Author's Note; Before we begin on this latest episode, my lovelies, I must bring to your attention a few very important details.
2017, this new year, is going to be an extremely busy one for me. On top of writing my own novel and the laborious task of promoting it, I'm going to be facing the O/L exams which are an extremely thing vital for a child in Sri Lanka. Accompanying the exam is, of course, mock exams, seminars, paper classes, the whole lot, plus two years' worth of syllabus in nine subjects. I feel I need to tell you this primarily so that you would understand how difficult it's going to be for me to keep writing and updating my fanfics. But I've grown to love this fic quite a lot, and I really enjoy it here at FF . Net, so I will in NO WAY be abandoning Key to Ethos or The Cross Species Battle. I will write and update whenever I can and your support, as always, will be invaluable :)
On a happier note, review replies!
Berrybanana05 ; THANK YOU! Long reviews are my favourite, and that was some pretty rad encouragement there :) I am so glad you enjoyed the chapter that much. I hope you enjoy this chapter even more!
Gespenter; Lol, I'm not getting any mercy am I? ;)
NoggenPodder; Thank you, and I'll try!:D
Elisarah ; As always, your comments are hilarious XD Granted, we might have some rather...scandalous thoughts about Arty in common here... Once again, grateful that you're enjoying things on Vinyayà's end as well.
A big thank you going out to readers, followers and people who favourited as well :)
DISCLAIMER: IDONTOWNARTEMISFOUL*cough*FOWL
- Shaadia.
—•:;*"~€/°—
CHAPTER NINE: UNTO DUST
Holly couldn't feel the rest of her senses. She couldn't feel her arms or her hands, and her spine and torso ached numbly. She knew there was pain, but she didn't feel a bit of it. The problem was that it wouldn't stay that way for long.
The one sense she retained, however, was the olfactory; and Frond, did she wish that wasn't the case.
The damp fibers of some kind of sack pressed insistiently against the tip of her nose, and the smell was sour, rancid, like the breath of a tunnel dwarf after a hearty meal of old milk, recyclings and fish. It was the only sense hinting at consciousness, perhaps, and for that she felt she should be grateful, but soon she was going to throw up within the confines of the head-bag and regain her sense of taste in the most unwelcome way.
She felt movement. She wasn't moving any of her numb limbs, but she felt her entire self being propelled forward, and it was only a short distance before sound struck her hard and her sense of hearing came hurtling back to her like a long-lost pet dog.
There was cheering, and there was applause, and there was a lot of hooting, everything loud but nothing truly discernible. Through the dark, putrid fibers of the sack she could suddenly see light, but it was ages before she recovered the sense to figure out where she was.
This sounds like a D'Arvitting circus.
The disgusting sack was yanked from her head, and she instantly looked down and gagged. There came loud and violent hacking from a source beside her. Holly instinctively spun that way.
Commander Root sat tied to a heavy chair on wheels, arms, hands and feet tightly bound by metal clasps fixed to chains. He snapped his neck to meet her eyes. Holly thought that Root looked ready for murder, but then that was how he always looked.
Brightness flashed in her face. Holly squinted through the harsh lighting to get a good look at their surroundings, and whatever anger or confusion she'd held before quickly dissipated into sheer desperation.
This really is the circus.
But there was something else, too, something that was even worse news. Growling low in their throats not more than ten feet away from them were two large cats; she could make out a mane of gold and the muscles that moved with the beasts' thin, scraggedly limbs. Whether the growling was coming from their throats or their stomachs she wasn't sure now.
There was something keeping them in place for sure. Holly anxiously averted her eyes from the cats, beyond to the cloth leashes that kept them at bay. She could already see one of them coming apart. A section of cloth had been worn thin with strain.
"Ladies and gentlemen," cackled the ringmaster, unbidden in his glee. "Let the act begin!"
Root scrambled with his bound hands, strained as they were behind the back of the chair and dead as they were from the tight rope cutting off blood flow. The big cats paced menacingly as silhouttes in the blinding stage lights which did nothing to improve his composure. Beside him, Holly also struggled in vain with her wrists. She pulled herself forward with vigour and thrashed in her seat to break free, but the rope was tight and the chain held firm.
"Calm, Major, that isn't working!" Root avoided looking at their fate and looked at his officer instead. Holly immediately ceased in her struggles. She was paying attention.
"Use your magic."
Holly almost rolled her eyes. Of course. Panic shouldn't get her like this. She was an experienced field officer, for Frond's sake. She had faced down trolls on her own before; what was a lion to that?
A hot blue spark generated at her fingertips and touched the rope that held her wrists securely bound. It took only thirty seconds. The rope cut in half, and she wriggled her hands from their confines.
The crowd was paying keen attention now. They were, after all, supposed to escape.
Holly struggled back in her chair to get the wheels moving back, away from the snapping jaws of the lions and closer to the Commander. It took another thirty seconds to free his hands, but now the beasts were starting to make their own progress. Trained, Holly realized. They had just started gnawing off the weakening fibers of each other's leashes.
"What the actual..." began Root, but he didn't have time to finish the thought because as soon as Holly's magic snapped through his rope, the beast before him pounced forward with its jaws wide open in vicious hunger. He had little or no time to react, but somehow instinct saved his life and his newly freed fists rushed over his head and smashed the brute on its snout. The lion gave a pained howl and reared on its hind legs, snarling, and Root felt more afraid now than satisfied.
It pounced again and this time there was nothing he could do. Holly's chair had been knocked over with the elf in it, still strapped by the waist and legs, and her arms were engaged in a determined struggle with the lion that held her down. She couldn't see him; she was too focused on keeping the brute's jaws clamped shut. The crows was mostly on its feet and hooting. Some calling for blood, some encouraging their escape.
Root braced himself but the impact never came. He opened his eyes and couldn't believe them. The lion that had been on the verge of leaping onto him now struggled against some invisible force in mid air, black electricity cackling around its mane.
He blinked. He didn't know for the love of Frond what was happening.
He heard another growl, a softer, tamer one that couldn't have emanated from the throat of a big cat, and the beast snapping over Holly's form started to step back in puzzlement. She was behind the new sound, he realized. She was using the gift of tongues to urge it to back off.
But then Holly looked up and the first lion dropped to the ground with a resounding thud. A collective gasp rose from the audience. The circus lights shone brighter in their faces as the animal slowly brought itself to its feet again.
In the meantime Holly's brute shook out of its daze and snarled right back at the elf, advancing menacingly across the stage. Holly snapped her head back in the direction of something Root still didn't quite comprehend. That was a tall, lean figure in a glossy purple suit around whom black electricity cackled dangerously.
Holly seemed to be gaping. Her eyes screamed incredulity and disbelief, but carried maybe just a spark of admiration.
In all the commotion Root hadn't noticed his lion hurl itself right at him and collapse the chair he was chained to. The back of the chair hit the canvas stage floor and he could no longer make sense of his surroundings. Just the mighty weight on his chest and the feeling of sharp talons on the fabric of his shirt and a pitch-black shape of impending doom silhoutted in the lights.
He felt oddly calm.
So this is how it all ends. A bloody circus. Well, at least somebody enjoyed my death.
But a split second later there was no constricting weight on his body. There were sparks- laughing, dancing black sparks - in place of the lion. Root groamed at the feeling of blood oozing from the claw-marks on his chest, and decided soon that he would pass out.
The crowd was cheering even louder now and the heart of the town, the circus, was beating faster with astounding rapidity.
Mulch slipped a single rigid hair into the locks on her chains and Holly struggled free of them. She heaved her fatigued figure forward and felt blood rush into her veins for the first time since her capture. Her senses were alert once more and quick to assess her surroundings.
Artemis, paler than normal in the stage lights but standing out in sharp contrast on account of the purple suit, holding off the cats with a brilliant display of black magic; he had used it on them before, she recalled, eyes widening. They've learnt to stay away from it.
Then, a stab of admiration.
He'd better not get us all killed in the end, though.
Her old mentor and Commander appearing unconscious in his restraints, but relatively safe. Mulch hurriedly headed over to his chair and started picking the locks on his chains as well.
"Would you look at this," the dwarf couldn't resist commenting. "A convict like me helping the LEP out of handcuffs. I'd better get amnesty for the irony."
Holly ignored him and surged forward to stand beside the Mud Boy, who appeared to be draining himself now and on his last legs of strength. He screamed something over the hot cackling of energy. She realized the instruction was partially hers.
Tell Mulch to tunnel!
"Mulch!" The dwarf dragged the unconscious Commander over to her, grunting all the way.
"I know, I know," he muttered, before rolling the other elf over the rim of the stage.
"D'Arvit!" exclaimed Holly, bolting after her Commander. She made a calculated jump off the rim and was soon joined by the dwarf. She immediately understood why. There was good, solid earth here, right before the first ring of spectators started. They were all going wild with excitement now and she figured it wouldn't be long before the crowd started invading the stage, and then all would be lost in an unbreathable mass of bodies.
Mulch dived into the ground and started digging his tunnel with an urgency she had never before seen come from him.
Above them Artemis was starting to flail. His sparks were flickering and dying, and the beasts were starting to overcome their intimidation. The Mud Boy had saved them and survived thus far on sheer guts and a magic he didn't have full control over–and he was starting to run out of one of the two.
"How much longer?!" she looked over her shoulder and hollered.
"A minute!" Mulch yelled back from inside the burrow, unceasing in his furious digging. But Artemis didn't have a minute. He was going to succumb to the exertion in less than that amount of time.
Curling her fingers into fists, Holly leapt and mounted the stage, only barely making it, at the very instant Fowl's legs buckled beneath him and crumpled into a kneel. Both lions noticed. They reared back for a spring, teeth clamped in a snarl.
She rushed forward and grabbed the human by his wrist, collecting his limp form in her arms just as the beasts pounced. They rolled off the side of the stage and landed on the wet earth with a thump. Artemis groaned from under her, but she didn't have the time or the patience to register it. The lions joined them on the ground. The crowd collectively leapt back in fright and alarm, wondering if this was an act gone wrong. The circus crew was starting to wonder the same thing, it seemed, running onto the scene with their animal trainers, whips and leashes. Holly didn't have time to consider any of this. Collecting Artemis in the crook of one arm and Root in the other, she jumped into the new tunnel mouth right before Mulch collapsed it, and soon she found herself in immersive, pitch darkness and her own ragged breath while the cries from above, and a new burst of impressed applause at their escape, did not die down.
Edge of the Dome, Atlantis.
Foaly was the first and only person Vinyayà uttered a word to after her ordeal with the Freaks.
"I want every remaining officer on that pill, Foaly," was all she said before pulling out one of the chairs in the vastly empty restaurant and slumping dejectedly in it, face in her hands. She massaged her temples and rubbed her brow, but the headache didn't seem like it would go away that easily. This wasn't a headche brought on by the high-frequency noises, she knew. No, this had more to do with the guilt.
I thought the shuttles would protect us.
Stupid. Stupid!
Her gaze flickered wearily to the centaur who stood fidgeting before her, awaiting further instructions.
And now they're all in that...that hellhole Foaly got out of. Except they won't be getting out of it!
Stupid!
"That's all," she told him, almost under her breath. "Get everyone on the...resistance pill. It's all we can do for now."
Foaly looked like he was about to turn around and leave, but he suddenly thought different of it.
"You know, Wing Commander...that was an impressive feat you pulled back there. You saved a lot of people."
"And my negligence cost a lot of people their lives," she rebuked, but their was no malice in her tones. Just bitter loss and guilt. "We have to get them back, Foaly, but how can we do that if we don't even know where to start?"
The centaur sighed. "I've outsmarted Koboi before. I can do it again. And now we're more familiar with the enemy, right? We know that explosions can kill them. It'll save us a load of trouble in the future."
She didn't respond to this, only looked towards the high glass ceiling of the restaurant and the dark blue waters of the Atlantic depth where, surrounding the Dome, teams of LEP technicians and several repair crews were hurriedly doing their part in restoring the great sphere's shields. They were until such time completely exposed and vulnerable to the human eye and, indeed, the human machine, if it managed to get past whatever loops Foaly had installed into it.
The second largest fairy city now no longer teemed with life and activity. Koboi's creatures had turned it into a scarce, hollow ghost town.
This wouldn't have happened on Root's watch.
But was she tripping her own guilt even further? Root was an excellent leader, perhaps the best, but not even he could've foreseen this or prevented it.
But the pilots would've been spared.
Would they really have been, with Root's way of thinking? Would he have thought twice about assaulting the creatures with nothing but the reinforced walls of a shuttle to protect them? Yes. He'd have wrung Foaly's neck until the resistance pill arrived in full crates at double speed and forced it down every officer's throat before the risk-fraught rescue mission. He would have been perceptive and not cracked under pressure. But she had started falling apart the moment she read the distress message, even if she'd hid it well.
What would the LEP do without you? She thought absently of her comrade and friend. Frond, Julius, what would I do without you?
There was some kind of commotion going on with the technicians, she noted dully. Maybe the butterflies, as Foaly called them, had spotted an exotic fish or something. She really couldn't combat the feeling of utter defeat that was starting to cloud her mind despite the earlier victory against the Freaks that had given her momentary strength hope.
There was tapping now, on the dome above, as a number of technicians scrambled about themselves to get a closer look at the new object of interest.
Vinyayà only paid it a sliver of attention. She couldn't care less what supposedly extinct marine life swum resurrected around the thrashed fairy civilization. She flicked on her communicator ready to call the technicians' central line and blast them for making less use of precious time, but a nervous voice answered before she had the chance to shout.
"C-Commander...there's something out here that you really, really need to see."
She cut the line and looked upwards, eyebrows knitted in a sudden frown, sullen expression now wiped away. It didn't sound like good news. The way their luck was going, it most certainly wasn't.
She was starting to see it now; black, a lurid gap of darkness out of place in the black-blue waters. It simply loomed in the distance, circular, not wide enough to notice at first glance but deep, ominous and beckoning. It was an abyss into another world, some kind of portal into some dark unknown.
Portal? She scoffed. "That's ridiculous," she said out loud, but she did not for a moment believe it.
She, and the technical crew from their places much closer to it, stared on for a second longer.
"Foaly," she started into her communicator. "Are you looking at this?"
"Roger that, Commander," came Foaly's glum reply. "I ran some scans and...well, my scans aren't detecting it but my eyes definitely are. This isn't something my scanners were designed to pick. I'd reckon it's some kind of interdimensional doorway–"
"Plain language, centaur," snapped the elf. "I don't want that archaic nonsense."
"A portal. I'm willing to bet all my gold coins on that being what Opal's monsters are coming out of."
She felt her jaw slacken. It was so close by, so near, the source of all this grief. The patch of black suddenly looked downright threatening rather than intriguing, but it still beckoned, called, insisting that they check it out.
"We need to seal it off," she said. "Is there any way we can do that?"
"No," came the centaur's carefully considered reply. "There's no way we can close it and we shouldn't be doing that anyway. Going in there might sound perfectly suicidal, Commander, but it will for certain give us something more about our enemies; their origin, maybe even a clue as to Koboi's location."
"No one will do it. Our best people are down."
Foaly could be heard taking a deep breath. "In all due respect, Commander, we have nothing to lose. This might prove entirely stupid, but if this is a chance and we miss it, we're back at square one. We can set up a team of fairies on the resistance pill, fully equipped; and we'll leave them a line back here. That way they can return if something happens to go wro–"
"On the contrary," Vinyayà cut him off. "I think this is a solo mission."
"No one is qualified–or willing enough–"
"I am perfectly qualified and willing," the elf stared across the glass ceiling through the cracked dome walls. Was she really going to do it? Yes, she steeled herself. If the mission, fraught as it was with unknown risks, was going to give them something, anything against Koboi's Freaks, she owed it to all the officer and civilian victims to undertake it.
Foaly sensed the cutting edge in her tone and decided it was best not to argue. "I'll get everything ready."
"One more thing, Foaly."
"Yeah?" The centaur was prepared to hear any number of things that would add to the suicide rate of the operation.
Vinyayà sounded genuinely annoyed. "Don't call me Commander."
"There could be frequencies on the other end jamming your shuttle's communication equipment and quite possibly something or the other to interfere with the tracking that allows us to monitor where you are, so once you go in through there you're all alone," Foaly's voice, machine-like, explained over the dashboard speakers.
"Except for the piton cord connected to the mothership."
"Except for that; but if you lose communication, you won't have any way of telling us to reel you in. You'll have to turn around and follow the path of the cord back to the portal."
"And if the...portal closes?"
"If it starts to close we'll reel you in. Remember, the maximum length of the piton is about two kilometers. Any more than that and it'll snap."
Vinyayà focused once more on the luring black abyss that loomed a mere meter away from the nose of her smaller reinforced action shuttle. The craft was small, meant for a maximum of two passengers, but lightweight, compact and very fast. Behind her was the wreck of Atlantis and an LEP underwater mothership aboard which Foaly and his technical crew did their work; on one end, overseeing the reconstruction of the dome and on the other, overseeing her risky stunt into the interdimensional doorway, as Foaly liked to call it. There had been a lot of protest at her decision to make the jump, but not a lot of authority to question it. Considering that she was the one of the only senior officers left capable of acting commander, she should be seeking the Council's permission for the mission. But the Council would take hours and come up with a negative anyway.
"You're to run only on the electric motor," Foaly sparked again over the speakers. "Ready when you are."
Vinyayà turned off autopilot, flicked on the electric engine and gripped the steering joystick because her life depended on it. "Ready."
A little bit of static, then; "Good luck, Wing Commander."
The rev of the engines were absent and deathly silence attacked her senses as she hit the acceleration and sped into the dangerous unknown that was, to the casual observer, that one area you should not try checking out.
For the first couple of seconds it was just too dark even within the interior of the shuttle to see anything. Then she was back in sea, a bright blue, crystal clear sea that was most definitely closer to the surface and sunlight than Atlantis.
She looked aside through the 180 degree window before her and couldn't help but release a breath she hadn't realized she was holding when the portal still loomed behind her and the piton cord vanished into its depths.
She cast her gaze upwards. There was sunlight somewhere, and surface. Which meant her answer was probably less than the piton cord's entire reach away. She tried the dashboard communicator; as expected, it only gave back waves of broken static. She was more or less on her own now.
Once again taking on that steely determination that had served her so well in the past, Vinyayà opened the throttles and pointed the shuttle's nose upwards.
"You wait here," Mulch had said half an hour ago. "I'll finish the tunnel so you can crawl through later. Don't want to be lagging right behind a tunneling dwarf's rear end now, do we?"
"Where will you...er, deposit the waste?" Holly had asked, frightened more at the prospect of being covered in dwarf recyclings than she had been at being devoured by a starved lion.
"I have my ways," Mulch had said, a twinkle in his eyes.
So now she sat with an unconscious elf and human, safe from the madness above the ground but too close to it for comfort, in the small tunnel sufficiently lit by two of their torches. She felt Artemis stir in his uncomfortable crouch beside her, and edged away as much as was possible to give the taller human some space.
"Uuuuhhh," he mumbled something unintelligible. "Wha' is...thi' feeling..."
"Just exertion," said Holly. "You used a lot of magic back there to save us."
"...'olly?"
The elf awkwardly patted his trouser leg. The once glossy purple suit looked ruined for good. "It's me. Thank you, by the way."
Artemis made the tiring effort to nod, then looked above her shoulder to where Root was just begging to stir awake. "You're...most welcome." Then he sat up a little straighter and formed a sentence that was surprisingly long and coherent. "But I fear I cannot use that trick again, whether it's going to be lions or Freaks. It's simply...too exerting."
"Black magic has its side effects, Mud Boy," Holly shrugged. "But I'm not going to pretend I'm not grateful this time."
"The only problem is," Artemis craned his neck uneasily. He wasn't a claustrophobic person in usual circumstances, but this was a tunnel meant for three-footers and an unstable one at that. "We haven't got the Key. And if I'm right in assuming that it was Opal's people and not the circus folk who captured you for the show, they're one leap step ahead of us at the moment."
For some odd reason, Holly smiled. The human found himself absently thinking that the elf should really smile more often, but this was a singular thought he mentally kicked himself for a second later.
"Wrong there," she reached into her trouser pocket and produced a minuscule golden figure, a sprite with his wings crossed in front of his chest. "I learnt a thing or two from Mulch's kleptomania."
Artemis got over the initial surprise, and grinned. "You picked their pockets? How very original, Major."
"But we're one leap step ahead of Opal," Holly tossed the key and caught it, before carefully packing it inside a jaded purse–aka utility kit–she had brought along for the mission.
"Holly?" grunted Root, now having completely regained consciousness. "Would you mind explaining what in the living daylights is going on?"
"It's a long story, Commander," said Holly apologetically. "But once we get out of here, I'll be sure to fill you in on everything."
"And Fowl?"
"Part of the story," said Artemis brazenly. "And I have recovered my memories. I am an ally, Commander, whether you would like to believe it or not."
Root snorted. "Oh I believe it alright. I spoke to Koboi myself. I believe she has something special in store for us."
Holly felt her blood run cold at the mention of their common enemy. "Is that how you got to be here?"
The older elf nodded. "We followed a signal to the market district and I ended up trapped behind steel walls. She was on video chat and said a few of the usual conquer Haven stuff before she pushed a button and...here I am. Some of Koboi's people were undercover as part of that traveling circus and I found myself with them. The plan was to use me as distraction if and when you turned up– their objective, I had no clue. Still don't."
Holly's reply to that was interrupted at the tip of her tongue when a loud clanking noise echoed down the length of the tunnel. "That's the signal," she said.
Root looked around himself in alarm. "Signal? What? Who?"
Holly shot her Commander a sympathetic grin. "Mulch Diggums."
It took them at least seventy laborious minutes to crawl the length of the tunnel on their elbows, Holly in the lead, Root behind and Artemis, being the tallest, at the very tail of the line. It ended in an arduous twist upwards towards the mouth of the tunnel, where they would finally meet the surface world, but this particular segment was by the far the most difficult to navigate. Mulch ended up having to pull both elves out from the other side, but he didn't have the strength to assist the young human, so Artemis had to rely on only his height and knowledge of friction to ensure he wasn't left stuck in the tunnel forever.
"Hurry up," said Mulch the moment he had cleared the surface and felt the welcoming open space around him. "Let's get back to the hut before Opal's people come after us."
Once in, the door shut behind them, Artemis didn't switch on more than one light after realizing that indeed the whole town was empty, every soul having had flocked to the circus arena, and as such it would be no difficult task for Opal to locate them. He gave Caleb a call to inform him briefly that they were in possession of the key and that they should get going soon, before exhaustedly slumping on the edge of the bed and watching as Holly explained to Root the basic goings-on and what exactly their mission was.
"Fowl..black magic?!"
"It's what saved us from the lions," Holly sighed. "Spare him this once, Commander. It came to good use."
Root was still glaring daggers at him, but Artemis remained gloriously unperturbed, only contributing to the elf's intense anger. "Fine. But it's still illegal and he's still Fowl. I wouldn't trust him more than is strictly necessary."
"That's not fair," protested Holly, in spite of knowing for certain that he wasn't wrong. "Artemis saved our lives. We would be kitty litter now if he hadn't stepped in."
"It's Artemis now, is it?"
"Seriously, Julius," Mulch butted in. "He's as credible as I am for your rescue. You're welcome, by the way."
Root jabbed a rigid finger at the dwarf. "I'm grateful this once, convict, but don't push it! I'm not releasing you on any charges after this is over."
"Holly promised she wouldn't arrest me."
"Holly isn't in a position to promise that when I'm around!"
"Well you weren't around before to witness my selfless, daring feats!"
"Major," Root snapped to look at the other elf. "Is this true?"
"Yes..." Despite herself, Holly stifled a chuckle. "Yes it is, Commander. He has proven to be quite an asset."
Root's jaw dropped. "You didn't just drop eighty-six burglary charges!"
"Eighty six?" exclaimed Mulch. "That's all it's been?"
"And him," Root jabbed another finger at Artemis. "He's not supposed to have black magic, or any magic at all. The Council will want a tribunal for this."
"I say we just don't tell the Council," Mulch clapped his hands together. "There. Problem solved."
"He's right, Julius," said Holly. "Besides, Fowl's a Mud Man. We can't exactly keep him locked up in a cell."
"Don't call me Julius!" shouted Root almost on reflex.
"This is all too much of noise," hissed Artemis. "At this rate, we're asking to get detected by Opal's people."
The three fairies looked at him unappreciatively.
"Shut up," they said, at the same time.
Her shuttle-pod surfaced, dangling the piton cord behind it, and Vinyayà surveyed the landscape before her. Her shield was down, so she couldn't risk having the shuttle in full view of the island's beach for much longer; she opted instead to line the insides of the craft with cam-foil. It was one of the precautions they'd taken in the event of the shields failing. That and a small, compact shuttle with fully transparent walls, so if you did indeed line the insides with camoflauge material, the whole thing would be rendered invisible. The piton attached to the rear crash bar she could do nothing about.
Buzzing open the windscreen latch, Vinyayà emerged from the shuttle in what was a prototype camoflauge suit that operated on a battery, which meant whatever frequencies meddling with the shuttle's communications and shielding capability couldn't meddle with the suit as well. She surveyed the scene from behind her visor. This had not been what she was expecting.
The beach was black volcanic ash and starkly contrasted the light blue waters that almost glittered in the sunlight. The island was a medium-sized one, obviously inhabited given the noise that rose from within it and the couple of colourful boats stationed in the black sand...was this really where the Freaks were coming from? It seemed highly unlikely, but as Foaly had said, it was well worth checking out.
Or Opal happens to be here.
She slipped a Neutrino into the holster on her hip and, turning the shuttle's engines off, cautiously waded her way through the shallow blue waters and towards the mysterious island, where she was sooner or later to encounter some form of horrible danger.
"And next on the list is..." Caleb waited for the tension to build. It didn't. His audience had had enough of tension to go about already. "Fine then, I'll save it for later. We just need to get out of this stupid desert first."
They had slipped out of Gilemo just as the crowds started coming home, mingling in with the mass of civilians so as not to get noticed by anyone looking for them. It was once again heated desert as far as the eye could see, the giant sand dunes and the town, the spot of life, long behind them and even their footprints long behind them. The desert was a confusing expanse of barren land where every direction looked the same save for the one on top, from where the sun mercilessly battered down on them like it had a personal problem with someone in their group. Caleb had tried the whole journey to keep everyone's spirits up, but in the end his efforts were futile and even his uplifting trot had turned into a draglike walk.
Root walked somewhere in the front behind Zone, being determined to be of some help at least in pinpointing the directions, but Caleb lagged behind with Mulch, who was completely determined to not be of any help and complained silently every step of the way. Holly followed, keeping pace with the human genius in order to ensure that he didn't pass out on the way, carrying the large rucksack of their rations that had originally been assigned to him.
"Why..." panted Fowl, only barely trying to uphold his dignity. "Didn't Caleb's town have any vehicles? Remind me to write them a donation cheque when we get back."
"We do have vehicles!" came Caleb's adamant reply. "It's just...the owners weren't willing to give them to our cause."
"Really?" asked Holly indignantly.
"Yeah. Two vehicles. This old lady...very stubborn, she is. Only car in the town."
"And the other vehicle?" asked Artemis, wondering if he wanted to know.
"Ox-cart, duh. Hardly practical for this kind of journey. The poor animal would probably be the first to give up."
"I'm really glad now that we set off on foot," muttered Holly before, on reflex, she caught the human walking beside her who had just been about to collapse. "Oh, grow a spine, Fowl! I thought you said you were more fit than six years ago!"
"I am," Artemis glared, but still steadied himself to use her as a kind of crutch. "But there are multiple factors here; the distance, the lack of water, the sun..."
"I'm only letting you do this because of the lion-thing," the elf scowled. "The next town we settle in, buy yourself an electric wheelchair or something."
"That sounds very promising," said Artemis sarcastically. "Oh, I think I will."
The journey continued for hours on end, hours that took ages to finally stretch into a night, when the promise of rest and some cool air became more than a distant longing. They pitched up the three tents, Root deciding without a heartbeat's waste that he'd rather share with Holly and Fowl than the dwarf, and so most part of the night was well spent. The other part of it was when Root discovered Fowl's annoying habit of waking up at odd hours, switching on a torchlight for no apparent reason at all, switching it back off and easily going back to sleep.
And it was after another twelve hours of trekking the boiling world around them and feeling every relevant body fluid evaporate like smoke into the hot air that Caleb finally made an announcement that didn't fall on deaf ears.
"Just an hour to the port!"
"Port?" wondered Root.
The boy pointed excitedly in one of the many directions that looked exactly the same. "Where we'll leave this stupid place behind and set off on a boat to Harpsichord island."
"Island?"
"The next key, unless Opal's beaten us to it. Liven up, everyone! I've heard that where we're going the beaches are to die for."
Author's Note; And that concludes another episode! This wasn't as long as any of the previous ones, true, but a lot of important things had to happen. Also, bickering! We can't have Root and Mulch in the same picture without bickering. Anyway, the next one is lengthy, and as a thank you for bearing with my infrequent updates, will have the slightest touch of A/H and some subtle R/V as well.
Next up; Freaks, caverns and the horrifying side of a beautiful island as we hit yet another climax and dangle over terrible heights.
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