Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl. The Lost Colony

'Do they believe you?'

Butler shrugged. 'Some days they do. Mostly my fairy stories just add to their pain. They think I've been driven mad with guilt. And even though you're back, things will never be the same again. It would take a miracle to erase my stories, and their suffering.'

Artemis nodded slowly. A miracle. He lifted his hand. On the palm there was a slight graze from his climb over the quayside stile. Artemis concentrated and five blue sparks 376 of magic leaped from his fingertips and zeroed in on the graze, wiping it out like a cloth wiping dirt. He had more magic left than he had pretended.

'Maybe we can arrange a miracle.'

Butler was beyond further amazement. 'That's a new trick,' he said laconically.

'I picked up a little more than an eye in the time tunnel.'

'I see,' said Butler. 'Just don't do it around the twins.'

'Don't worry,' said Artemis. 'I won't.' Then his brain computed what

Butler had actually said.

'What twins?'

Butler punched in the Fowl Manor phone number, smiling. 'Maybe time stood still for you, big brother, but it didn't for the rest of us.'

Artemis stumbled to the room's only chair and sank into it.

Big brother? he thought, and then. .

Twins!

2006 yaer