First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019
Published in this ebook edition in 2019
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Text copyright © Eoin Colfer 2019
Cover illustration © Petur Antonsson
Cover design copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Eoin Colfer asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
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Source ISBN: 9780008324810
Ebook Edition © November 2019 ISBN: 9780008324834
Version: 2019-10-03
For my sons, Finn and Seán, who are neither twins nor foul
Contents
Prologue
7. Who Put the Dam in Amsterdam?
16. The Most Powerful Gull in Cornwall
THERE ARE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE world.
Surely you realise that what you know is not everything there is to know. In spite of humankind’s ingenuity, there are shadows too dark for your species to fully illuminate. The very mantle of our planet is one example; the ocean floor is another. And in these shadows we live. The Hidden Ones. The magical creatures who have removed ourselves from the destructive human orbit. Once, we fairies ruled the surface as humans do currently, as bacteria will in the future, but for now we are content for the most part to exist in our underground civilisation. For ten thousand years, fairies have used magic and technology to shield ourselves from prying eyes, and to heal the beleaguered Earth mother, Danu. We fairies have a saying that is writ large in golden tiles on the altar mosaic of the Hey Hey Temple, and the saying is this: WE DIG DEEP AND WE ENDURE.
But there is always one maverick who does not care a fig for fairy mosaics and is hell-bent on reaching the surface. Usually this maverick is a troll. And, specifically in this case, the maverick is a troll who will shortly and for a ridiculous reason be named Whistle Blower.
For here begins the second documented cycle of Fowl Adventures.
THE BADDIE: LORD TEDDY BLEEDHAM-DRYE, THE DUKE OF SCILLY
IF A PERSON WANTS TO MURDER ANY member of a family, then it is very important that the entire family also be done away with, or the distraught survivors might very well decide to take bloody revenge, or at least make a detailed