Beyond the Valley of Mist (16 page)

“
If God does not make the
rules, then who does?” Nadd asked.

“
God does not make the
rules you live by now,” Zen answered. “The priests make those
rules. The priests tell you that the Fire God makes the rules, and
you believe them because you are afraid not to. They control you,
and if you don’t follow their rules, they say you are defying God,
and that gives them the right to punish you by throwing you into
the sacrificial fire. It isn’t God who takes your life—the priests
take your life. You believe God is doing the taking because you are
afraid not to believe.”

“
In our new village,” Lela
added, “you’ll make your own decisions and your own rules. The only
rule you must follow is the rule that no one may do anything that
will harm anyone else.”

“
You mean I can still have
my God and worship Him any way I want to, but I don’t have to
follow the rules set up by the priests?” Nadd asked.

“
That is correct,” Lela
nodded.

“
That sounds good,” Nadd
said. “I’ll join you if you’ll have me.”

Zen answered, “We’ll be
glad to have you and your family if you want to bring them along,
but no one must say anything to anyone who might reveal our plans
to the priests. We don’t want to harm anyone, but we will kill
anyone who tries to stop us. We don’t have a choice. If we don’t
kill them, they’ll kill us.”

“
Why don’t we have secret
meetings?” Cam suggested. “If we can get enough people, we could
overthrow the priests, and if we eliminate the priests, we could
have a happy village right here in Lalock. Many people would like
to be out from under the thumbs of the priests. Almost every family
has had someone sacrificed to the Fire God. I think many will want
to join us to get even with the priests.”

“
A secret society is a good
idea,” Zen said, “but we’ll have to start with the ones we know we
can trust. We’ll start with our families, and they’ll know others
they can trust. In time, we’ll have enough people to overthrow the
priests and maybe no one will have to get hurt. Tomorrow, when you
and Nadd go back to the village, you can tell them about your
experience with the people of the burning mountain. Tell them that
Den was sacrificed, but you escaped and made it back. They’ll be
glad to see you. Then, when no one is listening, tell our parents
where we are, and what we’re doing. Tell them to let us know where
to meet them. We’re eager to see them, and we have many stories to
tell.”

“
I know a cave where you
can stay that is closer to the village,” Cam said. “It will be
easier for your parents to get to, and easier for the people of the
village to walk to. I think most of them will want to talk to you
before they make up their minds about joining you.”

“
I think I know that old
cave,” Zen said. “We played there when we were children. There’s a
back entrance, isn’t there?”

“
Yes, that’s the one,”
replied Cam. “But what will you do with the horses? Lions will eat
them if you keep them tied. Will they run away if you turn them
loose?”

“
No, the horses are tame,”
Zen commented. “We can just turn them loose. They can outrun the
lions, and we have trained them to come when we call. If anyone
sees them, they’ll think they are wild horses. No one will know
that we ride the horses unless we tell them. We can store our
supplies in the cave. I want to teach everyone how to use the new
weapons. Now, let’s go to the cave.”

They reached the meeting
place just before dark. Cam and Nadd continued on to the village
while Jok, Zen, and the girls stored the supplies and prepared
their beds. After removing the backpacks, they turned the horses
loose to graze.

A short time later, their
families began arriving. Ador’s mother and father were the first.
They ran to Ador, wrapped her in their arms and wept. They had
expected never to see her again. Ador’s father was so happy to see
them all that he embraced everyone. Since he was a medicine man,
his first concern was for their health, and he wanted to know if
everyone was well.

Soon, all of their parents
were in the cave. Everyone was so excited, they were all talking at
the same time.

Zarko, Zen’s father, held
up his hands and said, “Please, everyone, be quiet. Let the young
people tell us their story.”

“
Zen, you tell them,” Jok
said.

And so Zen began. “Father
and I built the raft and hid it, but the priests found out and
chased us. We barely escaped by floating into the Valley of Mist.
It is appropriately called the Valley of Death. A mist fills the
valley because boiling pots of mud and water emit a foul-smelling
gas and steam. The mud is very hot, and a high ridge of mountains
surrounds the valley, preventing wind from blowing the steam away.
We think the mud is hot because a river of fire flows into the
valley from a mountain many days’ ride west of here. A river of
fire pours from the top of the mountain and flows into the valley.
We’ll tell you about the smoking mountain later, but for now, I’ll
tell the events of our journey as they happened.

“
After we entered the
valley, it got really dark because the sunlight couldn’t penetrate
the mist. We could see only a short distance. It was frightening.
We could hear animals that we couldn’t see. The river was dark and
just beneath the surface, large fish and reptiles were waiting to
gobble up anything that fell into it. Once, a centipede tried to
crawl up my leg and Lela killed it; the carcass slithered into the
water, only to be swallowed up immediately by something frightful.
Large trees with many trunks and vines grew along the riverbanks.
Big saber-toothed cats lived under the trees; monkeys, colorful
birds, and reptiles lived in the trees, and on the ground were
bears, lions, wolves, and many other animals so strange that we
didn’t know what to call them. They were all just waiting to pounce
on us. We had to fight them and run for our lives many times. Every
moment of every day and night, we were in danger.

“
Mother, Father, Lela and I
joined as one. Jok and Ador did also, and we asked for God’s
blessings.”

He smiled as their parents
nodded their approval.

Zen continued. “We had just
about given up hope of ever getting to the other side when the
river began flowing faster and faster until we were riding down
rapids so violent that it destroyed our raft. We almost lost Ador
when she fell into the raging river and hit her head on a rock. She
almost drowned. We found her and revived her, but then a lion
attacked and almost killed Lela. We saved her by fighting the lion
after she jumped into the river. Since our raft was destroyed in
the rapids, we had to walk. We found a spot high on a ledge where
we spent the first night after reaching the other side of the
valley.

“
Father, we found the
snow-capped mountains. Our new village will be beside the river
that flows at the base of those mountains. It’s a beautiful place
with plenty of grazing animals to provide food. The river is clean,
with lots of colorful fish.”

The parents all listened
intently and looked at the young people’s faces as Zen spoke of
each of them and hugged them. The parents couldn’t hold back their
tears of joy.

“
We’ve come back to take
you there with us,” Lela said, also dabbing at her eyes. “We’ve
already started the village and built one house, and we can build
all we need so that each family can have a home. We are determined
to build a village free from the influence of the wicked priests.
Will you come with us?”

Dar, Lela’s father, said,
“Your mother and I will go with you. Many of our friends will want
to go, too. Only a few days ago, the priests sacrificed a girl who
went through the rite of womanhood without becoming pregnant. The
girl’s mother complained, and the priests burned both the mother
and the father to death because they had defied the Fire God. They
used the old excuse that if they were not guilty, Fire would not
harm them. Of course, Fire didn’t spare them; it has never spared
anyone. The Lalocks are ready to rebel. If we give them an
alternative and give them hope, many will want to join us. We will
talk to them.”

Ador’s father Berk said,
“Show us how to use these new weapons, and we’ll help you train the
rest of the men. When we’re ready, we’ll overthrow the priests and
return peace and happiness to this village. The people who do not
want to come with us can stay here and rebuild this village. This
would be a good village if we could overcome the priests and stop
the cruelties they administer in the name of God. They have gotten
too powerful and too cruel. They must be taken down.”

“
That is a wonderful thing
to hear,” Zen said. “We have many things to show you, but the first
is how to use the bows and arrows.”

Zen demonstrated the bow by
shooting an arrow into the trunk of a tree a hundred paces away.
The fathers were astonished and immediately saw the advantages of
being able to kill an animal from so far away.

Jok joined in, “After we
have taught you to use the bows and arrows, we’ll teach you to ride
horses. We rode horses to get here.”

“
Ride horses!” Berk
exclaimed. “This is unbelievable!”

“
Yes, we ride on the backs
of horses. We can travel great distances in a short time. When
we’re riding, we have an advantage over our enemies. There are many
wild horses here. We’ll catch them and train them. It will take
time, but we can do it.”

Jok’s father, Gordo, said,
“You show us how, and we’ll learn. Then we’ll bring people to you,
one by one, until we have enough to stand against the
priests.”

Zen's father, Zarko, stood
up and said, “I think we’d better get back to our caves before we
are missed. Tomorrow, we’ll come back to begin our training. It’s
so wonderful to see you young people. We have lived in constant
dread that we would never see you again. You have done a brave and
wonderful thing, and we’re proud of you. Now it is time for the
sons to teach the fathers. We are not too old to learn, and I want
to help raise my grandchildren.” He hugged each of the couples
again.

“
The priests have their
spies everywhere,” Gordo said. “We must work in secrecy. Each man
must be sworn to secrecy before we allow them to know what we’re
doing. We fathers will take care of that, but we must go back to
our caves. Tomorrow we will return.”

***

The young people were so
excited at seeing their parents that they were unable to sleep.
They built a fire farther back in the cave, making sure that no one
on the outside could see the light, and then sat by the fire and
talked about what they had to do.

They had to catch wild
horses and train them, and make more bows and arrows for the men
who would join them. All of the men would need weapons. They didn’t
have enough knives to give one to each man, so they would give
knives only to the strongest men.

“
My father is the best
stone knapper in the village,” Jok said. “He can make extra
arrowheads. We brought along a good supply, but we may not have
enough.”

“
Let Ador and me gentle the
wild horses,” Lela said. “They’ll respond to us better than they
will to you. You can train them to allow us to feed them. They’ll
be much easier to handle after they get used to being around
people.”

“
Lela and I could ride the
tame horses among the wild horses,” Ador added. “That will allow
the wild horses to get used to us. Our mothers can help make
halters and padding for the riders to sit on. You men attend to the
weapons. We women will take care of the other
necessities.”

“
Tomorrow, we’ll begin
teaching our fathers to use the bows and arrows,” Zen said. “They
can take them home and practice in secret until they gain
proficiency. With our fathers’ help, we can make more, so there’ll
be enough for everyone. We need all the help we can
get.”

“
We’ll hold meetings each
night to explain what we’re going to do,” Jok agreed. “Cam and
Ador’s father had good ideas when they suggested we overcome the
priests and take back the control of this village.”

“
I have some thoughts on
what we can do to break the hold the priests have over the people,”
Zen added. “But we must be very careful that no one exposes our
purpose before we’re ready to rescue our friends and families. I
like the idea of forming a secret society where each member carries
a symbol to let the others know that he is part of the plan. If
we’re exposed, we would all be killed. It would be terrible if Ador
and Lela were sacrificed to the fire after all the trouble we went
through to prevent it. Also, we cannot let our parents be killed,
because we came back to rescue them.”

“
We can call our secret
society the Brotherhood of the Arrow,” Jok suggested. “Everyone who
wants to join will have to swear in blood on the pain of death,
that he or she will not reveal our presence, or why we have
returned. We could inject the dye of the red berry into our arms as
a mark to let others know that we are Brothers of the
Arrow.”

“
Yes,” said Zen. “That way,
we’ll know who we can trust. We’ll talk to our fathers about it
when they arrive tomorrow. Let’s sleep now. We have a big job ahead
of us.”