The Red Abbey Chronicles (4 page)

I did not entirely understand what she meant, but asked no more questions. All I knew was that on the island, with its warm sun, cool wind and fragrant hillsides, amongst goats and bees and sisters and novices, I was home.

During the break Ennike and I went to our favourite place under the lemon tree. Jai came with us. We ate our bread, drank cold spring water and gazed over the wall out to the silvery-blue sea, which shone so
brightly it hurt our eyes. The air was filled with the sharp, sweet fragrance of the herbs and flowers Sister Nar grows in Knowledge Garden. Birds hovered on the breeze above us, sometimes alone, sometimes in flocks of gleaming white wings. A black cat with grey paws sat on the low garden wall grooming itself. Ennike leant back against the trunk of the lemon tree and stretched her legs.

“I hope I get called to a house or a sister soon. I cannot take Sister O’s lessons any more.”

“But they are fascinating! We learn something new every day!” I gaped at her and she smiled.

“You can soak up knowledge like a sponge for days on end, Maresi. But I need to start doing something. Just think, if Mother called me as a servant to the Moon! That would be such an honour.”

“You are the oldest novice on the island without a house. Of course she will choose you.” I lay on my back and looked up at the tree’s foliage. Small white flowers shone here and there amongst the dark leaves. The black cat jumped down from the wall and strutted towards us. Jai stretched out a cautious hand and the cat rubbed its head against it and started to purr. Then suddenly Jai tensed up. I sat up and followed her gaze.

A little white boat with a blue sail was making its way into the harbour below.

“A fishing boat,” I said softly, “coming to sell its catch. Look, there is Sister Veerk and her novice Luan. They handle trade. Now they are going out on the pier, see? They will fill their baskets with fresh fish and then pay with copper coins or beeswax candles or maybe some healing ointment prepared by Sister Nar. She is the one who takes care of us when we are sick. She knows everything about healing and herbs. The fishermen usually tell them what they need so Sister Veerk can have it ready next time they come.”

Jai still could not relax, so Ennike and I exchanged glances and got up.

“Lessons start again soon. Come on.”

J
AI SOON GOT USED TO THE
A
BBEY’S
ways. I only had to show her something once and she remembered it. She took her dishes to the scullery when she had finished eating, she offered her bread to Havva, she took her clothes to Body’s Spring for washing and she read the texts Sister O gave her every evening. She learnt the movements of the sun greeting and the songs of thanks and praise within a few days. In the evenings she would come with me straight to Knowledge House and sit reading until sundown. She did not leave my side. The sisters noticed and did not separate us when they shared out duties, so Jai came with me to herd the goats up the mountain, harvest mussels on the beach, make the year’s first batch of cheese, fetch water from the well, sweep the courtyards and clean Novice House.

It soon became clear that Jai had not done much physical labour before. She was weak and could only carry half a bucket of water, but she never complained. She hardly ever spoke at all.

She had intense dreams at night and often woke me up with her anxious tossing and turning. I heard her mumble things I could not quite make out. She kept repeating one name: Unai. I did not know if that was a woman’s or a man’s name, but it must have been somebody very important because Jai dreamt about Unai every night. Lots of us sleep in the same dormitory and I was not the only one who heard Jai’s dreams.

Over the next few weeks spring came in full bloom. It started getting warmer and the sisters began talking about Moon Dance and all the other rituals of spring. Soon the mountains were draped in white and blue spring flowers and the air was alive with the hum of flies and bees. Dori strolled around singing along with the birds. She can mimic any bird perfectly.

One evening, half a moon after Jai’s arrival, we were sitting together in our dormitory getting ready 
for bed. The older girls brushed the younger girls’ hair and I helped Ennike untangle her curls, which are always windswept and knotted by the end of the day. She was sitting with her head back and her eyes shut.

“My sister used to do this when I was little,” she murmured. “I do not remember much about her other than the feel of her hands in my hair.”

Heo sat by my feet and played with a kitten with fur as black as her own hair. The cat pounced on her fingers with its sharp teeth and claws but Heo did not mind getting scratched.

“I don’t have any sisters,” she said. “Do you, Maresi?”

I nodded, brushing Ennike’s hair until it shone. “One brother and two sisters. One of my sisters is older than me and my brother is your age, Heo. My big sister Náraes never had time to brush my hair. She helped our mother with the farm and I took care of the little ones.” I swallowed. It was still difficult for me to talk about Anner. “My youngest sister—”

Jai was mending a hole in her trousers with a needle and thread. As I braced myself to carry on talking I saw that her sewing had fallen onto her lap
and her cheeks had gone as white as the snow up on White Lady’s peak. Just then Heo interrupted me.

“Jai, who is Unai? I have heard you say the name at night.”

“Heo!” I said sharply, and she looked up at me with her big brown eyes, taken aback by my tone. At the same moment Jai let out a high-pitched, whimpering cry. It was a terrible sound. She raised her hands and smacked herself in the face, over and over again until I leapt forward and grabbed hold of her hands. But I could not stop her wailing. I turned to Ennike without letting go.

“Get Sister Nummel!”

Ennike rushed out of the room as the other novices moved out of the way. Heo had curled up into a little ball between the beds and was silent. Before long Sister Nummel came rushing in and together we led Jai to Sister Nummel’s bed. Jai did not protest, but we had to hold her hands to stop her trying to slap or scratch at herself. Ennike ran to fetch Sister Nar, who swiftly turned up with a tincture she made Jai drink. It afforded her a little calm and soon she lay subdued on Sister Nummel’s bed.

The sisters shooed me and Ennike away and we had a hard time trying to get the agitated junior 
novices into bed. When the dorms were finally quiet, Ennike and I went out to get a breath of fresh air and calm down.

The indigo sky, dotted with stars, arched over the central courtyard. Everything was quiet but for the sea’s gentle hush beyond the wall. Ennike and I took a deep breath.

“She has gone through even worse things than I have. I was often beaten by my father and grandfather, but she has had worse than beatings.”

I tried to understand what it would be like to be hit by your own father. I thought about my skinny little papa, who gave up his own portions to us children in that never-ending winter. I thought about how he had gathered together all the stories he could about the Abbey, where it was and how to get there. How he wept when he realized that living in the Abbey would be the best thing for me. How he would not let go of my hand as I sat in the cart which was to take me away from our home, from our village, from our land, to the far-off southern coast.

“She does not know how to feel safe.” As I said it I knew it was true. “We will have to teach her how.”

W
E ARE MOSTLY SELF-SUFFICIENT
at the Abbey. We harvest mussels, birds’ eggs, berries and fruits from mountain and sea. We have goats for milk and cheese and meat, and we grow vegetables in one of the valleys between the Abbey and the Solitary Temple. There are also some olive trees and vineyards by the Solitary Temple, and we get honey from Sister Mareane’s beehives.

But we do have to buy grains, fish, salt and spices, as well as fabric for clothes and incense for our censers. All these things require silver, but the Abbey has more than enough of that, thanks to the bloodsnail.

The bloodsnail is the only way to dye fabric truly crimson. You can get plenty of different reddish shades with various plants, but none of them give the same deep, brilliant red colour as the bloodsnail. I think the colour is beautiful, of course, but it still
amazes me how sought after it is in all the known lands and how high a price it commands. Bloodsnail red dyes the garments of kings and fabrics of the rich. Only those with a heavy purse can afford the colour. The bloodsnail is what gave the Red Abbey its name, or so I thought, but when I said so to Sister O she replied that there were probably several reasons. It is also about the sacred lifeblood and things I did not entirely understand yet.

When Mother was a girl, bloodsnail red did not fetch the same price as it does today. At that time bloodsnails were harvested in different places, including many of the islands of Valleria, and even as far west as the land of Longhorn. I heard that the Vallerian folk produced their dye by gathering the snails in large barrels and leaving them to rot in the sun. The stench filled the Vallerian archipelago for several weeks every summer. In the end the bloodsnails were wiped out completely. There were none left.

But our island still has a thriving colony. We have an alternative method of collecting the dye.

The snail harvest happens at the height of spring, after the awakening of the Spring Star. We perform rites of thanks in the Temple of the Rose before the
coming summer. This entails a huge bonfire to burn all the scraps which floated inland or blew down in the seasonal storms, and then we wait for a day of fine weather.

Bloodsnails are Sister Loeni’s domain. She decides when to harvest, she organizes everything and oversees the dyeing process. She is also responsible for the trade, along with Sister Veerk. Her stern stare can force the price up sky-high. All that silver certainly does not just sit idly at the bottom of Mother’s coffer. The novices who leave the Red Abbey and make their way back out into the world take silver with them so that they can do what they need to. Build infirmaries and found schools. Maybe improve the living standards in their homelands.

I thought about it sometimes. The silver I could take with me if I went back home to Mother and Father. To my sister and brother. What I could do for them, and for my whole village. No more hunger winters. Shoes and thick furs for everybody. I thought about Anner; surely there are other children like her, ones who die from starvation.

But then I would have to leave the Abbey. Leave all my friends, leave the morning wash, Moon Dance, the lessons. Knowledge Garden, Sister Mareane’s
goat kids, the kittens. Leave behind the security of never having to go hungry. Leave Sister O and the treasure chamber.

Sister Loeni thinks she is so superior because she is servant to the Blood. That gives her special responsibilities in the Temple of the Rose as well, during the Blood rites, but that is no reason to be stuck-up. The servant to the Rose is the most important servant after Mother, but she is the most humble of all the sisters.

Toulan, Sister Loeni’s novice, is a good friend of mine. I was very disappointed when she was called to become Blood novice last year. She and Sister Loeni are so different. Joem would have been much better suited! I thought Toulan would be terribly unhappy in her role. I certainly would be if I had to work with Sister Loeni every day. But when I showed sympathy for her fate, Toulan just smiled at me.

“Oh I do not pay attention to all her lectures and chidings. When I finally stopped listening to them I heard everything that lies behind them. She has a lot of knowledge and she takes her role very seriously. She will not let the bloodsnails die out. And as servant to the Blood I get to explore some of the deepest mysteries of the First Mother.”

Toulan has always been the most sensible of the novices. When the rest of us were sneaking away from praise to go swimming, or hiding in the goat stalls to get out of some boring duty, Toulan would take no notice of us and get on with her duties patiently. She would never snitch, and it is not that she is boring, just serious. She saw her parents die of a terrible disease when she was little. Then she made a long and perilous journey to the Abbey all by herself. For a long time I thought she would become Sister Nar’s novice. She is fascinated by herbs and healing. But she says she wants to delve deeper into the mysteries of the First Mother.

We were blessed with beautiful weather this spring. No sudden spring storm erupted, it was mild and pleasant, and when the Spring Star awoke White Lady was still wearing her crown of snow and her slopes were so covered with white fulcorn flowers that the whole mountain looked snow-covered.

After we performed the rites of Revival and Mother made all the offerings, every morning dawned with perfect weather. But Sister Loeni still made a big
deal of choosing the perfect day, with wind from the north-east, to ensure the harvest went as smoothly as possible.

Then, at last, one morning we were woken by the low clang of the Blood bell. I had warned Jai but she still bolted up in bed, terrified.

“It is the beginning of harvest week!” said Ennike. “No lessons!” She jumped out of bed and pulled Jai to her feet. “We get to be outside every day! No sun greeting, no washing, no boring duties!”

I smiled wryly at Ennike. No wonderful lessons, no meals at Hearth House, or evenings in the treasure chamber either. I was happy too, of course, but for different reasons. The snail harvest is the only work that all sisters and novices do communally and I love it when we all gather together. Even the sisters from the Solitary Temple accompany us. The only ones who stay in the Abbey are the oldest sisters, whose backs can no longer bend over snails and baskets.

We gathered in the courtyard in front of Hearth House. Sister Mareane and Dori had harnessed our two donkeys up to carts packed with neat coils of silk thread and woollen yarn. Toulan and Sister Loeni handed out baskets to everybody, even Mother, and then we left the Abbey via the goat door.

The island smelt of honey and dew as we walked up the path along the mountainside, and I remember thinking that I never could have dreamt of such a place when I lived in the village back home. A place with warmth and food and knowledge. Life in Rovas was like a cave where everybody is oblivious to the outside world and the cold darkness of the cave is all anybody knows. Coming to the Abbey and learning to read was like opening up a big window and being flooded with light and warmth. I took a deep breath and felt grateful for the feeling of food in my belly, the sun on my face and the fresh spring breeze around my legs. Happiness, I thought. This is happiness.

The sisters were walking in front of me in their worst, most worn-out and stained clothes, with trouser legs rolled up and ready. They were laughing and chatting and I could hear Sister O’s deep voice stand out from the rest. Jai walked next to me with her fingers tightly clasping the handle of her basket, and Heo was jumping around behind me with her best friend Ismi, a little red-haired girl from Valleria, who has been with us since last summer. Behind them Ennike was singing a song with the junior novices.

I turned around to look at them. On every “hop hop” all the junior novices did a big frog leap along the path and exploded into giggles. The donkey carts were behind them and the older novices were right at the back with their headscarves flapping gently in the bright sunlight.

I turned to Jai.

“We will camp on the beach, at least for tonight. Maybe longer if the weather stays this beautiful. Have you ever slept outside?”

“No. It was forbidden for girls to leave the house after sundown.”

That was the first time she had mentioned her old life. I was so curious about what land she was from. At first I thought maybe Devenland, but Jai was too fair-haired to be from those parts. I did not dare ask.

“It can be a bit uncomfortable and I find it difficult to sleep the first night, even though I am tired from the day’s work. But there are plenty of stars to stare at if you cannot sleep.”

A low wall runs along the first stretch of the path. It protects walkers from falling down the steep slopes of the cliff where the Abbey is situated. Red-haired little Ismi came running past us and jumped up onto the wall. She stretched her hands out to the sides and walked along it fearlessly.

“Look at me! Now I am taller than all of you!” she laughed triumphantly. Before I had time to react Jai rushed over and lifted her down angrily.

“You could have fallen!” She leant to look over the wall. Foaming white seawater crashed against the jagged boulders below.

Ismi just laughed and skipped out of our reach. Little girls tend to believe they are invincible and Ismi is a particularly wild one.

Soon the steep path levelled out and we followed the south side of the mountain. We walked through the vineyards, where new leaves were just beginning to appear on the vines.

“This is where Sister Király and her novices grow grapes for raisins,” I said, and pointed. “At some of 
the festivals we get raisins in our winter porridge. And our olive groves are down there in the valley, near the bay.”

Jai shielded her eyes with her hand, dazzled by the sunlight on the water’s surface.

“The sea is so big,” she said, “and it is always changing colour from one moment to the next. I could look at it for ever and never get bored. And the horizon… sometimes it is so sharp, like a knife edge, but at other times you can hardly see it through the haze of heat or rain.”

“Was your home very far from the sea?”

She lowered her hand. “No. But I never got to see it. I never left my father’s house and the rice fields in the valley. When I was very little I was allowed to go with them to Colour Fest, but then my father decided that the girls had to stay at home.”

So there must have been more children in Jai’s family.

“I had never seen the sea either before I came to Muerio,” I said. Jai looked at me questioningly. “That is the Vallerian seaport. The one that most of the girls who come here set sail from. I had seen quite big lakes on my journey south, but nothing 
could prepare me for the sea. It goes on for ever. I was so scared when I boarded the boat!” I laughed at the memory, but Jai was serious.

“I was scared too. But not of the sea.”

“Maresi!” Heo pulled me by the arm. “Maresi, tell us a story!”

I smiled at her earnest little face. “Heo, it is not polite to interrupt.”

“Yes but you just keep talking and talking. Ismi wants to hear a story too!”

“Shall I tell the one about White Lady and why she always wears a hat made of snow?”

“No, please Maresi, tell us the one about when the robbers attacked the Abbey!” Ismi grabbed me by my other arm. I glanced at Jai. That might not be such a good story for her to hear; it might frighten her. But it does have a happy ending.

“It was several years after the First Sisters landed on the island in the ship
Naondel
. They had already managed to build Knowledge House and Sister House, and were working on the Temple of the Rose. Sister House was much smaller then because there were only seven First Sisters. Do you remember their names, Heo?”

“Kabira, Clarás, Garai, Estegi, Orseola, Sulani
and…” She bit her lip in concentration. “I never remember the last one.”

“Her name was Daera and she was the first ser vant to the Rose.” I moved my basket from one hand to the other and looked over at Jai. “Look, there is the path that goes north to the valley where we grow our crops between our Abbey and White Lady. From there the path leads to the Solitary Temple, but we are following White Lady’s southern slope down to the south coast of the island. It is flat there and good for harvesting snails.”

“Carry on with the story!” whined Ismi.

“The Abbey did not have much silver in those days. The Sisters had not discovered the bloodsnail colony yet. They were too busy setting up the Abbey, building houses and gathering more knowledge. I do not think there were any novices here then, but I am not sure. I do not think rumours about the Abbey had spread yet.”

“But a ship came anyway!” said Heo. “A big one!”

“Yes, there came a big ship with a sharp bow and red and grey sails, a ship much like the
Naondel
. It does not say in any of the books I have read, but I think it might have come from the Eastern lands, like the First Sisters. There were bad men on
the ship. They wanted to get at the First Sisters’ knowledge. Maybe they wanted to get at the Sisters themselves.”

Jai stumbled. I took her hand to help her up and kept hold awhile as she found her feet.

“That was before the outer wall was built, so the Abbey was completely unprotected. The men sailed straight into the harbour one night while the Sisters were sleeping. But the island was not sleeping. When the men stepped on land all the birds on the island began to sing and woke the Sisters up. They ran to Knowledge House at once.”

“Why did they go there, Maresi? Why didn’t they go up in the mountains?”

“I don’t know, Heo. Maybe they wanted to protect the knowledge from the men?”