Naeemah | Search
Naeemah had been the victim of very bad headaches in over her years. The worst of them, however, seemed only a slight ache compared to the one that met her now. Her entire head throbbed with a pain so deep and complete that she could only give a weak groan though she wanted to scream.
"She's alive!" the voice echoed inside Naeemah's head, making it hurt even more. Naeemah groaned weakly again and put her hands over her ears to block out the sound but the echoes continued for some time before the stopped.
"Don't talk so loud, dimglow! She's probably got a horrible headache!" someone else said in a lower voice.
Naeemah wanted to thank whoever it was, but all she managed over the pain in her head was a raspy "th-th-thank y-you."
"What're we supposed to do?" the first person who had spoken asked in a whisper. "Sadlor didn't say what to do when she woke up!"
"Well then we probably should go get Sadlor, huh?" replied the second person in a whisper even lower than the first yet still dripping with sarcasm.
"You think we should bother him?" The first person asked again after a few moments of hesitation.
The second person gave an exasperated groan. "Of course! C'mon, dimglow! Don't get lost on the way out!"
Naeemah breathed a sigh of relief when the two left and experimentally took her hands off her ears. Her headache had died down to a dull throb in the back of her head but nothing as bad as it had been before. She now dared to open her eyes as well and found herself looking up at a stony, warmly lit ceiling. It reminded her of the infirmary back at the hall.
Looking around, she realized that she was in an infirmary. There were rows of cots, most empty, a few filled. But it was obvious she as not at the Hall. There was always the slight smell of salt water no matter where you were in the Hall and this infirmary... it smelled of something else. Something different than anything she'd ever smelled before but not exactly unpleasant.
Footsteps on the stone floor alerted Naeemah to the arrival of someone. Someone, who, from their foot steps, sounded like an adult. "You two aren't just pulling my leg, are you?" a man asked.
"No Sadlor, she's really awake!" the first person she'd heard insisted. "I heard her say something! Sounded like thank you or something."
"It was thank you, you dimglow," the second person scoffed. "And she was thanking me for not yelling in her ears like you were!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Stuff it, weyrbrats. If you need to kill eachother, please do it outside, I'd like to keep my patients as quiet as possible," the man Naeemah supposed must be Sadlor told the two.
"Can't we puh-leez stay, Sadlor?" the first person pleaded with the healer. "I promise we'll be good 'n quiet! Promise!"
"That'll be the day. You've never been good n' quiet for more than five seconds in your entire life, Retil!" the second person scoffed.
"I have too!" Retil protested.
"Have not!"
"Have t-" Retil's sentence was cut off and replaced with a yelp of pain. Naeemah heard two pairs of little feet go racing out of the infirmary.
"They tell me you're awake," Sadlor began, seating himself on the chair next to her bed. "And it seems they were right, this time. Never can trust weyrbrats, though."
"They were very loud," Naeemah said in a raspy but much improved voice from that of her first attempt at speech that morning.
"They're weyrbrats, what do you expect?" Sadlor sighed. "By the way, I'm Sadlor, journeyman healer. I've been taking care of you since Stergroth brought you in."
"Stergroth? Who's that?" Naeemah asked. "Where am I?"
"You're at Tiynarea Weyr, where you have been for the past three sevendays," Sadlor explained. "And that whole time, you've been asleep. What is your name?"
Naeemah thought for a moment. Was she safe telling him her real name? Would he try to send her back into exile? Did he even know she'd been exiled. "My name is-"
Naeemah was cut off by the sound of the infirmary door flying open and slamming against the wall. "NAEEMAH!" Yteri screeched. "You wher! You should be dead by now! You little - oof! Let go of me, you wher!"
"I'm Naeemah," Naeemah said with a little smile. No point in trying to hide now.
Sadlor was on his feet in a minute. "M'am, I cannot have you storming in here and upsetting patients in delicate states of health!"
"Patients in delicate states of health my hind-end!" Yteri raged from where she was held captive by a burly kitchen drudge. "Naeemah is a cold blooded child murderer! She was exiled to die and now you protect her?"
"What was an exiled, cold blooded child killer doing floating in dolphineer gear in the middle of an ocean with a pod of dolphins during a storm?" Sadlor asked, stepping in front of Naeemah's cot.
"What do I care?" Yteri snapped. "She killed my son and she should be in exile, not here being defended by lousy healers."
"Yteri, I think you've said enough," Naeemah heard a woman's calm yet powerful voice say. "Tefuge, please move her out of the doorway and let her have a seat. She's unarmed."
As soon as Yteri was seated on a cot a powerful looking woman strode into the room. "Sadlor, Yteri, would you care to explain this to me?" the woman asked, then held up a hand to forestall another of Yteri's accusations. "No wait, nevermind. Sadlor, what in Faranth's name is going on here?"
Sadlor explained the situation to the woman while Naeemah watched with a mixture of fear and curiosity and Yteri just sat and seethed. When Sadlor was done explaining, the woman turned to Naeemah.
"Well Naeemah, that is an intersting half of the story," the woman chuckled grimly. "But I'm sure you can tell us more. I don't think we've met before, have we? I'm Weyrwoman Sarilyn, and I am sorry you've had such a rude welcoming to Tiynarea."
"Oh, I'm used to Yteri's temper tantrums," Naeemah replied, sneaking a glance at Yteri's face, which was bright red with anger and shame. "And the rest of the story is fairly simple: because I was not able to save Yteri's son from a shipwreck which my dolphin and I were called to help at, I was found guilty of murder and exiled. The dolphin pods near my island as well as a dolphin from the Dolphineer Hall helped me get to where I was found. I was hit in the head and knocked unconcious and woke up here."
The Weyrwoman had a look of controlled anger on her face that almost made Naeemah flinch. "I see." She whirled smartly around to face Yteri. "Yteri, you have no right to demand Naeemah exiled again. She is in Tiynarea's care now."
"Just because your rider found her and brought her back doesn't make her innocent of the horrific crime she commited!" Yteri gasped.
Sarilyn's mouth curved into a grim smile. "Whether she commited any crime at all is debatable, as I see it. But, innocent or guilty, she is Tiynarea's concern now."
"And why do you claim that?" Yteri snapped. Sadlor looked ready to strangle her again.
"Because the night she was rescued, she was also Searched," Sarilyn announced. "And therfore, murderer or not, she is ours."
"She is still a murderer and she must serve her punishment!" Yteri protested.
"Yteri," Naeemah advised, "stuff it."
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