“You healed my mother. Healed her and damned her.”
Holly took a step back, raising her palms as though to ward off blows.
“Me? I . . . What are you saying?”
Artemis was committed to the lie now, and covered his guilt with a sudden burst of anger.
“You healed my mother after the siege. You must have given her Spelltropy.”
Foaly came to his friend’s defense. “Not possible, that healing was years ago. Spelltropy has a three-month incubation period, and it never varies by more than a few days.”
“And it never affects humans,” Artemis countered. “This is a new strain. You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
Holly’s face was slack with shock and guilt. She believed Artemis’s words, though Artemis himself knew that he must have given his mother the disease when he adjusted her memory.
Father must have it too. Who gave it to me? And why am I not sick?
There were so many puzzles, but now was not the time to unravel them. Now he needed to find the antidote, and to ensure fairy aid, he must play on their supposed guilt in this matter.
“But I’m clean,” protested Holly. “I was tested.”
“Then you must be a carrier,” said Artemis flatly. He turned his gaze on the centaur’s image. “That’s possible, isn’t it?”
Foaly was taken aback by Artemis’s bluntness. “If this truly is a new strain, then yes, it’s possible,” he admitted. “But you can’t draw any conclusions from supposition . . .”
“Normally I would agree. Normally I would have the luxuries of time and objectivity. But my mother is dying, and so I have neither. I must go back to save the lemur, and you are honorbound to help me, and if you won’t help, then at least you must promise not to hinder my efforts.”
The fairies were silent. Holly was lost in thought about what she might have done. Foaly was racking his considerable brain for responses to Artemis’s arguments. He found none.
Holly removed her helmet and walked awkwardly to Angeline Fowl’s bedside. Her legs felt strangely numb and the feeling was spreading.
“My mother died—poisoned by humans. It was an accident, but that didn’t keep her alive.” Tears dripped from her eyes. “I wanted to hunt those men down. I hated them.” Holly wrung her hands. “I’m sorry, Artemis. I didn’t know. How many others have I infected? You must hate me.”
Take it back, thought Artemis. Tell the truth now or your friendship can never be the same. Then, No. Be strong. Mother must live.
“I don’t hate you, Holly,” said Artemis softly. I hate myself, but the deception must continue. “Of course none of this is your fault, but you must let me go back.”
Holly nodded, then wiped her brimming eyes. “I will do more than let you go, I will escort you. A sharp pair of eyes and a quick gun hand will prove useful.”
“No, no, no,” shouted Foaly, increasing the screen’s volume with each negative. “We can’t simply alter the past whenever we feel like it. Perhaps Holly should save her mother, or bring Commander Julius Root back from the dead! This is totally unacceptable.”
Artemis pointed a finger at him. “This is a unique situation,” he said. “You have a plague about to erupt, and we can stop it here. Not only that, but you can reintroduce a species that was thought to be extinct. I may have caused one lemur to die, but Opal Koboi gathered the rest together for the lightning fire. The People are as guilty as I am. You harvested a living creature’s brain fluid to save yourselves.”
“We . . . we were desperate,” argued Foaly, horrified that he would actually stutter.
“Exactly,” said Artemis triumphantly. “You were willing to do anything. Remember how that felt, and ask yourself if you want to go through it again.”
Foaly dropped his gaze, thinking back. That time had been a waking nightmare for the fairies. The use of magic had been suspended, and the lemurs were already extinct by the time a court order forced Opal to reveal the source of her antidote. He had worked sleeplessly to develop an alternative cure, but without success.
“We thought we were invincible. The only disease left was man.” The centaur made up his mind. “The lemur must be alive,” he stated. “The brain fluid can be stored for brief periods, but once it becomes inert, the fluid is useless. I was developing a charged container but . . .”
“This time you will succeed,” Artemis assured him. “You will have a live subject and laboratory conditions. You can clone a female.”
“Cloning is illegal, generally,” mused Foaly. “But in extinction cases, exceptions have been made. . . .”
Holly’s helmet beeped, drawing her attention to a craft landing in the driveway. She hurried to the window in time to see a slight shimmer cast a shadow on the moonlit driveway.
It must be a rookie pilot, thought Holly crossly. He hasn’t activated his shadow lights.