The Lost Colony

The fifth book in the Artemis Fowl series follows Artemis Fowl, a fourteen-year-old Irish criminal genius, and his bodyguard, Butler, as they become entangled in a crisis involving the Eighth Family of fairies: the demons. In the world of the series, fairies of various species live hidden underground in a technologically advanced civilization, while humans remain largely unaware of their existence. The demons, however, are trapped in a parallel dimension called Limbo. Ten thousand years ago, their warlocks cast a time spell to lift their island of Hybras out of time, but the spell went wrong, killing the warlocks and stranding the demons. Now the spell is deteriorating, and demons occasionally flicker into the human world for seconds at a time.

Artemis has been using stolen fairy data and his own calculations to predict where demons might materialize. On a Barcelona sidewalk, a demon appears, grabs Artemis, and pulls him into a temporal rift. Butler anchors them to the present thanks to a silver bracelet, since silver tethers beings to their home dimension. Artemis returns safely, though his fingers swap positions during transit. He notices a blond girl and two companions who, unlike the panicking crowd, run toward the site.

In Haven City, the underground fairy capital, Holly Short, an elf and former captain of the Lower Elements Police (LEP), works as a struggling private investigator with Mulch Diggums, a kleptomaniac dwarf. Holly quit the LEP after her mentor, Commander Julius Root, was killed, and his replacement accused her of the murder. Wing Commander Vinyáya recruits Holly into Section Eight, a covert LEP division that monitors demon activity. Foaly, the centaur technical consultant, briefs Holly: Artemis was present at the Barcelona materialization, and her mission is to contact him and learn how he predicts these events.

On Hybras, an imp called N°1 endures mockery as the oldest un-warped imp in the demon pride, having never undergone the violent transformation called warping. Leon Abbot, the pride's self-proclaimed leader, rules through intimidation and a book he claims to have stolen from humans, Lady Heatherington Smythe's Hedgerow, which the demons treat as scripture. During a classroom exercise, N°1 inadvertently turns a heated meat skewer to stone, evidence of warlock magic. Abbot suppresses the discovery and uses a compelling voice to suggest N°1 go to the volcano crater. There, a mysterious force compels N°1 to remove his silver bangle, the anchor tethering him to Hybras, and he dematerializes.

At the Bellini Theatre in Sicily, where Artemis predicts the next materialization, Holly arrives in Section Eight gear and Butler spots the same blond girl from Barcelona. N°1 materializes on stage, but one of the girl's companions fires a silver-tipped tranquilizer dart into his leg, anchoring and sedating him. A rigged lamp explodes, a trapdoor drops the demon to accomplices below, and the girl departs with her captive, acknowledging Artemis by name.

Holly follows the abductors by train. Foaly identifies the girl as Minerva Paradizo, a twelve-year-old French prodigy. One of her companions is Billy Kong, a dangerous mercenary whose obsession with demons stems from childhood: His brother told him fabricated stories about fighting demons, and when the brother was killed by gang members, Kong became convinced demons were responsible. The group tracks N°1 to the fortified Paradizo chateau in southern France.

Artemis orchestrates an infiltration. Mulch tunnels into the estate while Doodah Day, a pixie smuggler recruited with the promise of amnesty, plants a device on the security system, giving Foaly full surveillance access. Holly allows herself to be captured to gather intelligence from inside. Using the mesmer, a fairy hypnotic power, she extracts information from Kong, learning he plans to send a bomb to Hybras to destroy the demons. She escapes and knocks Kong unconscious. Meanwhile, N°1 discovers he can instantly speak any language, confirming his warlock nature. Minerva reveals that Abbot was the Paradizos' first captive two years earlier and that Lady Heatherington Smythe's Hedgerow is a trashy romance novel. Abbot had been manipulating the demons with fabricated knowledge.

Holly rescues N°1 while Artemis distracts Minerva by phone and Foaly projects phantom soldiers onto the chateau's security monitors. They escape, but through the feed, they watch Kong stage a violent coup, taking the Paradizo family hostage. Artemis proposes a trade: his demon for Minerva, and plants Taipei 101 as the meeting point using the power of suggestion.

At Taipei 101, N°1 walks to Kong while Minerva walks to Artemis and Butler. N°1 carries the silver slug secretly removed from his leg. When Kong reveals his plan to strap a bomb onto N°1 and send him to Hybras, N°1 drops the slug and vanishes into the time tunnel. Holly, hovering invisibly above a massive silver-plated pendulum inside the building, watches N°1 rematerialize at its summit, as Artemis predicted the large silver mass would cause, and clamps a bracelet on his wrist, anchoring him. Artemis leads the group to an art gallery on the 40th floor, where stone figures he recognizes as petrified demon warlocks are on display. N°1 channels his magic and revives the elder warlock Qwan, though the other warlocks are dead.

Kong's men breach the gallery. Holly absorbs a grenade blast with her helmet, shattering her legs, and a bomb is handcuffed to her wrist. Holly's wings carry Artemis, N°1, Qwan, and the bomb out the window, but the weight is too great. As they plummet, Artemis rips off N°1's silver bracelet, and a portal swallows them into the demon dimension. Butler and Minerva stay behind; Butler ensures Kong's arrest by revealing his real identity to the police.

On Hybras, the group materializes in the volcano crater with the bomb. Artemis has stolen fairy magic during transit through the time tunnel. Qwan explains that reversing the spell requires five magical beings and an energy source. They have four participants: Qwan, N°1, Holly, and Artemis. They need Abbot, who has maintained power for centuries by mesmerizing the demon council with stolen warlock magic. Qwan confronts Abbot publicly, revealing he sabotaged the original spell.

As the island disintegrates, a time surge allows Abbot to stab Holly with an enchanted sword, killing her and striking down Qwan and N°1. Artemis, who has been counting the pattern of time surges, fires Holly's weapon during a brief backward time jump. The blast strikes Abbot before he can attack, and the murders are undone. Holly stuns Abbot and drags him into a magic circle. Inside Abbot's mind, Qweffor, Qwan's apprentice warlock absorbed into Abbot during the original catastrophe, awakens and contributes his magic. The bomb explodes; Qwan converts its energy into magic, and the entire island dematerializes from Limbo.

They materialize on Earth. Artemis and Holly discover they have swapped one eye each during transit. N°1 forces Abbot's consciousness into dormancy, giving Qweffor permanent control of the body. Foaly arrives with a fairy operation that conceals the island's return, rescues the demons, and sinks the island before humans notice. The group learns they have been gone nearly three years.

Artemis reunites with Butler, who has been living in a coastal cottage, waiting faithfully for three years. Butler reveals that Artemis's parents have been devastated by his disappearance. Artemis discovers he retained stolen magic and considers using it to ease their pain. Butler delivers a final revelation: During those three years, Artemis's mother gave birth to twins, Myles and Beckett, making Artemis a big brother.