Abhorrent Practices - Book 1

Chapter 5.6 - Brael (Scene 6: The Abbess)

Reaching the end of one of the many tunnels which allowed visiting Ferrymen to enter the Abbey unobserved, Sandrine pushed against the trapdoor above her head and climbed up into a small cabin. No more than six feet square, the wooden building had just one window, a tiny slit which barely provided enough light to see the door ahead of her. She brushed herself down and opened the door, stepping out into the late afternoon sunlight.

She emerged in the centre of what was still known as the Great Hall, even though it had been without a roof for many years and was now little more than an enclosed, overgrown courtyard. Broken walls rose up around her, each scored with a horizontal groove some twenty feet above the ground, a reminder of where the floorboards of the upper storey had once been. The stonework was charred where joists and beams had burned.

In between the fractured stumps of the pillars which lined either side, piles of rubble were scattered all over the cracked floor tiles, their once brilliant colours now faded by years of exposure to the elements.

It was, Sandrine reflected, exactly as she remembered it.

A door opened in the west wall, and a man of around thirty stepped out into the yard. He wore the pale blue robe of the Infirmerers, the branch of the Order responsible for assessing the physical and mental health of its prospective clients before a contract would be agreed. He started as he caught sight of Sandrine and darted quickly back inside.

The Infirmerers occupied most of the Abbey's west wing, Sandrine remembered. Occasionally one of their number would venture out to examine a client in person but, for the most part, their lives were spent immersed in medical texts and studying reports written by their would-be clients' doctors.

Opposite, an identical door led into the Abbey's east wing, the preserve of the Hospitallers, the branch of the Order charged with satisfying themselves that the clients' desire to end their lives was entirely voluntary, free of any coercion or manipulation.

Sandrine didn't have to wait long before the west door opened again, and the man reappeared, this time accompanied by an older woman, perhaps in her sixties. The Infirmerer pointed to Sandrine and his companion nodded. She waved the younger man away and began to approach.

Sandrine noted the woman's long purple robe and the tri-cornered hat which marked her out as an Abbess. She also wore a broad smile of recognition.

"Sister Lina?" Sandrine dropped to one knee.

"Yes," she smiled, "I'm still here. Although, technically, it's Mother Lina these days. The fusty old buggers at the Grand Abbey finally made me an Abbess!" She passed a hand over Sandrine's head and ruffled her hair, shimmering like polished copper in the sunlight.

Sandrine looked up into the Abbess's kindly blue eyes. When she'd first arrived at the Abbey some twenty years earlier, Lina had been a Prioress, and she'd run the Abbey ever since. For seven years after the war with Tremayne, the Grand Abbey in Charon had deemed Brael too insignificant an outpost to merit an Abbot of its own. Later, they'd appointed a succession of ambitious young individuals who'd arrived, served their time and moved on to greater things. While they pursued their careers, Sister Lina had stayed. Overlooked and taken for granted, she'd quietly and efficiently continued to do whatever was necessary to keep the Abbey running.

"Congratulations," smiled Sandrine. Down on her bended knee, looking up at Lina, she was a child again; a child of six, the age she'd been when Sister Lina had first taken her in and told her she should call the Abbey her home. "It's long overdue."

"Pah! It makes no difference in practice. They haven't sent a new Prior to work with me, so I'm still doing everything myself!" She took Sandrine's hands in her own and raised her to her feet. "Now, let me look at you," she said. She stepped back and ran her eyes over Sandrine. "Oh dear," she said, shaking her head in mock disapproval. "You haven't changed a bit!"