24.

Kyara visits St. Catherine's convent

24.

 

“We’re sorry to keep you waiting, ma’am, but it has been quite an eventful morning.”

Kyara smiled pleasantly, though she was extremely curious about what events had occurred here, “That’s quite alright, it gave me a chance to look around the convent - it is a beautiful place.”

“Thank you, ma’am.  Now… what can I do for you?”

Kyara swallowed, “I don’t suppose Mother Julia is in residence today?”

The young nun hesitated as if she knew something that Kyara didn’t know, “Ah… well, no…um… she’s not here…”

“Will she be back soon?”

“Um… I…I…I don’t think she’ll be seeing anyone for a few days.”   The nun shifted nervously.

“Sister, I’m not sure what is going on and I pray that your Mother Superior is well, but I have a very strange question to ask her.”

“I’m not sure when she’ll be able to see you, ma’am,”  the nun replied, “Sister Niana is in charge when Mother Julia is away; you could possibly see her.”

“Possibly?”

“As I said, it has been a very eventful morning.”

“What happened?”

“Um…I’m not allowed to say, ma’am.”

“You found a male elf’s body in your holy pool, didn’t you?”

The sister gasped; her hands to her lips in amazement, “How did you know?”

“That is what I need to see Mother Julia about,”   Kyara pulled her chainmail coif off, exposing her pointed ears.

The young sister’s eyes were as wide as saucers, “I’ll go get her, ma’am, come inside and wait.”

She beckoned for Kyara to enter, as if she was afraid that someone would see an elf standing there.    Kyara followed her into a humble waiting room and then the nun rushed off to find Sister Niana.

 

***

 

“What was your name again?”  Sister Niana asked as she led Kyara down a long dark corridor to the convent’s infirmary.

“Kyara,” she replied, “I suspect the name of the man found in your pool is my friend Luke Penrook.”

“He’s not conscious yet - he thrashes about and groans, but he’s unresponsive to us.    His body was…”

“Mutilated,”  Kyara finished, “That is a long terrible story.”

The nun stopped suddenly and glanced over her shoulder, “Here we are; before we enter, I want to ask you a couple of questions if I may.”

“Okay,”  Kyara replied, anxious to see if it was indeed Luke (though she already knew deep in her heart that it was).

“First; you are both elves and the environment in all of the High King’s lands is hostile to your kind.     We heard that King Reddric plans to take possession of Baylcothrom soon.    Could both of you be from there?”

For only an instant, Kyara hesitated, fearful of anyone knowing the truth.    But they could probably piece it together anyway.

“Yes,”  She said with a sigh, “We fled there some days ago.”

Sister Niana nodded with a hint of sympathy in her guarded face, “So your friend’s injuries are from the king’s men?”

Kyara nodded somberly and the nun just sighed deeply.

“Oh, the evil of men,”  Niana said softly, “Do not fear, Kyara; you both are safe here.   No harm shall come to either one of you.”

“Thank you, sister, that is a great comfort to me.”

 

The nun smiled and gestured to the door, “Now let’s go see your friend.”

The door swung open to a large room with six beds lining the walls.   Around the bed nearest the door a group of four nuns stood, looking down at a figure lying there.   A young, rather pretty nun that seemed to be hugely pregnant (to Kyara’s surprise) turned around when they came through the door and seeing Kyara’s ears exclaimed, “Oh!  Another one!”

“Hush, Lylia!”  Niana scolded the expectant mother gently, “This is Kyara and she is a friend of our injured visitor here.”

All the nuns made way for her as Kyara hurried over to the bed.   She cried out in surprise upon seeing him.   It was Luke, but a strange blue glow covered him and apparently was slowly healing his wounds.    Without thinking of modesty for her friend, Kyara pulled the covers back to expose his groin area, where he had been most seriously injured.    The blue glow covered his groin like a magic cloth, hiding any healing underneath the arcane radiance.    She covered him back up and turned to Niana.

“It’s Luke!”  She said and then to her utter surprise, she burst into tears, weeping with relief.    The sisters all swarmed over her with comforting words, hugs and reassurances, easing her down to sit on the edge of the bed as one of them gave her a handkerchief.

“Tell us what happened,”   Sister Niana said to her after she’d regained her composure and Kyara made a critical decision right then - she would trust the sisters.

“I’m Kyara, former princess of the kingdom of Baylcothrom,”  She began and soon she was telling the nuns everything that had happened to her and Luke.

 

The sisters listened eagerly to her tale, their eyes wide in wonder at the details.

 

As she neared the end of her tale, the door to the room opened and in walked a regal elderly woman with one of her arms in a sling.

The nuns all rose respectfully to her, so Kyara did also, knowing with absolute certainty that she was in the presence of Mother Julia.

“Mother Superior, praise Yesh the Merciful you are here!   You’ve been injured!”   Niana exclaimed.

“A cut from a broken mirror - nothing to worry yourself about, sister.    Someone made an attempt on my life last night and thanks to my bodyguards, they failed.   But that news can wait; I see an injured man in our convent’s infirmity which I was told by some of the sisters at the front gate was found floating half dead in our holy pool.”   She turned to Kyara, squinting a bit to verify that she had pointed ears and while extending her hand said, “Hello, young elven woman!   I suspect that you are here in connection with the body found in our pool.   Could you, perhaps, be Princess Kyara of Baylcothrom?”

“Yes, Reverend Mother, but I am a princess no more.”

“Really?   Because of my son’s greed?   He cannot take your status away from you, though he certainly thinks that he can.    I saw your sister in Reddric’s court yesterday.    She seems to have surrendered her determination and her rank.    Thankfully, I don’t sense that you have lost hope yet.”

Kyara shrugged, “I’m not really sure what I have left any more.”

“There is much confusion throughout the High King’s realm recently.   There are many schemes and plots swirling around, ladies, and I’m afraid our convent is not immune from danger.   Princess Kyara, you and your friend will probably be sought by Reddric when he learns of your arrival.    Sadly, there are spies for him even here.”

“I apologize, Mother Superior; it was not either of our intentions to come here.”

“Perhaps not, but it was God’s will and it is always best to be in the center of that, regardless of danger.”

“So what has happened to Luke?    What kind of magic is working on him, Mother Superior?”

“It is the magic of the Holy Pool and the cold river that feeds it.    When this island was wild and elves ruled over it, they told the earliest missionaries that one of their ‘gods’ purposely enchanted both the river and the pool.   The tales were vague, but they spoke of the power of the waters to heal and restore those of the elven races.”

“The Holy Pool was originally for elves?”   Sister Lylia exclaimed and the murmur from the other sisters reflected their surprise as well.

“Yes,”  Mother Julia responded, “There is a tale of an unlucky elven couple who were unable to marry and died, only to be ‘reborn’ halfway across the world in the Holy Pool.”

“But those are just fairy tales…aren’t they?”

“You saw it with you own eyes, sister.” Mother Julia answered.

“So what happens now?”   Kyara asked and no-one had a ready response.

“Well, for now we should work on concealing the story as best as we can.    Princess, would you be offended to be asked to change clothes?    Few of the sisters know of your arrival and if you were wearing the habit of our order, it would be easy to at least hide your presence here.   The less that is revealed, the better our chances when Reddric hears of this.”

“Is it blasphemous for one not actually a sister to wear their clothes?”   Kyara asked.

“No, we put no significance in the clothing; only in the vows each woman makes.     We have many young women stay with us; some of them just temporarily.”  The elder lady glanced at pregnant sister Lylia, who stood unconsciously rubbing her huge belly.  

“If it is not sinful, then I would not mind wearing the clothes.”   Kyara finally responded and Mother Julia seemed pleased.

“Excellent; Lylia, take Kyara to the dispensary and help her get situated.  You have no roommate, so she will share your room.”

Kyara looked a bit anxious at the pregnant girl, afraid she would be dismayed to share a room with an elf.    But the girl seemed thrilled and grinned contently, “I would enjoy the company.   I’ve never known an actual elf!”

Kyara smiled at that, sensing that she meant no offense and soon the pregnant sister was leading her down a long hallway to be fitted out for a habit.

 

“You’re the youngest daughter of The Duke of Radderwich, aren’t you?”   Kyara asked as the girl opened the dispensary door.

“Well, I was; I’m not sure he’d claim me now,”  She glanced down at her pregnancy and shrugged, “Oh, well.”

“Do you like it here?”

“Oh God, no!”  She said a bit too loud, then, catching herself, gestured for Kyara to follow her inside and closed the door behind her.

“I don’t suppose you’d have any Darx cigarettes, would you?”  Lylia asked anxiously.

“I’m afraid I don’t smoke,”   Kyara glanced down at the girl’s huge belly, “I hope you don’t smoke too much.”

“How can I?”  Llyia snorted, “They keep the damned stuff locked away from the nuns and only two of them who do quality control are allowed to sample them.    It’s absolutely insane!    We grow it here and sell it, but we can’t enjoy it.”

“They probably don’t want all of you to get addicted.”

“Well they’re far too late in my case!   Sometimes I feel like I would consider murdering all of them in their sleep, packing up all the Darx in a wagon and just riding away.”

“Wow, that is rather addicted!”

Llyia grinned, “You have no idea.”

“So coming here was not a religious choice?”

“I was just saving my neck,”  She patted her belly, “And his neck too… or her’s…”

“What about the father?”  Kyara asked as the pregnant sister began rummaging through shelves of habits.

“Old and married - he wanted a fling and I wanted some of his gold since father didn’t send me much each month.    When I found out I was pregnant I knew I couldn’t tell him or he’d probably try to have me killed, so I just left the royal court and ‘got religion’.”

“What about after the baby is born?”

“I have no idea, really.    Do you know anyone that wants to buy a newborn?”

Kyara stared at her in horror but the girl only smirked.

“Just joking,”  She said, though Kyara was far from certain that this was the case.

“So what’s your story?”  Lylia asked as she finally found a habit that was the correct size, “I heard about your father’s kingdom and I knew that King Reddric wanted you and your sister to come to the royal court, but I left before I heard what happened.   So why aren’t you there with your sister?”

“We had differing opinions on how to handle our situation.   She thought submission was best, I like to fight.”

“Really?”  Lylia’s eyes sparkled, “So you are an outlaw then?”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

“What about that poor guy with his parts cut off?   What happened to him?”

Kyara told the tale about Luke while Lylia listened in horror.  

“Good Lord, Reddric ordered his men to do that to him?” 

“Yes; he’s very savage - especially toward elves.”

“Wow…I thought he was just sort-of afraid of your people.   Elves are portrayed as almost being devils by the bishops, you know.”

“Oh, we know - we aren’t any different than humans really - we may live long lives, but we do bleed and can die.    There are good and bad elves just like there are good and bad humans.”

“So what were your plans then?   Were you going to try to kill Reddric?”

“No, my idea was to try to gather up any remnants of my father’s army still hiding in the great forest and maybe mount up a resistance to the High King.”

Lylia laughed, “That’s very brave but really foolish, Princess.   He’s got tens of thousands of men - how many could you muster to make a defense?”

Kyara was rather surprised at the girl’s tactical wisdom and nodded, “Well, it was an act of sheer desperation, but it is probably a moot point now.”

Lylia handed her a habit, headpiece, undergarments and some sandals, “Here, ‘Sister Kyara’; come on, I’ll show you our humble room.”

Kyara didn’t say anything more until they reached the cell-like room.

“Wow, it’s rather bleak, isn’t it?”

Lylia laughed, “Not exactly a palace, huh?”

“More like a dungeon,”  She agreed.

“Well, its home, I guess.   It wouldn’t bother me so bad if they’d let us smoke at least.”

“So you cultivate the Darx and hand roll the cigarettes, package them and get them ready for shipment?”

“Yes - it is a full-time job and it makes the convent a lot of money.”

“I’d think smoking would be something that a convent would not want to be associated with.”

“You’d think that, but you have to have heard of the ‘Miracle of St. Catherine’.”

“Is that the story about how the saint prayed for something to sustain her poor convent and supposedly Yesh made some Darx trees start growing around the Holy Pool?”

“More-or-less --- they are actually in a series of fields about a hundred yards from the pool, in a ring.   There are 700 trees - they’re small, about the size of an apple tree- but they don’t bear any fruit and they shed their bark like a snake sheds its skin.”

“Don’t they grow larger?”

“No, that’s what is odd - they stay the same size and the old bark that comes off keeps them from growing larger.   That’s what the cigarettes are made from - Darx bark.”

“Yeah, I knew that.    There is an ancient elven tale about a huge tree of life in a forest on the other side of the world that produced fruit that used to give anyone who ate it immortality - this was said to have been back before elves were immortal.   The tree was said to have been huge and it grew out of a huge rock in the ground.   Underground, there was an evil race of black skinned elves called ‘Drow’ that harvested the bark from that tree and rolled it into cigarettes which the Drow women used to smoke.    It sounds a lot like the trees here.”

“What happened to this tree?”

“It was destroyed by fire - it is said that it was after its destruction that Yesh made Elves immortal.   It could just be a fairy tale though.   It happened a long time ago, across the ocean.”

A bell sounded somewhere from outside the building and Lylia sighed in frustration.

“Oh great - I had hoped with all the excitement that we’d get out of work today.   That bell sounds an hour before the production shift begins.”

“Production shift?”  Kyara asked.

“Sorting and cleaning the Darx, while others crush the bark into fine pieces and others roll them into cigarettes.    I’m one of the rollers.   God, how I hate it!    I have to smell it all shift long and can’t have any!    The baby kicks me so hard I almost wet myself.   He’s as addicted to them as I am!”

“Surely there is something that can take away your cravings.”

“I wish there was!”   She held out her hands, “Look at me shake - I wasn’t able to finish the one I sneaked this morning and I’m really suffering.”

“Have you told Mother Julia this?”

“She told me that suffering is good for me and resisting the drug is good for my baby.   By how hard he kicks, I don’t know about that.”

“So she has no solution for your suffering?”

“She says prayer is my best answer.   But honestly, I’m too upset to even try something.   I’ve not had very good luck with prayer as you can see.”

“So what do I do?” 

“Change clothes and go report to Mother Julia.    I’d best go now - I might be able to steal a cigarette from the storage room and smoke it someplace before the shift begins.”

“Lylia-“  Kyara began to say, but the girl shook her head.

“Don’t bother, Princess, you won’t convince me; I’m too stupid or headstrong, depending on whom you ask.   I’ll see you later!”   With speed (in spite of her pregnancy) that amazed Kyara, Lylia rushed out of the room and hurried down the hall, leaving the elven girl alone in the cell.