Disclaimer - I do not own Artemis Fowl... I only wish I did.
Chapter 9 – In which Ivy finally makes her move…
He'll understand when he knows the truth about me, Ivy reasoned. After all, he'd understand about the mesmer of all people.
It was nearing the end of the first week of the exchange now, and she and Artemis had barely exchanged a word between them since Fowl was still in a sulk about Ivy not being open with him. Ivy regretted this, but didn't make her repentance known, but did practise her instruments as frequently as possible.
Artemis, on the other hand, was not pleased. He had, against his own wishes, become rather attached to the girl, and he now missed her when he was in the labs, researching cancer. She was company, but she was also someone in the household who could comprehend him in the times when he was close to a breakthrough.
Nubi was still sceptical about this, but she followed Miss Kestrel's lead. After all, even if she was meant to obey Ivy because there was pay involved, Nubi had learnt that most of Ivy's plans worked out correctly in the end… even if they did include thwarting the Ancient Powers of the Elements, which was definitely going against certain laws.
Domovoi Butler was the link. Even though he was Artemis's senior by more than twenty years or so, Butler knew him better than a lot of people, and that meant that he was probably the person Artemis trusted the most. Apart from himself, of course.
But right now, Ivy knew that revealing herself to Fowl straight away wasn't the best move ever. For one thing, lightning would consume her, and for another, it would probably destroy Fowl Manor as well as anyone unfortunate enough to be occupying the space.
Nubi and her charge were in the music room, undisturbed, as usual. Since the recent events of the last chapter, the Fowls decided to leave the girl alone to practise. But this room wasn't exactly used only for singing and playing music.
Ivy's emerald eyes suddenly snapped open from her trance, "Nubi." She uttered, a slow smile playing at her lips, "I think I may have found out how to tell Artemis about my little gift."
Nubi rolled her eyes. Of course the plan worked, all of Ivy's plans worked… but at the moment, this plan was more like public humiliation than an exposure of her charge's supernatural powers. She carried on with the talk to Butler.
"And seeing as I have limited knowledge of gunmanship, I was hoping that you could have a few minutes alone with Miss Ivy, just to explain all of these things."
Butler frowned, "Why doesn't she know about these things herself? Surely, if her father is with MI5, she'll know about some of these things."
Silently, Nubi sent out a prayer of thanks, to whatever force was listening, for her charge's brilliant psychological analysis, and gave the prepared answer,
"Yes, but her father never let her get involved with any of the MI5 business, said that it may persuade her to do something even more drastic than going onto the Swiss bank accounts for the sake of it."
Butler nodded reluctantly. It was a pity that Mister Fowl didn't do something similar to Artemis when he was a boy. "Alright, I'll try to help you, and anyway," Butler suddenly remembered the information he needed to tell Master Artemis, "I needed to talk to your charge about something as well."
Butler hadn't really mentioned anything to Artemis yet because of the fretting that had been his world for the previous few days. The roof had sprung a leak, the weather was even wetter than usual, and lightning was crackling about the place like mad.
And what was more, Miss Kestrel always had that guilty look in her eyes when he announced something like 'the roof has started leaking again' or 'the bathroom floor has just been flooded', and for the first incident, she even volunteered to help fix everything! Of course, that before Artemis smirked and started to inform his exchange partner of something called the 'repair men'.
But that look had always remained. It was strange, really, Butler pondered as he went up the stairs to girl's room, these things shouldn't actually happen. Not with metre thick stonewalls and newly built ceilings… maybe I should sue the company? Butler almost laughed. The company had been working for the Fowl family for years now… why would it suddenly change from totally efficient to non-existent?
He knocked on the door. Usually, with Master Artemis, he didn't need to knock, but who knew what this girl liked?
"You can come in… Artemis says that you don't usually know about the rules of knocking before entering." Her tone sounded serious, but when Butler saw her raised eyebrows, he realised that she was, in fact, joking. He relaxed slightly. At least this particular child prodigy had a sense of humour most people would understand.
"Seeing as my mind games tend to leave people gibbering and I would not like to do that to you in your old age, I'll be frank with you." She took a deep breath. It was a risk, but it would show direct defiance to her mother's powers. Then she would be free of it forever. (A/N: this will be revealed in a later chapter… I hope)
"I know the People because I was brought to this world, unborn, by one of Foaly's more… unlawful inventions. The reason that you have been having these leaks are not because of a faulty roof, but of my emotions. I have the powers of the original four elements, as well as lightning. I cannot tell this directly to Artemis, because my Lightning Vow will destroy me."
Now, as we all know, Butler isn't the brightest candle on the birthday cake, but he's not dim either, is he? But when all this information suddenly jumped forward to present itself, he was really at a loss for words.
"What? Please repeat that, and a little slower, for old age's sake." If his eyes opened any wider, his eyeballs would probably fall out.
Ivy sighed, bracing herself for something that was going to come very soon, "The reason I know the fairies is because Foaly's inter-reality machine brought me here, and they just couldn't wipe me because they saw uses for me, seeing as I could stop any major earthquakes if I willed it. So they allowed my family to keep their memories in return for shelter from major earthquakes."
Now Butler understood. Well, slightly. He had always wondered why the fairies seemed to be protected by all of the natural disasters that affected the humans. But why couldn't this girl relate that directly to Master Artemis?
When he told Ivy, she half scoffed at the idea, "Didn't you hear me when I said, 'Lightning Vow'? It's a simple enough procedure, and one that my mother makes me use when she needs me to co-operate. If I break the vow, then I'm toast. Literally."
Butler nodded. So why were there no dancing sparks on her yet?
"The reason for my not being ash right now is only because I worded my vow very carefully. I said I would do all within my power to stop Artemis from finding out about my family and my… ah… more supernatural side. But I never mentioned you into this whole thing, and it's not as if I can stop you from telling Artemis. It's something called 'human will'. I've not got the power or the heart to bend it, and lightning knows that."
Butler wasn't too confused. Well, that is, of course, the side effect of having a genius as a charge… you're not that surprised by anything. It was the understanding part of the deal that usually confused people.
"So you're telling me that I have to pass this onto Master Artemis now because you want him to know, and you can't tell him yourself because if you did, you'd end up as a pile of ash."
"Essentially?" Ivy replied, logging onto her network and pointing out the correct files to Butler, "Yes. But if I break this vow, then I am free from any vow. Forever."
"But what about the other four 'elements'? Don't they have vows too?"
"Yes, but I've broken them. Quite systematically, I would like to compliment myself. But I can't be touched by these vows ever again if I just succeed in breaking this one." Here, her voice turned icy cold, cold enough to send shivers running down Butler's spine. And that particular shiver was usually reserved for Master Artemis.
An hour later, Butler was trying to find Master Artemis. This was something that he really did have to know about Miss Ivy.
The problem was, actually finding Master Fowl. He wasn't in any of the usual places, and that was either in the gym, the study or in his bedroom. At the moment in time, he was in none of them. How am I meant to give him this information when he's nowhere to be found?
Artemis was, in fact, standing immobile in the forest, watching as the sun set down, remembering Ivy's words, if I were completely open with you, Artemis, then there wouldn't be enough of me to argue with…
What did it mean? Surely the fairies couldn't do that to her even if she did have some kind of contact with them… and though he wouldn't admit it, he was starting to soften around her. It wasn't just that she was smart, she had his sense of humour, and she was one of the only people who knew how to entertain him when one of his latest breakthroughs crashed. He watched silently as the badgers started to come out of their setts, and remembered the night that Ivy had taken him through the forest to this place. He had brought his own GPS this time, and had made sure he was wearing protective clothing.
He didn't have Ivy, and he wasn't about to ask her for that special formula… although it did do the trick with all his nettle stings last time. But pride made him hang back on his word, and this place really was one of the most magical places he had ever been to.
Well, of course, it was in Ireland… where else could you find such a beautiful landscape?
He spent almost an hour just sitting there, not doing anything, just hearing his thoughts bounce around in his cranium. Of course, he hadn't really spared a thought to what the Fowl household was going through.
"Oh! My poor little Arty… he won't be able to find his way back…"
"Ma'am, please, stay calm, we'll start searching for him straight away!"
"He may be in the woods… I'm not a hundred per cent certain… only eighty-seven per cent…"
"He'll have his tracker on him… I'll get onto the computers…"
Then again, he had spent a large chunk of his life beforehand being able to do anything he wanted to do… he wasn't used to two fretful parents and two worried bodyguards and one calculative and anxious friend all at the Manor, trying to find him on the computer.
Butler was one of the first to suggest actually calling the boy, before they all realised he had left the phone on Silent and the vibration was never on. Ivy, naturally, was the one who realised how they could find him. She dragged Domovoi free of the din, and hissed,
"Look, I've been on good terms with the Earth Guardian hereabouts. This will prove to you that I have these powers, if you still doubt me."
Butler hesitated, but eventually nodded. Anything was better than Mrs Fowl having a heart attack at any time now. Telling the household that he and Miss Ivy were going to go into the woods and see if he was anywhere there, they managed to be excused from the house.
Ivy rubbed her hands. Earth Guardians had always been her favourite guardians, apart from Water. The guardian in this particular part boasted healthiness, but it was a good deal older than most of the guardians she liked to speak with back home. And as she had learnt over the years, the older earth was, the harder it was the make it co-operate with you.
"Earth Guardian, I summon thee,
As a cousin, come to me!"
It was a simple enough rhyme, and it always did the trick. After five seconds, a slightly greenish hue appeared, and a form bounced up from the ground, and made a slight bow to her,
"Hello, my young cousin. How may I help you?"
Ivy spared a look for Butler, whose eyes were widening so much that she feared that they would somehow pop out of their sockets. He was doing a very accurate goldfish impression, and his nostrils were flared to their widest points.
"Er… I have a friend who may have come into this area, and I was wondering if you could just lead us to him…"
The guardian nodded sagely, and snapped his fingers. At once, several blades of grass and flowers jumped to attention, and swivelled round till they were of something that resembled a human form. Ivy nodded, understanding the message. Of course the guardian would be too busy to interfere with the affairs of mortals… he had much better things to do.
"Domovoi, these helpers will not harm you unless you actually light a fire… they really don't mind if you just walk on them, but they don't like being used as firewood." A few angry whistles came in their direction, "They say that there is wood enough without burning them."
To her amusement, Butler simply closed his mouth, straightened up, took a deep breath and said, "I'll try to keep that in mind."
If Master Artemis really does develop an attachment to this girl, Butler mused, trying to keep up without knocking himself out on the branches, he is going to have to watch what he says, it seems that this girl could kill him with a snap of her fingers if she really wanted to…
A/N: Okay, I hope that this chapter isn't too bad... Read and Review!