Legends of the Saloli: Vengeance and Mercy (19 page)

Valde Abbas had chosen their new prophet.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Vengeance awoke with a jerk. Raising his head, gazed around the camp. There were hundreds of saloli living here, all loyal to Icefire. It occurred to him, though, that it wasn’t enough. No matter how brave, loyal, and skilled they were, the fact remained that Darkcover outnumbered them five to one now. If they were to win this war, something would have to be done to even the odds. But what?

You need more claws
.

Vengeance already knew that. But where could he find them? Every tribe in the forest, besides Icefire, was either destroyed or under Darkcover’s control.

Every tribe?

Yes, every tribe.

Even the tribe without a tribe?

Vengeance’s eyes widened with sudden inspiration. NoTribe had not yet been conquered by Darkcover! What’s more, their numbers rose higher than all four forest tribes put together. If Vengeance could convince them to fight with Icefire, they may have a chance of defeating Darkcover. No, more than a chance. The odds would actually tip in their favor! But how could he gain their support? He couldn’t use religious reasoning on them, as they didn’t believe in Valde Abbas. Perhaps he could convince them that Darkcover was a threat to them as well. It wouldn’t be completely untrue. If Goliath learned that there were countless saloli living free in these woods, he would focus his attention on taking them over as well. Filled with a new sense of purpose, Vengeance stood up, his fur brushing against that of Mercy’s. He would leave immediately. He only had two days before Darkcover marched to meet them in battle. Stepping over his branch-mates, he scurried down the tree and made his way to the edge of camp.

“Vengeance, where are you going?” He spun around to find none other than Mercy standing behind him, a confused look in her eyes.

“I’m going to try to convince NoTribe to fight with us.” He answered truthfully. “We don’t have enough claws on our side to stand a chance against Darkcover. NoTribe could be our only way to win this.”

He expected Mercy to argue with him, but instead she nodded, “Then I’m coming with you.”

“No,” he asserted, “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Then don’t ask, I’ve already said that I would.”

“No. I can’t put you into that much danger. What if Specter is still angry that he didn’t get you as his mate? I can’t just parade into his camp with you by my side after what happened that day.”

“I don’t care about Specter’s feelings!” she insisted, “You’re my mate, and I want to be by your side!”

“But Specter’s feelings are very important in this situation. If he gets angry with me, he may very well refuse to fight with us.”

Tears filled Mercy’s eyes, “Please, Vengeance, I don’t want to be apart from you! It hurts me!”

“It won’t be for very long, I promise you that. If I find the situation with NoTribe to be impossible, then I’ll come straight back here. After this is all over, we’ll be able to spend as much time together as we could ever want. For now, though, I have to focus on protecting you and the rest of Icefire.”

“But…”

“I also need you to stay here so that you can tell Rust and the others where I went. We can’t have them thinking that I just abandoned them. Please, Mercy, I don’t want to leave you either. It hurts me just as much as it does you, but there’s no other way.”

Mercy’s head hung in dejection, “All right. Do what you have to do. I’ll be waiting here for you when you come back.”

Vengeance moved closer and pressed his face against his mate’s. “When I come back, I want to talk about starting a family.”

Mercy gasped, a new look of hope lighting her eyes. Vengeance smiled, satisfied that he had made his mate so happy, and turned and ran from the camp.

<><><><><>

“You want us to what?” Specter asked, incredulously.

It had taken Vengeance nearly four hours to find the tribe of outsiders. When he did find them, Mask had attempted to send him away out of spite, but he had forced his way in, and now stood before Specter, making his proposal.

“I need you to fight beside Icefire. Darkcover has taken over the other two tribes in the forest, and now we’re hopelessly outnumbered. If you were to fight with us, we’d actually have a chance at defeating them.”

“And yet you still haven’t told me how NoTribe benefits from this in any way. What’s in it for us?”

“Do you really think Goliath will be content with what he has when he knows that a tribe as large as all four tribes put together is still out here, outside of his control?”

“If it comes to that, we can always leave.” Specter argued, “We can find another home away from this one, without any narrow-minded tribes around to get in our way. If we’re going to fight beside Icefire, then we’re going to have to get something worthwhile out of it, something you wouldn’t give us otherwise. I’m still open to the idea of mating with that beautiful female you stole from me.”

“No, Mercy has been mated to me, and I will never give her to you.”

“And yet you have the audacity to come to my camp and ask for my help? You tribe saloli really need to straighten yourselves out. I’ve made my decision. If you give me that female, we will fight beside Icefire. If not, then you may leave right now.”

“What if I could prove that Darkcover is as big a threat to you as it is to Icefire?”

“Then I might consider it. But you won’t, because what the tribes do to each other is not my problem.”

“Then I’ll have to prove you wrong.” Vengeance said, ending the conversation and walking away.

A pit formed in his stomach. How was he going to do what he had just promised? Despite Specter’s arguments to the contrary, Vengeance knew that NoTribe was in as much danger as Icefire. Not fighting against Darkcover would be signing their own death warrant, and Icefire’s as well. But how could he prove this to Specter? The overconfident albino was too selfish to consider any problems that he couldn’t clearly see affecting him.

For the next three hours, Vengeance walked among NoTribe’s ranks, trying to talk to the outsiders. Most of them, however, had already received word from Specter that they were not to speak to him except to tell him to leave their camp. What he did manage to get out of them was not encouraging.

“If it weren’t for you tribe saloli, we wouldn’t have to go hungry like we do!”

“I hope you all wipe each other out. Then the forest will be all ours!”

“Go to Helm!”

Despite this, Vengeance was unwilling to give up. Even though all the evidence pointed to the contrary, he was still convinced that this band of outsiders was Icefire’s only hope. They
would
fight with them. He just had to figure out how to make it happen.

“Blaze!”

He turned to see Mask coming to meet him, “I told you, my name’s not Blaze anymore. It’s Vengeance.”

“Whatever.” She brushed it away, “I remember asking you, the first time we met, to come up with a good argument for your god’s existence. I was just wondering if you’d thought of one yet.”

Vengeance nodded, “I have. Would you like to hear it?” She nodded as well, “It goes like this: Valde Abbas does not show himself to us because everyone would believe in him, but they would be weak. Those that believe in him without seeing him are the strong ones, and they are the ones he wants on his side. They are the ones who are brave enough to believe in what they cannot see, and go against the entire world in doing so. Those who do not believe are simply cowards, terrified of what they cannot see or control. So they deny its existence and claim superiority over those who do believe. A friend of mine has explained that knowing Valde Abbas exists comes from a feeling in your heart. A feeling that there is more to life than what the eye can see. Those who do not feel it are either too afraid to look into their own hearts, or they just ignore what their hearts tell them in favor of what their flawed logic demands they believe.”

Mask looked at Vengeance with an impassive face. He could not tell if his argument had made an impact on her, or simply caused her to hate him even more. Finally, she turned and said, “Come with me.”

Vengeance felt a bit uneasy following this outsider, but he put it out of his mind. She led him away from the camp, and into the forest. She spoke again.

“I actually had hopes that you would find your way out of this stupidity you call wisdom.” She told him, “You honestly seemed like a rational saloli. I guess I was wrong, though.”

“Did you think of a better argument to counter mine, or are you simply ignoring everything I just told you?” Vengeance asked.

Mask spun around, anger lighting up her eyes, “I don’t need to argue with an idiot! I know you’re wrong, and I don’t need to justify my knowledge. If you’re going to believe in some myth because it makes you feel better then me, so be it! I won’t have any part of it!”

“I don’t believe in Valde Abbas to feel superior to you,” Vengeance shot back, “I believe in him because he is real, and he loves us. Why are you so blind to that?”

“You’re the one who’s blind! And you don’t feel superior? Ha! Your religion was formed so that the followers would be put above the ones who saw the truth, and any argument against that fact only shows your own stupidity!”

“But…”

“But nothing! I have had it with idiots like you keeping intelligent creatures like me from getting what we deserve! Goliath has promised me that he will wipe religion from the forest, and only logic and common sense will remain when he’s done. All I have to do is make sure you don’t get in his way again! Get him!”

Before Vengeance could process what Mask had just said, a trio of Darkcover saloli dropped out of the trees and attacked him! He didn’t even get a chance to defend himself before they had him pinned to the ground, unable to move. Mask stood above him with a look of triumph on her face.

“Goliath told me that you would come to us.” She boasted, “He told me that if I could prevent you from swaying Specter’s opinion, I could then kill the albino and take control of NoTribe. If I pledged NoTribe’s allegiance to Darkcover, he would make sure I received a position of power in his new empire. I intend to do just that, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Your precious tribe is going to fall, and I’m going to be there, laughing as the religious fools die. I’d say it was nice talking to you, but I believe in only telling the truth, which is more than you could ever say. Goodbye.”

Without another word, Mask turned tail and walked back towards NoTribe’s camp.

<><><><><>

Rust looked up at the darkening sky. Though it was only noon, dark storm clouds were already blotting out the sun. Mercy had told him of Vengeance’s quest to enlist NoTribe’s help in fighting Darkcover. He couldn’t say that he was happy about it, but he agreed that more saloli would be needed if Darkcover was to be defeated.

He climbed down from his personal tree, and went across the camp to where Scratch was standing. The poor saloli hardly knew how to function under so much pressure. Every saloli in Icefire now depended on him to comfort their fears of the upcoming battle.

“How are you, Scratch?” he asked.

Scratch looked up at his chief, the anguish shining clearly in his eyes, “I can’t do this!” he replied, “I don’t know anything about being the tribe prophet. I don’t know what to tell Icefire when they ask for advice. What do I do?”

Rust sighed, “Believe it or not, Scratch, I know exactly how you feel. I was thrown into my position as chief without any warning or training. I was overwhelmed, and thought myself completely inadequate for the job. What I came to realize, though, is that Valde Abbas will always be watching out for you. He will never let you fail. After awhile, the feeling of inadequacy went away, and I came to accept my position and the power that came with it. These saloli look up to both of us, Scratch. We have to do our best to live up to their expectations.”

“Were you promoted to chief two days before the battle that could destroy us all?” Scratch asked.

“Well, no, but…”

Before Rust could go any further, a single saloli came running up to him.