Chapter Fifteen: Trouble Brewing
Estella was in a room. There wasn't really much more to say than that. It was a rather boring room, with four bland walls and a slightly low ceiling. There wasn't really anything to look at in the room, which was a shame, because if there had been Estella might have had the presence of mind to be able to keep track of time. As it was, she had no idea how long she had been there. It might have been hours. It might have been days. Maybe she had been there all her life and just hadn't realized it. Maybe everything else was just a dream.
In some distant corner of her mind, Estella knew she wasn't making much sense, but she was too weak to care. However long she might have been in that room, she knew that she hadn't eaten since arriving, and it was starting to seriously affect her.
She had been pacing back and forth across the room to try and maintain a sense of reality, but she knew she'd have to give up soon and try to sleep. At this point, she had to be careful to conserve her energy. She headed for the nearest corner to lie down, but she suddenly felt too weak to walk. As she blacked out and sank to the floor, Estella found she couldn't be sure if the arms that caught her were really there.
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Artemis didn't generally like to engage in superstitious thoughts, but from time to time he found himself thinking that there had to be some sort of gods of irony. At least, that was his best explanation for why Holly had decided to call him a mere fifteen minutes after he had promised not to keep any more secrets from Matt.
He and Matt had just gotten back to their seats to watch the Toad Ball match when Artemis felt his phone vibrate. It had been nearly a month since Holly had last called, so he had taken to carrying her phone with him wherever he went. Because it had been so long since he had spoken to anyone below ground, Artemis knew he couldn't just ignore the call, but it would be tricky to get away from Matt at this point without causing suspicion.
"Are you listening to me, Arty? This game is hard to understand if no one explains the rules."
Artemis blinked and looked back at Matt. "I'm sorry, I was just wondering what has happened to Butler. He's been missing for a while now, and I'm starting to worry."
"Well, someone that big can't be hard to find," said Matt, looking around. "Let's go look for him."
Artemis saw his opportunity. "This stadium is fairly large; we should search separate ends of it and meet back here in ten minutes."
"All right," and she smiled at him, but Artemis could see a touch of worry in her eyes, "just don't go making any secret plans in dark alleys or anything."
He forced a smirk and turned away before she could say anything else. He did feel guilty about hiding the People from Matt, especially after all that had happened, but the existence of fairies wasn't his secret to tell.
Once he was a safe distance away, he pulled out the phone and put it to his ear. "Are you there, Holly?"
"Yes, I'm here, but why is the screen filled with your ear?"
"I'm not in the most private of locations. It's better that I pretend this is just a regular cell phone until I can get somewhere more isolated." He continued walking briskly until he had reached the corridor and found a deserted room off to the side. Artemis pulled the phone away from his ear and smiled slightly. There was Holly, exactly as he remembered her.
"That's better," she said. "You might want to clean your ear out, by the way."
Her personality was apparently as up-front as ever, too. Artemis sighed. "I would hope that after nearly a month of no communication you would have something more important to say. Did you straighten out that business with the missing centaur?"
Holly grimaced "I wish I had. It turned out that that case is a lot more complicated than I had thought. You may want to sit down, because I have a lot to tell you."
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Matt hadn't intended to get totally lost; she had just happened to get unlucky in that she was wandering around an unfamiliar building that had apparently been built by the same people who had made the labyrinth. Within half an hour, she had found herself on the roof, in the boiler room, and then trapped behind one of the larger awards in the trophy room, all without once having gone down the same corridor twice. When she found herself outside again, behind the building, she had had enough and was ready to quit and just head back to the main entrance. Luckily, before she headed off, she saw Butler.
Matt frowned when she saw him, something was wrong. Normally he looked very alert, but right then he had a dazed look on his face as if he were daydreaming or something. Matt waved her hand in front of his face, but got no reaction. Confused, she snapped her fingers a few times, which seemed bring him out of it. He looked at her, startled.
"Matt? What are you doing out here?" He paused as he regained his senses. "And why are you wearing a dress?"
Matt laughed nervously. "Boy, have you missed a lot. I'll explain everything, but let's head back inside first. Artemis has been wondering where you are."
Butler looked confused. "Why would he wonder? I just left ten minutes ago."
Matt looked at him. "I ran into Artemis about two hours ago, and you weren't with him then. You looked kind of dazed when I got out here, are you alright?"
Matt watched Butler nervously for a moment, but the manservant had a face of stone and simply shrugged off the question neutrally. Butler was more bothered by the lapse in his sense of time than he let on, but right now his top priority was finding Artemis; apparently there were new developments for him to learn about.
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Artemis rubbed his forehead as Holly finished bringing him up to date on what had been going on underground since he had last heard from her. So now there was a supposedly peace-loving secret society involved that had previously caused some sort of fairy holocaust. It was a lot to take in all at once, but Artemis managed.
"So how long has it been since this group got a hold of your client? Have you heard anything from them since?" Artemis asked.
The elf sighed. "It's been a little more than a week and we haven't heard anything. It's not like we haven't been searching either; we just can't find anything. That's why I had to call you."
Holly looked very frustrated, and Artemis could understand why, but he still couldn't help being a bit annoyed. "Why didn't you call me sooner? This is obviously very serious, you should have asked for my advice weeks ago."
Holly scowled at him. "I was a little wrapped up in my work, okay? It wasn't until right before Estella was kidnapped that it occurred to me to call you."
"You said that was over a week ago. Why did you wait until after that?"
She grumbled something Artemis couldn't hear and blushed when he asked her to repeat herself. "My phone service was canceled for some reason. It took me a week to go through the paperwork to get myself back on the network."
Artemis wished he had lawyers that could go underground. A few lawsuits with the People's phone companies suddenly seemed like a great idea for stress relief.
"Artemis!" The elf's voice brought him back to reality. "Stop rubbing your forehead, I've got more to tell you."
"You'd better let me take over from here," said a voice off-screen. Holly nodded, and a moment later Foaly came into view.
"Nice to see you again, Mud Boy," he said. "I've got some things to show you."
"And what things might this be?" Artemis asked.
"Do you remember that security camera footage I got of Mamilton talking to that old elf in the weird sign language?"
"I remember Holly mentioning it, yes." Artemis frowned. "Have you worked out the code yet?"
"I started with the assumption that it was a secret code that all Jalingers knew. Working with that, I tried to crack it for a while by comparing it to other known sign languages. It would be almost impossible to make up an entirely new one and, even if someone did, it just wouldn't be practical to expect an entire society to learn and memorize a new language quickly.
"The trouble was, there weren't any more than vague similarities between the Jalinger signals and the other sign languages. It was starting to get a bit frustrating, so I thought I'd try another approach. This time I just ran a general search on matches between the position of the hands and well-known shapes.
"I can't tell you how much junk I had to dig through. To be honest, in the end I got lucky. I picked an item on the list at random, and I got a picture of some famous Mud Man painting. On a hunch, I narrowed the search down to just matches with Mud Man paintings, and guess what? Almost every gesture had a match in a famous painting.
"After that, it was just a matter of guess and check to figure out each signal's meaning based on the painting it was in and then see if it made sense in the original security feed. It wasn't easy, but I finally cracked it. The only trouble now is, I don't know what Mamilton and the elf are talking about. Holly wants me to play the video for you and translate, to see if you can give us any extra insight."
Artemis nodded and gesture for him to start the film, but Foaly hesitated. "Please do whatever you can, Artemis; it's very important to me that Estella get out of all this safely."
The young genius was surprised at the emotion in the centaur's voice. He wanted to inquire into the matter, but the security footage had begun.
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Three months earlier: Lunos' Prosthetics United
Mamilton walked into the room, wringing his hands nervously. He didn't know how Rognab had found him, but it now seemed that his worst fears were going to be realized. The small, shrewd-looking elf followed Mamilton in and, not wasting any time, confronted him.
You've done a good job of hiding yourself, Log-Leaper, the elf signed quickly, I had almost given up hope of finding you. Still, to have hidden well enough for that, you would have had to have lived in the bureaucratic chaos that is underground Africa, and no one can stand it there very long.
Mamilton glared and signed back, I managed there for over a century; I would hope that would serve as clue that I don't want to have anything to do with you or the Jalingers anymore.
That may be true, but the fact is we're still around, and we very much want something to do with you. Rognab smiled cruelly. Or rather do to you. We haven't forgotten what you did, Log-Leaper; there's still a call for revenge among us. Personally though, I think it would be a loss; you were quite brilliant when you were with us.
Mamilton gulped; he didn't like where this was going, but if Rognab noticed this, he didn't indicate it, only kept signing.
We have new plans, Log-Leaper, but we need your expertise to make them work. I think it's a fair bargain; you would only need to work with us for a few months and then we'd leave you alone for the rest of your days. What do you say?
Mamilton was terrified, but he tried not to show it as he closed his eyes and took a breath. He was tempted to just agree and not fight them anymore; it would make life so much easier; but he knew he couldn't do that.
A familiar memory flashed through his mind, and suddenly it almost felt like he was there with her again in that hospital room. They had both known it hadn't been an accident, but there was nothing they could do. Mamilton knew no one would believe him, and for her it was already too late. Still, she had found the strength to whisper to him, and in those final moments, Mamilton had made his last promise to Naga.
A new strength burned in his eyes when he opened them again. No. I don't care what you do to me; I'm not going to help you again. I swore to Naga that I would never allow you to wreak the same havoc you had before, and I'm going to keep my vow.
Rognab smirked at the determined look on the centaur's face; he couldn't remember the last time he had seen Mamilton look sure of himself. My, what a wonderful sentiment; I couldn't bring myself to make you break it. I suppose we don't have to use you for our plans; you are getting on in years. Perhaps it would be better if I found someone younger; maybe that lovely daughter of yours.
Mamilton's eyes widened and he gasped in horror. You stay away from her! He signed quickly.
Now all traces of humor were gone from the old elf's face, he suddenly looked quite sinister. You've learned first-hand just how far our power reaches, Log-Leaper. Quite frankly, I'd like to kill you right here, but I need your technical knowledge to finish what I started. If you work with us, I can assure you your daughter will go unharmed. I'm sure you can imagine what the consequences will be otherwise. I'll give you two weeks to make your decision; think it over, but remember: I'm watching you.
Rognab was almost at the door before Mamilton was able to move. He quickly blocked the elf's way. I can't let you hurt anyone again.
You're referring to the war, aren't you? Rognab smiled wistfully. Things did get out of hand that time. But you needn't worry; I've had to recruit new followers and they needed reassurance. No more People shall be killed because of the Jalingers.
Mamilton was thrown off by the elf's sincere-sounding statement.Then what do you want to do this time?
Rognab shrugged. The same thing I always do; try to take over the world.
The two stared at each other while Mamilton thought out how to word his next question.
How can you do that now, though? he finally asked. The LEP destroyed your old above-ground communications network, and they'd be bound to notice if you set up another one.
Rognab smiled again. It's true, the LEP have gotten much more high-tech these days. But what they didn't count on was my finding a better low-tech way. Let's just say it was natural extension for me. I've even gotten a pair of Mud whelps to run it for me.
Mamilton's eyes widened. What? Who?
The elf grinned. Oh, just a pair of birds that were already in the business.
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Matt looked around anxiously as she and Butler came back into the stadium. Artemis had said to meet him back there in ten minutes, but it had been considerably longer than that. Finally she caught sight of Artemis as he ran up the stairs to them. To her surprise he didn't slow down as he got closer; in fact he went right past them.
"Artemis?" Butler called after him.
The boy paused briefly to address his bodyguard. "Something important has come up, Butler. We have to leave immediately."
The manservant nodded and started after him, but Matt ran ahead of them and cut them off. "Wait a second, where are you two going? What's happened?"
For a moment she thought she saw a guilty glint in Artemis' eyes, but the next second it was gone, and she couldn't be sure.
"It's a personal matter, Matthew; I don't have to explain it to you."
Matt's eyes widened. "What?"
"I mean, I don't have time to explain it too you. Sorry, but I'm in a bit of hurry. Stay here and tell Juliet I had to head back to school early. I'll see you later." Without giving her a chance to respond Artemis rushed out of the stadium, leaving a very confused Matt in his wake.
However, Matt didn't stay confused for very long; she felt anger and resentment begin to build up inside her. The Toad Ball game had just ended, so she hurried back down to the locker rooms to meet her brother, muttering crossly to herself along the way.
"Honestly, I just forgave the boy for lying to me, and now he's going off doing who knows what. Doesn't have to explain it to me, my foot. I'd think that by now he'd owe me a better explanation than that." Her rant was cut short when she caught sight of Theo in the crowd. He was talking and laughing with Juliet; apparently the game had gone well.
"Oh, hello, Matt," Theo said when he saw her. "What did you think of the match? I thought it was one of our best yet. It looks like Juliet is a bit of a natural at it."
Matt grimaced. "Sadly, I didn't get to see much of the game Theo. I was a bit occupied with other things."
Theo's smile faded and he began to look concerned. "What happened with Artemis? Did he take things badly?"
"No. Well, at first he did, but he got over that quickly and we forgave each other and everything was looking just peachy, but then five minutes ago he went rushing out of here with Butler, without even bothering to explain why."
While Matt fumed, Juliet bit her lip. What had Artemis done now, she wondered. "Maybe I should go talk to him," she said. "His parents wanted me to check up on him, anyway. Do you know where he went?"
Matt sighed. "He said he was going back to school. It was the first time I ever saw him in a hurry to go there." She turned to her brother. "I need to go after him, Theo. I'm not going to let him off easily anymore. Can you drive me to St. Bartleby's?"
"Sorry, Matt, but I have to deal with things around here. You know how chaotic Toad Ball makes people."
Matt was about to protest, but Juliet interrupted. "Don't worry, I'll take you. But Theo explained your situation to me, so I think you might want to change back into your uniform first."
Matt would have liked to yell at her brother for revealing her secret to yet another person, but she was in a bit of a hurry, so she settled for a quick glare before following Juliet to her car.
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Holly fumed as she flew through the night's sky. She had had to work through mountains of paperwork to get her phone back online, and when she had finally been able to call Artemis, the brat had hung up on her!
It had been the last straw; the months of pent-up frustration had suddenly come to a boiling point. Holly had been planning to go to the surface to complete the ritual that night anyway; but now she was ready to do a bit of screaming when she got to the surface too, and she knew just who she'd be screaming at.
Had she been in a better mood, she might have marveled at the fact that her attitude had achieved a record-breaking time in getting a shuttle, securing a decent set of wings, and wading through security to get to the surface. The whole affair had taken less than an hour, and she was now rocketing towards Artemis' school to finish their conversation and give him a piece of her mind.
In a few moments she spotted the building and landed, shielding herself as she did. Luckily St. Bartleby's was in a fairly isolated part of Ireland, so there were few people around who might see her. Still, Holly kept her guard up; she wasn't supposed to be anywhere near a human dwelling. She was counting on Foaly making sure that no one found out where she was, but she hated to think what would happen if she were spotted.
She padded around to the back of the building; Artemis had told her during their last conversation which window to go through to get to his room and had given her permission to enter it. She quickly deactivated the window's alarm and climbed into the room. The lights were off, so it was clear that her favorite Mud Boy wasn't back from wherever he had been yet. Still, she took a look around; Artemis wasn't the type to hide, but you never really knew with him.
As she moved through the room and closer to the door, she heard someone running down the hall. Holly moved closer still to see if it might be Artemis, but she soon regretted the decision. The door burst open and slammed Holly into the wall. She quickly began to lose consciousness, and her shield faded. She looked up at the Mud Girl who had come in and almost laughed at the shock on her face as she exclaimed. "My God! It's—" She never heard the rest.
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A/N: Ah, where do I begin? I suppose in the same place I always do: apologizing for taking so long to update. I'm sure no one's really mad at me about this but I still feel guilty.
Anyway, Holly's on the surface now! Holly and Artemis have spoken for the first time since chapter six! The timelines match up! I actually found a way to make the sign language important! I've put in new plot elements and resolved old ones! I have a never-ending stash of exclamation points! And (most importantly) I've finally gotten this story to be a hundred pages! I'm throwing a party!
Thank you everyone for giving me the encouragement to work this hard and this long on this story. And thank you once again to my unbelievable betas Elflover and Inkheart. I really owe you the world. A grammatically correct world.