The Red Abbey Chronicles by Maria Turtschaninoff Read Free Book Online

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, Sulaniand…” 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