stats :: candidate :: sr.weyrling :: jr.weyrling :: talis weyr :: quinalt weyr
Nooli came up with and dismissed countless plans during the first sevenday of Tolodi's life. How would she explain the babe's absence? If she said that the babe had died one way or another, her father would call her an irresponsible parent and refuse to arrange a marriage for her. If she said the babe had been kidnapped, her father would say and do the same thing.
And if her father never arranged a marriage for her, then she'd never get out of this hold. She'd have to live here for the rest of her life, and the thoguht of that was unbearable.
Finally, she gave up trying to think of a plan and made up her mind just to go; she could figure out what to say later. If she could find the midwife who had assisted during Tolodi's birth, or any other midwife, for that matter, she could get her to a milk-mother. From there, she could decide how she would tell her father.
While her father and brother and sister and the rest of the hold was working in the fields, Nooli dressed in a warm clothes and took the fastest, quietest runner, a big sandy-colored gelding named Meerax, from their stables. Tolodi cried at the feel of cold air on her skin for the first time despite the layers and layers of furs Nooli had wrapped her in.
"Hush," Nooli told her daughter, cradling her closer, knowing that if she cried too loudly someone woould hear and tell her father.
Tolodi stopped crying and gazed up curiously at her mother, as if she knew what was going on. Just to be sure that she would remain quiet, Nooli dipped her finger in some watered down fellis and allowed Tolodi to suck at it for a few minutes. She gave a tiny yawn and then closed her eyes, snuggling deeper into the furs.
Nooli almost didn't leave then. The expression of trust on her daughter's face nearly made her decide to stay. But then she remembered who Tolodi belonged to, and was disgusted with herself for even considering keeping her. Putting her daughter in a sling under her cloak, Nooli lept to Meerax's back and, pointing him in the direction of the main building that was Lortuk Hold, away from the fields, kicked her heels into the runner's sides so that he half-reared and started into a gallop.
It was a longer ride to the main hold because of branches that had fallen on the road in the previous night's windstorm and because her father and a few other men were following her. When she finally arrived, Nooli was sure she had been under every clump of brush a horse could hide in between her cothold and the main hold.
Poor Meerax was clearly exhausted and Nooli made sure that the stable hand gave him plenty of water and hay while he was there. Then she started towards the hold.
It had been quite a while since she'd been inside the Lotuk Hold, but she had relatively little trouble finding the infirmary. An old drudge had been on his way there and was happy to help her find her way. "This'd be where ya'd find a midwife," he told her as he delivered the clean furs for the beds. "Good luck."
The very midwife who had helped Nooli was there and was very relieved to see her. Probably she was just relieved to see that Tolodi was alive and well. "I can get her to a milk-mother by this afternoon," the midwife assured her. "You're sure your father is alright with this?"
"He didn't really care," Nooli replied with an indifferent shrug. How would the midwife find out she was lying? And by that time Tolodi would be long gone.
Leaving Tolodi with the midwife, Nooli started for the kitchens in search of some klah. She felt so free, something she hadn't felt since she had discovered that she was pregnant nearly ten months ago. The elderly cook working busily at the stove smiled as she practically danced in and asked for some klah and whatever was left over from the morning meal.
"Something good happen?" the cook asked amiably, setting a mug of klah and some warm bread on the table. "You look like you've won a hundred marks."
"Better than that," Nooli replied as she sipped at her klah, but didn't care to elaborate and the cook, sensing this, returned to whatever she was making at the stove.
As Nooli sat there, enjoying her freedom and drinking her klah, she heard familiar men's voices in the hall. Listening harder, she could hear her father's among them. They must have followed her here. Thanking the cook for the food, Nooli lept from the table and dashed out the back exit into a hallway which she hoped would lead her into the dining hall.
Unfortunately for Nooli, it didn't. She found herself in a dimly lit hall that branched off in two directions. It was well kept and not dusty, so it was obviously still used, but it didn't look like she would meet many people here. Better to stay where she was until her father and the other men left. She put an ear to the thick door, trying to make out what they were saying.
"...left this morning... didn't see..." her father was saying. Some of his words were fainter than others.
"Not too tall...dark brown hair..." another of the men added.
"Came through here a few minutes ago..." the cook replied and then said something else she couldn't hear. "...that door."
"That door" could only be the one Nooli was behind. She heard footsteps as the men got up, no doubt walking towards her hiding place. Or they might not have been. Nooli didn't want to find out. She took off running down the left branch of the hall.
She was a good ways down the hall before she looked back - and discovered that she was being chased. She sprinted away, taking a sharp left where the hall forked once again.
It seemed as though the hall was endless. She'd taken turn after turn and still she was followed, the men never far behind. Finally she saw a door off the side and flung it open.
Her eyes were met with the welcome sight of the main foyer. She did her best to move a heavy chair in front of the door and then started outside.
In her haste to get to Meerax and back to the cothold, she collided with a man walking in, knocking him over and landing next to him on the marble floor. She saw, to her horror, that he was a dragonrider.
"I'm sorry-" he began, putting his hand on Nooli's arm to help her up. Nooli wrenched her arm from his grip and backed away from him.
"Keep away from me," she snapped. Who knew what a dragonrider might do to a girl he'd knocked to the ground, no matter that they were in the foyer of a Hold.
The dragonrider looked shocked. "I'm sorry for bumping into you," he tried again. "I didn't see you. I was only trying to help you up."
"Well I don't need any help from a dragonrider," Nooli told him, scrambling to her feet and making for the door. The dragonrider caught her by the arm.
"Wait a second, what do you have against dragonriders?" the rider asked, pulling her back. "What'd we ever do to you besides keep you alive?"
"You r-" as Nooli began to reply, her father burst through the door with two of her uncles behind him.
"So you got rid of one babe a rider sired and now you're working on getting a second started," Norislal growled. "Don't you ever learn?"
The rider drew himself up proudly. "Sir, I don't know why you would think that, but you're mistaken. I was simply informing..." he paused and Nooli mouthed her name to him, "Nooli here that my green Askamath has Searched her."
A look of suprise flitted across Norislal's face before it was replaced with a sneer. "You want this worthless bed hopper for a dragonrider? Trust me greenrider, I know my daughter. She is not dragonrider material."
"That is for my green to decide," the rider replied stiffly. "You ought to show more respect, holder."
Nooli watched her father and the greenrider argue, a little emberassed that she had acted so afraid when he wasn't even interested in girls. Why was he getting her out of this mess?
You think we'd leave a perfectly good Candidate here un-searched? a woman's voice scoffed indignantly. Nooli looked around to see where it had come from.
Why don't humans know a dragon when they hear one? the woman sighed. J'den's to busy making a fool of himself, so I suppose I should tell you. J'den and I are on Search from Talis Weyr and you have been Searched. And as soon as he stops being so stupid we can leave.
Nooli's jaw dropped. Searched? How in Faranth's name had this happened?
But Askamath didn't have time to reply, because Narislol had his belt knife drawn, and J'den was urging her out into the courtyard. A green dragon was half-running, hald-flying to meet them and J'den didn't waste any time jumping to her back and helping Nooli up.
"Come back here, greenrider!" Narislol bellowed as he ran. Askamath bugled defiantly and then launched herself from the ground, winging her way into the air.
"I haven't introduced myself yet have I," J'den asked once they were safely in the air, "or told you where we're going."
"You didn't but Askamath did," Nooli shouted back over the wind. "I accept the Search, J'den of Talis Weyr."
J'den looked suprised only for a moment. "Good," he yelled back, "because we're not going to take you back down there!"
Askamath rumbled her agreement and only then did Nooli's stomach lurch when she realized how far off the ground she was. She didn't have much time to feel sick, because Askamath went Between, and all feeling turned to black.