I am not physically fit, thought Artemis. And it may cost me dearly. I need to exercise more than my brain in future. If I have a future.
The temple loomed above them, a scale model but still over fifteen metres high. Dozens of identical columns rising into the holographic clouds supported a triangular roof decorated with intricate plaster mouldings. The columns lower regions were scarred by a thousand claw marks where younger trolls had scampered out of harms way. Artemis and Holly clambered up the twenty or so steps to the columns themselves.
Fortunately, there were no trolls on the scaffolding. All the animals were busy trying to kill each other or avoid being killed, but it would be only a matter of seconds before they remembered that there were intruders in their midst. Fresh meat. Not many of the trolls had tasted elf meat, but those who had were eager to try it again. Only one of the present gathering had tasted human meat, and the memory of its sweetness still haunted his dull brain at night.
It was this particular troll who hauled himself from the river, carrying ten extra kilos of moisture weight. He casually cuffed a cub who had come too close, and sniffed the air. There was a new scent here. A scent he could remember from his short time under the moon. The scent of man. The mere recognition of the smell brought saliva flowing from the glands in his throat. He set off at a pitched run towards the Temple. Soon a rough group of flesh-hungry beasts was hurtling towards the scaffolding.
Were back on the menu, noted Holly when she reached the scaffolding.
Artemis unhooked his fingers from the LEP captains belt. He would have answered, but his lungs demanded oxygen. He whooped in gulps of air, resting his knuckles on his knees.
Holly took his elbow. No time for that, Artemis. You. have to climb.
After you, Artemis managed to gasp. He knew his father would never allow a lady to remain in distress while he himself fled.
No time for discussion, said Holly, steering Artemis by the elbow. Climb for the sun. Ill buy us a few seconds with the tele-pod. Go.
Artemis looked into Hollys eyes to say thank you. They were round and hazel and familiar? Memories fought to be free of their bonds, pounding against cell walls.
Holly? he said.
Holly spun him round to the bars, and the moment was gone. Up. Youre wasting time.
Artemis marshalled his exhausted limbs, trying to co-ordinate his movements. Step, grab, pull. It should be easy enough. Hed climbed ladders before. One ladder at least. Surely.
The scaffold bars were coated with gripped rubber, especially for climbers, and were spaced precisely forty centimetres apart, the comfortable reach distance of the average fairy. Also, coincidentally, the comfortable reach of a fourteen-year-old human. Artemis started to climb, feeling the strain in his arms before he had risen six steps. It was too early to be tired yet. There was too far to go.
Come on, Captain, he gasped over his shoulder. Climb.
Not just yet, said Holly. She had her back to the scaffold and was trying to find some pattern in the approaching bunches of trolls.
There had been an in-service course on troll attacks in Police Plaza. But that had been on the basis of a one-on-one situation. To Hollys eternal embarrassment, the lecturer had used video footage of her own tangle with a troll in Italy over two years previously. Here, the lecturer had said, freezing Hollys image in the big screen and rapping it with a telescopic pointer, is a classic example of how not to do it.
This was a completely different scenario. They had never received instruction on what to do when attacked by an entire pack of trolls in their own habitat. No one, the instructors reasoned, would be that stupid.
There were two converging groups coming straight towards her, the one from the river led by a veritable monster with anaesthetic venom dripping from both tusks. Holly knew that if one drop of that venom got under her skin, she would fall into a happy stupor. And even if she escaped the trolls claws, the slow poison would eventually paralyse her.
The second group approached from the western ridge, composed mainly of latecomers and cubs. There were a few females in the centre of the temple itself, but they were using the distraction to pick meat from abandoned carcasses.