Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl: Weapons of Magic Chapter Eleven
Aeron's lab
Harry struggled against the cuffs as Aeron marched toward him. "Where the fuck is Ginny?"
"Stop struggling, and stop worrying about your girlfriend," said Aeron, pointing his wand at Harry. "Crucio!"
Harry screamed and thrashed on the floor as the familiar agony washed over him. Not again…
Aeron lifted the curse. "You are now my prisoner again," said Aeron, grabbing a handful of Harry's hair. "And this time, you will obey me."
Harry struggled as Aeron dragged him to a machine that looked like just like the one he had been transformed in. The sprite helped Aeron pushed Harry into it. Aeron flicked his wand. The handcuffs disappeared and chains wrapped around Harry, tying him down.
"I made another mind control machine," said Aeron looking at him. "You'll never submit to me willingly, so I must force you. Once were done here, we'll take that Port Key and get out of here." There was a small table next to the machine with a small round metal disc.
Harry fought against the chains but they were too tight. He felt something moving behind his head and he lifted it. He couldn't see it, but a small hole had opened behind where his head would rest. A leather strap suddenly went across his forehead and tightened, pulling his head down.
"Let me go!" shouted Harry, feeling a familiar pin pricking sensation at the base of his skull.
Aeron smiled as the needles went into Harry's skull.
The needles hurt and Harry grunted in pain as the mind control machine was attached. The machine finished and linked itself to his brain.
Harry stopped struggling.
"Now get up," said Aeron.
Harry, in his mind, tried to fight the machine. The chains and the leather strap went away and Harry sat up and swung his legs out. He stood on the floor.
"Put your claws out," said Aeron. Harry obeyed. Aeron turned to a door on the far side. "Bring the girl."
Bellatrix came out, tugging on a struggling Ginny, who hands were cuffed behind her. She spotted Harry.
"Here's the brat," said Bellatrix.
"Harry!" screamed Ginny, as Bellatrix dragged her to Aeron.
Aeron grabbed Ginny by the neck.
A thought flashed in Harry's brain and he fought to grasp it. Ginny.
"Now that you are under my control," said Aeron, pushing Ginny to the floor. "I want you to kill her."
The machine attached to his head made him want to comply. But he paused.
Ginny. No, she's my girlfriend. I love her. I can't-
A muscle in his neck twitched and he drew his hand back, blades glinting. Aeron smiled.
"Harry, please!" shouted Ginny, trying to scoot backwards. "It's me!"
The blades swung.
Aeron realized a second too late that Harry had stabbed him. The machine in Harry's skull was making it difficult to disobey, and the blades barely pierced Aeron's arm. He jumped backward.
I can't harm Ginny… I can't let her die.
Harry mustered all his self control and reached back, slipping the blades between the device and his own skull. He ripped it off and felt the pain in his head as the needles came free. Blood trickled down the back of his neck as sparks hopped up to do their work. The machine, small black box with needles on one side, clattered to the floor.
Aeron is not going to control me or hurt Ginny!
His hair turned white and his eyes turned red.
Harry dropped it and lunged for Aeron. The sprite jumped forward but Harry's wings erupted from his back, and the sprite took a few feathers in the eye. She howled, her left eye watering and going red.
Bellatrix shot a spell at Harry who dodged it and lunged for Bellatrix with his hooked claws. Bellatrix screeched as Harry's claws pierced her stomach.
Amadae, seeing the struggle, fought the sedative and managed to get out of the chair. She seen her sister, blood spurting from her stomach.
"NO!" she screamed, lurching forward.
Harry stabbed Bellatrix again the chest. Bellatrix scream cut off in a gurgle of blood coming from her mouth.
I can't die-not again-not- She thought this, panic filling her mind as her one of her lungs filled with blood.
Bellatrix fell to the ground, blood oozing from her gut and her chest. She heaved up some blood and it dribbled down the side of her face.
Aeron went for his wand, but Harry swung around, his claws ripping a gash in Aeron's arm as he tried to raise it. He yelled and dropped the wand.
Amadae lurched across the floor to Ginny and grabbed her by the throat.
"You touch him again and I snap her neck!" shouted Amadae, grasping Ginny's head. Ginny screamed and tried to get away.
Harry froze, the meaning of the statement piercing his angry brain.
Aeron's arm was bleeding badly. The gash went down to the bone. Harry grabbed the wand quickly and pointed it at Amadae.
"Drop her," said Harry.
Amadae tightened her grasp. The sprite flew toward Harry, knocking him to the side a bit. Amadae tried to snap Ginny's neck, but all she managed to do was twist it painfully. Ginny yelped and tried to wiggle off.
Harry lunged at Amadae. Ginny scooted across the floor toward Harry's wand. The sprite had dropped it after getting poked in the eye. Ginny turned herself around and grabbed the wand and scooted around again, aiming, she hoped, at Amadae.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Harry saw the spell coming their way and jumped backward, accidently dropping Aeron's wand. In a second, Amadae was frozen stiff as a board. Harry lunged for Ginny and hauled her up and to the table with the Port Key. If it was just him, he'd have stayed and fought them and tried to kill Aeron, but he had Ginny to think about.
He touched the Port Key and in an instant, they disappeared.
They reappeared in a field outside Dublin. Ginny flopped on the grass and Harry knelt on the grass, breathing hard.
They were safe, for now. Harry's hair, eyes, and wings went back to normal. He retracted his wings and claws and used his wand to remove the handcuffs from Ginny.
"Are you okay?" he asked, grabbing and hugging her.
"Yes," said Ginny, clutching him. "I was so scared, Harry! Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," said Harry.
"That device didn't work," said Harry. "Guess my mind is too strong for that kind of stuff. Did he hurt you?"
Ginny shook her head. "He said he was going to force you to kill me. He just kept me in a locked room."
"You're okay now," said Harry, kissing her. "I was so worried, I thought-"
Ginny kissed him back. "You transformed again, your eyes went red."
"I know," said Harry.
Fowl Manor was not far. Harry's phone GPS told him where he was at. He called Butler to come and get them.
"They had a Port Key to Dublin," said Harry. "They were going to come here for something."
Aeron's lab
Bellatrix lay dying on the floor. She was quite there yet but she would be a minute or so. Aeron grabbed his wand used a spell on Amadae so she could move. He told her to get some Pimante.
"Your sister is about to die!" he yelled. "Get it quickly."
Amadae got up, feeling panic rise up in her. The thought of losing her sister again was too much to bear. She ran to a nearby room grabbing a chunk of it and bringing it to Aeron. Aeron snatched it and placed it into a container hooked up to the machine. Once the lid was down, the Pimante began to liquefy.
"There's only one option if you want to save your sister," said Aeron, picking up Bellatrix's limp form. She only had one operating lung and the other was filled with blood. She made an odd wheezing sound when she tried to draw a breath. "We have to try and transform her."
Amadae froze. "But- it could kill her, or destroy her mind."
"She right," said the sprite.
"She'll die now if we leave her like this!" said Aeron. "If she dies now, I could attempt to resurrect her, but it usually doesn't work a second time."
Amadae couldn't think. Her sister's life hung in the balance. Either way, Bellatrix could die.
But maybe she wouldn't.
"Okay," said Amadae.
Aeron put Bellatrix into the machine and strapped her down and put the oxygen face mask on her so she could breathe. He closed the glass lid and the platform sank down a bit. The enclosure began to fill with water. The needles came forth from the walls and sank into Bellatrix's body. Aeron cursed himself for being unable to perfect this machine. The most successful one was Harry Potter, but for some reason, he was able to fight the mind control device. Aeron didn't need to plant on Bellatrix's head, she was already loyal to him, but she could end up a drooling, useless mess like Conway.
Bellatrix in the tank, could feel herself slipping away. The pain in her chest and stomach was awful. There was blood everywhere. She thought of her sister.
Then the needles sank in.
Aeron and Amadae could see the liquid Pimante flowing through a tube and into the various rubber hoses attached to the needle.
Bellatrix quite forgot about the pain in her torso and the needles gave her new pain. She had been too out of it to focus on the conversation between Aeron and Amadae. She had only dimly registered that she was in the machine.
She tried to move, but she was too weak from loss of blood.
The Pimante was injected into her system. As the magical substance flooded her body, Bellatrix realized it felt like her bones were melting, before the pain caused her to tip over into a black abyss.
Weather into unconscious or death, she didn't know.
Fowl Manor
After Harry and Ginny had gotten back and told their story,Hermione had frantically put the protection spell back on the manor, drawing chalk symbols all over the place, layering it on as thick as she could.
"Hermione, it's not going to work," said Ron, when Hermione was done and sat in the bedroom they shared.
"Well, I can't just sit around and hope they don't come back!" said Hermione. "Might as well make it hard."
"Aeron is too strong," said Ron. He rubbed his eyes. "We should relocate or something."
"We need to defeat him," said Hermione darkly.
"Easier said than done," said Ron, flopping on the bed, next to her. "What if we can't? What if we all die?"
"Stop that," said Hermione. "Aeron is smart, but we've got Artemis, and Harry."
"And you," said Ron. "Don't forget, you've always been the brainy one."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Please, Artemis is smarter than me. Look at all the heists and narrow scrapes he's gotten out of, usually because he thought of a plan. Besides, who else had an Interpol record at the age of twelve?"
"Yeah, but you always came top in school," said Ron. "And Muggle school. I seen all those academic awards at your parents house."
It was true; her parents had a lot of photos up of Hermione getting awards in school. She always got top marks in all her classes. There was a picture of her excepting the Science Fair award in second grade, frizzy hair restrained into two thick braids, her smile showing she had lost a tooth recently. Hermione cringed, thinking of some of the photos.
"At least the hair isn't so frizzy," said Ron, gently tugging a handful.
"Oh, stop it!" said Hermione, laughing. "Only because I've got stuff to put in it, thankfully."
Harry and Ginny were downstairs. Ginny and Harry had taken a nap, being exhausted. Ginny slept for about six hours, and Harry got two, woken up when Hermione came banging into the room, chalk and wand in hand and began scrawling symbols on the wall, waving her wand and chanting spells.
Harry got up and went downstairs for some tea, leaving Ginny drooling on the pillow.
Butler had put a kettle on and was already a making a pot of Earl Grey Tea. Harry gratefully accepted a cup and they both sat at the table in the dining room, sipping it. Artemis joined them.
"Aeron was planning something in Dublin," said Artemis, sipping a cup. "He was probably planning to bring you back here, in his control, to kill us all. But Aeron's machine doesn't seem to work, nor mesmer if you fight it enough."
"I wonder who that sprite was," said Harry.
Artemis thought a moment. "I think I know who it was, although I never thought…"
Aeron's lab.
Amadae, the sprite, and Aeron, watched as Bellatrix started twitching in the tank. Aeron looked at the control board and seen her heartbeat skyrocket for a moment and then quickly drop.
It stopped.
Amadae stared at the tank, willing her sister to live and be herself.
The Pimante finished going in.
Blue sparks suddenly popped up and began healing the wounds.
Amadae held her breath. Each second felt like an hour
Bellatrix, lying in the tank, opened her eyes and felt a fizzing around her torso. The pain was going away. She wasn't going to die.
Aeron seen the heart beat pick back up and resume a steady, if slightly fast pace. He pushed a button and the water drained out and the needles retracted. The tank opened and the platform rose a bit. The straps released themselves.
Bellatrix sat up, her curls soaked and dripping. She patted the front of herself.
"I'm healing," she said, looking at the little sparks.
"The healing magic is not as good as Harry's," said Aeron. "But your lung has healed."
"Do you have powers like Harry?" asked Amadae, staring.
Bellatrix looked at her hand. Her right one had little scars on the back, right before the knuckle.
Amadae watched as a set of claws popped out. They were a little shorter than Harry's.
"Great, only one set," said Bellatrix.
"At least your mind didn't go crazy, like Conway's," said Aeron. "Otherwise you'd be dribbling and biting your hand, and useless to me."
"Gee, thanks," said Bellatrix.
Fowl Manor
Artemis and Butler looked at each other.
"Ho Chi Minh City," they said simultaneously.
"We found a sprite there," continued Artemis. "I wanted a copy of the Fairy Book, so we tricked her with some whiskey that had holy water in it. It would kill her, so she agreed to give us the copy of the book in exchange for the cure and something to restore her magic. She was an alcoholic, doing minor healing work, like stuff for warts and such. We gave her the antidote to the holy water and after Butler photocopied each page with my camera, we gave her an injection to cleanse the alcohol from her body and bring her magic back, plus a little something so she wouldn't remember letting us copy the book."
Harry looked at him. "Quite a monster you were, at that age. Holy water can kill fairies."
"That was then," said Artemis, scowling. "I wanted a copy of the book."
"Why would that sprite be with Aeron?" asked Harry.
Artemis shrugged. "I can't think why. Maybe she wanted more power. There are fairies that would love it if the Mud Men were to be overthrown so fairies could live on the surface once more."
"But they would want even the wizards to die," said Butler.
"They could probably be persuaded to coexist with the magical people," said Artemis. "Aeron wants the world to be only magical beings, so they would have to."
"And he justifies the killing of millions of Muggles with that," said Butler.
Artemis sipped from his tea and sat it down. "I had Hermione helping me with something. I found records him before he went to any wizard school. He lived in the slums of London with his mother, Carys. I found records of her, working at a restaurant. She still works there actually, and lives in a small house. Aeron lived there and went to a public school until he got accepted into a magical school. I've got her address and I think we should pay a visit."
"To his mother?" asked Harry.
"Yes," replied Artemis. "I wonder if she's heard from her son lately or knows about any of this."
London
The Barrel o' Ale was a small pub in the poor part of London. It was old and Carys had worked there for several years, first to pay for her and her sons needs and then as something to do later on. She was in her forties now and was a first name basis with many of the customers. They always said hello to her and asked her how day was going, and inquired about what her son was up to. She gave them the usual answer that her son was traveling abroad, seeing the world.
She finished cleaning up some tables and told the shift manager, Ms. Ross, that she was leaving.
"Have a goodnight, Carys," said Ms. Ross. "We'll see you tomorrow."
Carys left The Barrel o' Ale and headed home through the darkened streets, looking forward to putting her feet up and watching some television.
She took her key out to unlock the door. Her son had bewitched the locks with a simple spells, to prevent crooks from picking it. The windows were shatterproof. She felt safe in this house, knowing no one could get in.
She unlocked the door and stepped inside and kicked her shoes off. She sighed and walked into the living room and shrieked.
A lamp was on. There were two people sitting on the couch and another sitting an arm chair.
The person sitting in the armchair was a young guy with blue eyes and raven hair. On the couch was an older man with shoulder length black hair and sallow skin. The remaining person had messy black hair and green eyes and some weird scars on his face and looked to be the about the same age as the first one.
"What are you doing in my house!" asked Carys, feeling scared. "How'd you get in?"
"Hello, Carys," said the man with the blue eyes. "We had some questions for you, about your son."
"My son?" asked Carys. "Is he okay?"
"Have a seat," said Artemis, gesturing to the rocking chair.
Carys turned to run but a bald giant was standing there.
"Have a seat," he said menacingly. Carys stepped back and made it to the rocker shakily. The giant man was wearing a Hugo Boss suit and was probably the biggest man she'd ever seen in her life.
Artemis knew she would comply after seeing the bodyguard. Butler had that effect on people.
"I hope you don't mind, we let ourselves in," said Artemis. "Tricky little spells, but not to difficult."
"You-you're-"
"Wizards? Yes," said Artemis, which was a lie, obviously. But Carys didn't need to know who was magical and who wasn't.
"W-what do you want?" asked Carys. "I'll give you my wallet, the TV, take anything-"
Artemis raised a hand. "We are not here to rob you. I want to ask you about your son."
"Aeron?" asked Carys.
Artemis nodded. "When did you last speak with him?"
"About six months ago," said Carys. "He sent me an Owl. Told me he was traveling through Nepal. He likes traveling."
"What about his plans?" asked Artemis, watching her body language.
Carys looked perplexed. "Well, he told me he plans to go to Japan, or maybe China next year."
"What about his plans for the Muggles?"
Carys looked puzzled. "Muggles? What about them?"
"What about the plans to have fairies live on the surface?"
Carys looked at him like he was stupid. "The fairies live belowground, they can't live up here. The Muggles would exploit them."
"What if the Muggles were all gone?" asked Artemis.
"They'll always be around. What are they going to do, go live on mars?"
"What if I told you your son was planning to get rid of all Muggles?" asked Artemis, looking at her intently. By her body language, she was telling the truth. She didn't know anything about what Aeron was doing, and genuinely believed he was busy trekking through Nepal.
"What nonsense is this?" asked Carys.
"You're son is creating monsters that have been attacking cities through the world," said Artemis. "Don't look surprised, it's not on the Muggle news. Humans who seen the attacks have been mind wiped, but your son is responsible."
"My son is not responsible for any attacks!" said Carys. She wasn't in touch with the wizard world, so she hadn't heard of anything.
"You're son is creating magic monsters, as weapons, to rid the world of Muggles," said Artemis. "He will commit this mass genocide so that fairies can live on the surface with the wizards."
"You're crazy!' said Carys. "My son has not made any monsters!"
"He made me this way!" said Harry, leaning forward. Carys looked at his face. He had scars on his neck and a few on face. Then she saw the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
"You're Harry Potter," said Carys.
"You're son is a monster!" said Harry, releasing both sets of claws. Carys stared at them. "You're son kidnapped me and tortured me for three months. He took his jacket off and lifted the front of his shirt, revealing some of the scars. "You're son and some of his friends, plus some of the atrocities he has created, are responsible for all of these. He tortured me everyday day for three straight months and then put me in a machine that injected a substance into me and changed me."
"You're lying," said Carys. "My son would never-he's always been a good boy. He did good in school-"
"Very well, from what we learned," said Harry. "He was study Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts. I bet he learned enough to start making his own spells and such."
"You're all crazy," said Carys, getting up.
"Sit back down." A voice spoke from the air. A figure in an LEP suit and helmet appeared in front of Carys. The visor was down. Carys saw a pair of eyes staring at her.
Carys sat back down in the rocking chair, the mesmer affecting her. "Yes, whatever you say."
Holly questioned Carys, but Carys truly knew nothing of what her son was planning. She hadn't seen him in quite some time and had told her nothing of his plans. She really believed he was off seeing the world, enjoying himself, not doing anything wrong.
"Now we are going to leave, and you will remember nothing of this, you just came home and fell asleep in the rocker," Holly intoned to Carys. "You had a tiring day at work and remember nothing of this visit."
"Of course," said Carys, sleepily. "Long day at work…tired…"
She was snoring in a moment.
"Probably kinder to let her forget this," said Snape.
They searched the house including Aeron's room, but they didn't find anything. Aeron's room was that of a man who had just graduated. There was some old school books crammed into a shelf with several other random books, a few clothes in the closet, a small TV, and a few other things, nothing incriminating at all. The group was disappointed.
They left Carys drooling in her chair and exited the house.
Carys woke up early, feeling a little disoriented. She remembered coming home and falling asleep in her chair.
"Oh my," she mumbled to herself. "Work really tired me out today."
She brushed her teeth and got into her nightgown and climbed into bed, ready to sleep.
That night she dreamt of her son standing amidst a pile of dead bodies.
Haven
Foaly was working with the Pimante chunks Holly had been bringing him, trying to figure out what could be done with it. From what he had learned about it, it could be used to bring the dead back to life. Foaly shuddered to think what could be done with that power. Someone like Hitler could possibly be resurrected…
Foaly was typing on his Mud Men keyboard, thinking. How had Aeron figured out what spell to use to bring back Snape? Holly had reported that Bellatrix Lestrange, a notorious Death Eater that had been killed, was alive again now. How did Aeron know how to use Pimante to bring a person back? All Foaly had figured out was how to make a liquid restorative to bring a fairies magic back a little. And even that hadn't worked very well; it only restored a little, and if someone drank too much, they got diarrhea.
Foaly had reconfigured the formula and tried it again on the volunteers, but the effects were not what he wanted. The volunteers not only got the diarrhea squirties, they also began throwing up at an alarming rate. He shuddered remembering the test room: the sprays of projectile vomit on the walls, piles of brown mushy crap all over the floor. A sprite had pin-wheeled wildly in the air, panicky, vomit spraying from his mouth, until he crashed through the window into the room where Foaly was, showering some equipment with the remains of his lunch. It took Foaly a week to get the smell out.
There was obviously some kind of spell, but what was it, and how had Aeron figured it out?
Foaly had sent a sample to the Ministry of Magic for them to experiment with. The only way to communicate with them was by email, as an Owl would not be able to fly to Haven. It would get fried in the chutes, or flattened by a shuttle coming up. One of the experimenters in the Ministry actually had a laptop (he had grown up as a Muggle) as used it to communicate with Foaly.
Foaly checked his email and seen it was from Bob Longway, the experimenter. So far all he had found out was that it could be used to cure warts. But he had an interesting theory about where Aeron had gotten the resurrection spell.
There was a museum in Paris, France, in the wizard community. There were all kinds of great wizard artifacts that people could pay a few coins to go see. There was a book there, one of the first Dark Magic spell books, supposedly written around about 1500 years ago or so. Inside it, there was a spell that supposedly could be used to bring people back to life. A chunk of unknown substance had been found during that time and some wizards, screwing around with things they shouldn't have been, had made the spell, and brought back a minor evil wizard, who they had to kill quickly when they realized their mistake.
Now the book lay in the Magical Museum, and had been unopened all these years. Nobody was allowed to touch it or read it. It was in a glass enclosure, roped off from the public, so people could see it but not touch it.
Had Aeron somehow gotten to the book and read it? The book hadn't been stolen, it was obviously still there, and it wasn't like the curator would just let people stroll up to it and copy down spells from it.
Foaly wondered…
Paris, France, several years ago.
Mulch Diggums was living in France, using a nice sum of money Artemis Fowl had given him. After the incident with Opal, Mulch was ready to live quietly for a few years before going back to stealing from Mud Men. Holly had warned him.
"Mulch Diggums settle down?" she had snorted. "Yeah, okay. When you go back to your criminal ways, I'll be waiting to haul you back to Haven."
Diggums fully intended to go back to stealing, but he decided to wait a while. He wanted to relax and chill out a bit. Artemis had given him a nice fund to live off for awhile, so he got himself a big house, an 80 inch TV, and a big DVD set. He amused himself at night, occasionally going for walks, and breaking into Mud Men's house, doing things like hiding people's keys, moving things around, and occasionally snatching some jewelry, or anything that particularly caught his eyes. Nothing too big though, he was supposed to be chilling out.
He was watching Die Hard one night when a knock sounded on his door. Mulch cast his eyes at the fireplace, where he could eat through the dirt on the bottom and be gone before anybody could get him. He set down the half eaten roast chicken carcass and went to the door and looked through the peephole set to his eye level. All he could see was some ones legs.
"The code is Frond," said a voice.
Mulch thought back to the letter he had gotten a week ago, saying someone would be visiting him soon. They needed help with a job. The letter had been accompanied with several thousand dollars and a post script promised more. One of Mulch's dwarf friends, had worked with the person, doing a few jobs for him, and told him it was safe, and worth the money.
Mulch opened the door.
"You need help with a job, eh?" asked Mulch. "My friend told me about you.
Aeron walked into the room, holding a suitcase. "Yes, he's helped me before. The Magical Museum here in Paris has a book that I would like to read and I need your help."
"A book?" said Mulch.
"Yes," said Aeron. "I collect ancient spells and such and would like to know what's contained in that book."
"So you want me to steal it," said Mulch. "Why not use my friend?"
"I heard he got arrested, trying to sell some human property to an undercover LEP operative," said Aeron.
"Ah," said Mulch. "So you need me."
"Thing is, it would raise alarms if the book was stolen outright," said Aeron. "I have a camera, and would like you to break in there, and take a picture of each page. I'll have a copy of each page, and what I want, and you get this."
He opened the suitcase which was full of cash. Mulch thought of the Dom Perignon he could buy with that, and the chicken he wanted, plus American Horror Story on DVD.
"You got yourself a deal," said Mulch. "But the Magical Museum is heavily bewitched to thwart thieves and such."
"Only the outside," said Aeron. "And not the under part of the building."
Magic Museum, an hour later.
Aeron and Mulch stood a distance away from the Museum, in the wizard quarters, hidden from Muggles. The place was spelled to prevent thieves from getting in and strolling out with priceless treasures.
Aeron had told him that the outside had spells, but the under part wasn't.
Aeron gave Mulch a Mud Men Digital Camera. Mulch tucked it in his pocket.
"You sure you just don't want the whole book?" said Mulch.
"No," said Aeron. "I just want the information inside. Nobody must know about this, and to steal the book would alert the Ministry of Magic."
"What kind of info is so important to you?" asked Mulch.
Aeron smiled eerily. "I just wish to collect it."
Mulch's beard hairs curled a bit. Something wasn't right with this. But his friend had worked with him before, and gotten a hefty payment. He couldn't be all that bad. Besides, Mulch enjoyed a challenge and watching TV all day was getting boring. He'd been thinking of going back to his old ways soon anyway.
Mulch unbuttoned his bum flap and unhinged his jaw and disappeared into the ground, chewing his way through the dirt, and depositing it out the other end. It felt good to be digging through the ground. He burrowed his way through several thousand feet and made his way to the underside of the building. He got to the cellar of the building. There was a cleaning closet, the floor cracked, showing the dirt underneath. Mulch emerged into the closet, and, stepping over a broom and a mop, opened the door and entered into the main cellar part. Mulch ignored the stuff lying around and went up the stairs. Aeron told him no one patrolled at night and there were spells inside. The people hired to put the spells around the building were so arrogant about their good work, they hadn't bothered to place any inside, thinking nobody could get past the outside ones. Well their arrogance had cost them…
The museum was dimly lit. Mulch crept through the shadows until he got to the exhibit with the book. It was in a glass room with a door and a regular lock. Mulch fed one of his beard hairs through the hole and then plucked it. When he pulled the strand out, it had stiffened and retained the shape of the lock. Now he had a key. Mulch opened the door and strolled in, thinking this was too easy. The book was on a pedestal, with a small glass dome over it. He lifted it up and looked at the prize.
It had a plain brown cover, a bit dirty and tattered. He took the camera and opened it up and began photographing each page.
The pages were old and browned, with ancient drawings illustrating the spells. There were spells to create creatures, spells to cause people to die, a spell for resurrection…
Mulch paused to look at the resurrection spell. Surely it didn't work; otherwise nobody would die, right? He shrugged and finished photographing the pages. He tucked the camera into his pocket, replaced the book the way he had found it, along with the dome and left the glass room, locking it.
He smiled to himself as he went back to the cellar and into the cleaning closet. He went through the broken concrete to the dirt, making sure nothing was out of place and burrowed his way back to where Aeron was.
"Done," said Mulch, handing him the camera.
Aeron looked at the screen and flipped through some of the photos, smiling. "Good work, Mulch."
"I seen a resurrection spell in there," said Mulch. "But that crap don't work, otherwise nobody would be dead."
"Hmm, don't be so sure," said Aeron, turning the camera. "However, nobody will be bringing you back to life."
Mulch's hair curled. Aeron was drawing out his wand. In a flash, Mulch was burrowing through the ground, digging his way to safety.
Shit he thought.
The job had been easy for that amount of cash. Too easy. Mulch's friend had worked with this guy with no problem. Why had Aeron decided to try and kill him? There was something in that book that Aeron hadn't wanted him to know about.
He wouldn't be able to go back to his apartment for the cash. Aeron might send someone there to finish him off. Mulch mourned for a moment that he didn't get to finish watching Die Hard.
Above ground, Aeron smiled. He had known the dwarf would flee before he could kill him. But it didn't matter. He'd still be able to do what he wanted. Mulch wouldn't be able to tell anyone. If he went to anybody, fairy or wizard, he'd have a hard time explaining why he had broken into a museum.
Aeron had what he wanted.
Yay, so there's the next chapter. If anybody figures why I put the reference to Die Hard in there, you get cookies (imaginary ones).