Disclaimer: Artemis Fowl and related characters are not mine. They are
the works of and are copyrighted to Eoin Colfer.
Scene Five: Of lakes and skeletons
She was back in the lake. This time there was no dying wind or bleeding sun. It was all dark save for the faint twinkling of stars overhead. The silence permeated the environment so strongly the elf almost felt like choking in it. The trees did not speak to her, nor did the grass. The only sound she was able to discern was the ominous roll of the wind as it pushed weakly against the body of water she knew lay before her.
Her initial reaction was to back away. Her fairy intuition had promptly gone on overdrive when she discovered where she was. She remembered this place although previously, in the safe light of Haven and her friends, she had dismissed it as an unusual nightmare. But this time.
The song began once more, plaintive and pleading. Holly knew those notes. She had heard them before, had not been able to resist its call, and had nearly . nearly been lost because of it.
"No," she breathed, "I won't listen! Not again!" In an act of desperation, she reared away from the lake, drawing her hands to stop her ears from hearing the sounds futilely. It was then she noticed, for perhaps the first time, what it was she was wearing. In her original visit to this remote location, she had been wearing a simple, sleeveless white dress with thigh high slits on either side for mobility. The length of the simple white dress touched her toes. It had been an odd choice of accoutrement, as she had not worn a skirt much less a dress for decades. She didn't even own one as far as she knew. What little dresses she did wear in rare occasions in the years long past had been a matter of necessity, brought on by sharp formalities in places her mother brought her to. Once her parents had died and she had started working on her own, she found little use or practicality in dresses.
The garment itself was a mystery. It was made of a weightless, silky material that floated about her with grace, allowing her complete freedom in movement. The dress started as a tube top where it tapered to the natural curves of her body, hugging her torso down to where it ended scant centimeters from her hips. The skirt then hugged her hips and floated down to her ankles flaring gently as the material was slitted like a flower. It was pure white, like dandelion fluff or cumulus clouds in a beautiful summer day. She would not have minded the dress at all if it had not been for the metal adornments. A thin but strong triangular plate made of some metal was fastened to the front and back of the upper portion of the dress and on either upper points of the metal was a chain that linked to a choker resting heavily on her neck. Her hand came to brush the choker and she recoiled at the cold stinging feel of it. She could feel it burning the flesh of her neck. The fairy suddenly realized that her wrists and ankles were similarly restrained with the same band of restrictive metals.
There was a sharp tug on her left foot and she slid forward. The elf yelped, clawing at the dirt and trying to grab something, anything, to keep her from being dragged forward. To her horror, she found that the anklets and bracelets on her were fastened to a chain and the chain led from the adornments down to the bottom of the lake. The pull had come from the chains being yanked. Desperately, she fought against the strong pull and tried to pry the restraints off despite the fact that her fingers burned when she merely brushed the strange metal.
"No!" screamed the red haired elf hoarsely, "Let go of me!" All the training in the LEP Academy, all the experience she had on the field, all the classes she'd ever taken to defend herself and turn the tables to her side melted away at this strange assault of not only on her physical body but of her mind as well. The song continued to wash over her, soothe her, drowning her in its music. Hysteria threatened to overwhelm her completely. She knew, in a subconscious level, that if she let go, that if she gave up and was dragged in even for one second, she would be lost forever. There was an endless abyss in those waters, an endless road that led to nowhere, a path that whispered forbidden promises and gifts. She never wanted to see herself in that same light again. She never wanted to see her image tainted and changed. "Get away! Get away from me!" And this time she knew there would be no voice to help her, no familiar, comforting voice to pull her back because it had taken everything to make the voice be heard the last time. No, this time she was truly alone.
Well, maybe not.
Holly received a shock in her mind. Her vision blurred as she thought she saw the environment shift dramatically before her. Instead of the dark night and lake, she saw dispassionate stonewalls lit by electric lights. Instead of the harsh grass and soil underneath her, she felt the cool touch of marble. Instead of the dark lake filling her vision and mind, she saw intense sapphire eyes gazing in pure bewilderment, a hint of fear and, most ironic of all, concern. If she weren't so busy fighting for her life, she would have laughed at the sheer irony of it all.
She whimpered, arching her back, as she fought for breath. It felt as if she were underwater and could not breathe. The two contrasting environments fed her senses, fighting for dominance, and making her head hurt in overload, but she held on. She would not faint.
Artemis was so close. He was hovering above her, mouthing words she could not hear. She saw his hands going to brush her forehead and feel her pulse, but she could not feel it. The lake trembled and she was yanked again. Terror lanced her face and tightened inside her chest. She mustn't look, she mustn't listen to the song from the lake, and from the power it distilled. She must never look lest she lose herself.
So instead, she focused on the boy near her, willing her eyes to rest on his face, willing her body to feel his touch, forcing her ears to hear his voice.
".wrong?" asked the raven haired, Irish boy. Holly felt his hands quickly though tentatively feel her pulse once more, and felt the aggravation in his body as he realized it was still going far too fast. Dangerously too fast. And the more she concentrated on him, the less she heard the song, and the less she felt the chains pulling at her limbs. "Hold on, I'm going to get help." The hand left her and she felt the air shift as he moved away. His eyes, like twin beacons that did not dim despite the blackness slyly eating her vision, disappeared, and a cry rose from her throat.
"No!" she gasped, her hand instinctively catching his wrist. Amidst the horrendous ache in her chest and the angry throbbing in her head, she whispered frantic words, "Don't leave." Her fingers may have curled viselike around his wrist, but at the moment Holly was in no position to think about it. The boy slowly returned to his position beside her, eyes peering intensely.
"A-all right," he said, hesitating. Artemis's hand slowly clasped Alexei's, trying to offer support. Comforting was not his forte. So he did the only thing he thought could help, and that was to hold Alexei's hand.
For a long moment, the red haired boy held terribly still and he seemed dead. His glassy hazel eyes gazed wordlessly, filled with so much pain. Abruptly, Artemis was filled with fear. Despite all his criminal activities and under the table dealings, despite all the dangerous men he associated with and all the dangerous situations he had gone through, he had never really seen a dead person, and he did not want to.
He leaned in close, trying to discern some telltale sign. There seemed to be tightening in the new boy's chest, as if something was freezing him in place. He stilled the shaking in his voice, and whispered, "Breathe. Just breathe."
As if his words carried magic, Alexei expelled a breath. A flush of color returned to his coffee complexion, and his breaths came in small and uneven. His lids flickered several times, as if trying to adjust to the light in the room. Presently, hazel eyes wearily focused on Artemis who waited with baited breath. "Don't let go," whispered Alexei barely before he fainted yet again.
When Holly next awoke, she was lying in a bed in the medical ward. The room was narrow and spare, furnished with only Spartan beds, a few chairs, and a mobile partition for privacy. Stained windows on the left wall let in the dying afternoon sunlight. It drew strange patterns on Holly's head and shoulders, bathing her in an infrared light and making her look ethereal and preternatural. She was resting at the very far end of the room, away from the quiet bustle of the front office where the nurse was tending to an assortment of minor injuries, most sustained from sports the students were participating in.
The first thought that crossed the elf's mind was annoyance. Fainting spell? Yet again? How ridiculously Victorian. That sort of thing went out of fashion centuries ago among the mass of fairies. True, there had been a few schools that still taught that particular behavior, but it had only been for the very rich and for the very elite of the fairy class. Still, fainting was for weak females, and, as Holly had proved so many times in the past, she was far from weak.
That line of thought inevitably turned to wondering why she had fainted. Her mind was still fuzzy, but she seemed to remember something about hurting inside her chest and a lake and. sapphire eyes? What? Her head spun, and she closed her eyes, seeking to placate it. What did she remember?
She remembered Isolde inviting her to go to lunch, and then inviting Artemis who had just showed up. Then Artemis and Isolde went some place for some reason she could not remember. She fainted and . the dream! The lake! Just the thought of it made Holly's fingers clench her blanket tightly, just to make sure she was there and not anywhere near a lake.
She had dreamt of being dragged into a lake against her will by a force she could not resist for long. This was not the first time she had dreamt it either. The first time had been when she was knocked out by the first sight of her image when Mercury had enspelled her. That time she had been saved by a voice, had been called and lulled home by a familiar voice. This time, this time she was saved, however inadvertently, by a criminal.
Holly gave in to her desires and chuckled softly, ironically. Someone up there must have some sick sense of humor.
"I take it you're well now?" asked a soft, familiar voice softly. Holly gasped, half expecting intense blue eyes gazing at her piercingly, but instead Aidan's gray eyes stared at her from a dark corner where he had been sitting.
Holly stared gravely back at him, wariness and suspicion in her features. Something ominous was happening to her, purposely hurting her and drawing her to somewhere she didn't want to be. Or perhaps it was a someone.
Aidan stood up and approached her bed. Beneath the sheets, Holly's hands were clenched in anticipation. When he drew close and his proximity began flashing alarm bells in her head, he spoke softly, "You gave the nurse a good fright."
Holly coughed lightly, wincing. "What did she say?" asked the elf. Discreetly, she checked that both her earpieces were still in place. It was a miracle that it had not been removed.
"She said you must have fainted from heat exhaustion," replied the brown haired boy. He frowned at Holly, doubt in his eyes.
"Ah," answered Holly noncommittally. It had been a ridiculous diagnosis, but much preferable than the truth.
"Are you feeling all right?" queried the dark haired boy. "The nurse said that all you needed for it was rest, and that you could go as soon as you felt well."
"I'm fine," replied the red haired fairy firmly. She drew the blankets aside and placed her legs to the floor. A little shaky, but otherwise fine. Aidan approached her side, and Holly took a few steps back to distance herself. "I'm fine," repeated the female. "I don't need help."
Aidan backed away courteously. "I'll go and tell the nurse you woke up," he said quietly, "Wait for me in the hallway outside."
"Wait," requested the hazel-eyed elf. "I. I fainted in the . hallway?" At Aidan's minute nod, Holly continued, "Then who brought me here?"
"I don't know," said Aidan in a tone that indicated negligence or perhaps indifference. He continued to the nurse, although Holly frowned at his disappearing back. She turned for the exit. Was it Artemis truly that saved her? Her experience had left her shaken and unsure. This wasn't all some sort of hallucination, was it? No. couldn't be.
She leaned quietly by the windowsill, letting the warmth of the dying afternoon sun seep into her body. Aidan soon reappeared by her side. He offered no comments as, together, they made their way down the hallway, descending the flight of stairs, and down the long walk to the Monastery. In the long shadows of the afternoon, the place seemed almost peaceful and. tired.
Holly fidgeted with her blazer, "Hey. thanks for coming to get me. I don't really need help or anything. It really must have been hot."
Aidan shrugged coolly, and he murmured, "Maybe."
The elf stopped. She paused in her walk, and did not speak until Aidan was a few steps ahead of her and was looking at her eyes in askance. "What are you thinking?" asked the red haired new student. She was rapidly beginning to tire of the secrets and the games around the school. If Aidan was going to act suspicious now, then heaven help her, she would have him out it.
"Why do you ask?" retorted the taller boy.
The fairy frowned, and her eyes narrowed. Gray eyes stared back at her, expression bland. She felt fine now, her heart was beating at a steady pace, but there was something else. If she concentrated, she could almost see the Mud boy's aura swirling around him. And.
"Oh, Alexei, I was so worried over you!" yelled a feminine voice. The next thing Holly knew, someone had clasped her left shoulder, and Isolde was gazing steadily at her with earnestly concerned eyes.
"Uh," muttered Holly, "What?"
Isolde continued, "I heard that you fainted in the hallway. Are you sick?"
Holly blinked several times. "You heard?" she repeated, "Heard from whom?"
"Oh, my friend said she saw Artemis carrying you to the Nurse's office," explained Isolde. "But are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," answered Holly a bit dazedly. I was carried? By Artemis? Since when could he even carry me? she thought, before turning to the inevitable, So he was the one who helped me. He was the one who saved me.
"You sure?" persisted the dark haired girl. She leaned towards Holly's face, peering intently at her eyes. Holly took a reflexive step back.
"I'm fine," repeated Holly, letting the slightest notes of annoyance creep in her voice. "The Nurse said it must have been heat exhaustion."
"I see," nodded Isolde knowledgably. "Well, it's too bad. You can come have lunch with my friends tomorrow then! Aidan can come too, if he wants." The human girl smiled prettily up at Aidan who averted his gaze to stare at the ground.
"Isolde!" yelled a distant voice. The three looked up to see a group of students hanging out by a tree. One attractive boy was waving at Isolde.
The girl laughed softly, "The barbarian. I told him to stop that yelling. I'll see you two boys tomorrow. Bye!" She walked briskly to her friends.
Holly stared after Isolde. "Is she always like that?" she asked Aidan. Aidan shuffled his feet, subconsciously indicating to Holly to start walking once more.
"I don't know," the gray eyed boy, "I don't pay attention to the girls very much."
"I see," said Holly. There was silence as the two of them made their way up to the Monastery, down the hallways, and into their dormitory. Holly was about to walk inside her bedroom when Aidan's voice made her pause.
"Artemis helped you then," said Aidan. "Now you know."
Holly glanced up at him, surprise in her features, "He helped me to the Nurse's office, if what Isolde said was true. What does it matter?"
"Nothing," returned the boy. "Nothing at all." He disappeared inside his bedroom and shut the door.
"Well Foaly?" asked Holly. "Is there anything coming up on the screens?" Holly was communicating with the LEP head tech in the dead of the night. As soon as flares had let it, she had contacted the centaur in the hopes of securing a more specific location for the possible magic traces the previous scans had come up with. In her opinion, the manual, undercover investigation was going far too slowly. In preparation for this, she had made sure Aidan was in his rooms, and she had locked her own door. She was also whispering in the very remote possibility somebody was eavesdropping on her. Paranoid, true, but with the surprises she had been receiving, entirely justified.
Besides, if her dreams were not hallucinations brought on by her new body, and someone or something truly was trying to harm her as she suspected, then the sooner she solved this case and returned to Haven the better. In all events, she still had a score to pay with that Mercury. Chix. no, Mercury, thought Holly, feeling a clenching in her heart at the thought of her enemy, Is it you in there, Chix? Do you know what you're doing? Who you are now?
"Not the buildings, that's for sure," laughed the centaur from Holly's ear COMs. "If what you felt this morning was true, then the magic hits aren't likely to be in the actual Cathedral itself. Something big like that couldn't handle interference as big as a church. No, if there are spells bouncing off this place, it's somewhere on the actual grounds. You say the Monastery is clear?"
The elf Recon agent assented. "I ran a scanner even. There's nothing here that the sensors or my own magic can pick up," supported the elf.
"At least nothing recent," contradicted the centaur, flicking his tail. "The temp scanner I sent you with can't pick up the faded traces." After a moment, he added, "Although if anything serious were going down here, you should be able to pick it up."
Holly grimaced, noting the smug pride Foaly displayed at the power of his own customized scanners. "Riveting, yes. I may be able to pick it up, but I'm not," said Holly, "Now start talking, Foaly. Amaze me with your prowess and give me results. The quicker the better."
"Okay, okay, no need to get your pointy ears in a twist," grumbled the centaur. Holly twitched at that comment, one hand going to rub the one ear she had freed from the earpiece. Her elven ears did not like being confined to such a space as the earpiece. She made sure to moisturize each ear before sleeping at night. "I've just updated the scans and I reran them. I can't come up with anything definitive."
"Billions we pour into your department, Foaly," said Holly in a deadpan tone, "and you can't find the location of a single, lousy magical ritual."
"Hey!" protested the centaur, hurt in his voice, "this isn't as simple as it seems. The scanners can't pick up the actual trace elements of the magic. That's impossible with the technology we have now. Rather, it picks up the characteristic abnormalities in the area that lingers around the trace elements. You understand these trace elements are usually molecular if you perform even a major magical surgery, such as the one you did with Butler. That barely caused a blip on my scanners. These abnormalities my scanners are picking up on are around the Cathedral. However, the abnormalities do not indicate the actual area where the trace elements are so the magic must be bouncing off the Cathedral. There are other hits, but they're all concentrated on the St. Bartleby's estate. I can send you where those hits are, if you'd like."
"Humph," snorted the elf, "yes, please. I've got nothing better to do here than to endure the company of Mud men anyway."
"Ahh," said the centaur, and there was a hint of facetiousness in his voice. "How are the little Mud boys and girls anyway?"
"Boorish," responded the elf curtly. "Have you hacked into the St. Bartleby's mainframe?"
"Way ahead of you," complied Foaly. "There's plenty of extortion going on. You know, the usual outrageous prices they charge the parents of the students and all that. Nothing too criminal, though. I also ran a check on their employees list. There's no one with any outstanding criminal charges. None at least, that best our Master Fowl." Holly heard a quiet chuckle.
"An employees check?" asked Holly, sitting up. "Did you dig up anything on the menservants they hire around here?"
"No, actually," said Foaly, running the list on his screen once more. "Funny thing. The employees' list seems to be coming up short from the actual estimated sum. I don't think they've updated their computer databases quite a while."
"That's odd," Holly commented, "You'd think a private, elite school as St. Bartleby's would actually keep up their net service."
"You think something's up with the staff?"
"No. it's nothing. Probably nothing."
"You sure?" asked Foaly, suspicion in his voice. "You're acting weird."
"Am I?" returned Holly, injecting what she hoped to be the proper mixture of blandness, indifference, and mild surprise.
"Did it have something to do with the disruptions in you ear pieces this afternoon?" continued the centaur. Holly cursed. She'd been quiet about the incident because she had been hoping it would be skirted over. Apparently not. "Your sensors blipped off for a while. I think there's about a gap of ten minutes in the tapes. I hope I didn't miss something important." There was suspicion in the centaur's voice.
Holly was far too relieved to question the nature of this godsend. "No, you didn't," assured Holly, feeling a twinge at lying to Foaly. "Just a Mud Girl asking me to lunch."
"Artemis's girlfriend, was it?" asked Foaly. He snickered a little, distracted from his previous train of thought. "I had no idea he had a significant other."
Holly made a face. "I had no idea he was capable of enduring someone's company much less being close to them," she retorted.
"Still angry, Captain?" asked the centaur, and there was laughter in his voice.
"Wouldn't you be???" asked Holly back, exasperated.
"You should be happy that Mud Boy's getting a life aside from cheating people," remarked the LEP techie. Holly could just imagine his catlike expression as he sat comfortably in his customized swivel chair.
"Please," muttered the elf, rolling her eyes, "Spare me. Why are we talking about this anyway? Don't we have better things to do than talk about that Mud weasel's social life or lack thereof?"
"According to the video this morning, it looks like he's getting plenty of social action from . what's her name again? Izzy or something?"
"Isolde," corrected the elf, "Isolde O'Ciardha. Daughter of the CEO of some company. On second thought, check her and her family, Foaly."
"Affirmative, Captain," responded the golden eyed fairy. "You think Isolde has something to do with our mission?"
"Not really, but as one knows, one must never underestimate Artemis Fowl."
"Isolde O'Ciardha. daughter and heir to the Ciardha family fortune. She's got a nice sum of money on her family alone, comparable to Artemis's own fortune although if Artemis continues the way he goes on now, he'll soon be running against the wealthiest men on the planet. I haven't looked too deep into it, but I have a feeling that her family isn't entirely above board. Not like the Fowl boy for sure, but the usual. Nothing too suspicious, but it'll take a few hours tops if I'm going to dig something up on the Ciardhas. Bit of an ancient and wealthy family in Ireland, you know. They know how to cover up their tracks pretty well."
"Just tell me if anything comes up," returned Holly.
"No problemo," quipped Foaly. After a moment of observing her feed, he asked, "Going somewhere?"
"I'm going to poke around around this estate a bit. An entire night with uninterrupted investigation. Time for some night Recon," answered Holly, allowing a dangerous smile to slide in place. She rifled through the few clothing she had before eventually choosing Foaly's specially modified LEP jumpsuit. It had been a bit hectic, but Foaly had managed to modify a suit he had been tinkering with and given it to Holly as her LEP jumpsuit in cases of emergency aboveground.
The bodysuit was completely black, as black as shadow, with a hint of green to it. There was a light armor that covered her shoulders and upper chest, thin metal protective gears on her elbows and knees, and a myriad of little openings that Holly had yet the time to decipher. "Foaly, what are these little openings that look like hook ups?" asked Holly, a little wary. Hook ups was the LEP slang for any electronic connections their machines were plugged into. It was a little unusual and disconcerting to see it on a LEP jumpsuit.
"Ahh," remarked Foaly, "it's an experimental doodad that I still have to perfect. Just never mind those. Pretend they're design or something."
"All right," relented Holly, doubt in her voice. She removed her earpiece and put a blanket on it before stripping herself of her Mud clothes and sliding on the jumpsuit. Well, cat suit really. The clothing covered her body completely: turtleneck on her neck, long sleeves and that hooked to the space between her middle and ring finger, and a similarly corresponding design on her feet.
The material felt strange to Holly. It slid smoothly and softly down her skin, conforming perfectly to her willowy body, but she could feel the toughness and a strange stiffness in the fabric. "This thing acts just like a LEP jumpsuit, right? Heat coil, Thermal and neutrino dispersion."
"Of course!" exclaimed the centaur indignantly, sounding clearly even though he was speaking through the COM set and blanket. "What do you take me for?"
"I don't know, Foaly," smiled the female fairy wryly. "You've been holed up in the Ops booth for a while tinkering with your new inventions. How do I know this thing won't blow up on me?" Holly seriously doubted that it would, but it didn't pay to be casual around Foaly. She would never forget the rash of accidents that erupted in the LEP when they used Foaly's trigger finger invention. She had been careful not to be touched by anyone for a while.
Finally, Holly slid on her elbow length gloves and thigh high boots. Once properly suited, Holly felt somewhat better. Familiarity breed comfort, after all, and she was in a foreign world for an indefinitely too long a time for her liking. Deep inside in a place Holly did not dare acknowledge, she felt homesick.
"Can you shield?" asked Foaly, voice tinny from the earpiece.
"No." admitted the elf reluctantly. "All my magic does is instant healing. You know that. I've already tried before."
"Not a problem," hurried the centaur. He had definitely not wanted to get the thoughts of Holly's wayward magic into light. The red haired fairy might not have said or acted anything, but Foaly knew that Holly was deeply upset over the loss of her usual magic. Any fairy would have. "The LEP jumpsuits don't exactly come with a stealth coat, seeing as we've usually never had a non magic personnel in one but I think you can slip easily past the security. Time to strut your stuff as Recon captain, captain. Can you handle it?"
Foaly's monitor fizzed a bit as it refocused. What he saw made him smile. Holly was standing in front of a mirror wearing his specialized cat suit wearing both earpieces and wearing a smile fit for a tiger. If only she had been wearing a LEP helmet with the buzz baton and neutrino at her side, she would have looked completely normal. "Watch me, Foaly. Just watch."
It was a good thing that Foaly really was watching. Soon after slipping out of the Monastery, Holly was stealthily heading towards the coordinates Foaly gave her over the COM set. She had slipped on an iris cam in case she needed visual aids from Foaly that night. She had been steadily heading northwards across the vast estate, more than a trifle annoyed that she could not fly. Still, as Foaly pointed out, if there were creatures such as Mercury around, flying aboveground, even if Holly had been shielded, was tantamount to screaming, "KILL ME!"
The Monastery security had been fairly easy to surpass. Although the school gave emphasis to its security (some pressing issues about some family's beloved offspring being at risk for various reasons), it certainly did not give Holly any problems. She had simply locked her door, slipped out the window, and slid silently down the fire escape conveniently located near her window. For a few brief moments, the elf had felt a nauseating dizziness that had everything to do with her new size and being so high aboveground without a wing set. She forcefully swallowed it down, and made it down the building. Thankfully, no klutz attacks came over her and there were no cameras pointed her way. Even if there were, Foaly would have taken good care of it although he would have teased Holly endlessly for such a silly slip up. The cameras that is, not the klutz attacks. Magic probably wouldn't be able to fix a pancake.
Now the fairy was darting from shadow to shadow in the foliage. At first, the grounds had been well kept, relatively clean, and the plants beautifully tended. The third mile outwards, Holly could tell they had not paid enough attention to the flora. In addition, the environment of St. Bartleby's was yet again making her uneasy. As a nocturnal creature, the shadows shouldn't have bothered her. But it did. It bit down oppressively on her and it didn't help that the night possessed no moon or stars. The trees creaked sullenly in the dark, abruptly hostile and malicious. Now, Holly was a Recon officer and she was trained to withstand several mental pressures, but she could have sworn she heard something shaking as she passed across the lands.
In the late autumn and early winter weather, trees cast the last of their now dead lives and brittle twigs on the ground. Pretty, but as good as chattering while sneaking in. Thank the sweet goddess for her elven gift of stealth. The fairies' close relationship with the earth had endowed them with the ability to walk (if necessary) quickly and silently over any surface so long as they took caution at it. At the ends of the tended paths were the imposing shrubbery that towered untamed to about three meters up in the air. Upon closer investigation, Holly discovered that sometimes the green wall was reinforced by a crumbling, vine encrusted, brick wall beneath. Puzzled, the elf wrinkled her brow, trying to recall what lay to the north of the estate. She didn't think she reached the outer wall yet.
"You could ask me, " said Foaly in her ear, reading her thoughts. "I have a satellite photo of St. Bartleby's in front of me right now. Unfortunately, it might be a bit noticeable if I sent it to your wrist computer. But I will say that there's nothing in front of you but a lot of gardens sectioned off by walls. Pretty for those long walks, but it probably looks awful in winter. Bad luck for you, sweetheart. Even worse luck, I'm going to have to chart you the shortest course and it might take a bit of roundabout walking."
But Holly wasn't paying attention. Sometime in the middle of the centaur's ramble, the elf had stilled in the shadow, sensing something moving beyond the field of her vision. She waited with baited breath. It was at the exact moment Foaly stopped talking when something dark and large lumbered towards her, concealed in the darkness. The elf squinted in the darkness and Foaly, having spotted the moving target, immediately supplemented with night vision. It was one of the menservants of the large institute. It was yet again wearing the same shapeless, suit uniform to the menial hired help of St. Bartleby's, but contrary to the other times she had seen them, this one was carrying a very large bag big enough to hold several regular sized sprites within. It was one of those Mud Men inventions, the one they liked to call a body bag. Another spark (Holly had gotten far too used to these little shocks in previous missions with Foaly's iris cams that she got away without tearing up too much) gave her x- ray vision.
This time she couldn't help the breath that caught in her throat, and her heart skipped a beat. The x-ray revealed a jumbled chaos of limbs that joined, criss crossed, and stretched away from each other. Initially, Holly might have dismissed it as an odd collection of metal tools but then something there told her otherwise. Several skulls banged against each other. Were those skeletons in there?
Scene Five: Of lakes and skeletons
She was back in the lake. This time there was no dying wind or bleeding sun. It was all dark save for the faint twinkling of stars overhead. The silence permeated the environment so strongly the elf almost felt like choking in it. The trees did not speak to her, nor did the grass. The only sound she was able to discern was the ominous roll of the wind as it pushed weakly against the body of water she knew lay before her.
Her initial reaction was to back away. Her fairy intuition had promptly gone on overdrive when she discovered where she was. She remembered this place although previously, in the safe light of Haven and her friends, she had dismissed it as an unusual nightmare. But this time.
The song began once more, plaintive and pleading. Holly knew those notes. She had heard them before, had not been able to resist its call, and had nearly . nearly been lost because of it.
"No," she breathed, "I won't listen! Not again!" In an act of desperation, she reared away from the lake, drawing her hands to stop her ears from hearing the sounds futilely. It was then she noticed, for perhaps the first time, what it was she was wearing. In her original visit to this remote location, she had been wearing a simple, sleeveless white dress with thigh high slits on either side for mobility. The length of the simple white dress touched her toes. It had been an odd choice of accoutrement, as she had not worn a skirt much less a dress for decades. She didn't even own one as far as she knew. What little dresses she did wear in rare occasions in the years long past had been a matter of necessity, brought on by sharp formalities in places her mother brought her to. Once her parents had died and she had started working on her own, she found little use or practicality in dresses.
The garment itself was a mystery. It was made of a weightless, silky material that floated about her with grace, allowing her complete freedom in movement. The dress started as a tube top where it tapered to the natural curves of her body, hugging her torso down to where it ended scant centimeters from her hips. The skirt then hugged her hips and floated down to her ankles flaring gently as the material was slitted like a flower. It was pure white, like dandelion fluff or cumulus clouds in a beautiful summer day. She would not have minded the dress at all if it had not been for the metal adornments. A thin but strong triangular plate made of some metal was fastened to the front and back of the upper portion of the dress and on either upper points of the metal was a chain that linked to a choker resting heavily on her neck. Her hand came to brush the choker and she recoiled at the cold stinging feel of it. She could feel it burning the flesh of her neck. The fairy suddenly realized that her wrists and ankles were similarly restrained with the same band of restrictive metals.
There was a sharp tug on her left foot and she slid forward. The elf yelped, clawing at the dirt and trying to grab something, anything, to keep her from being dragged forward. To her horror, she found that the anklets and bracelets on her were fastened to a chain and the chain led from the adornments down to the bottom of the lake. The pull had come from the chains being yanked. Desperately, she fought against the strong pull and tried to pry the restraints off despite the fact that her fingers burned when she merely brushed the strange metal.
"No!" screamed the red haired elf hoarsely, "Let go of me!" All the training in the LEP Academy, all the experience she had on the field, all the classes she'd ever taken to defend herself and turn the tables to her side melted away at this strange assault of not only on her physical body but of her mind as well. The song continued to wash over her, soothe her, drowning her in its music. Hysteria threatened to overwhelm her completely. She knew, in a subconscious level, that if she let go, that if she gave up and was dragged in even for one second, she would be lost forever. There was an endless abyss in those waters, an endless road that led to nowhere, a path that whispered forbidden promises and gifts. She never wanted to see herself in that same light again. She never wanted to see her image tainted and changed. "Get away! Get away from me!" And this time she knew there would be no voice to help her, no familiar, comforting voice to pull her back because it had taken everything to make the voice be heard the last time. No, this time she was truly alone.
Well, maybe not.
Holly received a shock in her mind. Her vision blurred as she thought she saw the environment shift dramatically before her. Instead of the dark night and lake, she saw dispassionate stonewalls lit by electric lights. Instead of the harsh grass and soil underneath her, she felt the cool touch of marble. Instead of the dark lake filling her vision and mind, she saw intense sapphire eyes gazing in pure bewilderment, a hint of fear and, most ironic of all, concern. If she weren't so busy fighting for her life, she would have laughed at the sheer irony of it all.
She whimpered, arching her back, as she fought for breath. It felt as if she were underwater and could not breathe. The two contrasting environments fed her senses, fighting for dominance, and making her head hurt in overload, but she held on. She would not faint.
Artemis was so close. He was hovering above her, mouthing words she could not hear. She saw his hands going to brush her forehead and feel her pulse, but she could not feel it. The lake trembled and she was yanked again. Terror lanced her face and tightened inside her chest. She mustn't look, she mustn't listen to the song from the lake, and from the power it distilled. She must never look lest she lose herself.
So instead, she focused on the boy near her, willing her eyes to rest on his face, willing her body to feel his touch, forcing her ears to hear his voice.
".wrong?" asked the raven haired, Irish boy. Holly felt his hands quickly though tentatively feel her pulse once more, and felt the aggravation in his body as he realized it was still going far too fast. Dangerously too fast. And the more she concentrated on him, the less she heard the song, and the less she felt the chains pulling at her limbs. "Hold on, I'm going to get help." The hand left her and she felt the air shift as he moved away. His eyes, like twin beacons that did not dim despite the blackness slyly eating her vision, disappeared, and a cry rose from her throat.
"No!" she gasped, her hand instinctively catching his wrist. Amidst the horrendous ache in her chest and the angry throbbing in her head, she whispered frantic words, "Don't leave." Her fingers may have curled viselike around his wrist, but at the moment Holly was in no position to think about it. The boy slowly returned to his position beside her, eyes peering intensely.
"A-all right," he said, hesitating. Artemis's hand slowly clasped Alexei's, trying to offer support. Comforting was not his forte. So he did the only thing he thought could help, and that was to hold Alexei's hand.
For a long moment, the red haired boy held terribly still and he seemed dead. His glassy hazel eyes gazed wordlessly, filled with so much pain. Abruptly, Artemis was filled with fear. Despite all his criminal activities and under the table dealings, despite all the dangerous men he associated with and all the dangerous situations he had gone through, he had never really seen a dead person, and he did not want to.
He leaned in close, trying to discern some telltale sign. There seemed to be tightening in the new boy's chest, as if something was freezing him in place. He stilled the shaking in his voice, and whispered, "Breathe. Just breathe."
As if his words carried magic, Alexei expelled a breath. A flush of color returned to his coffee complexion, and his breaths came in small and uneven. His lids flickered several times, as if trying to adjust to the light in the room. Presently, hazel eyes wearily focused on Artemis who waited with baited breath. "Don't let go," whispered Alexei barely before he fainted yet again.
When Holly next awoke, she was lying in a bed in the medical ward. The room was narrow and spare, furnished with only Spartan beds, a few chairs, and a mobile partition for privacy. Stained windows on the left wall let in the dying afternoon sunlight. It drew strange patterns on Holly's head and shoulders, bathing her in an infrared light and making her look ethereal and preternatural. She was resting at the very far end of the room, away from the quiet bustle of the front office where the nurse was tending to an assortment of minor injuries, most sustained from sports the students were participating in.
The first thought that crossed the elf's mind was annoyance. Fainting spell? Yet again? How ridiculously Victorian. That sort of thing went out of fashion centuries ago among the mass of fairies. True, there had been a few schools that still taught that particular behavior, but it had only been for the very rich and for the very elite of the fairy class. Still, fainting was for weak females, and, as Holly had proved so many times in the past, she was far from weak.
That line of thought inevitably turned to wondering why she had fainted. Her mind was still fuzzy, but she seemed to remember something about hurting inside her chest and a lake and. sapphire eyes? What? Her head spun, and she closed her eyes, seeking to placate it. What did she remember?
She remembered Isolde inviting her to go to lunch, and then inviting Artemis who had just showed up. Then Artemis and Isolde went some place for some reason she could not remember. She fainted and . the dream! The lake! Just the thought of it made Holly's fingers clench her blanket tightly, just to make sure she was there and not anywhere near a lake.
She had dreamt of being dragged into a lake against her will by a force she could not resist for long. This was not the first time she had dreamt it either. The first time had been when she was knocked out by the first sight of her image when Mercury had enspelled her. That time she had been saved by a voice, had been called and lulled home by a familiar voice. This time, this time she was saved, however inadvertently, by a criminal.
Holly gave in to her desires and chuckled softly, ironically. Someone up there must have some sick sense of humor.
"I take it you're well now?" asked a soft, familiar voice softly. Holly gasped, half expecting intense blue eyes gazing at her piercingly, but instead Aidan's gray eyes stared at her from a dark corner where he had been sitting.
Holly stared gravely back at him, wariness and suspicion in her features. Something ominous was happening to her, purposely hurting her and drawing her to somewhere she didn't want to be. Or perhaps it was a someone.
Aidan stood up and approached her bed. Beneath the sheets, Holly's hands were clenched in anticipation. When he drew close and his proximity began flashing alarm bells in her head, he spoke softly, "You gave the nurse a good fright."
Holly coughed lightly, wincing. "What did she say?" asked the elf. Discreetly, she checked that both her earpieces were still in place. It was a miracle that it had not been removed.
"She said you must have fainted from heat exhaustion," replied the brown haired boy. He frowned at Holly, doubt in his eyes.
"Ah," answered Holly noncommittally. It had been a ridiculous diagnosis, but much preferable than the truth.
"Are you feeling all right?" queried the dark haired boy. "The nurse said that all you needed for it was rest, and that you could go as soon as you felt well."
"I'm fine," replied the red haired fairy firmly. She drew the blankets aside and placed her legs to the floor. A little shaky, but otherwise fine. Aidan approached her side, and Holly took a few steps back to distance herself. "I'm fine," repeated the female. "I don't need help."
Aidan backed away courteously. "I'll go and tell the nurse you woke up," he said quietly, "Wait for me in the hallway outside."
"Wait," requested the hazel-eyed elf. "I. I fainted in the . hallway?" At Aidan's minute nod, Holly continued, "Then who brought me here?"
"I don't know," said Aidan in a tone that indicated negligence or perhaps indifference. He continued to the nurse, although Holly frowned at his disappearing back. She turned for the exit. Was it Artemis truly that saved her? Her experience had left her shaken and unsure. This wasn't all some sort of hallucination, was it? No. couldn't be.
She leaned quietly by the windowsill, letting the warmth of the dying afternoon sun seep into her body. Aidan soon reappeared by her side. He offered no comments as, together, they made their way down the hallway, descending the flight of stairs, and down the long walk to the Monastery. In the long shadows of the afternoon, the place seemed almost peaceful and. tired.
Holly fidgeted with her blazer, "Hey. thanks for coming to get me. I don't really need help or anything. It really must have been hot."
Aidan shrugged coolly, and he murmured, "Maybe."
The elf stopped. She paused in her walk, and did not speak until Aidan was a few steps ahead of her and was looking at her eyes in askance. "What are you thinking?" asked the red haired new student. She was rapidly beginning to tire of the secrets and the games around the school. If Aidan was going to act suspicious now, then heaven help her, she would have him out it.
"Why do you ask?" retorted the taller boy.
The fairy frowned, and her eyes narrowed. Gray eyes stared back at her, expression bland. She felt fine now, her heart was beating at a steady pace, but there was something else. If she concentrated, she could almost see the Mud boy's aura swirling around him. And.
"Oh, Alexei, I was so worried over you!" yelled a feminine voice. The next thing Holly knew, someone had clasped her left shoulder, and Isolde was gazing steadily at her with earnestly concerned eyes.
"Uh," muttered Holly, "What?"
Isolde continued, "I heard that you fainted in the hallway. Are you sick?"
Holly blinked several times. "You heard?" she repeated, "Heard from whom?"
"Oh, my friend said she saw Artemis carrying you to the Nurse's office," explained Isolde. "But are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," answered Holly a bit dazedly. I was carried? By Artemis? Since when could he even carry me? she thought, before turning to the inevitable, So he was the one who helped me. He was the one who saved me.
"You sure?" persisted the dark haired girl. She leaned towards Holly's face, peering intently at her eyes. Holly took a reflexive step back.
"I'm fine," repeated Holly, letting the slightest notes of annoyance creep in her voice. "The Nurse said it must have been heat exhaustion."
"I see," nodded Isolde knowledgably. "Well, it's too bad. You can come have lunch with my friends tomorrow then! Aidan can come too, if he wants." The human girl smiled prettily up at Aidan who averted his gaze to stare at the ground.
"Isolde!" yelled a distant voice. The three looked up to see a group of students hanging out by a tree. One attractive boy was waving at Isolde.
The girl laughed softly, "The barbarian. I told him to stop that yelling. I'll see you two boys tomorrow. Bye!" She walked briskly to her friends.
Holly stared after Isolde. "Is she always like that?" she asked Aidan. Aidan shuffled his feet, subconsciously indicating to Holly to start walking once more.
"I don't know," the gray eyed boy, "I don't pay attention to the girls very much."
"I see," said Holly. There was silence as the two of them made their way up to the Monastery, down the hallways, and into their dormitory. Holly was about to walk inside her bedroom when Aidan's voice made her pause.
"Artemis helped you then," said Aidan. "Now you know."
Holly glanced up at him, surprise in her features, "He helped me to the Nurse's office, if what Isolde said was true. What does it matter?"
"Nothing," returned the boy. "Nothing at all." He disappeared inside his bedroom and shut the door.
"Well Foaly?" asked Holly. "Is there anything coming up on the screens?" Holly was communicating with the LEP head tech in the dead of the night. As soon as flares had let it, she had contacted the centaur in the hopes of securing a more specific location for the possible magic traces the previous scans had come up with. In her opinion, the manual, undercover investigation was going far too slowly. In preparation for this, she had made sure Aidan was in his rooms, and she had locked her own door. She was also whispering in the very remote possibility somebody was eavesdropping on her. Paranoid, true, but with the surprises she had been receiving, entirely justified.
Besides, if her dreams were not hallucinations brought on by her new body, and someone or something truly was trying to harm her as she suspected, then the sooner she solved this case and returned to Haven the better. In all events, she still had a score to pay with that Mercury. Chix. no, Mercury, thought Holly, feeling a clenching in her heart at the thought of her enemy, Is it you in there, Chix? Do you know what you're doing? Who you are now?
"Not the buildings, that's for sure," laughed the centaur from Holly's ear COMs. "If what you felt this morning was true, then the magic hits aren't likely to be in the actual Cathedral itself. Something big like that couldn't handle interference as big as a church. No, if there are spells bouncing off this place, it's somewhere on the actual grounds. You say the Monastery is clear?"
The elf Recon agent assented. "I ran a scanner even. There's nothing here that the sensors or my own magic can pick up," supported the elf.
"At least nothing recent," contradicted the centaur, flicking his tail. "The temp scanner I sent you with can't pick up the faded traces." After a moment, he added, "Although if anything serious were going down here, you should be able to pick it up."
Holly grimaced, noting the smug pride Foaly displayed at the power of his own customized scanners. "Riveting, yes. I may be able to pick it up, but I'm not," said Holly, "Now start talking, Foaly. Amaze me with your prowess and give me results. The quicker the better."
"Okay, okay, no need to get your pointy ears in a twist," grumbled the centaur. Holly twitched at that comment, one hand going to rub the one ear she had freed from the earpiece. Her elven ears did not like being confined to such a space as the earpiece. She made sure to moisturize each ear before sleeping at night. "I've just updated the scans and I reran them. I can't come up with anything definitive."
"Billions we pour into your department, Foaly," said Holly in a deadpan tone, "and you can't find the location of a single, lousy magical ritual."
"Hey!" protested the centaur, hurt in his voice, "this isn't as simple as it seems. The scanners can't pick up the actual trace elements of the magic. That's impossible with the technology we have now. Rather, it picks up the characteristic abnormalities in the area that lingers around the trace elements. You understand these trace elements are usually molecular if you perform even a major magical surgery, such as the one you did with Butler. That barely caused a blip on my scanners. These abnormalities my scanners are picking up on are around the Cathedral. However, the abnormalities do not indicate the actual area where the trace elements are so the magic must be bouncing off the Cathedral. There are other hits, but they're all concentrated on the St. Bartleby's estate. I can send you where those hits are, if you'd like."
"Humph," snorted the elf, "yes, please. I've got nothing better to do here than to endure the company of Mud men anyway."
"Ahh," said the centaur, and there was a hint of facetiousness in his voice. "How are the little Mud boys and girls anyway?"
"Boorish," responded the elf curtly. "Have you hacked into the St. Bartleby's mainframe?"
"Way ahead of you," complied Foaly. "There's plenty of extortion going on. You know, the usual outrageous prices they charge the parents of the students and all that. Nothing too criminal, though. I also ran a check on their employees list. There's no one with any outstanding criminal charges. None at least, that best our Master Fowl." Holly heard a quiet chuckle.
"An employees check?" asked Holly, sitting up. "Did you dig up anything on the menservants they hire around here?"
"No, actually," said Foaly, running the list on his screen once more. "Funny thing. The employees' list seems to be coming up short from the actual estimated sum. I don't think they've updated their computer databases quite a while."
"That's odd," Holly commented, "You'd think a private, elite school as St. Bartleby's would actually keep up their net service."
"You think something's up with the staff?"
"No. it's nothing. Probably nothing."
"You sure?" asked Foaly, suspicion in his voice. "You're acting weird."
"Am I?" returned Holly, injecting what she hoped to be the proper mixture of blandness, indifference, and mild surprise.
"Did it have something to do with the disruptions in you ear pieces this afternoon?" continued the centaur. Holly cursed. She'd been quiet about the incident because she had been hoping it would be skirted over. Apparently not. "Your sensors blipped off for a while. I think there's about a gap of ten minutes in the tapes. I hope I didn't miss something important." There was suspicion in the centaur's voice.
Holly was far too relieved to question the nature of this godsend. "No, you didn't," assured Holly, feeling a twinge at lying to Foaly. "Just a Mud Girl asking me to lunch."
"Artemis's girlfriend, was it?" asked Foaly. He snickered a little, distracted from his previous train of thought. "I had no idea he had a significant other."
Holly made a face. "I had no idea he was capable of enduring someone's company much less being close to them," she retorted.
"Still angry, Captain?" asked the centaur, and there was laughter in his voice.
"Wouldn't you be???" asked Holly back, exasperated.
"You should be happy that Mud Boy's getting a life aside from cheating people," remarked the LEP techie. Holly could just imagine his catlike expression as he sat comfortably in his customized swivel chair.
"Please," muttered the elf, rolling her eyes, "Spare me. Why are we talking about this anyway? Don't we have better things to do than talk about that Mud weasel's social life or lack thereof?"
"According to the video this morning, it looks like he's getting plenty of social action from . what's her name again? Izzy or something?"
"Isolde," corrected the elf, "Isolde O'Ciardha. Daughter of the CEO of some company. On second thought, check her and her family, Foaly."
"Affirmative, Captain," responded the golden eyed fairy. "You think Isolde has something to do with our mission?"
"Not really, but as one knows, one must never underestimate Artemis Fowl."
"Isolde O'Ciardha. daughter and heir to the Ciardha family fortune. She's got a nice sum of money on her family alone, comparable to Artemis's own fortune although if Artemis continues the way he goes on now, he'll soon be running against the wealthiest men on the planet. I haven't looked too deep into it, but I have a feeling that her family isn't entirely above board. Not like the Fowl boy for sure, but the usual. Nothing too suspicious, but it'll take a few hours tops if I'm going to dig something up on the Ciardhas. Bit of an ancient and wealthy family in Ireland, you know. They know how to cover up their tracks pretty well."
"Just tell me if anything comes up," returned Holly.
"No problemo," quipped Foaly. After a moment of observing her feed, he asked, "Going somewhere?"
"I'm going to poke around around this estate a bit. An entire night with uninterrupted investigation. Time for some night Recon," answered Holly, allowing a dangerous smile to slide in place. She rifled through the few clothing she had before eventually choosing Foaly's specially modified LEP jumpsuit. It had been a bit hectic, but Foaly had managed to modify a suit he had been tinkering with and given it to Holly as her LEP jumpsuit in cases of emergency aboveground.
The bodysuit was completely black, as black as shadow, with a hint of green to it. There was a light armor that covered her shoulders and upper chest, thin metal protective gears on her elbows and knees, and a myriad of little openings that Holly had yet the time to decipher. "Foaly, what are these little openings that look like hook ups?" asked Holly, a little wary. Hook ups was the LEP slang for any electronic connections their machines were plugged into. It was a little unusual and disconcerting to see it on a LEP jumpsuit.
"Ahh," remarked Foaly, "it's an experimental doodad that I still have to perfect. Just never mind those. Pretend they're design or something."
"All right," relented Holly, doubt in her voice. She removed her earpiece and put a blanket on it before stripping herself of her Mud clothes and sliding on the jumpsuit. Well, cat suit really. The clothing covered her body completely: turtleneck on her neck, long sleeves and that hooked to the space between her middle and ring finger, and a similarly corresponding design on her feet.
The material felt strange to Holly. It slid smoothly and softly down her skin, conforming perfectly to her willowy body, but she could feel the toughness and a strange stiffness in the fabric. "This thing acts just like a LEP jumpsuit, right? Heat coil, Thermal and neutrino dispersion."
"Of course!" exclaimed the centaur indignantly, sounding clearly even though he was speaking through the COM set and blanket. "What do you take me for?"
"I don't know, Foaly," smiled the female fairy wryly. "You've been holed up in the Ops booth for a while tinkering with your new inventions. How do I know this thing won't blow up on me?" Holly seriously doubted that it would, but it didn't pay to be casual around Foaly. She would never forget the rash of accidents that erupted in the LEP when they used Foaly's trigger finger invention. She had been careful not to be touched by anyone for a while.
Finally, Holly slid on her elbow length gloves and thigh high boots. Once properly suited, Holly felt somewhat better. Familiarity breed comfort, after all, and she was in a foreign world for an indefinitely too long a time for her liking. Deep inside in a place Holly did not dare acknowledge, she felt homesick.
"Can you shield?" asked Foaly, voice tinny from the earpiece.
"No." admitted the elf reluctantly. "All my magic does is instant healing. You know that. I've already tried before."
"Not a problem," hurried the centaur. He had definitely not wanted to get the thoughts of Holly's wayward magic into light. The red haired fairy might not have said or acted anything, but Foaly knew that Holly was deeply upset over the loss of her usual magic. Any fairy would have. "The LEP jumpsuits don't exactly come with a stealth coat, seeing as we've usually never had a non magic personnel in one but I think you can slip easily past the security. Time to strut your stuff as Recon captain, captain. Can you handle it?"
Foaly's monitor fizzed a bit as it refocused. What he saw made him smile. Holly was standing in front of a mirror wearing his specialized cat suit wearing both earpieces and wearing a smile fit for a tiger. If only she had been wearing a LEP helmet with the buzz baton and neutrino at her side, she would have looked completely normal. "Watch me, Foaly. Just watch."
It was a good thing that Foaly really was watching. Soon after slipping out of the Monastery, Holly was stealthily heading towards the coordinates Foaly gave her over the COM set. She had slipped on an iris cam in case she needed visual aids from Foaly that night. She had been steadily heading northwards across the vast estate, more than a trifle annoyed that she could not fly. Still, as Foaly pointed out, if there were creatures such as Mercury around, flying aboveground, even if Holly had been shielded, was tantamount to screaming, "KILL ME!"
The Monastery security had been fairly easy to surpass. Although the school gave emphasis to its security (some pressing issues about some family's beloved offspring being at risk for various reasons), it certainly did not give Holly any problems. She had simply locked her door, slipped out the window, and slid silently down the fire escape conveniently located near her window. For a few brief moments, the elf had felt a nauseating dizziness that had everything to do with her new size and being so high aboveground without a wing set. She forcefully swallowed it down, and made it down the building. Thankfully, no klutz attacks came over her and there were no cameras pointed her way. Even if there were, Foaly would have taken good care of it although he would have teased Holly endlessly for such a silly slip up. The cameras that is, not the klutz attacks. Magic probably wouldn't be able to fix a pancake.
Now the fairy was darting from shadow to shadow in the foliage. At first, the grounds had been well kept, relatively clean, and the plants beautifully tended. The third mile outwards, Holly could tell they had not paid enough attention to the flora. In addition, the environment of St. Bartleby's was yet again making her uneasy. As a nocturnal creature, the shadows shouldn't have bothered her. But it did. It bit down oppressively on her and it didn't help that the night possessed no moon or stars. The trees creaked sullenly in the dark, abruptly hostile and malicious. Now, Holly was a Recon officer and she was trained to withstand several mental pressures, but she could have sworn she heard something shaking as she passed across the lands.
In the late autumn and early winter weather, trees cast the last of their now dead lives and brittle twigs on the ground. Pretty, but as good as chattering while sneaking in. Thank the sweet goddess for her elven gift of stealth. The fairies' close relationship with the earth had endowed them with the ability to walk (if necessary) quickly and silently over any surface so long as they took caution at it. At the ends of the tended paths were the imposing shrubbery that towered untamed to about three meters up in the air. Upon closer investigation, Holly discovered that sometimes the green wall was reinforced by a crumbling, vine encrusted, brick wall beneath. Puzzled, the elf wrinkled her brow, trying to recall what lay to the north of the estate. She didn't think she reached the outer wall yet.
"You could ask me, " said Foaly in her ear, reading her thoughts. "I have a satellite photo of St. Bartleby's in front of me right now. Unfortunately, it might be a bit noticeable if I sent it to your wrist computer. But I will say that there's nothing in front of you but a lot of gardens sectioned off by walls. Pretty for those long walks, but it probably looks awful in winter. Bad luck for you, sweetheart. Even worse luck, I'm going to have to chart you the shortest course and it might take a bit of roundabout walking."
But Holly wasn't paying attention. Sometime in the middle of the centaur's ramble, the elf had stilled in the shadow, sensing something moving beyond the field of her vision. She waited with baited breath. It was at the exact moment Foaly stopped talking when something dark and large lumbered towards her, concealed in the darkness. The elf squinted in the darkness and Foaly, having spotted the moving target, immediately supplemented with night vision. It was one of the menservants of the large institute. It was yet again wearing the same shapeless, suit uniform to the menial hired help of St. Bartleby's, but contrary to the other times she had seen them, this one was carrying a very large bag big enough to hold several regular sized sprites within. It was one of those Mud Men inventions, the one they liked to call a body bag. Another spark (Holly had gotten far too used to these little shocks in previous missions with Foaly's iris cams that she got away without tearing up too much) gave her x- ray vision.
This time she couldn't help the breath that caught in her throat, and her heart skipped a beat. The x-ray revealed a jumbled chaos of limbs that joined, criss crossed, and stretched away from each other. Initially, Holly might have dismissed it as an odd collection of metal tools but then something there told her otherwise. Several skulls banged against each other. Were those skeletons in there?