The Red Abbey Chronicles

by Maria Turtschaninoff

  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.

  The cat’s asleep on the hot stone wall,

  Hop hop my little froggy!

  And the sun’s ablaze like a golden ball,

  Hop hop my little froggy!

  The girl waits in her robe of red

  A crown of flowers round her head

  The wind horn blows its silver call,

  Hop hop my little froggy!

  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?”

  “How can you protect knowledge?”

  “If it is contained in books, for example. Now stop interrupting. The Sisters rushed into Knowledge House and the men surrounded the building. There were a lot of men and the Sisters were far outnumbered. The men had sharp swords which gleamed in the moonlight. They tried to break into the house but they could not. When they tried to smash the window panes, it was as if the glass were made of stone. Then they tried to set fire to the house, and at first it seemed as if they had succeeded. The wood of the door and roof began to smoulder and the men rejoiced. Soon the Sisters would burn inside, along with all their knowledge.

  “But then a man who had stayed behind on the ship came to join them and when he saw the fire he became mighty angry. He yelled that their master wanted them to take the women’s power and knowledge back to him. Their lives were of no consequence but the knowledge could not go up in smoke. The men had to quench the fire at once.”

  “I have seen the marks,” said Jai quietly, her eyes fixed on the path beneath her feet. “On the door to Knowledge House. The traces of the fire’s flames will be there for ever.”

  As she said this I realized that she was right. The bottom of the door is blackened with ancient soot.

  “Then the men said that they would wait them out. The women would have to come out when they ran out of food and water. So the men sat down, crossed their legs and got ready to wait for as long as necessary.”

  “But then they saw them!” Heo could not hold it in any longer. “The Moon women!”

  “That’s right. While the men were sitting there with their swords in their laps, ready to slay the Sisters if they dared come out, they felt the earth suddenly begin to quake. On the mountain above the Abbey they saw seven giant women walking with great strides. The women were silver-white and looked as though they were made of moonlight, but the ground trembled and quaked under their steps. Their long, loose hair lashed against the mountainside, ripping up flowers and small trees. Then they began to shine all the stronger and, though the men turned their faces away in fear, the women’s effulgence reflected in the shine of the men’s swords and blinded them. When the men could no longer see, the seven giant women picked up huge boulders and hurled them down upon them. The rocks missed the Abbey buildings but hit the men and swept them down into the ocean.”

  We all went quiet for a while.

  “They say that the ground where the men were standing ran red with blood.” I glanced over at Jai. She was ghostly pale but calm. “The rocks which did not roll into the ocean became the foundation of the outer wall.”

  “Where did the giant women come from? The Sisters were in Knowledge House, weren’t they?”

  “I don’t know, Heo. Maybe they were summoned by the island itself. Maybe the First Sisters were capable of more than we know. It happened too long ago to know for sure.”

  Heo and Ismi scampered down the path, kicking at pebbles and shouting that they were giant women made of moonlight. Jai looked at me with a grave expression.

  “Do you think the birds would still wake us? If somebody came?”

  * * *

  We reached the beach soon after midday. The sun was at her highest point in the sky, shining straight down on us. The south coast of the island is the only place without steep, plunging cliffs between mountain and sea, where White Lady’s lowest slopes level off
into rolling layers of rock which stretch down towards the water. The beach is shallow and perfect for snail-harvesting. We sat down under a clump of harn trees to eat the bread and cheese Sister Ers and Joem shared out. Cissil, Sister Ers’s other novice, went around with a stone jug of spring water that they had kept cool under the yarn skeins in the donkey carts.

  Then Sister Loeni called for our attention.

  “Most of you know what to do. Jai and Ismi, watch the others. Fill your baskets with snails and then bring them up here to me and Toulan so we can show you how to do the dyeing. And be careful with the snails! They must not come to harm.”

  We all waded out into the cool ocean. The junior novices were jumping and laughing and the sisters were watchful and calm. Jai kept close to me and I showed her how to find where the bloodsnails live in small clusters stuck fast to the rocks, and how to carefully prise them loose and put them in the basket. The snails cling to the rocks with amazing strength, so it takes a long time to detach them without harming them.

  “I thought they were red,” said Jai, successfully lifting off her first snail. “They look as white as mother-of-pearl.”

  “The red is inside,” I answered and laid the snail in my basket. “You will see.”

  When our baskets were full we carried them up to the tree where Sister Loeni and Toulan had constructed a makeshift table of four long planks laid across the two donkey carts. The donkeys were grazing under the trees close by.

  Toulan showed us where to put down the baskets, and then unrolled a spool of silk thread until the thread ran the length of the table three times. When the bloodsnails get scared they emit the precious red pigment which gives the snail its name. Sister Loeni handed Jai a snail and showed her how to frighten it by tapping on the shell with her nail and then wiping it along the threads immediately. As soon as the snail had emitted all of its colour, we laid it in an empty basket and picked up the next one.