try to rescue Sage. Or do something equally stupid."

  His father snapped forward in the armchair. "What do you know about all this, Ty?"

  Ty steeled his features to let nothing show on his face. "I think Rober and Sage might be dating. And I know it won't end well if he tries to rescue her or something. Can you send Rober away? To the North maybe, somewhere safe?"

  His father laughed a cold laugh. "The North is hardly safe, Ty. It's almost on par with the Badlands."

  "It's safer than here," Ty muttered, still staring at the fire.

  His father patted him on the arm. "So you're not as ruthless as your mother, are you? I'd begun to fear it… Do you really think it is necessary I send your friend away?"

  Ty nodded. "I think it's the only way."

  His father took a long swallow of his drink before replying. "I understand how it is for you, the younger generation. You want power, and you want it now. I was the same way. Running a city takes more than grand gestures and honorable plans, son. I want to teach you. I want to prepare you for running this city. Yet you haven't shown me any real interest in holding power."

  Ty showed no interest because he had none. He'd never tell his father that.

  His father waited silently, probably for Ty to say something.

  "You do want to run the city after me?" his father finally asked.

  "Yes, of course I do."

  "I don't see any real fire in you for the job. Never did."

  "Julian would have been better for it," Ty said quietly. "Even Eve would probably be better."

  The decision that had hovered in the back of Ty's mind for a long time had finally crystalized that afternoon. He'd follow his mother, take over the facility when she stepped down. Let everyone there go as soon as he could.

  His father leaned forward so quickly half his cognac spilled on the floor and the chair. He cursed as he wiped it off. "Julian will never be fit to rule. And Eve would be destroyed by the other houses. She's too kind and too soft."

  Ty regretted saying anything, wished he hadn't been honest. This wasn't the time to disagree with his father. "I do want to succeed. I'll do a good job of it."

  His father stared at him intently for a few moments. Then he sighed and leaned back in his chair. "You'll do alright when the time comes, I'm sure of that. I will make the arrangements to send Rober away tomorrow. Anyone else you want to save?"

  Ty shook his head. Very likely the others from Rober's group would give up on their own after Rober was gone. If not, he'd worry about it later.

  "Don't let him know I asked you to," Ty said.

  "I won't," his father promised.

  Ty turned off his phone again as soon as he exited his father's study. He spent the rest of the night immersed in playing Castle Life. After about six hours, he was so thoroughly immersed he even stopped wishing he had some of Maya's blood to bring her into the game with him.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Maya was awakened by the silent Ronia, who brought breakfast and another purple pill. Maya pushed the pill to the side of the platter and started eating. The eggs and sausage tasted like paper in her mouth, the bread like cardboard.

  "Have you been able to get the message to my friend?" Maya asked between bites.

  The woman shook her head and pointed to the pill. "Take that," she typed.. The woman's eyes were red rimmed and her hands shook.

  Maya nodded agreeably and chewed her food. "When will I have my interview?"

  Ronia shrugged her shoulders. "Sometime today."

  Then she turned and left the room, her long grey hair shaking. Maya took the purple pill and stuffed it under the mattress as soon as the door hissed shut.

  After that Maya was alone again, counting and pacing, pacing and counting. She practiced hiding her gift again, imagined it enclosed in a bubble inside her chest this time. The heat of her power didn't burn through its confines this time, it collected in the bubble, growing hotter, vaster, urgently seeking an outlet.

  For the first time, Maya noticed the nuances, the layers that made up her gift. Parts of it were a searing white hot heat, demanding release; other parts were a slow burning less urgent thing. Yet still powerful.

  Maya gasped at her discovery. The searing parts were the ones that gave the most life, she was sure. The slow burning layers would prepare the subject to be infused with the stronger dose.

  Why hadn't she seen it before?

  She'd never simply sat with her power and concentrated on it. To do that never even occurred to her until Ty suggested it.

  The door hissed open. A strange man wearing a spotless white bodysuit walked in. He was young but with a sort of washed out look, like he hadn't been out in the sun for a long time. "Dr. Remarque will see you now."

  Maya followed him down the corridor lined with the identical blue doors. They took a swift elevator up and arrived at a cheerful looking office, flowered wallpaper on the wall, all pastel pinks, yellows and blues. A large oak door with golden handles dominated the far wall. A pleasant looking middle aged woman sitting behind a reception desk told Maya to sit and wait to be summoned.

  Half an hour later she was called into the office. Violetta Remarque smiled at Maya pleasantly, her eyes alive with mirth. She did look almost exactly like Ty, from her perfectly straight nose to the black hair that fell down her back. Even the color of her eyes was the same. There was no cold in them, however, no ice.

  She asked Maya to sit in a chair across from her desk and pulled out a tablet and pen. "I hope you've had a pleasant night. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I've had urgent matters to attend to."

  Maya had a few choice words ready about her impri
sonment in that cell, but this woman was so pleasant, so kind, that she couldn't utter them. She nodded and smiled back. "Yes, I've had a nice rest."

  The doctor fiddled with her tablet then looked at Maya again. "Tell me about your gift and the level of command you have over it. In your own words."

  Maya thought about it for a moment. Should I lie about it like Ty said? No, she was here to learn.

  "Go on," the doctor urged.

  Maya plunged right in. "For as long as I can remember, I've had an affinity with flowers and trees, animals and even people. All living things have a stream of life, the survival streak I call it, running inside them. I can feel this and am sometimes able to make it grow deeper. Or, in the case of the dying I might be able to coax it to return."

  Maya paused and looked at the doctor, to see if she had lost her. The woman nodded for her to continue.

  Maya cleared her throat. "There is a fire that lights up inside my chest, and I believe it's heat channeled through my left hand has healing powers. Before I came here, I was able to coax seeds to grow even after they had been destroyed in a flood."

  The doctor scribbled something on her tablet, then waved her hand for Maya to continue.

  "I've only ever been able to coax plants back to life, and my dog once. I've never been able to save a person, not yet. I've even been able to alleviate the pain of someone mauled by a puma once, though I couldn't heal him. Which is why I'm here. I'm sure I could do so much more with my gift, if only I had some proper training."

  The doctor stared at her then jotted a few things on her tablet that Maya couldn't read. "So beyond making some plants grow, you haven't been able to do anything else with your power?"

  Maya was taken aback by the edge in the woman's voice and thought maybe she'd only imagined it. Violetta's eyes were still as kind as her own mother's. "I've also been able to make a whole patch of wheat grow from saplings to fully matured plants in a matter of hours."

  It was her biggest success ever. Her father's angry red face flashed before her eyes. She pushed the memory away.

  The woman replaced the tablet in a drawer. "Very good. You'll return to your room for now and will very likely begin studying tomorrow."

  "I thought I would be given a proper room if I am to stay indoors for the duration of my training," Maya said. "And meet the others who study here."

  The last thing she wanted was to spend another day alone in that tiny room.

  The woman's eyes were as happy as ever, but her lips were pulled into a thin line. "We find that isolation and minimal external stimuli make for the fastest learning."

  Maya's gift had grown despite never being alone for more than half a day back home. The woman was making no sense. "I need people around me, I need to feel their energy. My power doesn't work if I'm all alone in a sterile room."

  "You are here to learn now and you will follow my rules. You will also neither talk back, nor question my orders." There was no mistaking the malice in the woman's voice this time. Her eyes never lost the kind, warm look. "Do you understand?"

  Maya had no patience for bullies. Never did. "I will leave then and go learn my gifts elsewhere."

  The doctor chuckled and pressed a button. "You life givers are always the hardest to subdue. You all have too much life inside you and that's not fair to the rest of us, now is it?"

  "I am, as I am," Maya countered. "There's no need for jealousy."

  The doctor slammed both her hands on the table, palms open. "Jealousy? You insolent girl! I'm not jealous of you. You are not in an enviable position."

  Violetta's harsh laugh echoed in the room. Malice lashed from the woman, coiled itself around Maya's throat, taking her air.

  What have I done?

  Before Maya could demand to be let go, two burly men dressed in identical green body suits came into the room.

  "Take her back to her cell. Sedate her if you must," Violetta ordered.

  "I wish to leave this place!" Maya shouted, backing away towards the door. "You will let me go right now!"

  The woman stopped laughing. "I will do no such thing. Ever."

  The two men approached. Maya beat at them once they had her cornered against the locked door. Each grabbed one of her arms and, wriggle as she might, their grip was too tight. Her elbow cracked painfully and she stopped struggling.

  "You will do as I say until I decide it's enough. It shouldn't take very long." The doctor turned to the guards. "Take her away now."

  Maya shouted for them to let her go all the way to the elevator. One of the men finally clasped his large hand across her mouth to silence her. The other one jabbed a needle into her neck.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  "Let me in right now!" Lana's angry shouts tore right through the peaceful afternoon Ty was enjoying in the sunny French Alps of 1357. He had just brought his flock to pasture for the summer, not a care in the world beyond what to do during the long evenings. The sun was setting dark orange, and he was starting a fire in the vast open field to have some light.

  "Open the door, Ty!" Lana screeched again.

  It took him a few minutes to realize Lana wasn't in the Castle Life game with him, or that he wasn't either, for that matter. Lana was in fact at his front door, her shouts getting angrier and shriller, and Ty had more problems and worries than he could handle.

  "What is it?" Ty asked as he opened the door, though he really didn't want to know.

  She blazed into the room, knocking Ty back. "Rober's been ordered to Alaska for no good reason. By your father. Why? How could you let that happen?"

  She hit him after each question. Ty grabbed her wrists and held her at arm's length. "Sending him north is far better than the alternative. He's been accused of undermining the regime."

  "Did that idiot Sage say that? She's always been a little liar. You know that, Ty. Why didn't you try and save him? You could have!" Spittle flew from Lana's mouth, and her face was orange like the setting sun.

  If he told her the truth, that he was the one who'd gotten Rober sent away, she'd probably kill him.

  Ty let her go and moved back. "All I know is that he's lucky my mother wasn't part of the punishment. I didn't think you cared this much about him, honestly."

  "He's my only brother, Ty. Of course I care about him. I've been so mean to him lately! You can bring him back, can't you?"

  Ty looked down at his hands, expecting to see them still clad in the medieval wool and leather from Castle Life. "No, I can't."

  Lana buried her face in her hands and started crying.

  Ty wanted her gone.

  "He asked for you, you know?" she sobbed. "Why didn't you at least come and say goodbye?"

  Ty couldn't even begin to think about any of that, knew he'd lose all control the moment he gave in to remorse.

  "He's a traitor and I can't associate myself with people like that," he said coldly.

  She looked at him through her fingers, her eyes wide. "How can you say that. Rober is your best friend. He loves you."

  All of that had to stay shut away. Forever.

  "We can't see each other anymore either. Now go."

  Lana wiped away her tears, still ogling him with her shocked eyes. "You are exactly like your mother. Cruel and dead inside. I never want to see you again."

  His own fear, thrown at him by Lana's self-serving mouth, hurt more than any punch.

  "I will make sure Rober is brought back!" Lana shouted and ran from the room.

  Lana's conviction yanked something free in his mind. Something he always knew, but kept buried in the deepest, dustiest corner of the metal chest in his mind. He couldn't hide forever.

  Things would only get worse if he did.

  ~

  Eve sat alone at the large dining room table having breakfast. She pouted when Ty walked in. "You haven't been to see me at all again."

  Ty sat down opposite her and waved the serving girl away impatiently as she tried to fill his plate with eggs. "I've been a bit busy. Where's Mom?"
r />   Eve shrugged and started stuffing eggs into her mouth.

  "Dr. Remarque wanted breakfast at four AM today," the serving girl answered instead.

  Eve wore a sleeveless shirt. Her wrists were bare.

  Ty leapt from his seat. "Where's your bracelet? I told you to wear it all the time!"

  "Don't yell at me," Eve countered, her mouth full of eggs. "Mom asked me to let her borrow it."

  Cold rising in his forehead threatened to drown out all sense. "You let her take it?"

  Eve blinked a few times, like she was fighting back tears. "Of course I did. You told me to be nice to her. That's all you do lately anyway, give me orders."

  What did his mother want the bracelet for? Did she know about Eve's power?

  Eve's fork clanked against the plate. "You never come play with me. You don't even visit. Then when I do get to see you, you yell at me and order me around." She stood up and ran from the room, hiding her face in her hands.

  "Wait, Eve. I didn't mean to…I'm sorry."

  She was already gone.

  It would all be alright as soon as he got the magic stopping pills for her. Then Ty could finally relax.

  His phone buzzed. "I left some instructions for you with Martin, Ty," his mother said. "I won't be in the office for most of the day. But you should go there."

  Ty would rather cut off his own hand than participate in Maya's testing.

  When he arrived at the facility, he found Martin alone in the control room, poring over a screen, typing furiously with his metal clad hand.

  Ty cleared his throat to get his attention. "My mother said you had work for me?"

  Martin blinked at him a few times then pointed to a box on the table. "She wants you to take that to today's batch of testees and find out if it interferes with their gifts at all."

  Cold sweat ran down Ty's back as he reached for the box. Inside it lay the grass and aquamarine bracelet he had given Eve. His chest constricted, like someone had placed a thousand pound weight on it and left it there. The box and the bracelet fell from his lifeless fingers.