Orion (32 page)

Lee responded, “What?”

“Stop the car.  Over there, in that parking lot under the street lamp,” Calum breathed loudly now.

I sat the letters on the floor
board then changed my mind, then changed it again.

When the car stopped, we all sat q
uietly waiting.  The look in Lee’s eyes watching me in the rearview mirror showed all kinds of hurt.  He knew we’d hidden something, but it wasn't what he thought.

Calum opened the door and I followed on the opposite side.  We met around the front of the car and stood side by side waiting for the two of them to stand before us.

When they were there, we both began to lift our shirts watching their eyes go wide.

“Um guys, I
’m so not into this kind of stuff,” Maze stuttered.

I snorted, “
Just watch.  We’re all G rated here.  And yes, I know what that means.”

I only had to lift my shirt and move the top of my pants.  I waited for Calum to unbuckle his belt and pants.

“Man, I’ve seen it all before.  We shower together, remember?  I—

“SHUT UP, COWBOY!”

When his pants moved over and I readied, both of them stood in horror looking at Calum and I.  Lee had seen Calum’s marks, but not mine for longer than the millisecond he did on one occasion.  This would be, I hoped, his finality on the subject of him ever being anything but a friend in my life.  He didn’t get what I was, but he would. 

“When did you two sneak out and get matching tattoos?  You so should have mentioned this Stace Rohkea if that is even your name.  No, it can
’t be since you’re the daughter of the Lord Hathown.”  Maze stated all this more to herself even though everyone knew it already as she tapped her fingers across her thigh in a pattern.

Lee snorted.  He knew all this, but had never just really looked at them.

“We didn’t sneak out,” I smiled.  “We were both born with this on us.  We’ve had it there our entire lives and just found out about each other three weeks ago.  And my name is what you say.”

Maze
’s feet left her and she must have really felt her rear hit the ground with a thud.   Lee stooped to help her looking our marks over in amazement back and forth at the two. 

“Is there more I don't know?” Lee asked in disbelief.  He was starting to lose his cool.

I nodded thinking he probably already knew but he seemed genuinely surprised at the moment, “Some of it, you both know.  But the rest we can tell you sitting down.”

Calum and I sat on the parking space blocker while Maze and Lee sat close together across from us like dividing lines.   I noticed she had her hand on his
either out of fear from us or because he was the closest thing to hold on to.

“We have the same birthday, February, 29
th
.” I would tell everything I could.

“Figures!  Not even a real day,” Maze was trying to calm herself.

“We are marked by the constellation Orion, who was a Hunter.  We both share names associated with Orion.  I…my real name is Princess Anastacia Anat Hathown, daughter of Lord Hathown of the Valkyrie court.”

Calum spoke, “I am still the same Calum Rigel Green you knew, but my middle name is the brightest star located in Orion, and Anat is the battle goddess of folklore who killed Orion.  This much we have figured out, but have no idea what it really means.”

“Grim story.  Hope this isn’t a predictor of doom.  How is all this possible?”  Maze pouted her lip out and left it there.

We didn
’t answer her more because we didn’t know the answer ourselves.

“Both of our mothers died in childbirth.  It came out only today that both our moms had written letters somehow
with the same penmanship and inside answers that Lee here thinks is going to solve it all,” I felt like my voice was getting hoarse.  I talked more in the last few weeks, then in my whole life.  I certainly had never had close enough friends to see them daily and even more time in the day than studying or other schoolwork.  This was new for me all the way around.

“There
’s more?”  Maze stilled.  That explained why there wasn’t a painting of our family she whispered drawing conclusions.

“They
call it a prophecy, though it is just letters.  One that we reasoned sounded like a joke, but now we are not so sure.  One says that two will come to bring all together and they will be marked by Orion and.…”  I felt like a caged bird.   

“This all sounds great, but doesn
’t it sound a bit like something of a set up or a really bad joke or—

“YES!  It does.  But others don
’t.  Someone kidnapped my brother five weeks ago and I was sent into the Hunter school to find out who.  Only once I was in there, I found that it was not for me to spy, but rather to keep me quiet and hidden.  My father thinks I was purposefully meant to find Calum and confirm the beliefs, only I had no idea that was going to happen and somehow it all did.  They kidnapped my brother to bring him on my,
our
, birthday to kill him, or me, die for him or I don’t know yet.  We rescued him and he is hidden safe inside the palace with my father.  If Calum and I don’t figure out what we are going to do before Saturday, we will possibly be dead, my friends most likely also, and they will cover it all up to an accident or something and go on with the merry lives.  Only, they didn’t count on us figuring things out, rescuing my brother, ratting out Dr. Quinn and Dr. Green, and yet one more rat at the warehouse where we freed Szar.  We need to figure out WHO is going to show up on Saturday, with what weapons, and where it will be.”

I still didn
’t take a breath.

Maze laughed. 
“Clue girl here has lost her freaking mind.  I can’t believe you believe any of this.  Two matching tattoos, same birthdays, etc. etc. are hardly facts enough to think someone wants to kill you.”

I was angry, “THEY TOOK MY BROTHER!”

Calum grabbed my arm, “She is telling the truth.”

Lee didn
’t speak.  Calum gave him a look.  I’ve created this slowly building animosity between them that eats at me.  That same caged bird still couldn’t get free.  I felt like I’d stolen his sun and thrown it deep in the ocean of his sadness.

“It
’s all true.  Every bit of it,” Lee dragged out his words.  “I only didn’t know about Orion specifically, but had my guesses.  That seals it though.  Any doubts I had as to whether you two were made to meet just sealed the deal.  Literally.”  He sighed with not much of what I’d call relief.  “And we have proof of them taking her brother.  Stace found something in Dr. Green’s office back when she first came and showed us when they first told me.  The letter proves the prophecy is at least believable to the adults.   I did know Anastacia when I was fourteen.  I was sent to spy in the Val Court and tutored with her for two years.  They were using me to investigate her abilities.  When they found me listening in a little too much for their taste and knew I was aware of an attempt to kidnap Anastacia, they sent me away.”

“Kidnap me.  That
’s what you were doing that day?”

“You were being poisoned by them.  They hid things from you.  They were making you a killing machine and intended for you to marry the old man oaf Hoover Ryan's son when you were eighteen so they could have access to the oil in all the Americas and Middle East.  They wanted you preoccupied and that was my job alone.  I was to keep you busy.  Only, I saw the real you and I fell…
.”  Lee remembered he had an audience.  There was something in the way he said all this with an altruist devotion I’d never noticed before, but something didn't feel right about it.

And...only some of the picture he was trying to portray was correct.  I knew for a fact that I was supposed to be meeting
the
Hoover Ryan two weeks ago but his father died and was buried the day I'd have met him.  And I also knew I was supposed to be courted by his
adopted
son who would have inherited the company but something happened to the boy and he was sent away.  All I knew is that I’d grown up with him connected to our court and now he was off the list of suitors for me, oh little me.  I don’t remember him and I certainly don’t care about marrying him.  Or anyone else.

Maze gasped.  She knew what he was about to say. 

“But that was a long time ago.  And you are safe, mostly, at least when others are around,” he finished what he’d started.

I felt sorry for Lee.
He lived with this for so long keeping hidden in the depths of his heart.  “And you.  I am safe when you are with me too.  But Lee, you have to believe something here.”  He watched me intently.  “I truly believe you were a part of leading me to Calum.  Somehow, you did save me that day.  There is a path here we are all taking and I don’t think that it is done by a long shot.  So for now, we keep toodling along.”

Lee was the mustered one now
leading us all to battle.  He didn’t like that he was the one who drove me to Calum. That much was true.  “When you left Lee, they sent me on my first mission.  I was never the same.  They told me I needed to prove my worth to gain the court’s favor.  I found myself more easily able to accept the outside world and far more than just being a princess and second in line.  I was was ice cold inside thinking you hated me.  I never had much of a name in that palace except “next in line” and you left me alone again like the rest.  And when I came to the Hunter school, everything I’d ever questioned was answered with Calum, and then you, and now, hopefully in the letters sitting in that car.   I have to know what my next chapter is.  I don’t want to die on Saturday whether it is all a farce or not.  But still, I have to treat it like its real because if I don’t, I might lose the very things I live for.”  I looked at Calum for he was the only one I could name that cared about me in the way I wanted.

“Man
, I hope someone loves me like that one day,” she breathed aloud.

She misunderstood my look.  I wasn
’t meaning I loved Calum.  I don’t know how I feel. I frowned not meaning too.  I had to make it clear though.  “I don’t know about love Maze, but devotion is just as strong.”

I pulled out the letters
for surveying.  I told a solemn looking Calum how the letter made it to where they were. He barked a little but in the end was happy to have them after a few scowling faces and a pouty bottom lip from me. 

Calum read the top letter from my mom's pile aloud.

Dear Daughter of Anat, 

              I haven’t forgotten you.  My time on earth was short, but carrying you was the highlight of my time there.  I leave you with your father, the chosen male to carry you through childhood and on to the destiny you hold. Please use the resources I’ve instilled in you to accomplish the goal ahead.  I hold your abilities above all and will stand above to watch them grow when all our children have found themselves in one accord.  The frailty of the human race kept us from making you anything other than the strengths of the Valkyrie and the powers of the gods.  Please use this wisely and step forward on hastened feet.  We need you.  We are counting on you.  They can’t do it without you.  Read carefully the prophecy our leader has put before you. 

             
              With Love.

“And the prophecy as it says exactly,” he cleared his throat.

The Hunter by day will take with him, a huntress, unlike his own.  She will bear the mark of Orion, as will he.

The Hunter by night will take with him, a huntress, unlike his own. She will bear the mark of the sun, as will he. 

They will bring forth a mighty nation of all who come together.  They will find Saiph at their right shoulder.  Rigel and his stinging adversary will rule like no other.   Cross will come between severed twins.  Let who stands in the way of fate perish and be no more.  In this great peril, the Anat goddess in human form will be the only light.

I wanted it all to add up.  The two letters matched, but didn
’t.

“You said Dr. Quinn and Dr. Green were in on it.  How?” 
Maze pulled out of the awed daze.

Calum laughed.  I couldn
’t tell what kind he meant it for.

“It
’s quite the conundrum.  Dr. Quinn has been slipping us notes with beware messages and watch out kind of stuff.  We saw my father at the warehouse where her brother was held after she found evidence he'd been part of it,” Calum addressed us all.

I looked
I stared openly at Calum as he continued on my behalf, “We ruminated together and decided they are both being blackmailed to keep their families safe, as well as my father’s odd response to it all.  We are not sure who to trust, but it appears like we have nothing but enemies and very few allies.  I tried to query my father just after Stace did the other day and received the same brush off that we were on our own.  It's like they are afraid.”  He paused long enough to pinch the bridge of his nise then said,  “We are alone in this.”

“No!  Not alone.  I won
’t leave you.  I can help, somehow,” Maze shrieked like we might send her away in the dark of night.