The Red Abbey Chronicles (2 page)

J
AI GOT THE BED NEXT TO MINE
. N
EW
novices usually have to sleep in the junior novices’ dormitory, but that is because most new arrivals are little girls. Jai was old enough to sleep with us older girls. I guessed that she was fourteen or fifteen, a year or two older than me.

The bed next to mine in the senior novices’ dormitory was free because Joem had just moved into Hearth House to become novice to Sister Ers. Her novices are the only ones who do not sleep in Novice House. They have to keep the Hearth fire burning, the fire which must never go out, and they have to make offerings to Havva at all the right times. Joem thinks she is special because she gets to be a servant to the Hearth. I know she believes that everybody envies her. When I first came to the island I could not imagine anything better than living in Hearth House, always surrounded by food. My stomach
could not forget the hunger winter we had endured back home. But I soon changed my mind when I saw how strict Sister Ers was, never allowing her novices extra portions. Imagine constantly touching food, smelling food, working with food, but not being allowed to eat it!

Besides, Joem talked in her sleep. I did not miss her.

Jai sat on her bed and all the novices, younger and older, flocked around her as we always do when there is a new arrival. The little girls admired the long blonde hair flowing out of her linen headscarf. Our headscarves protect us from the strong sun, but under them our hair must never be bound. We never cut our hair either. Our hair holds our strength, Sister O says.

The older girls quizzed her about where she came from, how long she had travelled, whether she had known anything about the Abbey before. Jai sat completely still. Her complexion was fairer than most, but I could tell that she was unusually pale. The skin under her eyes was thin and dark, nearly purple. Like violets in spring. She did not say a thing or answer a single question, she just looked around.

I got up from my bed. “That’s enough. You have all got duties to be getting on with. Off you go.”

They all did as I said. It is funny to think that when I first came I was always making mistakes and no one would ever have done what I said. Now I was one of the oldest in Novice House who still did not answer to a specific house or sister. I was one of the longest-serving novices. The only one who had been around longer than me and still did not have a sister of her own was Ennike.

I showed Jai her cupboard and the clean clothes stacked inside, I told her where the outhouse was and helped her put new linen on her bed. She followed everything I did closely, but still said nothing.

“You do not need to do any duties today,” I said, turning in the corners of her bedcover. “Later you will have to come to the Temple of the Rose for evening thanks but do not worry, I will show you everything you need to know.” I stood up straight. “Now it is nearly supper time. I will show you the way to Hearth House.”

Jai still had not said a word.

“Do you understand what I am saying?” I asked softly. Maybe she came from such a faraway land that she did not even speak the coast languages. I did not when I first came. Up in the North, in lands like Rovas, Urundien and Lavora, we speak a different
language than they do down here by the sea. The coast languages are quite similar. People who speak them can understand each other, even though the pronunciation and certain words differ. Sister O says that the amount of mutual trade that goes on between the lands has ensured that their languages keep a close relationship. My first year at the Abbey was difficult before I learnt the language.

Jai nodded. Then suddenly she opened her mouth to speak.

“Is it true there are no menfolk here?” Her voice was unexpectedly husky and her accent was one I had never heard before.

I shook my head. “Never. Men are not allowed on the island. The fishermen we trade with do not set foot on the land, Sister Veerk buys the catch from the pier. We have male animals of course. One quite savage rooster, some billy goats. But no men.”

“How do you get by? Who takes care of the animals and works the earth and protects you?”

I led her to the tall, narrow door of the dormitory. There are so many doors here, each different from the last. They shut out, they lock in, they protect, hide, veil, conceal. They look at me with their bright iron fittings, stare with large wooden knots, glare
with carved patterns. I counted that on any given day I pass by at least twenty doors.

Back home we had two. The cottage door and the outhouse door. Both were made of wooden planks hung on leather hinges that Father had made. At night Father would close the cottage door from the inside with a big beam. The outhouse could be closed from the inside with a latch, and my brother Akios would flick it up from the outside with a splinter of wood while my sister Náraes would scream at him to leave us alone.

I led Jai through the corridor of Novice House. “We do not grow any grain ourselves, the island is too rocky. We buy what we need from the mainland. But we have some vegetable plots and olive groves and the sisters grow vines for wine at the Solitary Temple. We only drink it a few times a year at festivals and rituals.”

We came out into the warm evening sun and I pulled my headscarf down over my eyes. Sister Loeni does not approve when I do that, she says it is unbecoming, but I do not like having the sun in my eyes.

“We do not need protection. Few sail this far out. Did you not see how steep the mountain up to the Abbey is, and the high wall surrounding it? There
are only two entrances in the outer wall. The one you came through can be closed with a heavy door and bolted. The other one is called the goat door and it goes up towards the mountain.” I pointed. “It leads to a little path we follow when we take the goats out to grass, and from there it goes to the Solitary Temple and White Lady, and our vegetable plots. It is very difficult to find the door from the mountainside if you do not already know where it is. And it has been a long time since pirates attacked the Abbey. It happened when the First Sisters came, which is why they built the outer wall, but it has not happened since. The Abbey is the only settlement on the island. There is no one we need to protect ourselves from.” I made the sign of the circle on my left palm with my right index finger to ward off bad luck. “We are all servants of the First Mother. She protects us if we are in need.”

The central courtyard was empty. Everybody must have already gone to Hearth House. That is always the way once word gets around that we have fresh fish. Before I came here I had only eaten dried fish a few times and it barely tasted of anything. But Sister Ers uses herbs and rare spices in all the cooking at Hearth House. The first time I put a spoonful of
stew in my mouth the taste was so unfamiliar that I nearly spat it out again. The only thing that stopped me was the disapproval in the sisters’ watchful eyes, which was lucky. If I had spat it out I would have accidentally exposed my ignorance to everyone. I felt uneducated and awkward enough as it was. Later I came to learn the names of all the unusual flavours. Cinnamon from the East, goosefoot from the Northern lands, yellow iruk and wild oregano from our own mountain slopes.

I looked at Jai. She must have felt just as awkward as I did when I came to the island. I reached out my hand to give her an encouraging pat on the arm, but she flinched as if I were about to hit her. She froze and hid her face in her hands. Her cheeks went even paler than before.

“Do not be scared,” I said gently. “I only want to show you the houses. See, that is Body’s Spring. You will learn about that tomorrow. Those steps lead up to the Temple yard and Knowledge House, Sister House and the Temple of the Rose. They are called Eve Steps because they lead westward.”

I saw Jai peek through her fingers so I carried on talking. “We call that long, narrow staircase Moon Steps. There are two hundred and seventy steps! I
counted them myself. They lead up to the Moon yard and Moon House. Mother’s chamber is up there. Have you met Mother yet?”

Jai lowered her hands and nodded. I knew she had met Mother, all girls do as soon as they arrive. That was not why I asked her. I wanted to get her to relax.

“We do not have reason to go up there very often. Now I will take you up Dawn Steps. They lead up to Hearth House and the storehouse. Come.”

I was wary of taking her by the hand to lead her, so I settled for walking in front and hoping she followed. She did follow, a few steps behind. I carried on babbling to keep her calm, like I do with the chickens when I collect their eggs. Sister Mareane laughs at me when I do that, but she lets me be. Sister Loeni, on the other hand, is always trying to get me to be quiet. But Sister Mareane knows that a gentle voice can soothe easily frightened animals.

“Wait until you see how well we eat here! The first time someone told me we get meat or fish for supper every day I laughed in her face. I thought she was joking. Eating meat every day! But it is no joke. It is usually fish or meat from our own goats. Some novices think there is too much goat meat, but not I—Sister Ers makes so many different tasty
things with goat. Goat sausages and goat steak and goat stew and dried goat meat. And goat’s milk of course. It is made into all sorts of cheeses. We keep chickens mainly for eggs, but sometimes a bird will find its way into one of Sister Ers’s stews. Ers is the name of the person in charge of Hearth House. All the sisters have their own responsibilities, as you will see for yourself soon enough.” We puffed and panted our way up the last steps. When we came to the courtyard in front of Hearth House I could smell white fish and cooked egg. My stomach rumbled. However much I eat, I always seem to be hungry. It has been that way ever since the hunger winter.

“We all eat the same thing,” I said, approaching the Hearth House door. “From the youngest novice to the sisters and Mother herself. Only the sisters in the Solitary Temple eat differently. Novices eat first, then the sisters. The same goes with washing, as you will see in the morning.”

I opened the Hearth House door which, as always, smelt like bread. When I first came here I could not resist the temptation to lick the hazel-brown wood to see if it tasted like bread too. Sister O scolded me all moon for my stupidity. Now I am older and I know better. But the door still smells like bread.

Jai was completely silent again. I was definitely talking too much. Sister Loeni would say so anyway. But Jai did not seem so tense and flighty any more. She sat next to me and let Joem serve her a portion of white fish and cooked egg with stewed korr-root from the southern slopes of the island. I was glad to have korr-root and not cabbage. There is often a great deal of cabbage in our diet.

When we had finished eating I leant back on the bench and patted my round belly.

“No one back home would believe me if I told them how well we eat here.”

It is painful to think about my family having less to eat than we do at the Abbey. Maybe they go hungry sometimes. My home is so far away that I do not know what their winter was like this year, how the harvest went or whether they have food on the table. I can only hope that with one less mouth to feed they have more left for the others. I could write them a letter but no one back home can read, and I do not even know how I would get a letter to our little farm, all the way up in the northernmost part of the great valley of Rovas.

I shook away my sorrow and smiled encouragingly at Jai.

“Do not think about the past. You are with us now, and it is not nearly as strict as you might have heard rumoured. After supper our time is our own.”

Around us, novices moved under the watchful eyes of Sister Ers, carrying their cups and plates to the scullery. Sister Ers’s novices wiped the long table clean so it would be presentable for the sisters when it was their turn to eat. I took my plate and cup, Jai did the same and we stood in the queue to the scullery.

“Lots of novices like to go down to the beach in the evening to swim or collect shells,” I said. “Others wander up into the mountains to pick flowers and enjoy the view. Many do their reading assignments from Sister O or Sister Nummel, others chat or play games.”

We put our plates in a tub of cold water. We were the last to leave the scullery and come back out into the evening sun. Bleats were coming from the goat house. It was nearly milking time. Several sisters were on their way up Dawn Steps, deep in conversation. I would have to hurry to get to Sister O’s room before she left.

“You can find your way back to Novice House, can’t you? You can do whatever you like until it is time for evening thanks in the Temple of the Rose.”

“Can I come with you?”

Jai’s husky voice surprised me again. She stood with her hands clasped in front of her and eyes cast down at the ground. My heart sank. I did not want to take Jai with me. My evening activity was my own. I had never shared it with anybody.

“You’d only be bored,” I said hesitantly. “You see, I…”

She stood completely still. Her hands gripped each other so hard her knuckles went white. She did not look me in the eye. I could not bring myself to deny a little company to a lonely girl on her first night in a new place.

“Of course you can join me if you want.” She looked up at once and I smiled at her. “Come, we had better hurry!”

I ran down Dawn Steps, bumping into several sisters and mumbling apologies to them as I went. Sister Loeni got such a shove that her headscarf half fell off.

“Maresi! Look where you are going! If Mother ever…” Her chiding words faded into the distance as I ran across the central courtyard’s uneven paving stones and rushed up Eve Steps with Jai close behind.

The Temple yard has buildings on three of its sides and below the fourth side is the roof of Novice House. To the west, towards the wall, is Sister House. To the east, towards the mountainside, is the beautiful Temple of the Rose, and to the north is the Abbey’s oldest building, Knowledge House. Behind Knowledge House is the Knowledge yard, with its solitary lemon tree, and along one side of the courtyard is Knowledge Garden, protected from the sea winds by a low wall.