Chapter Twenty-Three, The Second Bloodbath

The sound of a cannon reverberated through the snow-covered arena, reaching the lower area of the caves, where a pale-faced boy had collapsed. Artemis Fowl opened his eyes abruptly, startled by the announcement of a death.

For a second, his whole world began to spin and then, it settled down, allowing the young man to reconstruct the latest events… Scpenser had led him over a cliff; that much, he did remember, but what had happened afterwards? Clearly, he had survived his fall, but by judging by the agonizing pain in his left ankle, his trip down the caves had not been too gentle on him. With the pain in his chest suggesting that he was suffering from blood poisoning added to his new injury and the fact that his skin was as cold and white as ice, Artemis could consider himself lucky to be alive…

Why don't you let yourself die, Art? Scpenser's last words echoed through his mind. Why wouldn't he let himself die? Artemis sighed; the temperature in his body must have dropped down dramatically for when he did so, only a thin veil of fog escaped from his lips. Maybe that deep down, he kept on trying to survive because he knew that if he could manage to win, against all odds, he could find a way back to his own time…

Artemis attempted to get up, his only reward being a sharp burning pain down his foot. The pale boy rested against the wall of rocks behind him, breathing heavily. Physical pain was starting to be really hard on him. This was the very reason he had always trusted Butler and Holly to take care of the action… Now he had neither Butler, nor his elfin friend at his side and if he did not find a way to man up and go on, he never would again. Fowls were fighters by nature; they constantly kept on against all odds, that was how it had always been and Artemis was not about to fail. He had battled trolls for Frond's sake! He had seen and felt the cold in the arctic – the arena's weather was nothing – and most importantly, he had already defeated Opal Koboi more than once. Even though the circumstances were different in this new place and time, Artemis steeled himself, slowly getting up. There seemed to be one last fight left in that particular Fowl.

A gust of cold air hit Artemis as he stood up. Taking in the snowy landscape, he saw the path he had taken in order to get to the caves. Hopefully, the white field would not reveal other tributes his position as he would progress in the arena on his own. If someone was to find him in his pitiful state that last fight might end way to abruptly…

Artemis moved slowly, though it was already better than not moving at all. He knew that his ankle would have been better off stabilized, but letting it stay still would not do much for it anyway.

The thick snowflakes falling from the sky had already started to cover Artemis's hair with a white veil and the cold was not helping him as he was beginning to wander in the arena, trying to find a good place to take shelter in and perhaps find some food. Artemis pulled up his coat's zip closure, sure that a case of hypothermia was a plausible eventuality.

"Chilly, Ice Prince?" A familiar, feline feminine voice, which Artemis knew for her hateful tone came from behind him.

The boy turned slowly, his mismatching eyes meeting with the cold stare of Geneva's dark green ones. If she were to decide to use the sharp, double-bladed axe she had in her hand, Artemis would not stand for too long…

Geneva leaned on her axe as if it were a fancy cane. "Have you been hiding here since the beginning of the Games? Without Silyah?" she asked, sneering.

"What way does that matter to you?" replied Artemis, his voice as cold as their surroundings.

"Well, it's not very polite to keep your competitors waiting. We had to waste a few days searching for you, you know…" she dragged the conversation, well aware that Artemis did not have the means to escape her.

"It seems to me that the searching came to an end…" Artemis scanned the nearby area to see if Geneva had company, but as far as he could see, she was the only one who had found him. "What happened to Caskar? Was he too scared of me?"

Geneva laughed. "Who knows what's going on in his mind? Anyway… He wanted us to find you so he could kill you himself…"

"Yet I cannot detect his presence here…" With his usual self-control, Artemis kept his voice from revealing that he felt like shaking on the inside.

"He's going to be mad at me, you know…"

"Not that it would stop you…"

"You're absolutely right," she smiled, picking up her axe. "So, tell me, since you made me laugh; how do youwant to want to die? I can grant you this, after all."

"Now that you ask," Artemis's lips turned into a smirk. "I would prefer not dying at all today."

"I could have guessed so." Geneva had to admit; Artemis was courageous for someone who was about to disappear from the surface of the Earth. "But my axe and I crave to see if your blood is blue, Ice Prince."

"As much as I would have loved to fulfill your wish, Geneva, I must inform you that you do no…" As the sentence progressed, Artemis had slowly mixed a hint of mesmer into his voice.

"Do not?" Geneva's arms went numb. She dropped her axe.

Artemis's smirk grew even closer to his signature vampire grin. "Indeed. You will not kill me, nor try to harm me."

"Not harm you…" Geneva's eyes went wide, yet she felt like her brain was getting submerged into a pool of fog.

"Exactly." Artemis gave himself a second to breath back a wince; the pain from his various injuries did not help him to concentrate on his mesmer. "You shall help me find a safe water source, a river."

"A river? Why do you want to go swim?"

"My reasons do not concern you, your only goal is to make sure I am taken there. Do you understand?"

Geneva nodded and smiled. She took her axe and slung it over her shoulder. Then, she grabbed Artemis's hand. "Let's find a river."

Geneva supported Artemis as they walked in the forest. She was not too sure of what she was doing, or where she was heading, but she had to help Artemis. She had to find the river. At the moment, it seemed like her only goal in life, her ultimate mission. It was important. So important that she had been lucky to realize that she was now walking alone. She had lost Artemis shortly after having looked to the horizon in her search for a river. Quickly, though with much less coordination than when she was in control of her body, she spun on her heels.

Artemis was leaning against a snow-covered tree, catching his breath. He could feel his heart desperately beating in his throat. Needless to say, he was not doing so well. His condition was getting worst and faster than he had expected it to do so.

"Will you be able to go on to the river?" Geneva asked Artemis. "Do you want me to carry you while we are searching for the river, Master Fowl?"

"That will not be necessary," gasped Artemis. "Go find the river on your own and then return to me and take me there."

"Do I bring my weapon?"

"Yes… And take down whatever comes your way…" Why not? Letting Geneva handle the remaining tributes – should any cross her path – would surely help his case.

Artemis could have sworn he had seen sparkles in Geneva's eyes when she realized that he had giving her the right to take down any threat. The girl smiled brightly at him and left. She had to search for the river.

Silyah could not believe her ears. Her heart was nervously throbbing in her chest; she had heard two cannons since Silver and Novia had left. Why did she worry so much for the others while she was too much of a coward to even help them? Oh, wait, I know why, she thought. It's because I know that I would not even stand half the chance they have if I were to fight.

The girl clenched the three spears she had made from sharpened tree branches. She could hear that she was near a water current and she knew that she was in an area she had never explored before. She had in mind to get closer to the water source and maybe try to tidy herself up, or at least wash her hair if nobody was around and given that the water was not too cold.

Silyah crossed countless trees, bushes and snow banks, one steep ascending slope and at least two strange looking creatures – probably mutations, or something – and now, she was within view range of a river where was a bridge similar to the one she had crossed with Novia and Silver, only this one being much more icy.

Using her spears like walking sticks to steady herself, the young woman stepped on the bridge before lowering herself, remembering that it would be much safer to crawl on it if enemies were to be near. At a reasonable pace, she slid her way up the bridge, being careful not to lose any of the few precious pieces of equipment she had.

After a long time crawling on her stomach, Silyah reached the end of the bridge. She slid her spears about one meter away from where she was and cautiously got up…

Geneva had reached what looked like a frozen river. That was surely what she had been searching for. Her smile grew even brighter. She stepped closer to the body of water to make sure that it was what she had been requested to find. Satisfied with herself, she turned in order to report back to Artemis… But then, from the corner of her eye, she saw something slide on the white ground… Three spears, to be exact… Geneva looked over to her left. A brown-haired girl was getting up from the bridge about ten meters away from her. After shaking a bit of snow from her outfit, the girl took back the spears.

Take down whatever comes your way… That was what Artemis had told Geneva. The District 1 girl grabbed her axe. Her cheerful mesmerized grin suddenly became much darker… Almost twisted.

Silyah noticed Geneva and her blood covered axe precisely four seconds after getting up.

Oh, oh… Silyah's heart began a rather fast race. If only her feet could do the same! What could she do? The girl Career tribute from 1 was running straight towards her with a maniacal smile and a bloody axe. She tried to tame her shaky hands and decided to do what Beetee would want her to do. "D'arvit!" she spat as she threw her first two spears in Geneva's direction. One of them did hit her, but the feline girl was still heading in Silyah's direction. There weren't many options left now… Silyah's hand locked around her last spear as she firmly held it in front of her. As if it would make the situation a little less difficult, she closed her eyes shut. Then, Silyah heard a gasp, not even knowing if it came from her or from Geneva. For several minutes, her eyes remained closed; she was not even daring to move. She had to let her heartbeat get back to normal before.

Finally, she peeked through her snow-covered brown locks and saw something unbelievable, which was later confirmed by a cannon shot. Her first homemade spear had lightly brushed Geneva's arm, but her last one was right in her chest, probably puncturing the girl's lungs. Silyah's face went immediately back under her hair as she completely let go of the spear. What had she done? Well, for one thing, she had saved her life, but now, a pool of red now tinted the pure white snow. Opening one of her eyes, Silyah walked towards the spear that had not touched Geneva and picked it up. Avoiding as much as possible to look at the corpse, the tribute from 3 ran the D'arvit away.

The sharp sound of the cannon that had rang for Geneva's death brought Artemis back from a foggy state. The pain in his body had started to dull his senses, making him drift more easily into darkness. Still, he had not lost the sense of time and quickly realized that Geneva had been gone for way too long.

Feeling heavy, Artemis noticed that he was carrying his backpack. Though it contained very useful materials, the boy dropped in on the snow. If we were to be able to reach the river, he would have to travel as lightly as possible even if that meant to be unprotected… Not that any of his belongings would be of any use to him in his state…

After hiding his backpack under a snow-covered rock, Artemis decided to test out his luck. Taking out his knife, he scratched some words on the side of the rock; simplified Gnommish words…

Then, he steadied himself and began to walk through the woods. His progress seemed to take forever and every time he would set his left foot down, pain would shoot through it, adding a second layer of difficulty to his task. He tried to follow Geneva's footsteps as best he could, but two things prevented him to do so; the snow that kept on falling over them and his less than healthy state.

Artemis stumbled in the forest until he finally reached the banks of a river. A hovercraft was in the middle of picking up a body nearby. By the color of her hair and her stature, it could have been no one but Geneva… That was not a good sign; who ever had killed Geneva could still be in the area, ready for more and as of now, Artemis was a very obvious target.

The boy stared at the ice-filled river, then to his wounds. He would have to find an accessible source of water to clean his blood-covered skin and to quench his thirst. He walked around the river, desperately searching for a hole in the ice.

Silyah had run beside Geneva's footsteps, vaguely following the faint trail of blood her axe had left on the snow. In a moment of terror, the girl realized that if an enemy were to pass by, she would not even hear him or her due to the blood pounding in her ears and to her heavy breathing.

She had no idea as to why she had decided to run to where Geneva had been, but she knew that she had to get away from the dead body. She could not get her brain to understand the gravity of the situation. She had just killed someone! Killed, not injured or given an electric shock; killed!

A shadow passed above her, revealing itself as a hovercraft heading towards Geneva's remains. As she looked back down on the ground, Silyah slowed down her pace, observing that there were now two foot-tracks imprinted in the snow. One of the tracks was steady and straight, but the other one suggested that someone had been stumbling over his own feet for quite a while.

Silyah was about to pause to catch her breath when she tripped over something. She avoided a fall by grabbing the nearest tree branch. When she was sure that she would not hit the ground, Silyah looked down to what had disturbed her balance. It was the strap of a backpack… Maybe it's a trick; maybe the owner of the backpack will pop out from behind a tree and then kill me. However, as her thoughts were running wild, her eyes saw something new; an etching, a series of lines arranged to form symbols Silyah knew very well. Artemis Fowl himself had taught them to her on the train.

Gone to river, it read. This message had been meant for Silyah to read that was for sure. She shook her head, not wanting to go back to the riverbank… Nevertheless, she grabbed Artemis's backpack, slung it over her shoulders and sprinted back to the river.

Adrenaline soon became amazingly powerful in Silyah's body; if it had not been for it, the young woman would probably have crumbled up in a ball to wait to die of cold.

Silyah Natho was not the only one running at the moment. Elon Jokter, tribute from District 2 was also trying to reach Artemis Fowl… While escaping from Silver Canemon…

The boy was now near the end of a river, desperately trying to take cover. He avoided another blow dart, which made his head turn to the left, but also making something catch his eye… The widest of the grins pulled up the corners of Elon's mouth. Just in front of him, trying to get some water from the river was the Ice Prince himself.

The black-haired boy had climbed on a rocky ledge to avoid falling face first in the water. In a flash, Elon completely forgot about Silver and hurled himself towards the rock. Inside of his brain, a pixie-like voice was laughing and praising him. Silently, the strong boy from 2 ripped a pointy icicle from a tree and sneaked behind Artemis.

Great rewards await you, Elon! Screamed the voice Elon knew as the impulse.

Carefully, Elon scaled the rock. Artemis did not even seem to notice his presence. The impulse was so strong; Artemis Fowl was so close… The Career tribute clutched the icicle as if his whole life was inside of it.

Somehow, the Fowl boy heard something. Slowly, he turned around only to face Elon. A terrifyingly huge smile was on the Career's face as he got hold of Artemis's arm. The District 3 boy's eyes grew big. In one quick movement, Elon crushed the icicle right on Artemis's temple. The boy watched as the scarlet cut drew a gush of Artemis's blood on the snowy ground on which Artemis collapsed.

Artemis never felt the cold snow underneath him… The blood from his cut was making its way down the side of his sickeningly pale features, the red providing a dramatic contrast to his white shades. Apart from the flowing blood, Artemis was immobile.

Elon watched the boy at his feet and laughed. He kicked to body right into the river and then laughed some more as it shattered the ice on it. The Ice Prince would be no more! The tall boy heard a cannon and his eyes spaced out before gaining back their old focus. Elon looked at the body now floating in the river. He could not even remember getting in the arena, let alone the fact that he had killed somebody. He blinked a couple of times. There was not a sharp pain in his neck artery and then, he closed his eyes forever.

Silyah had gotten back to the river in less time than when she had left it. Apparently, she was not alone in the area anymore… Two other people were by the water source. The girl from 3 hid behind a rock at the edge of the river and reluctantly watched the rest of the events unfold for seconds that seemed to last a lifetime. From where she was hidden, she saw Artemis climb up on a rock and then Elon get right behind him, but there was nothing she could do about it. She was paralyzed by fear. The brown-haired girl did, however, cover her eyes with her cold fingers when she saw Elon's icicle plunge into Artemis's skull. She bit the inside of her cheek so hard not to scream that her mouth had started to taste like blood. Elon then dropped Artemis on the rock. The boy looked so breakable… His skin was as pale as the snow he laid on; his hair was covered in small snowflakes, making it look white… Silyah clenched her fist, digging her fingernails into her palm.

She watched Elon laugh as he heard a cannon, yet in a short moment of victory, it was now her turn to smile… From within the shadows of the woods, a poisoned blow dart sent by Silver had found Elon's neck.