The priests had a good reason to sacrifice Zor, but they still had to handle it very carefully, so they agreed to banish Zor into the Valley of Mist, knowing that no one had ever returned from that terrible valley. They tied four logs together, placed Zor on them, and floated him down the river. His wife and sons and many Lalocks mourned him.
After they had banished Zor to what they believed would be certain death, the men sat around thinking about what they had done. One of the men asked the priests, “How will we know when to plant our crops?”
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.”
“I trust my father, and I will ask for his advice,” Zen said. “I will talk to him and tell you what he said when we meet here tomorrow.”
***
Zen hurried home, walked into the cave where his father was mending his fishnet. After the usual greetings, Zen came right to the point.
“Father, I love Lela and Jok loves Ador. The girls have started their first time of the moon. Jok and I don’t want to share them with the priests, and neither girl wants to go to the temple. We’re thinking of escaping into the Valley of Mist.”
Zarko, Zen’s father, had been racking his brain trying to think of something he could do to prevent the horrible ordeal from happening to his son. He knew that Zen would want to prevent Lela from having to go through the mandatory religious rite.
Zarko sat on a rock and invited Zen to sit with him. “Son, I know the torture you are going through. I, too, suffered that same torture when your mother first became a woman. She begged me to help her. I considered many things, but I couldn’t find a way. If I tried to hide her and we were caught, we would have suffered a terrible death. I also considered trying to escape into the Valley of Mist. One day, without letting anybody know, I ventured into the edge of that mist. The odors and sounds coming from that mist were the most terrifying things I had ever encountered. Floating down the river looked like the best possible way to escape, but I didn’t want to subject your mother to such a terrible ordeal.
“I know there is another side to the valley,” Zarko continued. “At times, when the light is just right, I can see snow-capped mountains on the horizon. Those mountains would have to be on the other side of the valley. If a group of people went together, they could help one another, and they might find a way to cross the valley.”
“Father, Jok and I want to try,” Zen interrupted. “We have discussed it with Lela and Ador. We are all aware of the dangers and are willing to deal with them in an effort to escape from the priests. We do not believe that Fire is God. The girls have already had the time of the moon, and we’re afraid the priests might come for them at any time.” He looked anxiously at his father. “Will you help me to build a raft?”
***
Chapter 7
The Escape
“Son, as your father it is my duty to advise you, and my advice is, don’t try it. The danger is too great. Young women have been undergoing the rite of womanhood for hundreds of years. Most of them conceive and survive the ordeal. You will have to be strong and understand it will not be the choice of Lela to have a baby that has been fathered by a priest. You must put the event out of your mind and raise that child just as though it were your own. It is not the fault of the child that it is the product of religious rape.”
“We understand, Father, but we have decided to take the risk. Will you help us?”
“All right, son. I’ll help you. We’ll build the raft tonight in a secluded spot, at the base of the cliff where no one will know what we are doing. We’ll load it with a supply of food and weapons and hide the raft. Your mother and I will come with you. We agree that Fire is not God. We’ve been looking for an opportunity to escape for a long tim
e.”
Zarko put his hand on Zen’s shoulder. “Don’t tell Negg, and don’t speak of it where he or any of his friends might hear. He has been accepted as an apprentice priest. Being a firstborn, Negg knows that one of the priests is his natural father, and he feels drawn to the priests. He does not feel that he is being disloyal to his mother or me by telling the priests about any actions we take, or anything we say. I hate to think this, but he might divulge our plans. If he does, we will be killed before we can even get the raft built.”
***
On the pretense of going fishing, Zen and his father went to the river and worked. They were concealed while they gathered big logs from piles of driftwood on the side of the river. Since there would be three couples on the raft, it had to be big enough and float high enough to protect them from the predators in the river. As soon as it was dark, they tied the logs together with heavy vines and built a sturdy raft. In it they placed food to eat, skins for shelter, and weapons to use in case they needed to. They included a big supply of stone axes and knives, as they were sure to encounter man-eating animals in the valley. They were prepared to leave the following morning at sunrise, knowing it would be too dangerous to enter the dreaded Valley while it was dark.
Zen and Zarko fervently hoped that they could float down the river, cross the valley to the other side, and start new lives where they could be free from the oppressive God of Fire who controlled every facet of their lives. They had to do something; too many good people were being sacrificed to that horrible God. Only a few weeks before, a child had been sacrificed because its mother had allowed the Fire in their cave to burn out and die. The rule was that if you deny God, then God will deny you.
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