To Storm Heaven - Esther Friesner [29]
“She was right,” Ma’adrys said. “I was flawed in spirit and it shamed me. More than anything, I wanted to become an oberyin, to enter the closed teachings, but when I was old enough for the judging and the choosing, our own oberyin, Bilik, said that my pride had made me an unfit vessel, ready to shatter and spill the precious teachings.” She bowed her head, every eye in the conference room fixed upon her. “And I proved him right then and there by accusing him of making a false judgment against me for his own ends.” Riker leaned nearer to Dr. Crusher. “Nice guy, this Bilik.” “What is an oberyin?” Captain Picard asked.
“They are our healers, our teachers, our guides to the good teachings,” Ma’adrys answered. “Each village has at least one, and the larger settlements boast more. They offer the burning leaves, they bless the fields, the forges, and the kilns, they know the secret thoughts of water, wind, and fire, and they help us to walk with the gods.” “They almost sound like shamans,” Dr. Crusher remarked.
“It takes long years of study to become an oberyin,” Ma’adrys went on. This time she was the one to pour herself a fresh drink and downed it without hesitation. “First, of course, you must come to the notice of your village oberyin and be found worthy. Sometimes the choosing comes to you before you know your own wishes. Bilik is only a little older than I, because he was only six years old when he was chosen. He never had to ask for the honor, or be rejected.” She sounded bitter, but quickly realized this and changed her tone to one of businesslike indifference. “I do not know how many of them there are in all the settled lands of Iskir, but I do know that the seat of the Na’amOberyin lies less than a day’s journey from Kare’al.” She could not help sounding proud of this.
“Is the Na’amOberyin their leader?” Commander Riker wanted to know.
Ma’adrys looked at him as if he had sprouted antlers. “How can one alone lead?” she replied. “That goes against the good teachings. Not even the Lady of the Balances rules without taking counsel of her kindred, and who are we to act against the example of the gods themselves? The Na’amOberyin is a council of those nine oberyin who hold the highest favor with the gods.” Captain Picard nodded. “I see. Go on with your own story, please.” Ma’adrys spread her hands. “There is little more to tell. After I was found unworthy of the high studies, my life went on as it had before. That is—” She seemed to be on the point of revealing something, but then she blushed and said, “Yes, exactly as before. I lived in the house that had belonged to my father, and to my mother after he took her in and came to make her his wife. It was not very big or very solid, but it was mine. Mostly, though, I stayed with Mother Se’ar, helping her, sometimes helping our village herbwife, La’akel. I was unworthy of the closed teachings, but nothing forbade me to learn what I could elsewhere.
La’akel said that I had good hands for birthings, and she praised the blend of herbal tea I made to ease a laboring mother’s pain. It was my own invention. I also found that if you boil the root of the n’shash plant and mix it with new milk, it helps wounds heal fast and clean.” “N’shash?” Ambassador Lelys was all attention.
She produced a small datapad, tapped out a rapid sequence on the keys, and shoved it in front of Ma’adrys. “Does it look like this?” Ma’adrys drew back from the datapad until Geordi leaned over her shoulder to whisper a few words of reassurance. The silence in the conference room became a living presence while the girl studied the picture of a sample of n’vashal in full bloom. All that could be heard was the soft hum of the great starship’s systems, the breath of the Enterprise. At last she shook her head. “Nothing like it. N’shash is a weed that grows beside our mountain streams. It has no blossoms. In fact, I have never seen any plant like this one.” She gazed at Lelys closely. “Why do you ask?” “Never mind.” The Orakisan ambassador retrieved her datapad, doing