Beyond the Valley of Mist Read Online Free PDF

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