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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