Watchers and Wanderers: The Bloodline

The True Ceremony

Watchers & Wanderers 1.5

The Bloodline: Janelle

The spirits dance with the moon beneath me, mocking me.

I woke up in my bed screaming as shivers raced down my body. Before I exhausted my lungs, Uliee ran inside with an uneasy face . She stood at the doorway, eyeing me and holding a crinkled paper that looked like it had been read through countless times. She flipped it over so the words were facing me.

"This is the speech I had rehearsed every moon for your ceremony ," she said. The letters were frayed and some of the ink was smudged. "I planned on showering you with compliments, gratitude, and respect in honor of your eighteenth birthday and how did you repay me? Your Queen, your caretaker, your family?" She ripped the paper and dropped it into a candle. It burned and shredded.

I rubbed my eyes, but it didn't fix the blur. My mind was dancing somewhere between a nightmare and reality and couldn't process what Uliee was saying as the smell of smoke flurried into my room. As reality settled, Uliee was sitting on my bed and softly rubbing my hair.

"You acted like a child, a scared child," she said softly. "I thought you were ready, you told me you were, didn't you?" She motioned to the door and Dane entered the room holding a small cage with a young fox-spirit in it. Its ribs were showing, decaying almost, and it barely had enough energy to keep its eyes open. Uliee opened the cage and held the spirit by its neck.

I perked up.

Ty.

"All you had to do was kill one spirit animal," Uliee said as she dangled the defenseless spirit from her hands. "One spirit animal and I would have officially made you, my only niece, my only family, the successor to my great throne. But you ran away." She leaned into my ear and emphasized a sinister smile. "Just like your mother did."

Uliee started to squeeze the fox's neck and the remaining glimmer of life locked with my eyes. Uliee waited for my response and was visibly pleased with ending a spirit-animal's life.

"I'm sorry, aunt," I said faintly and admittedly. .

I truly had more to say, but my thoughts swam in circles and couldn't find their way out of my head. "I'm sorry for running away, that is not what leaders do and I will face whatever punishment you deem appropriate."

Uliee released tension from the coyote's neck and threw it to the ground next to the ripped up speech. The animal gasped and scurred until Dane grabbed it and threw it back into its cage.

"Fortunately for you, there is no one to succeed me so I have no choice but to let you become the bloodline," Uliee said. "However, I've decided it will come with a heavier toll than you thought."

I tried to stand, but Uliee pulled me down and as my legs hit the mattress, my body met a strange rush that went through my palms.

"What do I need to do?" I said fiercely.

Uliee motioned and Dane disappeared for a moment. While we waited for him to return, Uliee softly rubbed my shoulders.

'Don't try to comfort me," I said.

"I want what's best for you."

I tried, and wanted, to back away, but instead embraced the gesture. "I want you to be a better ruler than me."

Dane returned empty handed and bowed to Uliee.

"Are you ready for him, Queen Uliee?" he said.

"No, no, no," I said and jumped away from Uliee's touch and stared at the doorway. Dane threw Ty inside, tied up at the mouth and limbs,and he slammed against the tree-spirit floor.

He was beaten, bruised, and bashed on the face and his hands were tied in double knots and he couldn't move them at all.

"Janelle-," he tried to utter, but Dane bashed his head against the floor to make him stop. Uliee got to her knees and leaned over to his face.

"I knew there's more here," she said. "And what I was suspicious of was confirmed tonight at your ceremony."

She grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head up.

"You felt a special little connection to the fox-spirit the bloodline was supposed to kill," she continued as she looked at him. "Didn't you, you little dred." She tossed him back to the floor. "They abandoned us, Janelle. They use the spirit-animals to do their dirty work and kill our people. And you've become friends with one?"

"What are you going to do?" I cried.

"I'm not going to do anything, child," Uliee responded. "It is what you are going to do." She handed me a map and a knife with stained blood on it. "Master Dane is going to take you and the dred and to kill the fox-spirit in front of him, it will hurt him especially," She smirked at Ty. "And finally, your first order as the bloodline is to throw the little dred and his family into prison."

I couldn't find a response, I just looked back and forth from Ty's wincing body and Uliee's sternly brash face. Dane stood in the background with his arms folded and his boot pressed against Ty's battered cheeks.

"I'll kill the fox-spirit," I responded.

I wanted to look at Ty.

"But I won't put my friend in prison. He's been one of the only true friends I've ever had. Even if he is a Naturalist."

"You cannot be a leader of Najwa and be friendly with any Naturalist. In order to be true to your destiny, you need to be strong and make sacrifices. This boy... This dred, and his people left me, your people, your mother to die when the spirit-animals broke free. They do not let us into their lives and we do not let them into ours."

Silence consumed the room.

"You do not have a choice in the matter," Uliee concluded. "Kill the fox-spirit, imprison the dreds, or you will be in a cell next to them." She turned to Dane. "Master Dane, prepare a meeting with the rest of the Zhao-Li. It is time we expand our search and find more Dreds hiding in our trees."

Dane nodded.

Uliee exited the room and stopped at Dane's shoulder, even with his blades.

"Your title rests on this mission too, Master..." she whispered. "Time is running out until she finds out the truth."

He nodded and followed and grabbed Ty and threw him over his shoulders. He started to wake up and looked at me.

"It'll be okay, Ty. I'll figure this out," I said.

"Lake-Market," he whispered.

His eyes closed again and they disappeared into the Royal Treehouse and I stood alone.

Lake-Market.