Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor 1)

‘What Lano means,’ Judge Irvone raised his voice, a deep and impressive instrument full of gravitas and authority, ‘is that we will return to Verity and pursue this matter through the appropriate channels.’ He motioned to a guard to retrieve the dropped legal tome then used another man for support as he mounted his horse.

‘High Priest Jacob dines at my father’s table, you miserable sack of blubber!’ Lano roared. The judge waved for the men holding him to start back towards the pillars. ‘I’ll sink you for this!’ Lano let them drag him as he shouted. ‘I’ll have that girl roasted! I’ll serve her to my brother on a dinner plate! The high priest will have you beaten from this place, old woman. You’ll beg on the streets before I’m done!’

Now about twenty yards off, heels dragging, Lano Tacsis shook off the men holding him and stalked to the front of their party to remonstrate with the judge. The nuns watched in silence. The harsh edges of Lano’s outrage stretched back across the plateau even as the men reached the pillars.

‘Well.’ Abbess Glass sat down heavily on the steps once more. She didn’t seem inclined to say more. Sister Apple turned towards her but the abbess waved her away. ‘You heard the man – we can expect a visit from the high priest soon enough. A good time to clean the place up a bit and make sure everything is in order. I’ll leave you in charge of that, Apple dear.’

Sister Apple pursed her lips, glanced at Nona’s hands, then nodded and led the others away. Sister Wheel lingered, but a gesture with the crozier sent her hurrying after the others.

‘So,’ the abbess said, patting the step beside her. ‘You have a knife?’

Nona nodded and took her place on the cold stone.

‘Understandable, I suppose.’ Abbess Glass kept her eyes on the distant pillars. ‘But I must ask you to return it to the Blade stores.’

‘Yes, abbess.’ Nona looked down at her hands, conflicted. The abbess had done more to protect her than her own mother had: she might lose everything just for some peasant girl she barely knew. Nona hadn’t told a lie, but even so it felt wrong to deceive her. ‘I will.’

‘Are you sure none of that blood is yours?’ the abbess asked.

Nona flexed her hands, the fingers already sticking to each other. ‘I’m sure.’

‘Run along then. Put that knife back and we won’t speak of it again. It’s my duty and the duty of all your sisters here to protect you. You don’t need a blade.’

‘Yes, abbess.’ Nona got quickly to her feet. ‘I will.’ She wanted to thank the abbess, but nothing she thought to say sounded right. And whatever had happened Abbess Glass had still watched Saida hang.

Nona ran off, the Corridor wind trying to steer her. She would put the knife into Blade Hall’s stores straight away … but first she would run to the dormitories and retrieve it from her bed.

10

Nona came late to the dormitory, having slipped into the bathhouse on her way back from contemplation at the sinkhole to avoid Sister Wheel, only to have the woman hold an endless conversation right outside the door with some unknown party. Nona thought she heard her name mentioned but maddeningly the thickness of the door, the splashing of two or more older novices in the pool, and the soft but constant gurgling of the pipes kept the actual words just beyond hearing. At one point Wheel raised her voice enough for Nona to catch, ‘Assassin!’ and a moment later, ‘Blood!’ but after that only muttering.

Eventually Sister Wheel ran out of opinions, or at least time to deliver them in, and left, allowing Nona to escape. She stepped out from the steams and instantly discovered the misery of mixing a warm damp habit with a cold and invasive wind.

Rain started to splatter about her as she passed the laundry. Despite her haste to reach the dormitories Nona paused at the laundry side door. A nun held it open a hand’s-width, having stopped to finish her conversation with someone further inside.

‘… Ancestor! We don’t want him here again.’

‘…’

‘You weren’t even here back then to see it, girl. Abbess Shard hadn’t the guts to keep him out. He’d have the novices over to Heart Hall for “special testing”. And not just the older ones.’

‘…’

‘Just an archon. And if he was like that as an archon what do you think he’s like as high priest? No wonder he hates Glass! They say—’ The door shut again as the conversation drew the sister back into the laundry.

Nona waited a minute, then another, then moved on, as wet with the rain as if she’d swum from the bathhouse. On opening the door to the Red sleeping hall she found the class chatting in various groups around the beds, a few of the girls starting to undress but nobody in any particular hurry. Arabella’s voice carried through the mix, though she was hidden by the three or four novices around her. ‘—could say those things to Sister Wheel!’

‘And we got shaved just because she took your belt, Ara!’

Nona saw that Jula was one of those in Arabella’s circle. It stung to see her there, but what she’d said was true. And the attention of a noble, an almost princess, must be very flattering to a scribe’s daughter. Head down, Nona walked to her bed.

‘Heard the law came looking for you.’ Clera, lying on top of her blankets, put down her class scroll at Nona’s approach. ‘I hate those judges.’ She set her penny spinning on the writing slate beside her, spattering the lamplight.

Nona offered up a weak smile and turned to her bed. Clera patted her own. ‘You look half-drowned. Use this.’ She tossed over a rough grey towel. ‘What did you do, Nona? Did they come to arrest you for cheeking the abbess? Or for being a tunnel-worshipper?’ She grinned, pushing aside her hair, and patted again. ‘Come, tell Clera everything.’

Nona pulled her wet habit off, wiped her face, rubbed at her hair, then despite her mood sat where Clera indicated.

Clera leaned in close. ‘A judge? A damned judge rode all the way up here to get you? What the hell did you do, Nona?’ She took hold of Nona’s arm. ‘And how are you still here? I don’t want them to take you away!’

Nona sighed. Sooner or later the whole convent would know about Raymel Tacsis. She was surprised the story wasn’t circulating among the novices already. Sooner or later. She would rather it was later though …‘You’re my friend?’ she asked.

‘I am.’ The grip on her arm strengthened.

‘I lied.’ Nona looked up. Ruli was sat on the next bed now, nightcap in place, one pale strand of hair escaping. ‘I wasn’t taken from the village by raiders …’

Clera and Ruli shuffled closer, saying nothing, and Nona started her story anew.

‘A juggler once came to my village. He was my first friend—’ Nona backtracked. ‘In my whole life I’d had one friend. It’s a hard thing to live in as a stranger in a small village. There’s nowhere to hide, nowhere you’re not known. I used to think there was something wrong with me to make the other children turn me away. Something more than being dark … I’ve never understood people – not truly – not how to be at ease with them and make them be at ease with me. Sometimes I feel as though I’m playing a part, like those mummers who travel the roads, only I don’t know the words properly, or how I’m supposed to act.