Artemis Fowl and the Master Experimentation

Chapter 11

Artemis found himself in a larger still cavern, the Skrix still moving swiftly through the darkness that shrouded this underground world. Up ahead he saw a large gathering of the creatures, all glowing brightly, all eyes turned upon him. They parted as he came close, all were about a metre tall, all hunched shouldered and long tailed. They watched him as he moved amongst them to the centre of their gathering where the great, glowing blue stone sat nestled in a nest of smooth black pebbles, all the same size,  that had been carefully gathered and placed there. Beside it was the Skrix that had shown him the stone first, its eyes glittering with excitement. 

"Welcome home," it said to him scratchily.

Artemis looked around himself and relaxed a little, it was home.

"You returned. You have come to guide," it said, gesturing towards the great blue stone. 

"Guide what?" Artemis asked the hunched Skrix.

"The Lost Ones."

"He's gone," said one of the fairies about the monitors to the Master.

"Of course he's gone, we saw him on the camera's leave his cell," growled the Master.

"No, sir, he's dropped from the radar. We can't find his tracker."

"What?" he demanded.

He came up behind the scared sprite and glared at the monitor, his eyes narrowing.

"What was his last known position?" he snarled.

"Inside Fowl manor," replied the quivering sprite, "his signal faded and then died."

"There are three possible events, then," said the Master, pacing the wide space of the room, "one, the most unlikely, he's found a place that we can't find him and all our technology is rendered useless. Two, also unlikely, they found the locator and it was destroyed, which wouldn't account for it petering out and then disappearing. Third and final, most likely option. There was a glitch in the tracker and it died. But we can't risk this. At moon rise we move in, do we still have a human?"

"Yes, sir," said a gnome at another monitor, "we still have Faylinn Hayze in isolation."

Faylinn felt as though she'd been here an eternity. This small room with its white washed walls oppressed her, giving her senses nothing, making her mind sluggish and her body unresponsive. All she could think of was how she'd helped this happen to Artemis.

She was starting to gain memories more these last few hours of who she was, what she was. The utilisation of the Void Space on her had made her forget who she was. The memories of thousands and the feelings of others had made her almost totally forget. Her mother had been a short women with a mane of golden hair, like a lion and glittering dark eyes that spoke of secrets. She never knew her father, but her mother had told her that she, Faylinn, was part of a world more magical than she'd even known. All she had to do was stay out of the fairy circles, otherwise she wouldn't be able to escape. She'd been far too curious. If only she hadn't done what she had. 

She remembered something her mother had said that she hadn't really thought upon at the time.

"You are the last of your blood in the line. Your father is to blame. Blue blood. Damn him in whatever hell he's in now."

Her mother had often cursed her father, but she'd never understood why. Had he left them? Was he dead? She just didn't know and daren't ask. 

There were footsteps and the sound of a key card being swiped, then the door flew open, revealing a pair of sprite guards who smirked at her evilly.