by C.L. Mozena
Chapter 44
Orion sighed as he gazed up at the sky from his balcony, watching the clouds drift lazily over the turrets of the palace. Like anyone else, he had dreamed of flying in and out of those clouds since he was small. Unlike most others, he had actually had the chance to touch the sky. He reached over his shoulder and touched his feathers, wondering if he’d ever get to fly again. Just because his legs didn’t work, that wouldn’t mean that his wings didn’t work either. He leaned forward in his golden wheel chair and stretched his wings. Yes, he could still use his wings. He reached out and took a hold of the banister and began flapping, feeling the wind play in his feathers. Yes, he thought, I can still fly. I’ll soar, with or without the use of my legs! He pulled himself further out of the chair, preparing to fling himself over the balcony to catch the air and fly away.
“I guess you’re not going to need my help to die, eh, Prince Orion?” a voice growled from behind Orion. “Well, you’re gonna get it, anyway.” Orion immediately folded his wings and turned to find the source of the voice. Unsteady, Orion began falling backwards, but the other person caught him and clamped a hand over Orion’s mouth before he could say anything. “Goodbye, Prince,” the voice growled as strong hands gripped one of Orion’s wings, and snapped the bone. Orion winced as his wing fell limp. Orion then felt himself being thrown over the edge of the balcony.
Orion got a glimpse of his attacker’s brown wings as he took off and Orion fell, unable to fly. Instinctively, Orion twisted himself around so that his back was towards the sky rather than the ground. He stretched his good wing with his broken wing bent painfully in the wind. He tried to fly, but he only managed to slow his descent. It wasn’t enough to save him when he hit the cobblestone of the palace courtyard below. He began to panic, willing his broken wing to mend itself and work, but it didn’t. He just felt an unusual heat growing in the break in his wing bone. The heat reminded him of the heat from being healed, calming him enough to think straight. That’s it! Orion thought, I can heal, so I’ll just heal my wing before I crash! Orion tried his best to align the broken ends of the bone while falling through the air, but it was impossible. The wind kept tumbling him over himself, bending his sore wing this way and that.
Less than twenty feet above the hard ground, Orion gave up trying to heal himself and squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for impact. To his surprise, it never came. He vaguely noticed that the wind was gone, and alarmed, confused voices were gathering around him. Slowly, he opened his eyes to find cobblestone less than two feet below his face. He realized that he was floating just above the stones. Duh! He thought, panting heavily, Why didn’t I think of levitating before? He sighed and let himself down slowly, until he was laying, face first, on the cold cobblestone in the courtyard. His mind was racing as he realized that someone had come into his room and tried to kill him. Who? He thought, tears welling up in his eyes, Who would want to kill me? How did they get in? Was it the same person who got in my room the other night? Orion flinched as guards rolled him onto his back and lifted him into a sitting position.
“Ow! My wing’s broken,” Orion said, remembering the painful snap of his wing bone when his attacker broke it.
“Orion!” Joshua called as he flew down to the courtyard, “Are you okay? What happened?” He landed and knelt next to Orion.
“Someone came into my room,” Orion said, wincing and holding his injured wing, “and threw me over the edge of my balcony. He broke my wing before he threw me so that I couldn’t fly.”
“Orion! What are you doing down here?” King Frederic and Empress Anita jogged up to where the guards crowded Orion. Orion thought it odd that his parents would be coming from the same direction and at the same time. Could they have been spending time together?
“I was attacked,” Orion repeated for his parents, pushing any questions about his parent’s relationship out of his mind. After all, it wasn’t his business, though he would love to see his parents together and be a real family.
“By who? Did you see his face?”
“No,” Orion looked down, “I only remember seeing him spread his wings as he took off.” He scrunched his nose in thought, “They were brown.” Joshua exchanged a worried glance with Empress Anita. King Frederic frowned in thought. There were few jisbae on the planet, and less with brown wings. Besides Orion’s brother, there were only three jisbae who had brown hair and wings.
“Find all of the jisbae who have brown wings,” King Frederic barked at the guards, “And take them to the throne room to be questioned. Orion and I will be there shortly. Josh, heal Orion so we can go.” Joshua nodded and began healing Orion’s wing. The soothing heat relaxed Orion. A few minutes later, a servant came down with Orion’s wheel chair.
“Certainly we don’t need to worry about Rick?” Empress Anita turned to King Frederic, placing a hand on his arm. “He wouldn’t have done this.”
“Brown wings is the only clue we’ve got right now,” King Frederic said, shrugging her arm off. “Besides, Rick has been acting rather suspicious ever since you and he came here, Anita.”
“But he’s Orion’s brother! He would never-,” she began.
“And I don’t’ trust him!” King Frederic hollered, facing her. “Rivalry among brothers for an inheritance is common, especially when the inheritance is a throne,” King Frederic explained, stepping past Orion, who was still to shocked from his experience to speak. “Let’s go.”
Once they were in the throne room, the guards brought in the four jisbae with brown wings. Orion glanced at each of them. His brother, Rick, was standing calmly between two guards, looking around at the others. Orion briefly wondered if his father was right, and Rick was overly jealous that Orion would become king. He didn’t seem jealous, though, and had told Orion that it was for the best. Tanya’s father was being held by two guards, looking confused, with both his wife and Tanya next to him. Both Tanya and her mother looked worried. The third jisbae was Lee, Tanya’s fiancé, standing there between the guards with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face, looking directly at Orion. Orion figured that, if anyone here wanted to kill him, it would be Lee. After all, Lee had never liked him, and made it very plain to everyone. Orion also thought that a big part of Lee’s dislike towards him had to do with Orion’s newfound friendship with Tanya. The last one was a woman about twice Orion’s age, whom Orion had never seen before. She looked around in awe, flanked by two guards, taking in the splendor of the throne room.
“I apologize for the inconvenience,” King Frederic stood in front of the throne on a raised platform, “but I had my guards bring you here because my son, Prince Orion, was attacked earlier today.” Murmurs erupted from the jisbae and their captors. “The only clue we have as to who did it is the fact that the attacker had brown wings. Since you all have brown wings, you are all suspects.” Murmurs and protests rose up at King Frederic’s announcement. Orion just watched and listened to them, hoping to hear the same growling voice he heard just before being thrown over the balcony, but he didn’t.
“I never hurt the prince!” the woman began sobbing, “I wouldn’t!”
“I didn’t do it,” Lee scowled, “I’m not that stupid.”
“Why would I hurt my own brother?” Rick asked.
“My husband didn’t do it!” Tanya’s mother cried. Tanya’s father waved his arms rapidly. “We both love Prince Orion. He’s been teaching us both sign language since my husband can’t speak.”
“Orion,” Tanya sobbed, approaching Orion, “Father wouldn’t do such a thing. You know he wouldn’t!”
“You’re right, Tanya,” Orion said, remembering the growling voice, “My attacker spoke to me. Your father can’t speak, so he couldn’t have done it. Release him!” Orion said to the guards. They immediately backed away from Tanya’s father. “The voice I heard was definitely male,” Orion continued, “so that woman couldn’t have done it, either. Let her go.” The gu
ards dropped her arms and stepped back. She dropped to her knees and cried in relief.
“That leaves either Rick or Lee,” King Frederic said, looking from one to the other.
“I didn’t do it,” Lee repeated, frowning, not taking his eyes off of Orion.
“C’mon, bro,” Rick leaned on one leg and put his hands on his hips, “You know it wasn’t me. I’ve got no reason to attack my little brother.”
“I’m not little,” Orion said defensively.
“And you have a perfectly good reason, too,” King Frederic added, folding his arms, “Now that Orion’s going to inherit Lunspae, that is.”
“Frederic!” Empress Anita shot him a nasty glance. King Frederic glared back at her.
“That’s true,” Rick said calmly, “but Orion and I had already discussed it, and I’m okay with Mother’s decision.”
“And what about you, Lee?” Empress Anita said, trying to turn King Frederic’s attention away from Rick. She gazed angrily at Lee. “From what I heard, you and Orion are pretty much at each other’s throats.” Everyone turned their attention to Lee.
“Just because I don’t like Prince Orion as much as everyone else, doesn’t mean that I’m stupid enough to attack him,” Lee snapped, “Besides, he saved my fiancé’s life when the ATA attacked. I don’t have anything against him.”
“Except the fact that Tanya seems to spend more time with Orion than she does with you,” Rick muttered, looking away. Lee shot him an angry glare.
“Nobody asked you!” Lee shot back, pulling against the guards that still held him. Rick took a defensive stance.
“That’s enough!” King Frederic yelled. Taking a deep breath to clam himself, he turned to Orion. “What do you think, Orion? Which of these two threw you off the balcony?” He glanced at Rick and Lee. “Personally, I think Rick did it.”
“That’s preposterous,” Rick said calmly, crossing his arms again. “Like I already told you, Orion’s my brother. I have no intention on harming family.”
“I certainly didn’t do it,” Lee said, glaring at Rick “I’m not a murderer. Listen, if you don’t believe me, use ninmisn to read my mind. I didn’t do it.” Orion raised a hand for silence. A new realization just came over him.
“Along with ninmisn, we also have fysimae at our disposal,” Orion began, trying to use his best regal voice. “Every living lunimorf has learned to master fysimae as children. I honestly believe that it was not one of these,” Orion gestured to the four assembled in front of him, “but someone else. Perhaps someone who escaped the attack that left me,” he paused and took a shaky breath, “stuck in this chair.” Empress Anita moved closer and put her hand on Orion’s shoulder. Orion reached up and squeezed her hand. Orion took a deep breath. “Let them go. They’re not the ones we’re after.”
