Disclaimer: Artemis Fowl and related characters are not mine. They are the
works of and are copyrighted to Eoin Colfer.
Scene Two: Unpleasant Surprises
The next day, Holly woke with a start. She was spread eagled on a comfortable bed with the sheets twisted all the way over her head. Her bleary eyes struggled to adjust to the hot, bright light spilling through her window. Someone was knocking on her door softly, but insistently. For one dizzying moment, she didn't know where she was and thought Mercury was knocking in her door. Then she regained her scattered wits and called aloud, "Who is it?"
The answer was said in a low, quiet voice, "It's Aidan Smith, your roommate. I just thought you should know that breakfast already started fifteen minutes ago. The bell will ring soon so you had better get dressed."
"O-of course! Thanks!" yelled Holly back, hurriedly getting out of bed. She had overslept, curse it all. She had been planning on waking up early in order to snoop around the monastery, but the drastic time shift had hit the elf extremely hard. Her sleeping habits were now flipped. Fairies were nocturnal creatures. They were alive at night and slept during the day.
Fighting the yawn from tearing its way out of her mouth and blinking the sleep from her eyes, Holly struggled out of her sheets and ran around the room, grabbing the various utensils she'd need and the school uniform. She would take a bath, even if it meant no breakfast. Last night she had experimented with the shower and toilet, and had not been at all pleased. It was dirty, according to fairy standards, and she had no pleasure in washing herself in it or getting used to doing other things in it. However, if she were to complete the human undercover disguise, then she had better get used to doing such things. Thankfully, her roommate had seemed clean. He was messy, yes, but he was also clean.
Holly burst out of her room and promptly collided with her roommate. He was still standing in front of her door when she had run out. Her head smacked against his chest and all the things she had been collecting exploded out of her hands. However, she had not. The boy had quickly recovered from the surprise and had braced Holly's arms. Thanks to his quick instincts neither of them fell down, although at Holly's speed, they should have.
The elf stilled when she felt the human hands touching her arms, and she felt the full brunt of embarrassment coloring her olive complexion. Slowly, she angled her head upwards and looked at her roommate. Her first impression was that he was tall. Even with her new height, she had to crane her head back to get a clear view of his face. Then other things came to mind. He had dark brown hair and smoky gray eyes. He was a handsome boy with aristocratic features. But what surprised Holly more than anything were his elfin features. The more she looked at him, the more she was certain. This boy looked strangely like a fairy although he was undeniably a human.
The boy also seemed to be scrutinizing her closely with those gray eyes. He seemed every bit as surprised at her appearance as she was of his.
The first thing that popped out of Holly's mouth was, "Uhh." That snapped the staring contest, and Holly jumped away from him in a flash. Aidan coughed and smoothed his uniform. He was already dressed in his St. Bartleby's uniform. "S-sorry about that," muttered Holly one hand automatically going to check that her ears were safely hidden behind the earpieces and afterwards both arms crossed over her chest. Thank the gods Foaly had provided her with an extremely large and baggy pajama set. "I-I wanted to go take a shower."
"Yes. hurry up," said the brown haired boy. He checked his watch, "You now have only ten minutes. I just wanted to know if you needed anything before I left."
"Uh, no, no." answered Holly, fighting to keep the rising red from her features. Of all places to have a klutz attack.!
"All right. I'll be going now," said Aidan, acting as though nothing had happened. He turned away and left. The minute he closed the door, Holly began collecting all of her things again as rapidly as she could and jumped in the shower. A bare five minutes later, she had stumbled out of the shower and was sorting through her uniform. What had Foaly said, something about this hole going on one arm or something or other. Three harassing minutes later, she had most of her uniform on, groaned, and remembered the bandages. She stripped off the polo shirt once more, wrapped most of her upper body with bandages, and redid the polo shirt. The minute she had finished buttoning the last button, the bell rang.
With a "D'Arvit!" she struggled with her socks and was already running out of the door holding both shoes. Ten seconds later, she came back to her room to grab the pamphlet, the room key, locked the door to her room, and ran out. She had still to put on her shoes. Holly dropped both loafers down, slipped them on while locking the door to the room she shared with Aidan, and raced down the hallway.
In her mad dash, she noticed a few things. The monastery did not look so foreboding as it had in the dark. In fact, it looked a little like an exotic hotel now. Sunlight spilled cheerfully from wherever it could find an opening to get into. There were a few portraits of a few saints that decorated the hallway and the occasional plant standing in the corner. Her loafers made a tap tap sound on floor as she ignored the elevators and headed directly for the stairway she had spied the night before. She practically flew down the stairs and raced out of the lobby. She was in such a rush that she ran over a tall, slender, black haired youth carrying a laptop in one hand and only spared a moment to call back, "Sorry!" without even looking back.
Despite all his efforts, Alexei reached the desired room two minutes after the late bell had rung. He had entered breathlessly into a small room where a short, plump nun wearing large, square glasses was waiting impatiently. Like Sister Carmen, this nun's face was dour, weathered, and brown. Her main defining feature, however, was her glasses. It blew up her eyes and made them seem much larger than usual. Alexei absorbed her appearance in several blinks. "Late for your first appointment in St. Bartleby's," said the Sister. "Unimpressive, young man."
"Slept late," wheezed Alexei, "Came at around 1AM last night."
"No excuses," reproved the stern nun, "You should have set up your alarm clock. Now sit down. You have quite a few tests to do. And being late as you are, I daresay you didn't bring any pencils either." The nun sighed. "Very well. Calm yourself. Good thing you don't need them. You shall be taking your tests on a computer terminal." She pointed to computer sitting quite obviously on a desk in front of the indicated chair Alexei was supposed to sit in.
Alexei thought to point out that he had set up his alarm clock but slept right through it due to jet lag. He shook his head, gave up on the idea (the nun didn't look like she was in the mood for it), and merely collapsed on to the wooden chair. Truth be told, he was feeling a slight pain in his chest. He frowned, dismissing it.
The nun frowned at him, "I said sit down, not fall down. Your actions certainly need correcting. We should sign you up for that class as well." Holly thought fleetingly that the nun reminded her of Commander Root when Holly had been the newly instated junior captain of Reconnaissance. "Go to start, programs, then Testing Levels. Click on the first icon. You have one hour to complete this test, Mr. Forster. This is the test that determines your history level," said the nun. She glanced at the wall clock. "Since you have come late, I shall just deduct that time from your history test. It is now 8:15. You will finish at 9:00, no exceptions. Begin."
The red head glanced blankly at the screen. The strange characters marched across the colored background. She bit her lip and waited a few moments. Her gift of tongues swiftly settled in and comprehension dawned in her eyes. The first question was: "What was the major cause of Irish immigration to the Americas during the 1800's?" The elf rolled her eyes. She guessed on quite a few and got most correct. Her training in the LEP reconnaissance had included familiarity with Mud Men culture, but their history had not been gone into detail. Besides, her years at the academy seemed like so long ago. The other tests passed by in the same manner with the exception for science and math. The problems were extremely simple and so she had flown through those with considerable speed. Nonetheless, she had a sneaking suspicion that some of the questions and answers were only hypothetical speaking. She shook her head. Mud Men. In any case, she only meant to pas as a student; she had no intention of being valedictorian.
The computer automatically tallied her scores, but it was presented to the nun who was monitoring the computer opposite Holly. As the testing session progressed, Alexei assumed that she was doing worse and worse due to the sour expression on the nun's face. It looked as if she were being force-fed a lemon.
Although the cathedral was on central heating, it was getting unbearably hot inside the room. The boy was extremely tempted to take off his blazer but that might make the bandages he was wearing too apparent. He swallowed and forged on doggedly. The boring repetitiousness of the Mud Man testing was making the fairy extremely sleepy, and the hunger curling in his stomach was not helping. At sweet, long last Alexei finished the last question.
Alexei's eyes were burning from staring at the screen too long, and the bare six hours of sleep was taking its toll. He stood up and stretched, quite prepared to leave the place.
"Where do you think you're going, Mr. Forster?" asked the nun.
Alexei blinked at her. "Excuse me?" he asked.
"I have not finished with you yet," said the nun, looking fixedly at the screen through spectacled eyes. Tiny numbers were running past the screen. She was calculating the average of her test scores. Alexei shrugged, and sat back down.
"I don't believe I caught your name, Sister.?" asked the red head.
"Sister Melanie," said the nun without even looking up.
"Ah."
She took off her glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief. Without her glasses blowing up her eyes to balloon proportions, she resembled a potato. "I want you to do something, Mr. Forster," she said. She appraised him critically. "I want you to go to the library and pull out this one book called Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I want a book report on Scarlet Letter. Also, I want you to write an essay from this question: 'How has the creation of political platforms affected current governments worldwide?' Your schedule should be sent to your room by Sunday. Instructions for both assignments will be contained within."
Alexei looked indignant. "Is this part of the requirements?" he asked. He couldn't believe had done so badly that he was being assigned extra work to compensate.
"Yes," answered Sister Melanie shortly, "It is. Now run along to the library now. The pamphlet Sister Carmen gave you should have a temporary ID card. You can just give your name to the librarian when you're checking out Scarlet Letter. Have a nice lunch."
The boy fought the urge to let out a grunt of frustration. Really, what was her problem? He stood up and walked out the door a little harder than necessary.
Holly checked her wrist COM cleverly disguised as a Mud Man watch. It was now 12: 15. The elf consulted her map. The library was a separate structure in itself located about a mile away from the cathedral. She thought she glimpsed it the night before as a small building with pillars supporting the front.
Holly grumbled to herself, her temper getting worse and worse. The hunger coiling inside her stomach was forcing its way into her attention despite everything. She grunted and decided to walk the avenue to the library. It would be shorter if she walked to the library and returned to the monastery cafeteria.
As the elf walked, her bad mood began to dwindle into the background. It had been a very long time since she had been out in the sun. Although fairies did not stand out in the sun for long periods of time, she still loved it. She loved the natural light and she loved the beauty the sun revealed in the Earth. Not working your magic under the sun was a small price to pay for the sensation it gave. Fortunately for her, elves were not as sensitive to the sunlight as dwarfs. In the fairy spectrum, elves were second to sprites in sun resistance. The wind whistled cheerfully in the pedestrian avenue and tapped her face well humouredly. Birds twittered and skittered amongst the plant life. In the distance, Holly spied the equestrian center. A beautiful black horse, Arabian she guessed, was cantering proudly in the partitioned field.
A soft smile graced her features as she walked gaily in the daylight. It had been so long since she had been out under daylight, and even longer since she had been out in daylight for the pleasure of it. A small bird swooped and landed on her shoulders, chitterling softly. Holly laughed and held out her finger for the bird to perch on. She looked around to make sure that no one was watching her or near enough to tell before speaking to the bird in its own language.
"How are you, little one?" she asked (obviously in translation to English). The bird hummed and twittered bits of a song. Apparently the bird was in a cheerful mood for it answered in bits of song that it learned from its fellow birds. The animal twittered, danced on Holly's fingers for a minute, before flying away with a small farewell. The elf smiled ruefully. That was the way it was with animals. Cheerful creatures, but nothing much of what they said made any sense.
In a better mood, she walked to the library. Just like the cathedral and the monastery, the library was a large, stone structure. Unlike either building, this building's style was not religious in design. In contrast, the Grecian fashion and sweeping pillars created an aesthetic yet classical atmosphere signifying years and years' worth of learning and professionalism.
Alexei easily strode up the steps and walked through the wooden doors. Inside, sunlight streamed in translucent rays. Whispers floated through the space like ghosts but save that, all was silent. The door opened to a large hallway. The marble floor was well polished and well kempt. A small line of students was checking books out in the librarian's desk to the right of the entrance. Two nuns in their habits were using up to date technology to check the books out. Further down the small hallway was a circular, wide, large space where various couches, chairs, and desks were scattered over the area. In one end was a six feet fireplace complete with a large mantel, the portrait of a dark sea above it, and the metal grating. Near it were metal pokers to use with the fire. A few students also inhabited the area, silently reading or doing homework. Light descended to the chairs from the roof. When the red head looked up, he found that several circular skylights pierced the roof to allow natural light in. A clean sheet of glass covered these.
This was apparently the central area wherein all other sections were circled around. Alexei searched for a place to begin her search. Initially, he thought to look at the search computers for the book, but found that they were out of order. All four of them. He paused, unsure of what to do.
A student bumped into him from behind. "Oh, excuse me," said a light soprano, "I'm so clumsy." When Alexei righted himself and turned around, he saw that the student had been a young female, perhaps fifteen years old. She had light brown hair, green eyes, and a sweet, pleasant face. A headband neatly held her shoulder length hair back and she stood as the same height as Holly, about five feet three inches. She said in an amiable voice. "Oh, you must be new here. I haven't seen you around. My name is Sabia Davis." She held out her hand.
Alexei shook it and said, "Pleased to meet you, Miss."
The girl giggled slightly, "Nice accent. You look and sound like a little bit of everything. In any case, no need to be formal. The nuns are at our backs enough about formalities when we're in front of them. Just call me Sabia when there aren't any protocols to follow." Alexei nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Holly was not entirely used to interacting with people as the same large size as she. Sabia cocked her head to the side, green eyes looking inquisitively at him, "Did you need something? You were looking pretty lost just now."
"A-actually, I was looking for a resource computer or something."
"Oh, the computers in the library all short circuited about a week ago. The nuns say that there was a problem with the voltages or something. They'll have them back up and running by Monday. So until then, we have to use the manual resource maps. Did you need your book right now?"
Alexei nodded. It was at that moment that a small crowd of girls called to her. There were about four of them and each was pretty in their own way. They had huddled outside waiting for each other. Now they called to Sabia in soft voices.
Sabia and Alexei turned around at the sound. When Alexei faced them, the girls stilled their voices and gazed for a moment or two at him. Then all four burst out in soft giggles. Inwardly, Holly rolled her eyes, ignoring her discomfort. Lili Frond would be very good friends with these girls.
"Ah, I have to go," said Sabia. "You can easily navigate the library by looking at the labels on the various shelves. But the resource books are over there." The girl gestured to the left. A large shelf housed equally large and thick books. "I'd like to help, but I really must go. See you later!"
Sabia quickly walked back to where her friends were. Alexei didn't even bother looking back. He walked quickly to the resource maps. Sabia seemed all right, but her friends.The boy shook his head and turned his attention to where Sabia indicated the labels.
His first impression of the library had been its age, and further scrutiny into the shelves only confirmed it. The large tomes were covered in thick dust, and Alexei wondered whether the nuns had bothered to update the books at all. He clucked his tongue, his temper silently flaring again at the way Sister Melanie had so casually assigned him more work.
The red head ran a hand through the dusty shelves, eyeing the labels. He found a promising one near the end of the row in a shelf about the height of his head. The boy reached upwards to pull out a large book labeled (Fiction Authors: G-H). He glanced at the space the book made, noting that whoever was in the next row had also taken out the opposite book to Alexei's.
Holly's heart plummeted right then and there. Wide eyes slowly looked back through the gap the book made. In the opposite row was a boy, bending down to examine a book held down. The boy was tall, around 5'6, slender, and elegant. Raven night hair fell in a smooth style down his forehead and his flawless complexion was ivory pale. Cold, terribly cold, deep blue eyes gazed mildly down at what the elf presumed was a page. She recognized that face. He was the boy she had run into earlier this morning in her haste to beat the bell.
But more importantly, he had been the one who kidnapped her four years ago. He was the one who had saved the Lower Elements from the B'WaKell uprising. He was the one she had given that gold coin to in order to remind him of the spark of goodness inside him. He was the one who had asked Holly Short for help when his dearest friend had been mortally injured. He was the one who had been mind wiped because he was too much of a risk to the People. He was the reason why Holly had spent many sleepless days tossing, turning, and squirming.
After thinking and dreaming about what the elf had deemed to be an impossible moment, the fairy had absolutely nothing to say. The book slipped from her nerveless fingers. Unfortunately for Holly, it fell straight on her foot. Unfortunately for Holly, her foot was most definitely not nerveless and felt the large book falling down on it loud and clear.
With a loud cry of, "D'Arvit!" she jumped backwards and into the shelf behind her. Unfortunately for Holly, these old shelves had not been bolted down. So when she had jumped backwards, she had caused it to lose balance, teeter precariously, and fall with a mighty crash to the next shelf. As most people know, knocking down one shelf in the library causes a domino reaction.
Several students ran like mad when they noticed that the shelves were coming down on them. Shouts erupted inside the library. Many more students ran away in fear of falling shelves and books. All the while this happened, Holly sat stunned on the first shelf.
Artemis Fowl II strolled out from behind the first shelf looking only mildly perturbed despite the chaos erupting all over library. His gaze swept over the scene in one long glance before they fell on Holly. The elf flinched at those cold eyes, but met them. For moments, they gazed at one another.
Two impossible figures brought together by impossible circumstance. They were practically ordered never again to meet. It was against the rules, really. Their parting two years ago needed to be the last one. The Council's reasoning behind sending Captain Trouble Kelp to check on Artemis Fowl, the reasoning behind banning Holly from any case relating to Artemis Fowl, was to keep her getting involved. The past years had proven to them that if Holly Short got involved with Artemis Fowl, catastrophe followed like flies on a stink worm.
Yet here they stood again in an impossible meeting. Ah well. Neither Holly Short nor Artemis Fowl had been very averse to breaking a few rules.
The resounding crash of the last shelf breaking over solid wall broke Holly's reverie. Soon if not already, people would be wondering who caused the commotion, and it didn't take a genius to figure out where it all started. So Holly jumped, grabbed Artemis's hand, and ran to hide behind the shelf four rows down. She pushed the tall boy behind the shelf and peeked out. People were looking all right.
Artemis was surprised. No brainer to the shock really. How often did one see a boy knock over a shelf, cause probably over thousands of dollars worth of damage similar to an earthquake, and then get saved by the same aforementioned boy? He looked curiously at the strange boy. He had caught only a glimpse of his face, and his heart had skipped a beat. In addition, there were two strange metal contraptions that covered both ears of the boy.
"Okay, I don't think they're going to look this way just yet," said the boy in a light voice, unusually so for a male. He peered cautiously out and said, "You'll be safe here."
Artemis frowned, his usual iciness now dominating his features, "Hardly, if I'm with you."
The boy muttered something underneath his breath, but didn't turn his face. It sounded like he was saying, "Of all the obnoxious ingrates.!"
Artemis allowed a cold smile to slip on his lips, "I speak only the truth." The raven-haired boy stepped up to look out at the scene as well. The red head moved back to allow him greater coverage.
Two nuns seemed at the point of collapse, totally flabbergasted at the destruction. The other two were helping students who had barely managed to avoid concussions from the flying books and shelves. Most of the student body had gathered around the wreckage. Some looked horrified, some looked wildly excited, and some looked amused while the others wore expressions of varying mixtures of the first three emotions. No doubt Principal Guiney would have a heart attack when he heard about this. Heh.
"You-" began Artemis, but he didn't finish. When he looked back, the boy was no longer there. Strange. He hadn't even caught his face or his name. He was distinctive enough, that much was certain. Those strange contraptions on his ears and ruby red hair stood out exceptionally. For some reason, his thoughts lingered on a fading dream he had several nights before. He dismissed the thoughts and decided to come out and mingle among the other students. No need to make himself look more suspicious. Perhaps he might even get to see that strange boy again.
Holly expertly slid into the shadows, weaving in and out among them. She made her way to the other side without detection, successfully mingled with a concerned group of students, and finally dwindled out of the library in a matter of ten minutes. No doubt the school officials would be thundering up the road at that very moment, but Holly had a better chance of escaping blame if she were outside.
The elf hung out in the shadows of a few Birchwood trees, watching the cars roll in front, and the people within go inside the library. She waited for about five minutes before slipping out and walking as discreetly as she could back to the monastery.
She winced as she walked. There was a pain in her chest, but that feeling was pushed aside to her revelation. Artemis Fowl II was here. He was really here. No wonder she had thought the school uniform was familiar when she first saw it last night. She had seen that very same uniform on Artemis Fowl two years past.
The elf couldn't believe so many important details slipped Foaly's scrutiny. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching before tapping on the right earpiece. Delicately, she slipped a finger into the interior of the machine and tapped a button, trying to get a channel to Foaly.
"Holly, I swear I had no idea," began the centaur before Holly even realized that she was online with him.
"Foaly, you insufferable, proud donkey!" fumed the elf. "Do you have any idea the stress I've been through?"
"We were pressed for time," protested the LEP technical fairy. "I didn't have time to see through it all."
"How could you miss something as big as the school being coed?!" screamed the hazel-eyed elf.
The centaur couldn't help but snicker at that. "Look, they obviously hadn't updated their Net files in two years. I didn't see until it was too late," he said. "Besides, didn't you always want to be a male?"
The elf gritted her teeth, "I swear, centaur, when I get my hands on you. And Artemis Fowl! Artemis Fowl! How could you miss someone like Artemis Fowl! I thought you had a surveillance network around him! What happened to Kelp's monthly field inspections!"
"Look, look," said Foaly, golden eyes glinting with humor, "He goes away from home around six months a year presumably to go to school. We don't have Kelp follow him because in all probability my surveillance on his computer is enough. The Council doesn't want to spend any more gold on Artemis Fowl than they absolutely have to. How was I to know he went here? I wasn't looking through their student roster. I thought Fowl was a genius and skipped school in any case."
"Foaly," said Holly warningly.
"Okay, okay, I made a mistake," grumbled the centaur. He never liked admitting he made mistakes.
"Has Root been watching my video feed?" asked Holly. She looked around once more, uneasy. It wouldn't do to be caught speaking in Gnommish to what appeared to be thin air. The last thing she needed was for people to place her in Special Education.
"No, things are busy underground where we little people are," joked the centaur.
"Any updates on Mercury?" asked Holly.
"Well, he apparently sent a threatening note to the LEP telling us that he meant to kill you and he would kill you," said Foaly, his voice somber for once.
Holly shivered involuntarily. "He's furious." she said.
"Oh yeah. You can tell from the note he sent. Didn't even bother to put it in a code. Just plain out said that he would kill you no matter what," sighed Foaly. "Commander Root has placed HQ on high alert. Just in case. It's the reason why we're so busy not to mention those Deep Tunnel kidnappings we've already had to deal with."
Holly silently agreed. Things were heating up underground. The least thing she could do was to get to the bottom of the mystery around St. Bartleby and get rid of Mercury as fast as she could. "What did you think of the video feed?" asked Holly. "Is this place whacked out or what?"
Foaly snorted, "Captain, that place is a prime candidate for the Twilight Zone. You've got creepy Igor's running around looking like gravediggers, the corrupted religious drama, and you also got yourself a fan club. Ooh, and let's not forget that Master Artemis Fowl is back in the picture, older, most probably smarter, and more of a devil than ever. Aren't you the lucky girl, eh, boy?"
"Foaly."
"Yes, Captain?" asked the centaur in a singsong voice.
"Shut the hell up," said the elf and shut off the communication. She couldn't believe Foaly. His facetiousness was getting way out of hand. However, his candid manner did bring into perspective the various strange factors revolving around St. Bartleby.
There was a suspicious, giant human lurking around as a manservant, the nuns certainly were not nuns else she would feel pain at entering the cathedral, and Artemis Fowl was here. And there was one thing that Foaly did not mention, but Holly felt was part of the puzzle. Her roommate, Aidan Smith: A human boy who looked like a fairy. There was something entirely too suspicious about these fragments. By themselves, they were discreet and almost invisible. But put them all together and there was something sinister here. And at the very bottom of this lay the key to figuring out Mercury.
Scene Two: Unpleasant Surprises
The next day, Holly woke with a start. She was spread eagled on a comfortable bed with the sheets twisted all the way over her head. Her bleary eyes struggled to adjust to the hot, bright light spilling through her window. Someone was knocking on her door softly, but insistently. For one dizzying moment, she didn't know where she was and thought Mercury was knocking in her door. Then she regained her scattered wits and called aloud, "Who is it?"
The answer was said in a low, quiet voice, "It's Aidan Smith, your roommate. I just thought you should know that breakfast already started fifteen minutes ago. The bell will ring soon so you had better get dressed."
"O-of course! Thanks!" yelled Holly back, hurriedly getting out of bed. She had overslept, curse it all. She had been planning on waking up early in order to snoop around the monastery, but the drastic time shift had hit the elf extremely hard. Her sleeping habits were now flipped. Fairies were nocturnal creatures. They were alive at night and slept during the day.
Fighting the yawn from tearing its way out of her mouth and blinking the sleep from her eyes, Holly struggled out of her sheets and ran around the room, grabbing the various utensils she'd need and the school uniform. She would take a bath, even if it meant no breakfast. Last night she had experimented with the shower and toilet, and had not been at all pleased. It was dirty, according to fairy standards, and she had no pleasure in washing herself in it or getting used to doing other things in it. However, if she were to complete the human undercover disguise, then she had better get used to doing such things. Thankfully, her roommate had seemed clean. He was messy, yes, but he was also clean.
Holly burst out of her room and promptly collided with her roommate. He was still standing in front of her door when she had run out. Her head smacked against his chest and all the things she had been collecting exploded out of her hands. However, she had not. The boy had quickly recovered from the surprise and had braced Holly's arms. Thanks to his quick instincts neither of them fell down, although at Holly's speed, they should have.
The elf stilled when she felt the human hands touching her arms, and she felt the full brunt of embarrassment coloring her olive complexion. Slowly, she angled her head upwards and looked at her roommate. Her first impression was that he was tall. Even with her new height, she had to crane her head back to get a clear view of his face. Then other things came to mind. He had dark brown hair and smoky gray eyes. He was a handsome boy with aristocratic features. But what surprised Holly more than anything were his elfin features. The more she looked at him, the more she was certain. This boy looked strangely like a fairy although he was undeniably a human.
The boy also seemed to be scrutinizing her closely with those gray eyes. He seemed every bit as surprised at her appearance as she was of his.
The first thing that popped out of Holly's mouth was, "Uhh." That snapped the staring contest, and Holly jumped away from him in a flash. Aidan coughed and smoothed his uniform. He was already dressed in his St. Bartleby's uniform. "S-sorry about that," muttered Holly one hand automatically going to check that her ears were safely hidden behind the earpieces and afterwards both arms crossed over her chest. Thank the gods Foaly had provided her with an extremely large and baggy pajama set. "I-I wanted to go take a shower."
"Yes. hurry up," said the brown haired boy. He checked his watch, "You now have only ten minutes. I just wanted to know if you needed anything before I left."
"Uh, no, no." answered Holly, fighting to keep the rising red from her features. Of all places to have a klutz attack.!
"All right. I'll be going now," said Aidan, acting as though nothing had happened. He turned away and left. The minute he closed the door, Holly began collecting all of her things again as rapidly as she could and jumped in the shower. A bare five minutes later, she had stumbled out of the shower and was sorting through her uniform. What had Foaly said, something about this hole going on one arm or something or other. Three harassing minutes later, she had most of her uniform on, groaned, and remembered the bandages. She stripped off the polo shirt once more, wrapped most of her upper body with bandages, and redid the polo shirt. The minute she had finished buttoning the last button, the bell rang.
With a "D'Arvit!" she struggled with her socks and was already running out of the door holding both shoes. Ten seconds later, she came back to her room to grab the pamphlet, the room key, locked the door to her room, and ran out. She had still to put on her shoes. Holly dropped both loafers down, slipped them on while locking the door to the room she shared with Aidan, and raced down the hallway.
In her mad dash, she noticed a few things. The monastery did not look so foreboding as it had in the dark. In fact, it looked a little like an exotic hotel now. Sunlight spilled cheerfully from wherever it could find an opening to get into. There were a few portraits of a few saints that decorated the hallway and the occasional plant standing in the corner. Her loafers made a tap tap sound on floor as she ignored the elevators and headed directly for the stairway she had spied the night before. She practically flew down the stairs and raced out of the lobby. She was in such a rush that she ran over a tall, slender, black haired youth carrying a laptop in one hand and only spared a moment to call back, "Sorry!" without even looking back.
Despite all his efforts, Alexei reached the desired room two minutes after the late bell had rung. He had entered breathlessly into a small room where a short, plump nun wearing large, square glasses was waiting impatiently. Like Sister Carmen, this nun's face was dour, weathered, and brown. Her main defining feature, however, was her glasses. It blew up her eyes and made them seem much larger than usual. Alexei absorbed her appearance in several blinks. "Late for your first appointment in St. Bartleby's," said the Sister. "Unimpressive, young man."
"Slept late," wheezed Alexei, "Came at around 1AM last night."
"No excuses," reproved the stern nun, "You should have set up your alarm clock. Now sit down. You have quite a few tests to do. And being late as you are, I daresay you didn't bring any pencils either." The nun sighed. "Very well. Calm yourself. Good thing you don't need them. You shall be taking your tests on a computer terminal." She pointed to computer sitting quite obviously on a desk in front of the indicated chair Alexei was supposed to sit in.
Alexei thought to point out that he had set up his alarm clock but slept right through it due to jet lag. He shook his head, gave up on the idea (the nun didn't look like she was in the mood for it), and merely collapsed on to the wooden chair. Truth be told, he was feeling a slight pain in his chest. He frowned, dismissing it.
The nun frowned at him, "I said sit down, not fall down. Your actions certainly need correcting. We should sign you up for that class as well." Holly thought fleetingly that the nun reminded her of Commander Root when Holly had been the newly instated junior captain of Reconnaissance. "Go to start, programs, then Testing Levels. Click on the first icon. You have one hour to complete this test, Mr. Forster. This is the test that determines your history level," said the nun. She glanced at the wall clock. "Since you have come late, I shall just deduct that time from your history test. It is now 8:15. You will finish at 9:00, no exceptions. Begin."
The red head glanced blankly at the screen. The strange characters marched across the colored background. She bit her lip and waited a few moments. Her gift of tongues swiftly settled in and comprehension dawned in her eyes. The first question was: "What was the major cause of Irish immigration to the Americas during the 1800's?" The elf rolled her eyes. She guessed on quite a few and got most correct. Her training in the LEP reconnaissance had included familiarity with Mud Men culture, but their history had not been gone into detail. Besides, her years at the academy seemed like so long ago. The other tests passed by in the same manner with the exception for science and math. The problems were extremely simple and so she had flown through those with considerable speed. Nonetheless, she had a sneaking suspicion that some of the questions and answers were only hypothetical speaking. She shook her head. Mud Men. In any case, she only meant to pas as a student; she had no intention of being valedictorian.
The computer automatically tallied her scores, but it was presented to the nun who was monitoring the computer opposite Holly. As the testing session progressed, Alexei assumed that she was doing worse and worse due to the sour expression on the nun's face. It looked as if she were being force-fed a lemon.
Although the cathedral was on central heating, it was getting unbearably hot inside the room. The boy was extremely tempted to take off his blazer but that might make the bandages he was wearing too apparent. He swallowed and forged on doggedly. The boring repetitiousness of the Mud Man testing was making the fairy extremely sleepy, and the hunger curling in his stomach was not helping. At sweet, long last Alexei finished the last question.
Alexei's eyes were burning from staring at the screen too long, and the bare six hours of sleep was taking its toll. He stood up and stretched, quite prepared to leave the place.
"Where do you think you're going, Mr. Forster?" asked the nun.
Alexei blinked at her. "Excuse me?" he asked.
"I have not finished with you yet," said the nun, looking fixedly at the screen through spectacled eyes. Tiny numbers were running past the screen. She was calculating the average of her test scores. Alexei shrugged, and sat back down.
"I don't believe I caught your name, Sister.?" asked the red head.
"Sister Melanie," said the nun without even looking up.
"Ah."
She took off her glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief. Without her glasses blowing up her eyes to balloon proportions, she resembled a potato. "I want you to do something, Mr. Forster," she said. She appraised him critically. "I want you to go to the library and pull out this one book called Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I want a book report on Scarlet Letter. Also, I want you to write an essay from this question: 'How has the creation of political platforms affected current governments worldwide?' Your schedule should be sent to your room by Sunday. Instructions for both assignments will be contained within."
Alexei looked indignant. "Is this part of the requirements?" he asked. He couldn't believe had done so badly that he was being assigned extra work to compensate.
"Yes," answered Sister Melanie shortly, "It is. Now run along to the library now. The pamphlet Sister Carmen gave you should have a temporary ID card. You can just give your name to the librarian when you're checking out Scarlet Letter. Have a nice lunch."
The boy fought the urge to let out a grunt of frustration. Really, what was her problem? He stood up and walked out the door a little harder than necessary.
Holly checked her wrist COM cleverly disguised as a Mud Man watch. It was now 12: 15. The elf consulted her map. The library was a separate structure in itself located about a mile away from the cathedral. She thought she glimpsed it the night before as a small building with pillars supporting the front.
Holly grumbled to herself, her temper getting worse and worse. The hunger coiling inside her stomach was forcing its way into her attention despite everything. She grunted and decided to walk the avenue to the library. It would be shorter if she walked to the library and returned to the monastery cafeteria.
As the elf walked, her bad mood began to dwindle into the background. It had been a very long time since she had been out in the sun. Although fairies did not stand out in the sun for long periods of time, she still loved it. She loved the natural light and she loved the beauty the sun revealed in the Earth. Not working your magic under the sun was a small price to pay for the sensation it gave. Fortunately for her, elves were not as sensitive to the sunlight as dwarfs. In the fairy spectrum, elves were second to sprites in sun resistance. The wind whistled cheerfully in the pedestrian avenue and tapped her face well humouredly. Birds twittered and skittered amongst the plant life. In the distance, Holly spied the equestrian center. A beautiful black horse, Arabian she guessed, was cantering proudly in the partitioned field.
A soft smile graced her features as she walked gaily in the daylight. It had been so long since she had been out under daylight, and even longer since she had been out in daylight for the pleasure of it. A small bird swooped and landed on her shoulders, chitterling softly. Holly laughed and held out her finger for the bird to perch on. She looked around to make sure that no one was watching her or near enough to tell before speaking to the bird in its own language.
"How are you, little one?" she asked (obviously in translation to English). The bird hummed and twittered bits of a song. Apparently the bird was in a cheerful mood for it answered in bits of song that it learned from its fellow birds. The animal twittered, danced on Holly's fingers for a minute, before flying away with a small farewell. The elf smiled ruefully. That was the way it was with animals. Cheerful creatures, but nothing much of what they said made any sense.
In a better mood, she walked to the library. Just like the cathedral and the monastery, the library was a large, stone structure. Unlike either building, this building's style was not religious in design. In contrast, the Grecian fashion and sweeping pillars created an aesthetic yet classical atmosphere signifying years and years' worth of learning and professionalism.
Alexei easily strode up the steps and walked through the wooden doors. Inside, sunlight streamed in translucent rays. Whispers floated through the space like ghosts but save that, all was silent. The door opened to a large hallway. The marble floor was well polished and well kempt. A small line of students was checking books out in the librarian's desk to the right of the entrance. Two nuns in their habits were using up to date technology to check the books out. Further down the small hallway was a circular, wide, large space where various couches, chairs, and desks were scattered over the area. In one end was a six feet fireplace complete with a large mantel, the portrait of a dark sea above it, and the metal grating. Near it were metal pokers to use with the fire. A few students also inhabited the area, silently reading or doing homework. Light descended to the chairs from the roof. When the red head looked up, he found that several circular skylights pierced the roof to allow natural light in. A clean sheet of glass covered these.
This was apparently the central area wherein all other sections were circled around. Alexei searched for a place to begin her search. Initially, he thought to look at the search computers for the book, but found that they were out of order. All four of them. He paused, unsure of what to do.
A student bumped into him from behind. "Oh, excuse me," said a light soprano, "I'm so clumsy." When Alexei righted himself and turned around, he saw that the student had been a young female, perhaps fifteen years old. She had light brown hair, green eyes, and a sweet, pleasant face. A headband neatly held her shoulder length hair back and she stood as the same height as Holly, about five feet three inches. She said in an amiable voice. "Oh, you must be new here. I haven't seen you around. My name is Sabia Davis." She held out her hand.
Alexei shook it and said, "Pleased to meet you, Miss."
The girl giggled slightly, "Nice accent. You look and sound like a little bit of everything. In any case, no need to be formal. The nuns are at our backs enough about formalities when we're in front of them. Just call me Sabia when there aren't any protocols to follow." Alexei nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Holly was not entirely used to interacting with people as the same large size as she. Sabia cocked her head to the side, green eyes looking inquisitively at him, "Did you need something? You were looking pretty lost just now."
"A-actually, I was looking for a resource computer or something."
"Oh, the computers in the library all short circuited about a week ago. The nuns say that there was a problem with the voltages or something. They'll have them back up and running by Monday. So until then, we have to use the manual resource maps. Did you need your book right now?"
Alexei nodded. It was at that moment that a small crowd of girls called to her. There were about four of them and each was pretty in their own way. They had huddled outside waiting for each other. Now they called to Sabia in soft voices.
Sabia and Alexei turned around at the sound. When Alexei faced them, the girls stilled their voices and gazed for a moment or two at him. Then all four burst out in soft giggles. Inwardly, Holly rolled her eyes, ignoring her discomfort. Lili Frond would be very good friends with these girls.
"Ah, I have to go," said Sabia. "You can easily navigate the library by looking at the labels on the various shelves. But the resource books are over there." The girl gestured to the left. A large shelf housed equally large and thick books. "I'd like to help, but I really must go. See you later!"
Sabia quickly walked back to where her friends were. Alexei didn't even bother looking back. He walked quickly to the resource maps. Sabia seemed all right, but her friends.The boy shook his head and turned his attention to where Sabia indicated the labels.
His first impression of the library had been its age, and further scrutiny into the shelves only confirmed it. The large tomes were covered in thick dust, and Alexei wondered whether the nuns had bothered to update the books at all. He clucked his tongue, his temper silently flaring again at the way Sister Melanie had so casually assigned him more work.
The red head ran a hand through the dusty shelves, eyeing the labels. He found a promising one near the end of the row in a shelf about the height of his head. The boy reached upwards to pull out a large book labeled (Fiction Authors: G-H). He glanced at the space the book made, noting that whoever was in the next row had also taken out the opposite book to Alexei's.
Holly's heart plummeted right then and there. Wide eyes slowly looked back through the gap the book made. In the opposite row was a boy, bending down to examine a book held down. The boy was tall, around 5'6, slender, and elegant. Raven night hair fell in a smooth style down his forehead and his flawless complexion was ivory pale. Cold, terribly cold, deep blue eyes gazed mildly down at what the elf presumed was a page. She recognized that face. He was the boy she had run into earlier this morning in her haste to beat the bell.
But more importantly, he had been the one who kidnapped her four years ago. He was the one who had saved the Lower Elements from the B'WaKell uprising. He was the one she had given that gold coin to in order to remind him of the spark of goodness inside him. He was the one who had asked Holly Short for help when his dearest friend had been mortally injured. He was the one who had been mind wiped because he was too much of a risk to the People. He was the reason why Holly had spent many sleepless days tossing, turning, and squirming.
After thinking and dreaming about what the elf had deemed to be an impossible moment, the fairy had absolutely nothing to say. The book slipped from her nerveless fingers. Unfortunately for Holly, it fell straight on her foot. Unfortunately for Holly, her foot was most definitely not nerveless and felt the large book falling down on it loud and clear.
With a loud cry of, "D'Arvit!" she jumped backwards and into the shelf behind her. Unfortunately for Holly, these old shelves had not been bolted down. So when she had jumped backwards, she had caused it to lose balance, teeter precariously, and fall with a mighty crash to the next shelf. As most people know, knocking down one shelf in the library causes a domino reaction.
Several students ran like mad when they noticed that the shelves were coming down on them. Shouts erupted inside the library. Many more students ran away in fear of falling shelves and books. All the while this happened, Holly sat stunned on the first shelf.
Artemis Fowl II strolled out from behind the first shelf looking only mildly perturbed despite the chaos erupting all over library. His gaze swept over the scene in one long glance before they fell on Holly. The elf flinched at those cold eyes, but met them. For moments, they gazed at one another.
Two impossible figures brought together by impossible circumstance. They were practically ordered never again to meet. It was against the rules, really. Their parting two years ago needed to be the last one. The Council's reasoning behind sending Captain Trouble Kelp to check on Artemis Fowl, the reasoning behind banning Holly from any case relating to Artemis Fowl, was to keep her getting involved. The past years had proven to them that if Holly Short got involved with Artemis Fowl, catastrophe followed like flies on a stink worm.
Yet here they stood again in an impossible meeting. Ah well. Neither Holly Short nor Artemis Fowl had been very averse to breaking a few rules.
The resounding crash of the last shelf breaking over solid wall broke Holly's reverie. Soon if not already, people would be wondering who caused the commotion, and it didn't take a genius to figure out where it all started. So Holly jumped, grabbed Artemis's hand, and ran to hide behind the shelf four rows down. She pushed the tall boy behind the shelf and peeked out. People were looking all right.
Artemis was surprised. No brainer to the shock really. How often did one see a boy knock over a shelf, cause probably over thousands of dollars worth of damage similar to an earthquake, and then get saved by the same aforementioned boy? He looked curiously at the strange boy. He had caught only a glimpse of his face, and his heart had skipped a beat. In addition, there were two strange metal contraptions that covered both ears of the boy.
"Okay, I don't think they're going to look this way just yet," said the boy in a light voice, unusually so for a male. He peered cautiously out and said, "You'll be safe here."
Artemis frowned, his usual iciness now dominating his features, "Hardly, if I'm with you."
The boy muttered something underneath his breath, but didn't turn his face. It sounded like he was saying, "Of all the obnoxious ingrates.!"
Artemis allowed a cold smile to slip on his lips, "I speak only the truth." The raven-haired boy stepped up to look out at the scene as well. The red head moved back to allow him greater coverage.
Two nuns seemed at the point of collapse, totally flabbergasted at the destruction. The other two were helping students who had barely managed to avoid concussions from the flying books and shelves. Most of the student body had gathered around the wreckage. Some looked horrified, some looked wildly excited, and some looked amused while the others wore expressions of varying mixtures of the first three emotions. No doubt Principal Guiney would have a heart attack when he heard about this. Heh.
"You-" began Artemis, but he didn't finish. When he looked back, the boy was no longer there. Strange. He hadn't even caught his face or his name. He was distinctive enough, that much was certain. Those strange contraptions on his ears and ruby red hair stood out exceptionally. For some reason, his thoughts lingered on a fading dream he had several nights before. He dismissed the thoughts and decided to come out and mingle among the other students. No need to make himself look more suspicious. Perhaps he might even get to see that strange boy again.
Holly expertly slid into the shadows, weaving in and out among them. She made her way to the other side without detection, successfully mingled with a concerned group of students, and finally dwindled out of the library in a matter of ten minutes. No doubt the school officials would be thundering up the road at that very moment, but Holly had a better chance of escaping blame if she were outside.
The elf hung out in the shadows of a few Birchwood trees, watching the cars roll in front, and the people within go inside the library. She waited for about five minutes before slipping out and walking as discreetly as she could back to the monastery.
She winced as she walked. There was a pain in her chest, but that feeling was pushed aside to her revelation. Artemis Fowl II was here. He was really here. No wonder she had thought the school uniform was familiar when she first saw it last night. She had seen that very same uniform on Artemis Fowl two years past.
The elf couldn't believe so many important details slipped Foaly's scrutiny. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching before tapping on the right earpiece. Delicately, she slipped a finger into the interior of the machine and tapped a button, trying to get a channel to Foaly.
"Holly, I swear I had no idea," began the centaur before Holly even realized that she was online with him.
"Foaly, you insufferable, proud donkey!" fumed the elf. "Do you have any idea the stress I've been through?"
"We were pressed for time," protested the LEP technical fairy. "I didn't have time to see through it all."
"How could you miss something as big as the school being coed?!" screamed the hazel-eyed elf.
The centaur couldn't help but snicker at that. "Look, they obviously hadn't updated their Net files in two years. I didn't see until it was too late," he said. "Besides, didn't you always want to be a male?"
The elf gritted her teeth, "I swear, centaur, when I get my hands on you. And Artemis Fowl! Artemis Fowl! How could you miss someone like Artemis Fowl! I thought you had a surveillance network around him! What happened to Kelp's monthly field inspections!"
"Look, look," said Foaly, golden eyes glinting with humor, "He goes away from home around six months a year presumably to go to school. We don't have Kelp follow him because in all probability my surveillance on his computer is enough. The Council doesn't want to spend any more gold on Artemis Fowl than they absolutely have to. How was I to know he went here? I wasn't looking through their student roster. I thought Fowl was a genius and skipped school in any case."
"Foaly," said Holly warningly.
"Okay, okay, I made a mistake," grumbled the centaur. He never liked admitting he made mistakes.
"Has Root been watching my video feed?" asked Holly. She looked around once more, uneasy. It wouldn't do to be caught speaking in Gnommish to what appeared to be thin air. The last thing she needed was for people to place her in Special Education.
"No, things are busy underground where we little people are," joked the centaur.
"Any updates on Mercury?" asked Holly.
"Well, he apparently sent a threatening note to the LEP telling us that he meant to kill you and he would kill you," said Foaly, his voice somber for once.
Holly shivered involuntarily. "He's furious." she said.
"Oh yeah. You can tell from the note he sent. Didn't even bother to put it in a code. Just plain out said that he would kill you no matter what," sighed Foaly. "Commander Root has placed HQ on high alert. Just in case. It's the reason why we're so busy not to mention those Deep Tunnel kidnappings we've already had to deal with."
Holly silently agreed. Things were heating up underground. The least thing she could do was to get to the bottom of the mystery around St. Bartleby and get rid of Mercury as fast as she could. "What did you think of the video feed?" asked Holly. "Is this place whacked out or what?"
Foaly snorted, "Captain, that place is a prime candidate for the Twilight Zone. You've got creepy Igor's running around looking like gravediggers, the corrupted religious drama, and you also got yourself a fan club. Ooh, and let's not forget that Master Artemis Fowl is back in the picture, older, most probably smarter, and more of a devil than ever. Aren't you the lucky girl, eh, boy?"
"Foaly."
"Yes, Captain?" asked the centaur in a singsong voice.
"Shut the hell up," said the elf and shut off the communication. She couldn't believe Foaly. His facetiousness was getting way out of hand. However, his candid manner did bring into perspective the various strange factors revolving around St. Bartleby.
There was a suspicious, giant human lurking around as a manservant, the nuns certainly were not nuns else she would feel pain at entering the cathedral, and Artemis Fowl was here. And there was one thing that Foaly did not mention, but Holly felt was part of the puzzle. Her roommate, Aidan Smith: A human boy who looked like a fairy. There was something entirely too suspicious about these fragments. By themselves, they were discreet and almost invisible. But put them all together and there was something sinister here. And at the very bottom of this lay the key to figuring out Mercury.