Too far gone. He’s too far gone.
Artemis’s face was pale as bone. His long black hair was matted with blood, and the whites of his eyes were twin crescents through hooded lids.
“Mother,” he said, the word riding on a breath.
Holly reached out her hands, magic already dancing on her fingertips, shooting off in arcs like tiny sun flares.
She froze before the magic could make the jump to Artemis’s body.
If I heal Artemis will I also damn him? Is my magic tainted with Spelltropy?
Artemis thrashed weakly, and Holly could actually hear bones grating in his sleeve. There was blood on his lips too.
He will die if I don’t help. At least if I heal him, there is a chance.
Holly’s hands were shaking, and her eyes were blurred with tears.
Pull yourself together. You are a professional.
She didn’t feel very professional. She felt like a girl out of her depth.
Your body is playing tricks on your mind. Ignore it.
Holly cupped Artemis’s face gently in both hands.
“Heal,” she whispered, almost sobbing.
The magical sparks leaped like dogs unleashed, sinking into Artemis’s pores, knitting bones, healing skin, staunching internal bleeding.
The sudden transition from death’s door to hale and hearty was rough on Artemis. He shuddered and bucked, teeth chattering, hair frizzing in an electric halo.
“Come on, Artemis,” said Holly, bending over him like a mourner. “Wake up.”
There was no reaction for several seconds. Artemis looked like a healthy corpse, but then that was how he usually looked. Then his mismatched eyes opened, lids flickering like hummingbird wings as his system rebooted. He coughed and shuddered, flexing fingers and toes.
“Holly,” he said when his vision had cleared. His smile was sincere and grateful. “You saved me again.”
Holly was laughing and crying at the same time, tears spilling onto Artemis’s chest.
“Of course I saved you,” she said. “I couldn’t do without you.” And because she was happy and flushed with magic, Holly leaned down and kissed Artemis, magic sparking around the contact like tiny fireworks.
*
Ten-year-old Artemis Fowl was keeping one eye on the drama unfolding in the gorilla cage.
“Troglodytes gorilla,” he commented to Butler. “Given the name by Dr. Thomas S. Savage, an American missionary to western Africa, who first scientifically described the gorilla in 1847.”
“You don’t say,” murmured the bodyguard, who was more interested in the brute’s bite radius than its proper name.
They had used the commotion as cover to slip out from the artificial hide and across the small courtyard to the lemur’s cage, which was beside the gorilla’s.
The strange newcomers were far too busy to notice them swipe the cage’s key-card lock and open the gate door.
“Look at those two. Wasting time. You wouldn’t catch me doing that.”
Butler snorted, as he usually did immediately before delivering a deadpan line. “Most people never catch you doing anything, Artemis.”
Artemis allowed himself a chuckle. This was an interesting day, and he was enjoying the challenges that it presented.
“And there we are,” said Artemis quietly. “The last silky sifaka lemur in the world. The hundred-thousand-euro primate.”
The lemur was perched high in a Madagascar palm, clinging to the branches with its long grasping toes and opposable thumb digits. Its coat was snow white with a brown patch on the chest.
Artemis pointed at the animal. “That coloring results from chest scent-marking with the sternal-gular gland.”
“Uh-huh,” said Butler, who cared slightly less about this than he did about the gorilla’s scientific name. “Let’s just grab the animal and get out of here before our friends next door regroup.”
“I think we have a moment or two,” said Artemis.
Butler studied the strangers in the adjacent cage. It was surprising that the male was not in pieces by now, but somehow the female had appeared from nowhere and chased the gorilla off. Impressive. That one had a few tricks up her sleeve. There was serious technology behind her. Perhaps some kind of camouflage software in the clothing, which would explain the sparks. The Americans, he knew, were developing an all-terrain camouflage suit. One of his military contacts had sent him a link to a leaked video on the Internet.