Read The Dark Valley for Free Online Page B

The following winter, when she was planting seeds for someone else, she saw smoke coming out of the depths of the forest from the top of a hillock and, of course, it reminded her of her husband, but she neither missed him, nor had sweet memories.
    At night, she locked the doors, put the girls to sleep, and pressed her suckling to her breast and warmed her up. She was like a brood hen spreading her wings. Under the warmth of her wings, Shahan’s three blonde daughters grew up. They would have to grow a little more, however, before three young men with wings would take away the eldest first, then the middle one, and finally the youngest, because no bird was to build a nest under Shahan’s roof.
    2
    Eight years passed. Hanes’s daughter had become a baker, a tiller of the land, and a distributor of firewood. For eight years, the heat of the tonir had scorched her face. That is why her face glowed like a brass plowshare. She would draw back from the tonir with a few sheets of lavash, {2} which she would hang on a hook and divide among the girls. The starling feeds her chicks worms from her beak and her wings also glow, even if she has never seen a tonir.
    For eight years, Shahan’s threshing floor had not seen any chaff. In the roof of the hayloft, the rain had perforated small holes, causing water to drip on the beams. A spider had spun its web there, and one winter two of the hayloft’s beams collapsed under the weight of the snow and fell to the floor.
    Sometimes Shahan would look attentively at her oldest daughter, Sandukht. She wanted to know whether her daughter was developing. Sandukht’s body was changing very slowly, her movements remained childish, and she still asked innocent and naïve questions. Shahan would fish for news in the different bakeries, and whenever the discussion would turn to giving and taking girls, she would bring to mind Sandukht. If only she could find a place for her, get her to settle there, so that she could lighten the burden on her shoulders and take care of the other two children. What if no one wanted her daughters? Her daughters would rot like seedless cucumbers and remain seedless themselves. But Sandukht was mannered, wasn’t she? Modest and obedient, with eyes like pale-blue flowers.
    Then one day Ghazakh’s Ohan approached Shahan on the street and asked her for Sandukht for his son. Nothing was said of her eyes being the color of pale-blue flowers. He also asked whether Hanes’s daughter would give him her threshing floor and collapsed hayloft together with Sandukht.
    Shahan thought about it that evening and went to ask her brother for advice. Her brother thought it a good idea.
    “What do you need the loft for?”
    When she got home from her father’s house, she continued to mull it over. Sandukht did not understand why her mother stroked her hair, then bent over to kiss her forehead. The scent of fresh bread emanated from her mother’s bosom, and when Sandukht slowly opened her eyes, she was surprised to see how much money her mother had. The moon’s milky-colored rays shone through the skylight onto the silver coins that Shahan was holding in her hand. It was enough to buy cloth for a dress and something more.
    The next day, Ghazakh’s Ohan sent his wife to examine the girl. Shahan bathed Sandukht and carefully braided her blond hair. Ohan’s wife approved of Sandukht. Before examining the girl, she had already taken a look at the threshing floor and hayloft.
    On Saturday, Ghazakh’s Ohan, his son, Shahan, and Sandukht went to the notary to sign a binding contract. The documents for the threshing floor and hayloft had been prepared the day before.
    Sandukht was wearing a new dress. Whenever the wind fluttered the flaps of her dress, her heart fluttered too. But as soon as she would see Ohan’s son, her joy would instantly subside; she would pull back and hide her face in her coat, like a snail that retracts into its shell. A dark and uncertain doubt hung in her heart