The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1) (7 page)

"Arming the Badlands, Ty?" Rober asked wryly once they were outside. "Isn't that punishable by death?"

Ty was in no mood for jokes. "What? Are you going to turn me in? We'll say we took the weapons on a hunt and forget them on the way back if anyone asks."
 

They walked the rest of the way to the hospital in silence. Maya stepped out of the shadows followed by the boy who was with her at the pub. She clutched a tightly wrapped bundle of blankets, and Isis' head was poking out at the top. "Here, she's still sleeping."

She handed the bundle to him. Ty placed the bag of weapons on the ground and nudged the bag towards Maya with his foot.

"Take those. In case any more pumas come. Or to trade. I put some money inside as well."

Maya looked at the bag and back at Ty. Even in the half light of dawn, her eyes shone. "What is it? Medicine?"

"Guns," Ty replied.

Horror and revulsion had it out in her eyes. Her friend snorted derisively. "And how will guns help us?"

Ty turned to him. Faint recognition vied with wondering what Ty had done to wound him enough to warrant that murderous glare. "You could, for example, learn to hunt for yourself."

"Stop it, Ty. Let's just go," Rober urged.
 

Ty was about to thank Maya, gaze into her vast, light-filled eyes for the last time, when she spoke. "Take us with you to your city."

"What?" Ty and Rober asked together.

"Please. I saved your cat. I need to go to school there."
 

"No, absolutely —" Rober started.

"I'm sorry," Ty interrupted him. "We can't bring the displaced into the city. I'd need special clearance, and I can't get it. Not on such short notice and not from out here."

He was rambling. She had to understand he'd help her if he could.

"Why do you want to go there anyway?" he asked finally.

Maya swept her arms out to encompass the town. "To learn how to help them."

"No school can teach you that," Ty said without thinking. The hurt and anger in her eyes made him look away.

"Can't I go to one and decide that for myself?" she asked.

"We could, you know—" Rober said, but Ty motioned for him to shut up.
 

Maya looked at Rober hopefully, then turned back to Ty once she realized Rober wouldn't help her.
 

"Fine. I'll find another way. I did save your pet for you though."

"You can't go into the Badlands on your own," Ty protested, heat rising in his cheeks. "You'll get blown to bits a hundred times before you reach the Ring. If some wild beast or men don't kill you first."
 

"She won't be alone," her friend said.
 

"Ty, you can't just let them walk into the Badlands," Rober said. "We can get them into the city."

Maya shouldered her backpack and took her friend's hand. "It's alright. I won't trouble you any further."

She meant it, Ty could tell. She'd try to walk all the way to Neo York. And die. Ty didn't know how he knew, yet he was certain of it.

"Alright, you can come with us," Ty called after her, not sure where exactly the words came from. The warmth of summer rippled around her, shone from her pleading eyes. He'd never have to be cold if she was beside him. He couldn't let her die.
 

Maya stopped only long enough to place the bag of weapons into the hospital.

"Let's hope Lana doesn't make too much of an issue over it," Rober said as they trekked back to the craft.

Ty shrugged. "Or my parents for that matter. You can help with Lana."
 

"How? By knocking her out?" Rober asked. "However, the idea is tempting."

"If all else fails." Ty turned back to Maya, who was listening to their exchange with a confused expression.

All Ty had to do was get her past the guards and into the city before his mother found out about it. She could disappear after that. The first obstacle to that plan lay sleeping in the hovercraft, the second the guards on the gate who'd be much easier to get past.

~

Once they reached the hovercraft Ty motioned for Maya and Giles to climb in, warning them to be quiet. He led them into the cockpit and locked them inside to deposit Isis in her cage and make sure Lana was sleeping.

He returned to the cockpit and punched in the coordinates for Neo York, then let the autopilot take over. He told Maya and Giles to stay put and led Rober outside, stopping near the engine where there was the least chance of being heard.
 

"Right, don't freak out. The only way past Lana that I can see is telling her you like Maya's friend and want to take him back home," Ty blurted it all out in one long whisper, ignoring the mounting hurt and anger in Rober's face. "Then we'll say Maya insisted she come too."

"Maya, is it?"

The question confused Ty. "Yes, so?"

"You must really like her to go to all this trouble to hide her from Lana."

"Like her? She helped me and I can help her. That's all it is."

 
"You like this girl so much you're asking me to submit to a full day of taunting by my sister in closed quarters?" Rober's voice rose in pitch. "And since we're broaching the subject, you're asking me to do this, knowing how I feel about you and flinging it in my face."

The whole conversation went too deep for comfort too fast. "Rober…I told you…It wouldn't be right. I don't feel the same about you. I'd only be going through the motions. Is that what you want?"

"You said you couldn't feel that way about anyone." Rober's voice was barely audible above the hum of the engine.

"It is the truth. And none of that's changed now," Ty answered, wanting the conversation to end. "Look, I know it's a huge favor. I'll make it up to you. But if you don't want to help then say it, and I'll think of something else."

Lana's whoop rose from the command room and killed the conversation. "Yes! We're finally going home."

"Fine, we'll tell her your story. You owe me a favor too now," Rober whispered. "By the way, you'll want to take more care with how you look at the girl."

"What do you mean?"

"The only person I've ever seen you look at with such devotion is Eve."

"Eve? That's totally different. She's my sister, I just want to make sure she's alright."

"All I'm saying is, Lana's not stupid. She'll see it too," Rober said and walked to the command room from which Lana's humming could be heard.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Maya sat on the floor of the hovercraft's cockpit, afraid to go near the pilot seats. Lights flashed across the transparent control board, the terrain they were flying over a constantly changing hologram off to the side of it. Giles slid down the black metal wall next to her.

"Now what did we get ourselves into?" he asked. "If this adventure involves meeting Violetta Remarque then I'm not sure it was one of your better ideas."

He chuckled after he said it, but there was an edge in his voice. Maya had growing doubts of her own. Should she have stayed at home? What if her mother didn't make it through the winter? How would she get back?

Meeting Ty's mother was the least of Maya's worries.
 

"Ty was eager to avoid her. He seems to think he can."
 

The doors slid open with a faint hiss. Ty stood in the doorway and motioned for them to accompany him. Another kid with white hair and coal black eyes came in and sat down at the control board.
 

"Call me once we reach the first checkpoint, Adam," Ty told him before shutting the door behind them.

A strip of blue light illuminated the sides of the vehicle's main hallway. Ty still wore his black bodysuit, and his thick black hair was wet, combed back off his forehead, forming perfect waves. His winter eyes never met Maya's. For all the recognition he gave her, they might have been complete strangers.

"Where are you taking us?" Maya asked.
 

Ty didn't turn around at her question. "Follow me and don't speak unless someone asks you a question. We've had to make up a reason for you to be here, and it's in your own interest to go along with it."

"What kind of reason?"

"You don't need to know."

He spoke to her as though she were his servant. Maya grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "I
want
to know."

"Calm down, Maya," Giles whispered urgently.

Ty shook off her hand and continued walking. "Do as I say, or find your own way to Neo York."

"Fine. Let us out now!" She didn't want any favors from this cold, commanding kid. He was nothing like the one who'd begged her to save his cat yesterday.
 

Ty looked around, as though making sure they were alone. Just as he was about to speak a door slid open. The snake-eyed girl grinned at her menacingly. "Look who it is. The loudmouth from the pub. I should have known."

Ty walked over to her and slid his arm around her waist. Maya and Giles followed them to a large common area of the hovercraft. Another control board with a wall screen dominated one of the walls, but this one was turned off.
 

The rest of the hunting party sat in chairs around the room. Four had their eyes covered with the black strips of virtual reality glasses Maya recognized from her current history class in school. The other four stared at them as they entered.
 

Ty's girlfriend eyed Giles from head to toe, leering. Something a lot like jealousy sparked in Maya's chest, but likely it was only a desire to keep this vicious looking girl away from anyone Maya cared for.

Ty sat down and pulled his girlfriend into his lap, then introduced everyone in the room: a girl with a last name Montague, who had the same white hair and black eyes as the boy they left in the cockpit; a Greenwood, a Schwarz, and a couple of Weinsteins, a Northman. "And this is Lana Orsini and you've met her brother Rober. And I am Tyberious Remarque."
 

He didn't bother to introduce her and Giles to the rest. Maya recognized none of the names, yet Ty's tone as he spoke them suggested she was expected to curtsy, like people in the Middle Ages used to in the presence of kings and queens.
 

"This one still doesn't seem too impressed, Ty," Lana said, flicking her long finger in Maya's direction then turning to her brother. "And I don't see what it is about this Badlands' farm boy you like so much."

One of the others laughed, while the rest cast Lana dirty looks behind her back.

Maya felt Giles tense beside her, but the cold that spread from Ty's eyes seemed to have rooted him to the spot too, rendering him unable to speak.

Lana locked her eyes on Maya's. "Though if it stops you pining over Ty for a little while, I support that."

The white haired girl leaned forward in her chair. "Why don't you stop it already, Lana. It's getting boring."

Lana threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, Sage. You do know you have no chance with my brother, don't you?"

The white haired girl leaned back with a thump and slammed a pair of VR glasses over her eyes. "I give up."

Rober cast his sister a nasty look that travelled to Ty before settling on Giles. "Best go check if there's anything to support before you get too excited, dear sister."
 

He grabbed Giles' arm and pulled him back towards the door. Giles stumbled and Maya almost screamed at him to let him go. Would have too, if Ty hadn't shaken his head a little, and if all that winter ice in his eyes hadn't shifted to reveal a panic Maya had only seen on those about to die. His eyes went back to the dead winter stillness so fast, she might have only imagined it all. By then Giles was gone.
 

Soon after, the others put on their VR glasses too. Ty led Lana into the far corner of the room where they disappeared behind a dark curtain that blocked all sound as well.

Unsure what she should do, Maya sat down in a chair farthest away from the rest, trying to pretend the terror she felt at imagining what Giles might be going through wasn't suffocating her.
 

To calm herself, she counted the seconds in her mind.

Four hundred and forty-seven.
 

When was Giles coming back?

A thousand.

What if he wasn't?

Five thousand and seventy.

What have I done?

She lost the count somewhere around seven thousand, and had to start over to keep from screaming out. If only she had one of those VR glasses to escape her fear. She'd brought this on herself. And Giles. Would he ever forgive her?

The hovercraft slowed to a stop every so often, and Ty left the room each time, likely to get them past the checkpoints. He never so much as glanced in her direction.

Ty had pulled Mary from the water, and the other kid, Rober, had bought her bread. They couldn't be all bad, could they? She clung to that hope like a drowning girl would to a piece of wood.
 

Just as Maya was sure she would begin screaming, Ty returned from one of his exits, Giles and the white haired kid following him.

Giles sat down next to her and she eyed him anxiously.

"Are you alright?" she whispered. "What happened?"

He squeezed her hand reassuringly. "I'm fine, don't worry."
 

He leaned back and closed his eyes.

Ty stayed in the main room after he returned this time, and told everyone they were almost in Neo York and to stay alert.
 

They all removed their VR glasses, and it took several minutes for their eyes to focus.

Lana came into the room and sat in Ty's lap. He wrapped his arm around her waist. The tiger of his tattoo had golden eyes, Maya saw, so real she was sure the animal would move at any moment.

Giles continued to feign sleep beside her, so after a while Lana fixed her eyes on her.

"And what will you be doing once we get to Neo York? A pretty, natural born girl like you should have no trouble finding an occupation. Lots of people have a good appetite for a little genetic imperfection, what with everyone engineered so flawlessly in the Ring."