Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Ruwen exited the lava tunnel and sprinted into a rainstorm. The rain surprised him as it had seemed too cold earlier for rain. He didn’t stop running until he reached the large circle of portal stones. The Founders and Addas sat meditating, while Echo seemed intent on something in the distance.

Worried that the lava tunnel they’d used for escape might collapse from the now constant ground quakes, Ruwen had pushed his speed as fast as he thought safe for the Adepts. Even so, Sift had needed to steady the wagons twice to keep them from flipping as Ruwen took corners at too steep an angle.

Ruwen slowed as he approached the leaders of his Clan, but the two Worker wagons full of Adepts kept their momentum, and when he slowed, the only thing that changed was the rope grew slack.

Ruwen set his stance on the slick rocks and prepared to grab the lead wagon to slow it as his summoned rope, still tied around his waist, coiled at his feet. The force of the rain, however, had pushed enough of the lubricating potion down his arms and onto his hands that grabbing the wagons proved impossible.

Unfortunately, Ruwen didn’t figure that out until the lead wagon had slipped through his hands and then slid over his lubricated clothes, forcing him to bend backward and creating a ramp for the wagon. Realizing his mistake, he immediately channeled five Energy per second into Scrub, cursing the spell’s one second cast time.

The lead wagon sailed into the air as Ruwen flipped away from the trailing wagon. He noticed the rapidly diminishing pile of coiled rope at his feet and realized in a few moments it would jerk him into the air.

Ruwen dismissed Climb and the magical rope disappeared. The second Worker wagon, without his body to use as a ramp, stayed on the ground and pulled the lead wagon back to the surface. He leaped forward to where the lead wagon would land, praying Scrub would finish casting by the time he got there.

The low jump made for a clumsy landing, but Ruwen’s Diamond body made it look graceful to anyone watching. He slammed one hand into the rock covered ground and grabbed the undercarriage of the wagon with the other. Scrub activated just before he grabbed the wagon, and he got a good grip.

Even though Ruwen had only used five Energy per second to power Scrub, his vibrating hands quickly overcame the magic wood’s durability, and his grip on the wagon melted away.

Ruwen immediately stopped channeling Scrub and regained his handhold before the entire wagon passed him by.

The wagon pushed Ruwen downward, its air cushion soft like a pillow. He could have resisted the force, but he wanted to make the landing less violent for the Adepts. The lead wagon continued forward, and Ruwen jammed his free hand deeper into the stony ground to slow them all down.

Sift grabbed the back of the second wagon and dug his feet into the rocky surface. Between the two of them, the wagons slid to a stop twenty feet later. Ruwen rolled out from under the wagon and flashed Sift a quick “thanks” in Shade Speak.

The Adepts jumped out of the wagons, and Ruwen thought they looked a little too eager. The ride couldn’t have been that bad.

Sift stepped up to Ruwen. “That could have gone worse.”

“Right? That’s what I was thinking.”

“You’re lucky I dodged the pukers.”

“Are you joking?”

Sift nodded at the Adepts who had clumped around the now standing Founders. A few still held their stomachs, and a couple looked like they might still vomit, but most of them had faced the same direction as Echo.

Ruwen winced. He might need to reconsider what others considered normal speeds. Curious about what had grabbed everyone’s attention, he turned to look.

For as far as Ruwen could see, the mountains had shed their snow as lava poured from the dormant volcanos. The super-heated gases had mixed with the cold air and squeezed the remaining moisture from it, causing all the rain. The sky had filled with ash, and it reflected the red-orange glow of the erupting mountains.

The newly active volcanos ran in a straight line. Ruwen glanced back at the lava tube he’d just exited and did some simple math.

“Oh, no,” Ruwen whispered.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Sift responded.

Ruwen considered the new magma pool that had filled the area where the tiny pressure wave he couldn’t capture had escaped. It seemed the wave had continued for a little farther than he’d expected. In fact, it appeared it had traveled past the horizon.

“Come on,” Sift said. “Let’s join the others.”

Ruwen dismissed the Worker Wagons and followed Sift toward the group.

As they neared the others, Sift pointed at the line of volcanos. “Does that happen often?”

The Founders turned from the destruction that ran straight as an arrow from the mountain they had just exited. Ruwen did his best to act natural.

“No,” Thorn replied. “It is not normal.”

“This island shifted away from the largest magma chambers long ago,” Mist added.

“What happened down there?” Dusk asked. “We worried for your safety. It shocked us all that you chose such a heavily traveled tube. It is obviously the most used in this valley.”

“I hate that golem,” Sift muttered.

“It sounded very noisy down there,” Madda offered.

The comment meant they knew a lot of fighting had occurred. Ruwen also wondered if there might be some way to detect what he’d done to the Infernal Crossing Ring. He prayed no one brought it up.

Sift pointed a thumb at Ruwen. “He brought company, and they didn’t like us.”

Madda frowned at the bruises covering Sift’s arm and he quickly lowered it. Ruwen breathed a sigh of relief that Sift hadn’t given any more details.

“You might have heard Rung Four,” Sift continued. “They were a little obsessed with a big glowing donut down there.”

“A glowing donut?” Padda asked.

Sift drew a big circle with his arms. “Black rock holding some sort of energy.”

Echo stiffened and turned from watching the volcanos to study them.

“But now we’re here,” Ruwen said. “So we can go.”

Prythus still looked sick, but he bowed toward the Founders and Addas. “Master Ruwen performed a great service in that chamber.” He turned to Ruwen and bowed even deeper. “Even if that portal didn’t lead to our world, it served as a link in the chain of demon oppression. Losing five of their rings will surely be a blow.”

Echo stepped toward them. “Five?”

Prythus looked embarrassed, and he bowed to Echo. “I did not intend to offend you. I do not judge all demons by the actions of the Infernal Realm.”

“You should start,” Sift muttered.

Echo took another step closer, now less than ten feet separating them all. “Did you say he destroyed five Infernal Crossing Rings?”

Ruwen kept his face and body neutral as Echo glanced at him.

Prythus continued. “The one he struck disappeared, as if the hand of the True God himself had snatched it from existence. The other four he placed in his bracelet, a truly powerful magic. It is a victory for the oppressed everywhere.”

Echo slowly turned until she faced Ruwen. “As if the hand of the True God himself had snatched it from existence,” she repeated.

Ruwen remained relaxed, prepared for an attack. Echo certainly knew more about the Infernal Crossing Rings than he did. She probably understood what should have happened and was trying to figure out what he’d done to stop it.

Echo turned her face from Ruwen and studied the line of volcanos spewing lava and ash into the air. She returned her focus to him. “It appears the True God didn’t quite snatch everything. Still, I consider myself lucky to have survived such a thing, and I wonder how the ring on the other side faired, and if anyone lived.”

Echo’s words struck Ruwen like an avalanche, and he immediately fell into the third meditation to keep the guilt from overwhelming him. He hadn’t even considered what might happen to the paired ring. She had made it sound like losing one ring caused the other to follow. If she told the truth, how much destruction would that cause?

Ruwen considered he might have destroyed Rung Four’s planet.

The third meditation absorbed Ruwen’s tidal wave of guilt, and on the outside, he remained calm. The truth was, Echo didn’t know what would happen. Her words had betrayed the uncertainty. Likely, considering the consequences Ruwen had witnessed, Lalquinrial would know better than to test the result just out of curiosity. The cost in souls alone would make that very unlikely.

But that didn’t mean Echo was wrong, as she probably had extrapolated from her knowledge of the rings. It also struck him how, despite his best efforts, he had once again created an enormous mess by trying to do what he considered the right thing.