Beyond the Valley of Mist (5 page)

“
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 time.”

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.

As they were building the
raft, they discussed what might lie beyond the valley. In the
distance, far away and faintly visible, they could see snow-covered
mountains—or were they only clouds on the horizon?

After the work on the raft
was done, Zen went to Lela and told her of their plans. She was so
excited that she wanted to tell Ador right away. Zen cautioned her
to tell no one but Ador; they all had to be ready to meet at the
top of the cliff at the first light of dawn. Everything had to work
just as planned.

Lela hugged Zen and said,
“Ador and I will be ready.”

Zen rushed to Jok and
repeated what he had told Lela.

“
Then it’s set,” Jok said.
“We leave at sunrise. I’ll see you at the cliff in the morning, and
I’ll have the girls with me.”

Zen cautioned, “This is a
decision we each must make because if we fail, we will all be
killed.”

“
I know, and I’m willing to
take that chance to prevent Ador from having to submit to the
priests. She also knows the price of failure and is eager to
escape. We’ll be there,” Jok smiled and shook Zen’s
hand.

“
All right, Jok, it’s on for
tomorrow morning. Now I must help my mother and father get ready.
They, too, want to escape.”

***

Zen decided to let his
parents get all the rest they could because they were older and
would have to withstand the rigors of a very difficult journey.
What he didn’t know was that his half-brother Negg had seen their
parents putting items into a skin pouch and figured that they were
planning to escape. He went straight to the priests and told them
what he had seen.

When Zen arrived at his
cave, the priests were already there, questioning his parents. Zen
hid in the bushes nearby, attracted his father’s attention without
letting the soldiers know he was there, and gestured to him that he
was going to help them escape. Zarko indicated with his hands that
they would be all right, and that Zen should go quickly while he
still could. Zen knew that no matter what torture the priests might
submit them to, his parents would never divulge information about
their plan to escape.

The priests still didn’t
know that he and Jok planned to escape with the girls, so they had
a chance if they could just get to the cliff. Zen rushed through
the grove of trees to the top of the cliff and waited for Jok and
the girls, thinking he had arrived ahead of them. The sound of a
dry stick snapping told him that he was not alone. Zen looked in
the direction of the sound, saw his friends and signaled for them
to come ahead. They ran to him, knowing there was no turning back.
They had made their plan, and now they had to make the plan work.
They would either escape, or die.

Zen told his friends that
the priests had detained his mother and father, and then led them
to the cliff above where he and father had hid the raft. The cliff
was so high, it was a frightening prospect to jump off it into the
river. Zen knew that could be done safely because he and his father
had done it. They would have to swim to the river bank where they
had hidden the raft.

Zen was sure the soldiers
would not follow them into the valley because they, like everyone
else, were forbidden to enter there. The soldiers would never dare
to jump from the cliff. They would walk around the cliff on the
trail, but that would take time, and by then he and his friends
would be entering the Valley of Mist.

They stopped at the edge of
the cliff and were talking when spears started landing at their
feet. Zen and Jok picked up two of the spears and hurled them back
at their pursuers. A soldier cried out, and they knew they had
scored a hit. That slowed the soldiers down, but just enough to
allow them to jump. Ador hesitated when she saw how high the cliff
was.

“
It’s your decision, Ador,”
Zen reminded her, “but you know the penalty if you are caught
trying to escape.”

Ador looked at Zen and then
without a moment’s hesitation, grabbed Lela’s hand and leaped into
the air. The drop seemed to take forever. When they hit the water,
they plunged deep into the swiftly moving stream. By the time they
came to the surface, they were near Zen and Jok.

“
Follow me!” Zen called
out.

Lela started choking, so
Zen swam to her and held her head up until she cleared her lungs.
They swam to the bank of the river, but they still had to run to
the raft. Jok and Adora were right behind them. They started
dragging the heavy raft into the river, but it was almost more than
they could do.

The soldiers were coming
down the path, and spears were falling all around until they
floated out of range.

“
Let’s keep these spears,”
Jok said. “They might come in handy when we have to fight off some
of the beasts that we have heard howling in that valley. Each of
the girls can have a spear also.”

The girls were
shocked.

“
You know women are not
allowed to carry weapons,” Lela said.

“
Those were the old rules,
and they no longer apply,” Zen said. “Beginning right now, we’ll
make our own rules.”

“
How will we know what to
do?” Ador asked.

“
Each of us must do what we
believe is right,” Jok replied, “and we must do what is in the best
interest of the group as a whole.”

“
I agree,” Zen said. “When
we get to the White Mountains and build our new homes, we’ll decide
what rules we want to follow, but for now, our problem is to get
across this dreaded valley. We must work together to accomplish
that goal. I have no idea what dangers we’ll encounter, but we can
be sure there will be dangers, perhaps beyond our ability to
foresee, but hopefully not beyond our ability to overcome. We must
constantly be on the alert.”

The soldiers gave up saw
them entering the valley, gave up the chase, and stood watching as
the raft disappeared into the mist.

“
They won’t survive even one
night in that valley,” the lead soldier said, shaking his
head.

***

Chapter 8

Entering the
Valley

No one before had ever
guessed the horrors that lay in the valley. Perhaps it had no
limits, but if there was another side, what lay beyond?

Although thoughts of
uncertainty ran through their minds, they didn’t express their
fears out loud. They had escaped from the soldiers by floating down
the river into the valley; now they hoped the river flowed out
somewhere. In all memory, no one had ever entered the dreaded
valley and returned to tell about it.

***

As they entered the mist,
it was as though a curtain had been drawn; everything appeared in
shades of gray. It wasn’t possible to see more than a few paces in
any direction, and everywhere they looked the dense jungle had
vegetation dripping wet from the steam. The air was hot and humid.
Steam rose from stagnant ponds that filled the air with
foul-smelling gases.

Zen touched the water. It
was hot. Now he knew why there was always a thick fog shrouding the
valley. This was a seemingly endless primeval swamp with steam
rising from bubbling pots of mud. It would be impossible to walk
through the valley. He shuddered
and
thought
, If the terrible creatures don’t
eat you, the mud will swallow you up.
He
looked at his traveling companions and gave a bleak
smile.

Giant ferns grew
everywhere. Huge trees with long vines hanging from their branches
grew on the banks of the river. The vines would make the trees easy
to climb should they need to escape from ground predators. But what
about the animals that might live in the trees, animals they had
never seen before or even knew existed?

The fog shifted at times,
allowing a brief glimpse of their surroundings. The river was about
two hundred paces across, and the water was moving slowly. They
drifted along, looking at the strange sights and wondering what
might be around the next turn.