Legends of the Saloli: Vengeance and Mercy (21 page)

Rust brought his attention back down to earth just as another Darkcover saloli moved to attack him. Dodging out of the saloli’s reach, he skirted around him and leapt for the tree in which Goliath was perched. Sinking his claws into the bark, he quickly scurried up, towards his only brother and greatest enemy.

BOOM!

Rust felt a painful jolt go through his body, and he fell back to the ground. Picking himself back up, he found himself a little stiff, but otherwise unharmed. So, Mordred was hiding somewhere as well, using his sorcery to protect Goliath’s tree. There was no way he could climb up to where Goliath waited with Faith’s brother sending lightning at anyone who attempted the climb, so he bared his claws and rejoined the fight.

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Vengeance sat in a tree, overlooking the battle going on in the valley below. It was not looking good. Icefire was fighting valiantly, but Darkcover’s numbers were simply too many. At this rate, Icefire would take out a good portion of Darkcover’s forces, but they would eventually fall.

Luckily, he had brought enough saloli with him to even the odds.

“What’s your plan?” Specter asked.

“Goliath is hiding from the battle in that tree over there,” Vengeance explained. “If someone can get to him, we can take him out.”

“How are we going to get up there with that maniac hurling lightning at everyone who tries?”

“I’m still working on that part.”

“Well, if you can get to Goliath, NoTribe can hold off his army.”

“Thanks. Good luck.”

With that, Specter leapt from the tree, and uttered a war cry, which all of NoTribe took up as well as they followed him. Soon, Vengeance was alone. He racked his brains, trying to think of a plan. He had to get to Goliath, but how?

In the distance, he saw Talons dive down and attack Phantom once more.

<><><><><>

Goliath sat, watching the battle from his vantage point. He had been forced to fight his own warrior instincts in order to stay up here, but he’d finally convinced himself that someone had to remain out of harm’s way to give the orders. Naturally, that would be him. Was he being cowardly? No, he was behaving as a king and warlord should. And the battle was going wonderfully! Yes, those pathetic Icefire saloli were putting up a good fight, but it was obvious that the odds were stacked against them. There was no way they could win this battle.

He heard the battle cry ring out from the other side of the valley, and watched as an army of saloli even bigger than his own poured out of the trees, straight towards the battle. He smiled. NoTribe had arrived. Mask’s mission must have been successful. The overconfident outsider had been foolish enough to trust him when he offered her a position of power if she could bring NoTribe under his control. He had no such intentions, of course. Only he would hold power in his new empire. Mask would be disposed of immediately after the battle.

Wait. What were they doing? Goliath’s jaw dropped in horror as the NoTribe army, which he now saw was led by none other than the white freak Specter, began to attack the Darkcover saloli! So, Mask had failed after all. This could be dangerous. An army as large as his own acting against him could easily spell defeat. He would have to proceed with caution.

A large shadow blocked out the feeble light momentarily from above. At first, Goliath thought that it was merely Phantom, circling like a bird of prey while he looked for his next victim. A powerful tool, that bat was. It would serve him well. Looking up, though, he saw that it was not Phantom flying overhead, but the eagle that Icefire had somehow enlisted. Wait a minute. What was that on its back? A freezing waterfall of fear cascaded down Goliath’s spine, and a prophecy his old prophet, Ratty, had recited to him ran through his mind.

“
Beware the saloli who flies on the wings of an eagle.”

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Vengeance dug his claws tightly into Talons’ thick feathers as the eagle flew over the battlefield. Goliath’s tree loomed in the distance, growing nearer with every beat of Talons’ wings.

“Good, Talons, good!” he yelled above the storm, “That tree over there! The one with the big treemouse in it! Take me there!”

“Talons take red treemouse to kill big treemouse!” Talons squawked. Suddenly, Vengeance’s fur began to stand on end.

“Talons, bank right!” he yelled.

The eagle obeyed him, swerving to the right in midair just as a bolt of lightning came out of the clouds, missing them by mere feet. Again, his fur began to bristle, and the eagle banked left, narrowly avoiding being struck. Vengeance waited anxiously for the next bolt, but felt nothing. Instead, Phantom moved to block their path, letting loose his unearthly screech. The bat flew at them full force, and Talons dove beneath him. Vengeance could feel the tips of Phantom’s claws brush the fur on his back, but did no damage. The bat banked right, flew in a circle, and came at them again from behind. Vengeance’s eyes widened in terror. Talons couldn’t see him coming!

A vine shot out of the ground, far below them, and quickly wrapped itself around Phantom’s body. Like a boa constrictor, it began to crush the life out of the bat. Phantom desperately tried to tear the vine away from him, but then thorns, each measuring a foot in length, sprouted from it. Phantom screeched one last time, and then stopped moving.

Good job, Scratch!
Vengeance thought.

Talons righted himself, and angled towards Goliath’s tree once more. This time, nothing got in their way. Goliath spotted them coming, but was powerless to stop them. When Talons was only two feet away from the tree, Vengeance bounded forward and leapt off him, tackling Goliath and knocking him off his branch.

The two of them plummeted a few feet, and then struck another branch, rolled off of it, and hit another, bounced off, and then hit the ground. Vengeance leapt to his paws, mildly surprised that he was not injured, and waited for Goliath to do the same. The giant, however, dug his claws into the muddy ground and threw a clawful of mud into his enemy’s eyes!

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Rust watched with amazement as Vengeance knocked Goliath out of his tree. When they landed, he was almost certain they were both dead. Instead, they both got back up, and Goliath blinded Vengeance by throwing mud into his eyes. With his opponent disadvantaged, Goliath rose up to strike him down.

Rust charged at his brother, just in time, and sank his teeth into Goliath’s back leg. The giant roared in pain, and lashed out, swatting Icefire’s chief away. Once again, Rust rolled and leapt back to his paws just in time to leap again to avoid another attack. While Goliath recovered from his wild strike, Rust darted forward and scratched his eyelid, making him scream in fury again. Before he could make distance between them again, Goliath reared onto his hind legs and lashed out, knocking Rust to the ground with a powerful attack that cut his chest open with several deep incisions. Rust ignored the pain and kicked out with his back legs, running the claws down Goliath’s exposed stomach. Goliath dove at his brother, landing on top of him and nearly crushing him under his full weight.

“It’s good to see you, brother!” Goliath taunted him, “How is Icefire doing? How is Ginger?” Rust tried to squirm out from underneath his brother, but found himself hopelessly pinned. “Oh, that’s right! She’s dead, isn’t she?” the giant went on, “Killed by a human, isn’t that right?” He reared his head back and laughed, “You really believed that, didn’t you? Idiot! I thought you would have figured it out! I killed Ginger! I trapped her on the higher branches of a tree, and pushed her off!” He raised his right paw, and pressed down on Rust’s throat, preventing him from breathing. “Don’t worry, though. You’ll see her soon enough!”

Rust’s eyes went wild with uncontrolled rage. Fueled by anger and adrenaline, he began to push up on Goliath’s body. Nothing happened. Goliath was just too heavy.

“Say hello to Valde Abbas for me, brother!”

“No.” Rust gasped, “Tell him... yourself!”

With that last word, he thrust his legs upwards one last time, and Goliath flew off of him, over Rust’s head, and landed on the muddy ground with a
thud!
Rust leapt to his paws, gasping for breath, and ran at his brother. It was time to end this.

For the first time that he could ever remember, Rust saw Goliath look at him in fear. He didn’t wait for Icefire’s chief to reach him. He scrambled to his paws, turned tail, and ran. Despite his fury, Rust let him go. He stood there, watching the coward disappear into the forest until the rain blocked him from view.

Behind him, every saloli on the battlefield had stopped fighting, and now stared at him in awe. Rust had been right, without their leader, Darkcover no longer knew what to do. They were leaderless and outnumbered. Rust felt his breathing begin to calm down, and, for the first time in months, he finally felt at peace.

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Mordred watched, unseen, as Goliath retreated into the forest. The coward. Still, he had played his part perfectly thus far. He had driven the entire forest to war, and it never once occurred to him that he was being used. He had even bought the lie about Mordred being blind when, in truth, he was anything but. Not the way Goliath thought he was. Then again, Faith had believed him as well. Anyway, now the giant had one more part to play, and then Mordred’s true plans could commence. The sorcerer smiled grimly. It was time for him to disappear.

Chapter Thir
ty One

“Get some rest, Icefire!” Rust called from the Speaking Stone, down to his ecstatic tribe. “You’ve earned it.”

After the battle had ended, Rust had addressed the entire tribe of Darkcover. He had told them that he was willing to forgive them of their crimes if they would go back to their original tribes and never again cross their borders. Realizing their defeat, the broken tribe of Darkcover had scattered, each saloli trying to get back to their old territory as quickly as possible. NoTribe had left to return to their temporary camp outside the tribe boundaries. Out of gratitude, Rust had offered to accept the entire tribe of outsiders into Icefire, but Specter had declined.

To Vengeance, the albino said, “I don’t know what it was that you did to Mask. I can’t explain it, but I’m not willing to admit that it was your god. Not yet, anyway. Still, I have to admit that it may have nudged me in that direction.”

Vengeance nodded to NoTribe’s chief, “If you ever want to talk about it, you know where to find me.”

Now Icefire was back in their camp, and the celebrating had lasted for hours. It was still going strong now, in fact. Icefire could hardly believe that, against all odds, they had triumphed over the wicked tribe. They had brought peace to the forest once more. Yes, it had required several sacrifices, but in the end they would have had it no other way. The sun had long since set now, and the saloli decided that they had better take their chief’s advice. They all headed back to their trees, feeling as if their lives would begin anew the next morning.

Vengeance had not left Mercy’s side since the moment he had found her after the battle. True to his word, they had both immediately begun to make plans to form a family. There was nothing, Vengeance concluded, that would make him happier. Lying down next to his loving and beautiful mate, he was soon sound asleep.

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Something felt wrong. It was too hot. Vengeance squirmed uncomfortably in his sleep, but the feeling did not go away. Drowsily, he opened his eyes, and gasped!

Icefire’s camp was on fire!

He leapt to his paws, and shouted an alarm as loudly as he could. Many saloli were already awake, and running back and forth, knowing not what to do in this situation. Many of them had never seen a fire before, besides the miraculous ones Faith would conjure during funerals. A wild, blazing, uncontrollable inferno like this terrified them.

Vengeance knelt down and nudged Mercy awake. “Run!” he shouted, get out of the tree!”

He allowed her to go first, and then followed. The heat was becoming unbearable. They had to get out of the camp, or they would all die! Luckily, Rust had the same idea.

“Get out of the camp!” he yelled, “Get to the stream! The stream! Go!”

Then something leapt out of the flames behind him, and knocked him to the ground. Vengeance’s eyes widened in horror. It was Goliath! Rust struggled with the giant for a few moments, but then Goliath took his brother’s neck in his jaws, and jerked his head to the side. Even from so far away, Vengeance could hear the
snap
as Rust’s neck was broken. Goliath released his grip, and Icefire’s chief fell to the ground, lifeless.