palms up, and swept the other end over the blankets slowly, starting on the right. He’d barely passed over the middle blanket when the stick turned in his hands, jabbing downward at the cup of water hidden underneath.
“Am I right?” Stebbs asked Lucy, even though Lynn could tell from his eyes that he knew he was.
Lucy bolted up from the ground. “That is sooo cool,” she shouted, then pulled the cup of water out from under the blanket to look at it suspiciously. “Can I still drink it?”
“Sure,” Stebbs laughed.
“How do you do that, really? Is it magic?”
“No, nothing like that,” he said. “It’s just something I’m able to do. Sometimes it’s genetic—my grandfather could do it. Some people can just feel water.”
“Lucy, pick up this mess,” Lynn said, pointing to the blankets. She took the switch from Stebbs, forced him to lie back down on the bed and re-propped his foot. “That was stupid,” she said to him. “She was excited enough already, now she’s going to chatter about it forever.”
“Who’s she going to talk to? You? Eli? Her mother? Them knowing doesn’t bother me.”
“But the others? What if they’re watching? What if they overhear her saying something to one of us? What if she slips in front of a stranger one day?”
“I just wanted to make her happy. The kid’s got little enough to smile about.”
“It’s not worth it,” Lynn shot back. “You know what would happen to you if the wrong people found out you can douse? You’d—”
“Hey, guys, look!” Lucy’s cry of joy reverberated inside the small shelter. They turned to see her holding the dousing stick expertly in her upturned palms, the long end pointing emphatically at a bundle of blankets.
Lynn jumped to her feet and yanked the covering away. The little cup of water that had been underneath spilled across the floor. Her gaze met Stebbs’.
“Shit,” he said.
“So I’m a water witch too?” Lucy asked as they crossed the field by the light of the newly risen moon.
“Shut up about that!” Lynn turned in her tracks and thrust a finger in Lucy’s face. “Remember that man on the road, and those men that took his shoes?”
Lucy’s lip quivered as she looked into Lynn’s angry face. “The bad men?”
“Yeah, the bad men. What he had that was worth anything to them, they took. His wood, his food, his gun —right down to his socks—they took everything that meant anything. What you’ve got isn’t something they can just pull out of your hands, and it’s worth more than shoes. You can find water, Lucy. If anyone knew, they’d take —”
“They’d take me,” the little girl said. “Because it’s like I got the water inside me, and they can’t just take it out.”
“Yeah,” Lynn said softly, shoving down the hard spike of fear that had risen in her chest. “They’d take you. Or Stebbs. Either one of you would be worth more than gold, but I don’t think the life you’d be living would be worth shit.” Lynn glanced around the field and readjusted the rifle on her back. “C’mon,” she said tersely, jerking the little girl by the arm. “We’ve been gone too long already. And stop talking.”
Lucy was silent the rest of the way home, and Lynn regretted speaking so harshly to her. Fear had fueled her tone, but there was no way to explain to Lucy the wave of panic that swept over her even in daylight when seconds passed between Lynn calling out and Lucy answering. In the dark field, it felt to Lynn like all predators would see Lucy not only as the easiest target, but Lynn’s weakness as well. She hoped Lucy could feel the affection coursing through her fingers, even though the grip on her tiny wrist was iron.
Lucy gathered courage to speak again once they were both tucked into the warm safety of their own cots. “How bad’s his ankle?”
“What’s that?”
“Stebbs’ foot? He going to be okay?”
“Yeah,” Lynn answered. “He’ll be fine. It was just a bad sprain. He couldn’t stand to pull himself up out of the bunker because his other foot is lame.”
“He’ll be okay though? Like to come over and see us again sometime?”
Lynn found herself smiling in the dark; she wasn’t the only one who found Stebbs’ company comforting. “I doubt we can keep him away.”
Lucy was quiet for a moment, but it was a heavy silence. “I bet my grandma coulda fixed his foot up nice.”
Lynn turned in her cot. She could barely make out the pale moon of the little girl’s face on the other side of the basement. “Your grandma?”
“Yeah. She’s a doctor back in the city. Said she’d come and find us, when she could get away. I thought maybe she could fix Stebbs’ foot, make my mommy better, too.”
“Your grandma is a doctor?”
“Yeah, she’s important in the city. Has a big office in the hospital and all that. I got to visit her there once, and I wanted to see the babies but they don’t even let her into that part of the hospital.”
“So she’s not a baby doctor?”
“No, just a sick people doctor.”
“Be nice to have one of those around here.”
“She said she’s coming,” Lucy said quickly as if her saying so would make it true. “Soon as she could get away, she said she’d follow us. She said Neva’s her little girl and she won’t be away from her, no matter what.”
“Follow you how, Lucy? It didn’t seem like you guys even knew where you were going.”
A long silence followed, and when she spoke Lucy’s voice shook. “My dad saw you on the water map.”
“What?” Lynn sat up in her cot, alarm spreading through her body. “What do you mean, a water map? He saw
“I’m not supposed to talk about it.” Lucy folded up into the fetal position on her cot. “It’s a bigger secret even than Stebbs and me being witches.”
“No, Lucy,” Lynn said as calmly as possible. “I think you should tell me. I need to know what you’re saying about a water map. This is important.”
“I know it’s important. All the secrets are.”
“Jeez, little girl, how many do you have?”
“A lot!” Lucy’s voice cracked, and she started to cry. “I’ve got a lot of secrets.”
Lynn got out of her cot and headed over to Lucy’s to cradle the little head in her lap, a feral wave of protective instinct overwhelming her at the touch of the tiny skull. “It’s okay, kiddo,” she said. “You don’t have to tell me all of them. But I want to know about this water map.”
“It’s . . .” Lucy wiped the tears from her face while she looked for a way to explain. “Do you know what a computer is?”
“I’ve seen dead ones in some of the houses I’ve been in, never been around one that worked though.”
“Well, all the ones in the city work, and there’s these things up in the sky called stalactites. They take pictures and give them to the computers, so people can see all the land all around. People use the pictures to find water.”
“Like my pond,” Lynn said, a cold finger of fear running down her spine.
“Yeah,” Lucy said, her voice still thick with tears. “They don’t let everybody see those maps though, even in the city. Only soldiers get to look, and even then only the superspecial ones. ’Cause the people who run the city, they don’t want everybody who lives there coming out here to get water for themselves.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause then they won’t pay for it,” Lucy said simply. “But my dad, he said even if they did let all the people know where the water was, nobody would be able to get to it out here because of the crazy hillbillies. He said people were better off paying for it than being shot.”
Lynn ignored the rush of anger. “So how did your dad know about these maps? Was he one of the soldiers allowed to see them?”
“Yeah. Mommy and Daddy got real nervous a while back, right before her belly got big. They started talking a lot after I was supposed to go to sleep. I could hear them through their door. Daddy started sneaking looks at
