Copyright © 2005, Sherry Derr-Wille
Published by Whiskey Creek Press LLC

Reviews For THUNDER AND LIGHTNING by Sherry Derr-Wille

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Cahokia City – 1050 AD

“There is something we must discuss, Daughter.”

Javion put down her sewing and went to join her father in his workshop. As the youngest daughter of the most respected flint knapper in Cahokia City, she was certain he planned to tell her of what a good match had been made for her. Perhaps he had arranged for her to marry Katier, the son of the great Master of Mound Builders. If so, she would be well respected within the city.

To her surprise, he indicated that she should follow him away from his workshop. As they crossed the vast grassy expanse, she realized they were heading for the home of ‘The Sun’, the spiritual leader of their people. Why does he choose to take me away from the workshop in order to talk?

“Have you made the match for my marriage?” Javion asked, once they were in the shadow of the tallest mound in the city.

Her father looked up toward the top of the mound as though hoping that ‘The Sun’ would come down to help guide his words.

“I have been told ‘The Sun’ is very old. He will soon die and a new ‘Sun’ will take his place.”

“‘The Sun’ cannot die, Father. Who will lead the people?”

“The oldest man child of ‘The Sun’, Rourk, will be the new ‘Sun’ to rise in his father’s stead. He has been trained for this all of his life.”

“Why do you tell me this, Father?”

“Rourk has come to me privately, as he has to eleven other families in the city. It is Rourk’s request that twelve virgins accompany his father to the next life. It is a high honor. In addition, his father has requested to be laid on a bed of shells, along with many arrowheads. Your fingers are nimble and you have learned my trade well. You will help me fashion the arrowheads.”

Javion stared at her father in disbelief. She had heard stories of virgins being sacrificed in order for ‘The Sun’ to be satisfied in the next life, but she never thought it would happen to her. Her head pounded and her stomach roiled at the thought of dying for the spiritual leader’s pleasure.

Last season one of Javion’s friends had given her virginity to the old leader. The entire city had celebrated—all but Javion. She had cried bitter tears for her friend. Once Ciana had been taken to the top of the mound, she had never been seen again. The talk had been that Ciana had spent one night satisfying ‘The Sun’. With the dawning she had been passed among the priests until she was large with child. Ciana had died giving birth to the girl child. The priests had taken both Ciana and the child outside of the city to be eaten by the wild animals that roamed so freely in search of those foolish enough to be outside the stockade once the sun went down.

At least Javion would be spared a fate such as that of her friend. The thought of having to face the unwanted attentions of the priests, and having a child planted in her belly by one of the men who frightened her so much, would have been almost unbearable.

She would endure losing her virginity to the rising ‘Sun’, for Rourk had always frightened her more than any of the other priests. She wondered if it would be Rourk, or one of the others, who would wield the sacrificial knife that would tear her beating heart from her body. If the loss of her virginity resulted in a child, it too would die.

“You will be the primary sacrifice, Javion,” her father said, jolting her mind back to the conversation her father had felt to be so important. “Your friends will be sacrificed in private, but on the twelfth day, you will give your life for all the people to see. Your name will be remembered for generations to come.”

Javion nodded. Her father would expect her to be as excited as he was about this. She thought of running away, but knew there was nowhere to go. From the day that ‘The Sun’ died she would have twelve days to contemplate her fate. During those twelve days, she would be tethered within the confines of the wooden circle. One by one her friends would be taken to the top of the mound. Once they were sacrificed, they would be brought back and prepared to be placed in the burial mound with ‘The Sun’. No one knew when ‘The Sun’ would die, so from this time forward she would live each day as though it were her last. Once her friends began giving their lives to ‘The Sun’ she would not have the freedom to contemplate her fate. As the last sacrifice, she would have to watch as her friends were taken from the people as living beings and returned as a sacrifice, the life taken from their bodies. The thought saddened her.

* * * *
Javion watched as the last of her friends was taken to the top of the mound. For the past ten days she and her friends had been stripped of their clothing and tethered naked in the center of the wooden circle.

In an attempt to take her mind from the terrible thing that was soon to be her fate, she recalled happier times. She and her brother Jayden had been the youngest of their parents’ children. With her older brothers and sisters well married and living away from the family home, they had become constant companions. Like Jayden, she had learned her father’s craft. She knew Jayden, like her older brothers, would work side by side with their father once he reached adulthood. For now, the two of them worked together. With each thought, she tried to brand every memory of her family, the life she had led, and Cahokia City into her mind.

It was dawn of the eleventh day. Only Javion and Kimra remained within the circle. In the distance, Javion could see the priests arriving, bringing with them Kimra’s parents. Her mother was weeping softly but her father held his head high and kept his face devoid of all emotions.

“This is the morning your daughter will be taken to the top of the mound. Once her virginity is sacrificed, her life will be taken also, so that she can serve our leader ‘The Sun’ in his next life. Your family is blessed to have a daughter chosen for such a sacred sacrifice.”

Javion cringed at the words. She had heard them every morning since this terrible ordeal had begun and she knew them by heart. What good would it do ‘The Sun’ to have dead maidens in his grave? Would they all be reunited in the afterlife and the girls forced to serve him sexually? The thought made Javion’s stomach churn and threaten to rebel.

In order not to embarrass either herself or her parents, she swallowed down the gall. As she did, she could see her friend’s knees buckle and watched Kimra fall to the ground. Between the priest and her father, they lifted her to her feet and helped her to move in the direction of the mound.

Good-bye, Kimra. May we meet in the afterlife and find a way to keep ‘The Sun’ from forcing us to service him in the way the priests have suggested. Be brave. It will all be over in a short while.

As though Kimra heard her thoughts and understood her meaning, she stood straight and tall and walked proudly toward the mound.

Javion knew the next time she saw her friend, it would be when her lifeless body was returned for the celebration that surrounded her sacrifice.

Once Kimra was taken away, someone came and brought Javion bread and water. It did little to quell her hunger, as it was only enough to sustain her until the next morning, when it would be her turn to walk to the top of the great mound.

The entire city gathered around the base of the mound. Although Javion was tethered quite a distance away, she could hear the singing, as Kimra’s body was brought down from the top of the mound. Once the priests were on level ground, those assembled followed the procession to the mound where the embalmers would prepare Kimra for her final journey to the area where ‘The Sun’ lay, waiting for burial and available for all the people to view his magnificent body.

Javion thought of the arrowheads and shells that had been prepared to become the bed upon which ‘The Sun’ would lie for eternity. She had made many of the arrowheads to her father’s specifications. For the work, her father had been well compensated. After the burial, he would be a very wealthy man, even if he had one less daughter within his household.

As the day drew to a close, Javion knew her life was at its end. If only somehow the dawning would not come, her life could be saved.

The storm came from the clear night sky. Lightning slashed across the heavens and the roar of the thunder forced Javion to the ground and the bliss of unconsciousness.

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