The Red Abbey Chronicles (3 page)

I ran up to Sister House, opened the door and ran down the corridor to Sister O’s room. I could hear Jai’s steps behind me.

You have to knock on Sister O’s door using a little brass knocker designed for the purpose. It is in the shape of a snake biting its own tail. When I asked Sister O about the snake she smiled her crooked little smile and said it was her guardian. I have learnt not to ask her too many questions at once. But I resolved that one day I would find out exactly what she meant by that.

I knocked and Sister O called “Come in,” sternly, as always. I opened the heavy oak door. Sister O was sitting at a large desk under the western window, bent over piles of parchments and books. Her fingers were
flecked with black ink and she wore linen cloth on her arms so as not to get it on her shirt.

Usually when she sees that it is me she just raises her eyebrows and points at the key hanging on its hook under the wall-mounted candleholder. But when she saw Jai standing behind me she put down her quill and sat up straight.

“Who is this?” she asked with her characteristic abruptness, and I sensed Jai flinch. I stepped out of the way so they could see each other.

“This is Jai, she arrived today. I am going to show her the treasure chamber.”

I blushed. I try not to use that term around anyone else. It is only a childish name I gave the room when I first saw what was in there. I know that the key does not open the way to some kind of treasure trove. But for me it is the best place on the whole island.

Sister O had already gone back to work. She motioned towards the key and turned a page of the book in front of her. I think more often than not she forgets to go to supper.

I lifted down the key. It is as long as my hand and ornately decorated. I always hold it in the same way, with a firm grip on its elegant handle. I waved Jai out and shut the door quietly behind me. Then
I grinned. I could not help it. I get the same feeling of jittery excitement every time.

The treasure chamber is in Knowledge House, past our classrooms, at the far end of the long, echoing stone corridor. In the evenings the house is empty and the doors to the classrooms are closed. Ennike asked me once how I dare go there alone after sundown when the house is empty and still. It had never occurred to me to be scared. I did not know what there would be to fear.

This was the first time I had been there in the evening with somebody else and it bothered me. We rarely get to be alone at the Abbey. My time in the treasure chamber was the only time all day that was totally and utterly my own. But I was trying to be kind to Jai. She probably will not even want to stay once she has seen it, I thought, maybe she will find an Abbey cat to play with or another novice to talk to. Though she did not exactly seem talkative.

Like all the rooms in Knowledge House, the treasure chamber has double doors which are tall and narrow. They are made of a reddish-brown wood sanded and polished to a shine. Sister O takes care of them herself. She is there several times per moon with a ladder, a jar of beeswax and a big, soft
rag, rubbing and polishing. It certainly is not one of her official duties, as I understood when I heard Sister Loeni tut in that disapproving way of hers. But I understand why Sister O does it. Some doors shut you out, some keep secrets and others keep something dangerous locked in. These doors form a comforting, protective barrier around the treasure chamber. I would happily help Sister O polish their beautiful grain. One day I will ask her.

I put the key in the lock and the honey-scented doors swung open without a sound.

Jai gasped.

The treasure chamber is a long, narrow room. Both the long walls are covered with shelves from floor to ceiling. On the short wall at the far end there is a high, narrow window which lets the evening sun stream in. It is the highest window I have ever seen and it has twenty-one panes of glass. The sunlight falls softly over the spines of all the thousands of books on the shelves, and I usually simply stand there a moment, breathing in the scent of dust and parchments and bliss. It is the best part of the day. It makes everything worth it: living here, away from my family, far from our lush valley between the towering hills. Lying in bed night after night
with a pining in my heart. Eating porridge all those grey winter mornings. Being scolded by the sisters and told off by the older novices before I knew how things were done, what to do and what not to do. Barely understanding people speaking around me for a whole year. All of that and much more is worth it just to stand there filled with anticipation and a sort of yearning, but a good one. A yearning that makes my cheeks flush and my heartbeat quicken.

Jai walked up to one of the shelves. She stroked the spines of the books reverently with the tips of her fingers and then turned to me.

“I did not know so many books existed in the whole world!”

“Neither did I before I came here. Can you read?”

Jai nodded. “My mother taught me.” She tilted her head back and ran her eyes all the way up to the top of the shelves. “So many…” she repeated in awe.

“You can read any book you want. Although those scrolls at the top are old and fragile so you can only touch them under Sister O’s supervision.”

I could not contain myself any longer. Jai could take care of herself. I went to pick out the book I had been reading the night before, and another,
and another. I carried them to one of the desks by the window where I can read in the light that falls over my shoulder. There are oil lamps around the room but I am not allowed to light them. It does not matter, though, because the window catches the dusky sunlight long into the evening, and besides I have sharp young eyes. I can read even when it grows dark. Once I got so lost in my reading that I did not know evening thanks had started and only realized how late it was when I saw Sister O looking at me from the doorway. I did not know how long she had been standing there and I jumped up, gushing apologies like a fountain, and ran around putting all the books back, my heart fluttering like a startled bird. Sister O watched me in silence, which frightened me more than her usual curt words. But when I came closer I saw that her thin lips were drawn up in a little smile and her eyes were warm. She stroked my hair. It was the first time anyone had done that since I had left my own mother. A lump in my throat prevented me from speaking. She tucked a stray lock of my brown hair back behind my ear and gave me a soft pat on the cheek. Then we left together, I locked the doors behind us and handed her the key. She led me out of Knowledge House to
the Temple of the Rose, where she helped me sneak in unnoticed and I managed to avoid a scolding. That time at least.

After that Sister O was just as strict with me as before, but I was not so afraid of her. One time when I came to her chamber she was so deeply absorbed in her reading that she did not even notice I was there. Her headscarf was completely crooked and she scratched her grey hair absent-mindedly with one hand while slowly turning the pages of her book with the other. And then I knew. She was just like me.

I opened the book ravenously and began reading. The room was completely silent. Outside I could hear the sea’s eternal whisper and the calls of a seabird. I read for a long time. Only when I had finished the first book and picked up a second did I remember about Jai. I looked up.

She was sitting in a patch of sun on the floor with a book open on her lap. The book was so big that her legs were hidden beneath it. The evening sun drifted slowly across the floor, and when eventually it fell away from the pages of the book she shuffled laboriously back into the light without getting up. Her neck remained softly tilted downward. When it was time to put the books away and go to evening
thanks, I had to tell her several times before she heard me.

After that I was never alone in the treasure chamber in the evenings. I soon got used to Jai’s presence because she was as quiet as a mouse and always did as I asked. It was not long before it felt as though we had always been there together.

J
AI’S FIRST MORNING AT THE
A
BBEY WAS
a sunny one. We usually have beautiful weather in spring. In autumn the First Mother combs her hair and storms lash at the island. At those times we hardly dare go outside for fear of being dashed against the mountainsides. But that morning the warmth was returning. Our island, Menos, had not yet put on its cloak of spring flowers but the pastures were lush and green, much to the delight of the goats.

When we had all risen, made our beds and lined up, I opened the dormitory door. Sister Nummel made sure we were all present before leading us out to the central courtyard. It was still so early and chilly that the stones were dark with dew. Sister Nummel led us through the sun greeting out in the central courtyard. We always do the sun greeting as the sun rises up over the sea in the East, granting us
her warmth and life. Before I came here I did not know that the sun was so important and that no life could exist without her. I am glad I know now, and I was always glad to greet her together with the other novices. I longed for the day when I could welcome the sun with the other sisters up in the Temple yard. You can see the sunrise and sunset better from up there than down in the central courtyard.

I showed Jai how to do the movements and whispered to her what they meant. We are not usually allowed to talk during the sun greeting but Sister Nummel made an exception because Jai was new. I looked around to see whether anybody noticed that this time I was the one who was allowed to break the rule, instead of the one everyone else could correct. Joem gave me a look and turned up her nose. She never lets on that she is impressed with anyone.

When we were ready Sister Nummel led us through the central courtyard and up to Body’s Spring, where Sister Kotke was waiting for us. She is in charge of Body’s Spring. The vapour rising from the water means her skin is always slightly puckered and makes her clothes damp so they cling to her round body like eel skin. The stone door is too heavy for one woman so the sisters opened it together.

I helped Jai get undressed. She hesitated until she saw all the other novices doing the same. When I got her shirt off I understood why. She had ugly scars all over her back, as if she had been beaten with a whip or a cane. She is not the only one.

There are many reasons why a girl might come to this island. Sometimes poor families from the coast lands send a daughter here because they cannot provide for her. Sometimes a family notice that their daughter has a sharp and inquiring mind and want to give her the best education a woman can get. Sometimes sick or disabled girls come here because they know the sisters can give them the best possible care. Like Ydda, who was born shorter than most and whose family could not look after her. When she was sent here, her twin sister Ranna refused to leave her and so followed along.

Sometimes a rich man invests in his daughter by sending her to the Abbey and paying for her education. Maybe he does not think she can get a husband because she is ugly or for some other reason. A woman who has spent her childhood at the Abbey can always find a place in the world.

Take Joem, for example. Her father sent her here because he wanted her to become an expert cook 
so that it would be easier for him to marry her off. Joem has four sisters who are more beautiful than her and married long ago. I wonder if this was why she seemed so bitter at times.

Sometimes girls come here as runaways, mainly from Urundien and the surrounding states, or one of the numerous Western lands. Girls who show a thirst for knowledge in cultures where women are not allowed to know or say anything. In these lands rumour of the Abbey’s existence lives in women’s songs and forbidden folk tales told only in whispers, away from enemy ears. Nobody talks openly about our island but most people have heard of it anyway. Ennike is one of those runaway girls, as is Heo, the little Akkade girl from Namar, the walled city on the border between Urundien and the Akkades’ land. They have marks on their bodies like Jai’s. I had suspected that Jai had gone through something similar in her past, but now I knew for sure.

Jai followed me down the smooth marble steps into the warm bathing pool. The water comes from a hot underground spring. We walked hand in hand through the pool and to the steps at the other end. Lots of the novices can swim, but not I. Jai did not seem scared of the water but she moved through it
anxiously. Almost as though she were trying to shield herself from it as it swirled around her.

From the hot bath we went down to the cold one, and my word is it cold! Sometimes I wish we did it the other way around and warmed up in the hot bath last, but on a hot summer day it does feel wonderful to cool off before getting dressed again.

After we had washed, Sister Nummel led us out through the stone doors to let the sisters have their turn. They bathe after us because they have morning rituals to perform first. Then it was time for breakfast in Hearth House. When Jai sat next to me I understood that she had decided to become my shadow. That is what we usually say when a new novice latches onto someone who has been around longer. She follows her like a shadow until she finds her place. It was the first time I had had one and it was not without a certain pride. I stretched and smiled at Ennike, who was sitting opposite us. I used to be her shadow. She reminds me of my sister Náraes because she has the same curly hair and warm brown eyes. It took several weeks before I was brave enough to let her out of my sight. She did not get annoyed with me even once. I made up my mind to be just as patient and generous towards Jai.

That morning we finally got fresh bread again. Sister Ers and her novices had celebrated Havva’s festival the day before, and now the oven was cleaned and blessed and we could bake bread again. After several moons of nothing but porridge it was a feast to sink my teeth into salty bread warm from the oven. I grinned at Ennike, my mouth full of bread, and she laughed.

“No one loves spring bread quite as much as you, Maresi!”

“Yup, and there is only one thing I love more than spring bread.” We looked at one another, giggled and shouted, “Nadum bread!” in one voice.

It is easy to laugh with Ennike. It is one of the things I like about her.

Jai sat and picked at her food. She had eaten some bread but left the pickled onion and smoked fish. I pointed at her plate.

“Just wait until summer! Then we get a cooked egg with the bread and a thick wedge of goat’s cheese. And once the Spring Star has gone back into slumber, we get honey!”

“You should see Maresi at autumn breakfasts,” said Ennike. “They bake nutty, seedy nadum bread in the kitchen and Maresi waits outside the Hearth
House door before anyone else, sniffing like a hungry dog! We get cheese and bright-red nirnberry sauce in autumn too.”

“They make the sauce with mint and honey. Sister Ers always says it is good enough to offer to the First Mother herself.” I licked my lips at the thought.

Ennike looked curiously at Jai. “What kind of food did you get back home?”

Jai closed up like a mussel, hunched inward with a far-off look in her eyes. I shook my head at Ennike and quickly changed the subject to distract Jai from Ennike’s question.

“If it were not for autumn breakfasts I do not think I could put up with the never-ending winter porridge,” I said. “Porridge, porridge, porridge, day in day out. You know what I dream about all winter long?”

Jai did not answer but Ennike smiled and nodded. “Moon Dance! After the dance we have a huge feast up in the Moon yard.”

“Then we get koan egg in spicy sauce. The koan bird is the symbol of our Abbey and we only eat its egg after Moon Dance. Sister Ers serves it with delicious crispy meat pies and sesame biscuits sprinkled with cinnamon.” I had to swallow. The thought of all 
that tasty food was making my mouth water. Ennike took a sip from her cup.

“And we get to drink something other than just water. Strong mead and sweetened wine!”

“The steps down to Novice House feel very long when your belly is full of food!”

We laughed. Ennike and I, that is, not Jai, but she seemed to have opened up a little. I was pleased that I could help her relax. I got up from the table.

“Come on. It is lesson time.”

We offered the last of our bread to the Hearth, walked down Dawn Steps, across the central courtyard and up Eve Steps to Knowledge House. Knowledge House is the oldest structure on the island. Sister O taught us that it was the first and probably the most important building that the First Sisters built after they sailed here in the ship
Naondel
.

It is my job to stand by the cracked wooden door to the junior novices’ classroom making sure they all sit still until the sister arrives to take their lesson. Jai followed Ennike to our classroom while I ushered in the late girls, the last of whom is always Heo. That morning I found her sitting under the lemon tree out in the Knowledge yard, stroking a grey Abbey cat which lay on its side purring. As I approached
she looked up at me, and it occurred to me that her slanting eyes always look as if they are laughing.

“Can’t I take him with me to class, Maresi?”

“You know you can’t. Hurry up, Heo. Sister Nummel is coming soon and you do not want a scolding now, do you?”

“You get plenty of scoldings,” said Heo as she stood up and put her little hand in mine. “I want to be like you.”

I kissed her white headscarf. “Choose my good points and not my bad.”

Hand in hand we hurried to the junior novice classroom and Heo just managed to sit down before Sister Nummel came sailing in, rotund and cheerful as always. She would never give Heo a scolding and Heo knows that well enough.

Once the junior novices’ class had started I ran to my own. I am the only one who is allowed to come late to the lesson. The door to the senior novices’ classroom is made of old, cracked wood, similar to the junior novices’ door but darker. I always close it very carefully behind me, afraid that if I slammed it the cracks would give way and the whole door would collapse.

I slipped into my spot on the worn wooden bench where we all sit along a large table. Sister O conducts
the class from the front of the room. Only the oldest novices who are soon to become sisters do not come to lessons. They learn about their duties instead.

I love our lessons. We get to learn about history, mathematics, the First Mother, how the world works, about the moon, sun and stars and much more besides. The junior novices have to learn to read and write, if they cannot already, and lots of other things.

That day we were continuing our study of the history of the island.

“Do you remember how the First Sisters came here?” asked Sister O. I stood up at once and she gave me a nod.

“Maresi?”

“The First Sisters decided to flee from a land where a wicked man had taken all the power and treated his people very badly,” I answered. I had just read about it in a book in the treasure chamber. “He would not let anybody else have knowledge. The First Sisters refused to be his slaves so they stole as much knowledge as they could and sailed here in the ship
Naondel
.”

Sister O nodded. “Their voyage was long and arduous. They came from the land far East, so far away that we no longer remember its name. Nobody
has come to the Abbey from the Eastern lands since the First Sisters. It was a miracle that the boat did not smash on the rocks when a great storm heaved
Naondel
onto our island. Instead, the place where the ship landed marked the spot where the First Sisters were to build Knowledge House.”

Ennike got up. “But how is that possible, Sister O?” She pointed out of the window. “Knowledge House is so high up the mountain. Not even the strongest autumn storms could throw a ship all the way up here.”

Sister O nodded. “Indeed. But so it is written in the oldest texts. Perhaps the storms were worse then. Or perhaps the text should be interpreted in a different way.”

I saw that Jai was listening intently. She sat leaning forward, her eyes transfixed on Sister O.

“Knowledge House conceals all the power the First Sisters brought with them,” I recited from memory. “Sister O, why do they talk about power and not knowledge?”

“Because knowledge is power,” said Dori.

Dori is Sister Mareane’s novice and helps out with the animals. She is a few years older than me, but so absent-minded and dreamy that she often seems
younger. Dori is of the bird folk, and when she came to the island she brought one of their sacred birds with her. It is as big as a dove, with red and blue feathers, but the blue ones change colour according to the light: sometimes green, sometimes black, sometimes golden. It usually sits on her shoulder, pecking and pulling at her black hair and jutting ears. It does not have a name, only Bird, and it seems to understand Dori when she speaks to it.

Sister O smiled at Dori and it was one of those rare moments when a smile softens her thin lips and dark eyes. “That is right, Dori. Knowledge is power. That is why it is so important that novices come here and take the knowledge back out into the world once we have taught them all we can, especially Sister Nar’s novices because they can share their knowledge of herbs and medicines all over the world.”

“But other knowledge is important too,” I interjected. I wanted to impress Sister O with how much I knew, even though I am younger than Dori. “Arithmetic and astronomy and history and… and…”

I could not come up with anything else.

“Cleanliness,” Joem filled in. “Farming. How to feed many on little. To help prevent starvation.”

“Animal care!” said Dori enthusiastically.

“Architecture,” added Ennike. “How to build bridges, calculate durability, erect large buildings.”

I was disappointed. I had wanted to come up with all of that myself.

“That is absolutely right,” said Sister O seriously. “Any knowledge you can bring back to your homelands is important.”

“But surely it is important that some novices stay here? To keep the knowledge alive and pass it on to the new novices?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Sister O. She looked at me with a solemn expression. “But our Abbey must not be used as an excuse to hide away from the world.”