The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl 5)

“Qwan!” said Abbot, obviously amazed. “You’re alive? I thought the warlocks were all dead.”

“Except the one that helped you,” said No1, before he could stop himself.

Abbot took a step back. “Well, yes. Except that one.”

Qwan closed his fist and the monkey disappeared. “I know you,” he said slowly, searching for the memories. “You were at Taillte. You were a dissenter.”

Abbot drew himself up. “That’s right. I am Abbot the dissenter. We never should have come here. We should have met the humans head-on. The warlocks betrayed us!” He leveled his sword at Qwan. “You betrayed us!”

The other demons growled and rattled their weapons.

Abbot took a moment to study the other members of the group.

“A human! That’s a human. You have brought the enemy to our door. How long before the rest of them follow in their metal birds?”

“Metal birds?” said Artemis in Gnommish. “What metal birds? All we have are crossbows, remember?”

There followed a collective ooh, as the demons realized that this human spoke their language, albeit with an accent.

Abbot decided to change the subject. This boy was picking holes in his story. “And you brought an elf, too, warlock. Armed with a magical weapon. The elves betrayed us at Taillte!”

Qwan was getting bored by all this posturing. “I know, everybody betrayed you at Taillte. Why don’t you give the order you’re working up to? You want us dead. Give the order and see if our brother demons will attack the only being who can save them.”

Abbot realized that he was on very dangerous ground. This poisonous little bunch had to be dealt with. Quickly and permanently.

“You want to die so much? So be it, you can die.” He pointed his sword at the small group, and was on the verge of roaring Kill them or perhaps Death to the traitors, when Qwan snapped his fingers. He did this in a very showy way, setting off a magical mini explosion.

“I remember you now. Your name isn’t Abbot. You’re N’zall, the idiot who ruined the time spell. But you seem different. Those red markings.”

Abbot flinched as if struck. A few of the older demons sniggered. Abbot’s demon name wasn’t brought up very much. Abbot was a little embarrassed by it, not surprising since N’zall meant little horn in the old demon cant.

“It is you, N’zall. It’s all coming back to me now. You and that other moron, Bludwin, you were against the time spell. You wanted to fight it out with the humans.”

“I still do,” roared Abbot, overcompensating after the mention of his true name.“There’s one right here. We can start with him.”

Qwan was angry now, for the first time since he’d come back to life. “We had it all worked out. We had a circle of seven—in the volcano, the lava was rising, and everything was under control, then you and Bludwin hopped out from behind a rock and broke the circle.”

Abbot’s laugh was hollow. “This never happened. You have been away too long, warlock. You have gone mad.”

Qwan’s eyes burned with blue sparks, and magic rippled along the length of his arms. “I have been a statue for ten thousand years because of you.”

“Nobody believes a word of this, warlock.”

“I believe it,” said No1. And there were some in the demon camp who believed it, too. It was in their eyes.

“You tried to murder the warlocks!” continued Qwan accusingly. “There was some commotion, and Bludwin went into the volcano. His energy tainted the spell. Then you dragged my apprentice, Qweffor, into the lava, too. Both of you went in. I saw it.” Qwan frowned, trying to piece it all together. “But you didn’t die. You didn’t die because the spell had already started. The magic transported you away before the lava could melt your bones. But where did Qweffor go? Where did you go?”

No1 knew the answer to that question. “He went into the future. He told our secrets to the humans in exchange for one of their storybooks and an ancient weapon from a museum.”

Abbot pointed the sword at him. “I was going to let you live, impling.”

No1 felt a knot of rage in his stomach. “Like you let me live the last time. You told me to jump into the crater. You mesmerized me!”

Abbot was in a tough spot. He could order the council to attack, but that would leave many questions unanswered, and he couldn’t mesmerize everybody. But if he let Qwan keep talking, every one of his secrets could be exposed. What he needed was some time to think. Unfortunately, time was something he did not have. He would have to use his wits and weapons to get out of this situation.

“I mesmerized you? Don’t be ridiculous. Demons don’t have magic. We abhor magic.” Abbot shook his head in disbelief. “What am I even doing explaining myself to a runt like you. Shut your mouth, No1, or I’ll stitch it shut and throw you into the volcano.”

Qwan did not appreciate his new apprentice being threatened.

“I have had enough of you, N’zall. You would threaten warlocks? No1, as you call him, has more power inside him than you will ever have.”

Abbot laughed. “For once you are right, old warlock. I have no power inside me. Not a single spark of magic. What I do have is the power of my fist, and the strength of the pride behind me.”

Artemis was growing tired of this bickering. “We don’t have time for this,” he said, stepping out from behind Qwan. “The time spell is unraveling, and we need to make preparations for the journey home. For that journey, we need all the magic we can get. Including yours, N’zall or Abbot or whatever your name is.”

“I don’t argue with humans,” growled Abbot. “But if I did, I might repeat that I don’t have any magic.”

“Oh, come on,” scoffed Artemis. “I know the side effects of the mesmer. Including ragged pupils and bloodshot eyes. Some of your friends here have been mesmerized so much they barely have pupils anymore.”

“And where did I get this magic?”

“You stole it in the time tunnel. I imagine you and Qweffor were literally melted together by the combination of lava and magic. When you emerged in Earth’s recent past, you managed to hold on to some warlock magic.”

This was a bit of a stretch for everyone present. Abbot realized that he wouldn’t need the mesmer to convince anybody that the human’s theory was ridiculous. He could destroy this human’s argument before destroying the human.

Abbot made a great show of scoffing at Artemis. He did the whole big tribe leader bit, running his nails along the curves of his horns and barking out short bursts of laughter. Pretty soon, almost everyone else was laughing along.

“So, human,” said Abbot, when the furor had died down. “I stole magic in the time tunnel. You must be losing your mind, Mud Boy. Maybe that’s because I’m about to order my imps to skin your bones and suck the marrow from them. Even if that were possible, how would you know? How would a human know?” And Abbot grinned smugly, certain that no satisfactory answer could possibly be forthcoming.

Artemis Fowl grinned right back at him and pointed his index finger at the sky. Actually, it was his middle finger, due to the time tunnel switch. From the tip of this finger sprang a small blue spark that exploded like a tiny firework.

“I know magic can be stolen,” said Artemis. “Because I stole some myself.”

This piece of melodrama was greeted by a moment of stunned silence, then Qwan cackled loudly.

“I said you were smart, Mud Boy. I was wrong; you are exceptional. Even in the time tunnel you were plotting. Stole a little magic, did you?”

Artemis shrugged, closing his fingers on the sparks. “It was floating around. I wondered what would happen if I embraced it.”

Qwan squinted at him. “Now you know. You are changed. A magical creature like us. I hope you will use your gift wisely.”

“Just what we n

eed,” moaned Holly. “Artemis Fowl with magical powers.”

“I believe that if we count Mr. N’zall here, that makes five magical beings. Enough to reverse the time spell.”

Abbot was sunk and he knew it. The other demons were looking at him curiously, wondering if he had been manipulating them magically. Even a few of the mesmerized council were struggling to shake off their mental chains. It was only a matter of minutes before his dreams of kingship floated forever out of his reach.

There was only one option left to him.

“Kill them all!” he roared, not quite as fiercely as he would have liked. “Imps, you have free rein.”

The mesmerized council members lurched into action, not quite as graceful in battle as they would normally be. The imps were so delighted to be given a chance to kill something with only two legs that they barged forward with unconfined glee.

“Blood and guts!” howled one, and they all took up the cry. It was not particularly eloquent, but it got the message across.

Holly was not particularly worried. Her Neutrino could fire as fast as she could aim, and with a wide-beam setting she could stun the entire line of demons before they could do any damage. In theory.

She elbowed Artemis aside, took a stand, and began firing. The beams erupted from the pistol in a spreading cone pattern, blasting the demons off their feet and keeping them down for at least ten minutes. Except for the ones that were getting back up immediately. Which seemed to be most of them. Even the imps were shaking off the blasts as if they were mere gusts of wind.

Holly frowned. This should not be happening. And she didn’t dare raise the setting for fear of doing permanent damage. Something she would not risk under any circumstances.

“Qwan?” she said. “My beam’s not having much effect. Any ideas?”

Holly knew that warlocks weren’t much use in combat situations. It was against their credo to harm, and they would only do so in the most dire situations. By the time Qwan overcame his pacifist nature, it would be too late.

While Qwan scratched his chin, Holly kept firing. Each pulse brought down a bunch of demons, but they were back on their feet in seconds.