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

trinkets," Giles replied quietly.  
    "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