Free The Convent: A Novel by Panos Karnezis Page B

enough. She wants to offer Our Lord practical help. She has great faith in her abilities.’ The Superioress General sighed. ‘An innovator , God help us–just like the builders of Babel.’
    ‘As a matter of fact, she does speak several languages,’ Sister María Inés said.
    ‘Do you want me to write to her?’
    ‘It might make things worse. She causes no real problems. I suppose her clerical skills have proved useful. Oh–and she showed us how to dig an artesian well.’
    The Superioress General put the letters back in the drawer. ‘An artesian well? As you wish. But in your place I would be careful.’
    When Sister María Inés had returned to the convent, she had told Sister Ana nothing about her conversation with the Superioress General, but had begun to watch her more closely, unsure what the nun might try next, yet certain that she would not cease to behave in a manner that took her further away from the path of God.
    The child slept quietly on the bed. She took the rosary that hung from her belt and prayed for a long time until she realised that she had missed lunch. She was still angry at the two nuns who had disobeyed her instructions about the child. She did not want to eat and did not want to see anyone right now, not even at the refectory table, where they did not speak to each other. She begged the Virgin’s pardon for having interrupted her prayer and resumed with closed eyes, every Ave Maria and Gloria Patri taking her a step closer to Heaven and giving her strength. But despite her effort to concentrate she soon strayed again from her contemplation and began to think about Sister Ana and how she, Sister María Inés, ought to put an end to her mutiny once and for all.

 
     
    T he discovery of the bloodied cloth convinced Sister Ana that the convent was visited by evil. Terrified but determined to thwart the plans of the Devil, she told no one what she had discovered. She did not know whom she could trust. There was always the possibility that not just the Mother Superior but also some of the other sisters were possessed. She spread the cloth out on the floor and examined it. She had assumed that it was a shroud but now saw that it was really an ordinary bed sheet. There was no doubt that it was stained with blood. She traced the stain with her finger, suspecting that it had to do with a ritual animal sacrifice. She crossed herself, repeating: ‘Almighty God, father of Our Lord Jesus Christ…’
    Her room was on the upper floor of the dormitory, at the far end of the loggia that overlooked the courtyard, past several rooms where no one lived any more. She had chosen that room herself, seeking peace and quiet in a place that could not be more peaceful. On an easel by the window stood a small painting of the Transfiguration with an unfinished Jesus floating in the air above the figures of Saints Peter, James and John. On a table next to the easel was a palette, together with many brushes and knives for impasto all cleaned and arranged in size. Sister Ana had taken up painting only a few months before but was already on her second painting. She hoped to finish this one and two more by the end of the year, all with themes taken from the life of Jesus, and present the Bishop with the best painting. She folded the bloodied cloth and hid it under her mattress, then thought better of it and put it in a box and the box in a drawer. She felt her confidence return: she had God on her side.
    Over the next few days she searched every corner of the convent for other evidence of demonic rituals, taking care not to give rise to suspicions. She did not miss any prayer, carried out her daily duties with the eagerness the Mother Superior had come to expect from her and no longer protested about the baby. In her spare time, she took a spade and pretended to go to the garden, but as soon as she was out of sight she strode up to the wall that ran round the convent and began to dig near where she had found the bloodied