Beyond the Valley of Mist (4 page)

Another asked, “How will we
know what to do when our children get sick?”

“
Oh, ye of little faith,”
one of the priests replied. “All you have to do is ask Fire God.
God knows all, and He will tell you if you will only ask in good
faith.”

“
You tell us that you talk
to God,” the man responded, “but God has never spoken to
me.”

“
That’s because you don’t
have enough faith,” the priest scolded. “Why should God talk to you
when your faith in Him is so limited? You are denying God, but you
want God to answer your prayers. Don’t blame God. Look into your
own heart. Who would know more about when to plant than God?
Perhaps we should report your lack of faith to the High Priest. He
has a way of settling these things.” Then he looked at the others
threateningly. “Now, is there anyone else who is having trouble
communicating with God?”

Not a word was
spoken.

The priest continued, “You
see, you are the only one having trouble. Remember, if you deny
God, then God will deny you. Get right with your God, or we will
have to deal with you also.”

The men walked away, each
trying to understand his inability to believe, and wondering if it
truly was his fault. If only he could believe more strongly, he
would then be in communion with God.

No one got sick for several
days, so they knew that God was pleased; they had done the right
thing.

***

Chapter 5

Lalock, Village near Valley
of Mist

Many more generations
passed, and the Lalocks still live in the caves near the mysterious
Valley of Mist. The valley is still a barrier to any movement
south, and in all of history, no one has found an end to the
valley, either to the East or to the West.

The village consists of a
large number of caves that serve as homes. Several families live in
some of the larger caves.

The priests and those who
serve them live in a large communal cave only a short walk from the
village. This cave serves as a temple of worship, and the place
where the priests keep the sacred Fire.

Some caves have been eroded
by wind and rain; others were carved into the sandstone cliffs with
stone tools. A small stream runs at the base of the cliff,
providing water for drinking and bathing. A large river flows some
distance east of the village, at the base of yet another sandstone
cliff. Trees grow right to the edge of that cliff, which drops
directly into the river. The Lalocks use a trail down the side of
the cliff to get to the river to fish, bathe, and swim.

A short distance from the
cliff, the river runs into a valley of perpetual mist. The mist
hides the valley completely. Many people ask, “Is there an end to
the valley? Is there another side?” No one knows, but they can hear
strange sounds coming from the valley. It is a dreaded place. Since
no one who ventured far into the valley has ever returned to tell
what was there, they call it the “Valley of Death.”

***

Lalock is an unhappy place.
Their God is an oppressive God. The priests sacrifice people to
Fire and use the power of fear to control them.

The priests watch the young
girls carefully to determine when they are becoming women. The
girls are required to tell the priests when they have their first
time of the moon. But before a girl can enter the temple to undergo
the rite of womanhood, she must be examined by a priestess to
determine if she is a virgin. If she isn’t, they declare her
unworthy and place her in the sacrificial Fire, where the Fire God
judges her.

Once it is assured that the
girl is a virgin, the priests take her into the temple, where she
is forced to submit nightly to them until she conceives. It usually
requires about three months before the priests are sure the girl is
pregnant. When this is confirmed, the priests tell the people and
the girl’s future husband that they should be proud of her, because
God has blessed her and found her worthy. God has impregnated her,
and it is a great honor to bear the child of God. And then she is
allowed to rejoin her family and marry the man of her choice, but
the couple must pledge to raise their children to worship the Fire
God.

If the girl doesn’t
conceive in a reasonable time, the priests say that God has found
her unfit, and she is thrown into the Fire. The priests tell the
people that this is done to maintain the sanctity of the
village.

Lalock men were tortured by
stories of how their future wives were lusty participants in the
sexual orgies, and in a few instances, they were forced to watch,
in secret, as the sexual encounters took place. This was to assure
the man that his bride-to-be was engaging in the acts willingly.
The priests erroneously told the men that the girls found the
experience so satisfying that they didn’t want to leave the temple
even after conceiving. It took a very strong man to continue to
love the girl he had committed himself to marry after watching her
seeming to enjoy these encounters, and indeed it destroyed the
loving relationship between many of the couples. It was very
difficult for a man to love his wife’s firstborn, knowing that the
child was not his.

The greatest torture a
young man could endure was knowing that the girl he loved was being
impregnated by another man. He knew that the girl also had a sexual
release, but it was purely a physical response, and that her mind
was saying no while her body was saying yes.

The girls told their
betrothed that they submitted willingly because they knew that if
they did not conceive, they would be sacrificed to the Fire God for
being unworthy. The men knew this was true and tried to put the
situation out of their mind. Some women anxiously watched the faces
of the priests, wondering which one had fathered her
baby.

***

Chapter 6

Zarko

Zarko, a direct descendant
of Zor, lived in the village. He, too, is a curious man, but he
causes no trouble so the priests tolerate him.

Zarko has two sons. He
named the first son Negg and the other Zen. Negg was not really his
son. Zarko’s wife Lynn conceived Negg while she was undergoing the
rite of first womanhood.

Zarko loved Lynn, and he
knew that she had no choice but to go to the temple and lie with
the priests until she conceived. If she refused, she would have
been put to death. Zarko did not believe that a God worthy of
worshipping would do such a thing, but he did not dare speak out in
public because the penalty for defying the priests was
death.

Zarko and a few other men
thought they needed to do something to stop the killing of young
women. Some men even dared to discuss the problem in secret, but
what could they do? The priests had an army. All the men could do
was to try to protect themselves and their families.

Zen, Zarko’s second son,
was going through the terrible ordeal of knowing that the young
woman he loved would soon be taken to the temple.

Zarko watched Zen agonize
over the coming event, knowing there was nothing Zen could do to
prevent the girl he loved from being forced to submit to religious
rape.

Zen and his friend Jok had
only recently reached adulthood. They had been friends all of their
lives and had chosen the girls they wanted for wives.

As a descendant of Zor, and
true to his ancestral lineage, Zen was of exceptional intelligence
and had inherited Zor’s inquiring mind. He had a strong body, wide
at the shoulders, and narrow at the hips. Even though he was
heavily muscled, his movements were smooth and quick.

Both he and Jok were taller
and stronger than most of the men in Lalock, and they were waiting
for their chosen girls to come of age so they could be married. It
was a time of anticipation and dread, as they did not want to share
the girls with the priests.

Jok was bright also, with a
practical mind. He could make decisions quickly and act on those
decisions without hesitation or fear. He loved Ador. She had a
shapely body and a perfectly shaped face, with long wavy, yellow
hair that hung to her waist. Her eyes were wide-set and so blue,
they shamed the sky. Ador had full lips, and when she smiled, her
white teeth gleamed in the light. She was so precious to Jok that
he did not want to do anything that might place her in
danger.

Zen’s girlfriend, Lela, had
light-brown hair, and a smiling face with an upturned nose. Her
eyes were deep blue and sparkled when she smiled. When Lela moved,
she reminded Zen of an exotic wildwood flower swaying in the
breeze. Zen loved her very much and was willing to do anything to
prevent her from having to go through the religious rite of
womanhood.

Zen and Lela had played
together all their lives, and their parents had been friends since
childhood. They knew that one day they would be married. Their love
for one another knew no bounds.

***

One spring day, when Zen
and Lela were swimming in the river with their friends Jok and
Ador, Zen noticed that Lela’s breasts were filling out and her hips
and thighs were becoming firm and round. When she smiled, her eyes
had a soft, radiant glow. She felt him looking at her, and she
returned his gaze with a look that was enticing. He had never
noticed that look before. As if struck by lightning, he realized
that Lela was becoming a woman.

Zen knew that the priests
would notice the change also; maybe they already had. Then he
looked at Ador, Jok’s girlfriend. She was showing the same signs of
blossoming womanhood.

Zen called Jok to a
secluded place where they could talk without the girls hearing
them.

“
Jok,” he asked, “have you
noticed that Ador and Lela are becoming women?”

“
Yes, and I asked Ador about
it,” he sighed. “She told me that she started her first sign of the
moon during the last cycle and that Lela had started hers with the
changing of this new moon.”

“
Do you know what this
means? Is Ador going to tell the priests that she has become a
woman?”

“
She hasn’t told them yet,
and she doesn’t want to. She asked me what she should do, and I
didn’t know what to tell her.”

“
You know the penalty for
not telling.”

“
Yes, I do, and so does
she.”

“
How far will you go to
prevent Ador from having to go through the rite of first
womanhood?”

“
I’m willing to do anything
she wants me to do, so long as it does not place her in danger of
being sacrificed to the Fire God.”

“
Would you be willing to try
to escape with her into the Valley of Mist?”

“
I don’t know. No one has
ever returned from that awful place,” Jok replied with a worried
look.

“
I know, but that does not
mean there is no way to cross to the other side.”

“
What makes you think there
is another side?”

“
On certain days when the
sky is unusually clear, I can see something that looks like
snow-covered mountains far in the distance. The mountains look like
they might be on the other side of the valley.”

“
I have seen that too,” Jok
said, “but that isn’t much to go on. What if those mountains are
only illusions?”

“
Then we will all be dead,
but I’m willing to take that chance. Do you think the girls would
be willing to try?”

“
Without a doubt, Ador would
be willing. As I told you, she has been asking me what she should
do. Why don’t you tell them what you just told me, and let’s see
what they say? Ador has cried herself to sleep every night since
she started her time of bleeding. She doesn’t want to be made to
conceive by a priest—she wants to bear my child. She asked me to be
her first lover, but I was afraid for her. I know the priestess
will check to see if she is a virgin, and if she is not, she will
surely be sacrificed to the Fire God. I decided it was too
dangerous to try to escape, but now when you suggest a way, I jump
at the chance. If we all go together, we might make it through to
the snow-covered mountains and beyond.”

They beckoned to the girls,
who were swimming nearby. Zen noticed they were both strong
swimmers. When they joined the boys, Zen told them what he and Jok
had been talking about and asked what they thought of the
idea.

The girls looked at one
another for just an instant.

“
We definitely don’t want to
submit to the priests,” Ador said. “We want to escape. We’ll do
anything to prevent having to go to the temple. No matter what we
do, the priests will force us to submit.”

“
Do you know the penalty for
defying the Fire God?” Jok asked.

“
Yes,” Ador replied. “But
undergoing the rite of womanhood is not without risk, either. If we
do not conceive, we will still be sacrificed to the Fire. I’ll take
my chance with you and Zen. I say let’s go, and the sooner the
better. The soldiers could come for us at anytime. Lela and I can’t
run away by ourselves; we need someone we can trust to help
us.”