The Last Phoenix (10 page)

T
he Brothers of the Sun Bird chased after the children, dark figures against the bright landscape, drawing closer like swift shadows. Michael's mouth was parched and his arm was still throbbing. He and the others ran back into the bustling streets of the city, turning this way and that down the crooked alleys until finally they came up against a dense crowd of people blocking their way like a living wall. Glancing behind them they saw to their relief that they seemed to have lost their pursuers.

“Rest a sec,” croaked Michael, slumping against a wall.

“Let's check the map,” panted Jason. “See if we can find Bab Zuweila.”

“Why are those men still chasing us?” Milly gasped.

“They think Jess is the golden-haired girl in the prophecy written in phoenix ash, remember?” Michael winced as his calves began to cramp. “They reckon she can talk to the phoenix, command her to weave gold and stuff.”

“What?” Jess looked down at the sweet-smelling charcoal chunks in her hand, appalled. “The priest said they were making ink, and I saw them add nest ash to the mixture…” She swallowed back tears. “But if they think I'm a girl from a prophecy they'll
never
stop chasing me, wherever we go.”

Jason scanned the parchment. “I can't see any gates on this map!”

“You don't need to.” Milly was looking at the crowd of people in front of them. The Egyptians were chattering and pointing up at a tall stone tower that was built like a miniature castle. She glimpsed a glint of gold right at the very top. “I—I think that must be it right in front of us!”

Michael staggered back up and gasped. “And look, there's Fenella!”

Jess and Jason craned their necks. Sure enough, Michael was right—a squat golden bird was perched right at the top of the tower, staring out at the first pink wisps of sunset.

“But how are we going to speak to her?” said Milly desperately. “She'll never see us over these crowds.”

“And she wouldn't recognize us even if she did,” Jess pointed out. “She hasn't met us yet.”

“
Fenella!
” Jason yelled at the top of his lungs, and Milly joined in. A few people glanced back at them with irritated expressions, then returned their gaze to the incredible
creature on the gate tower.

Michael sifted through some pebbles in the dusty ground and selected some small ones. Then he started lobbing them up at the tower. “Oi! Bird!” One pebble struck the tower beside her but went unnoticed. “Come on, I just need one clear shot…” Weighing the largest pebble he had left in one hand, he hurled it at the phoenix.

And cracked her right on the head!

“He shoots, he scores!” yelled Michael, as the young Fenella squawked and fluttered up into the air.

The phoenix hovered in midair for a few moments, silhouetted against the setting sun, a beautiful, unearthly sight. Then she swooped down toward Michael, talons outstretched!

“Ow!” yelled Michael as she gripped hold of his shoulders and slung him to the dusty ground. “Get off, you dumb bird!” He tried to push away the furious phoenix. But already the chattering crowd of people were surrounding them. Milly and Jess were knocked over in a flurry of flailing limbs—and as Jess fell, the precious ash was jarred from her hand. “No!” she yelled, reaching out for it. But in seconds, sandaled feet had trampled it into the dust.

The phoenix rose into the air again, taking off in a flurry of feathers. The crowd surged after her, back toward the huge arched gateway.

Milly stared up to the pink-hued sky. The golden bird was fast disappearing from sight. “She's leaving!”

“We blew it.” Jess scrutinized the dusty ground, but there was no trace of blackness there. “And I lost the ash.”

Jason gulped suddenly, looking behind her. “But the Brothers of the Sun have found
us
.”

Jess whirled round to see the priest himself standing at the end of the street, his twenty-strong band of black-and-gold brothers behind him.

“I can't run anymore,” groaned Milly. “I just can't.”

“Use your Game Boy, Michael,” Jess urged.

“No time for playing,” Michael told her. “It's time to fly.” He held up the feather again. “Everyone grab hold. One last try.”

“But it won't work,” Milly said in tears. “We
know
it doesn't work.”

“It might this time,” said Michael. “Do it!”

The priest and his Brothers walked menacingly toward them. Jason, Milly, and Jess all reached out and held the feather.

“
Time before us, take us on,”
said Michael. “Back to the day we left!”

A golden light started to spark around Jess's vision. Was it sunstroke or was it…

“Magic,” she breathed, as a familiar weightlessness started to tingle through her body. She saw the band of Sun Bird Brothers gasp and fall to their knees, saw the priest's deep, determined eyes as he broke into a run, reaching out for her…

“Too late!” she shouted, as with a thrill of exhilaration she felt herself fading away. The priest lunged for her but touched nothing but dust as he fell on his face.

“So long, suckers!” Michael yelled, and Jason and Milly whooped with delight as they too felt themselves spiral away. Jess's final glimpse of Cairo was of the priest, his dark eyes fixed on her, his lips curling in a cruel and knowing smile….

The next moment, with a lurch, the four of them found themselves back in Mr. Milton's workshop. Through the windows, the sky was tinged red with the coming sunset.

“Just in time,” whispered Jason as the four of them collapsed in a sweaty heap. “I've got a can of lemonade in my bag.”

“Gimme,” Michael ordered. Within seconds, the can had been opened, passed round and drained dry.

Suddenly the kiln door was pushed open and a familiar golden beak stuck out. “You're back!” Fenella said, hopping over to her usual place on the workbench. “Oh, my little turtledoves, look at the state of you!”

Milly clambered up and hugged the bird around the neck, but the heat was too much for her and she had to step back. Fenella clucked apologetically. “Whatever happened, lovies?”

“That's what I want to know,” said Jess, wiping her eyes. “How did you do it, Michael? How come the feather worked this time?”

“Because this time it
wasn't
broken.” Michael passed her the feather. “See?”

Jess, Jason, and Milly looked down at the old, cold feather. Where it had broken before it was now bound with a glittering skein of gold.

“What's that?” Jess peered at it. “It's…another feather! A tiny one wrapped around it.”

Michael nodded to Fenella. “She shook a few loose when she was attacking me. The feather was hot and soft, sort of bendy, so I wrapped it around the feather and it just melted into the split. Fixed it.”

“Let me see that,” said Fenella. She clumsily pecked the feather out of Jess's palm. “Goodness, you broke the original! And you patched it up with one of my fledgling feathers, I'd recognize it anywhere. Yes, a young feather can easily jump-start an old one, though you did well to get hold of it…” She shook her head. “Hang on, though—you mean you saw my younger self? You met me as I was a
thousand-odd years ago, just reborn?”

“Um, yes,” Jason admitted. “I know you said we shouldn't. Sorry.”

“Michael hit you on the head with a stone,” said Jess.

“I was only trying to get your attention,” Michael protested.

Fenella frowned. “That was
you
? You were the little pest who conked me on the head when I was trying to commune with the setting sun!” She broke off, coughing.

“But we had to!” Jason stuck up for Michael. “The Brothers of the Sun Bird were after us and they'd broken the feather—”

“That bunch of fawning upstarts!” Fenella said between coughs. “Only after my lovely gold. Oh, and ash from my nest for their silly prophecies…”

“Ash.” Jess's mouth turned dry. “Oh, Fenella…in all the excitement of coming home, I…”

“Yes, lovie?” asked Fenella, looking at her with a hopeful smile. “You did get some ash, didn't you?”

Jess could feel herself turning red, and saw tears welling up in Milly's eyes.

“Yeah, course we did,” said Michael, reaching into his filthy tunic and pulling out several dark, crumbling lumps. “Here you go—is it enough?”

“Oh, my sweet little blue Indian ringneck parrot!”
The sight of the ash seemed to give Fenella a new burst of energy and she gave a jubilant squawk. “Ooooh, yes! Smell that myrrh! Ash from a phoenix nest is extremely potent, you know. Oh, thank you, thank you—a thousand million times, thank you!” She flapped over to Michael and started pecking him clumsily about the face, causing him to back away.

“Steady!” He grinned. “I'm still black and blue from when we tangled a thousand years ago!”

Jess stared at Michael as he deposited the ash safely on the workbench and dusted off his hands. “How did you manage to get it?” she asked.

“Fenella had just been reborn, hadn't she?” He smiled. “She must've been standing in that burned-up nest just a few hours earlier, 'cause her talons had big clods of ash stuck in them. When she attacked me, they came loose.”

“Oh, thank heavens!” Jess grabbed him in a hug. “And thank you, Michael. For coming to get me.”

Michael blushed and looked down. “Whatever.”

“The best and bravest of all boys!” said Fenella fervently.

Michael hastily backed away before she could start trying to kiss him again.

“Well, I guess we'd better be getting back,” said Jess,
as Fenella started to peck up the ash and put it in the kiln. “It's getting dark.”

Milly nodded. “And these things will have to be washed before I give them back tomorrow.”

Michael stared at them. “We've just survived the adventure of a lifetime and you're worried about the washing? We should be out partying!”

“I'm too tired to celebrate,” said Jess. “And it's school tomorrow.”

“Oh, yeah.” Michael's enthusiasm drained away. “I've just taken on a load of sword-swinging medieval madmen, but I can't tell my mates that, can I? And they all think my little stepbrother can beat me up.” He looked at the slice on his arm. “They'll probably say
you
did this, Jase!”

“And it's another day closer to exams,” Jess added.

“And I've got my school soccer challenge on Tuesday.” Jason groaned. “
And
your
Annie
audition is getting closer too, Milly.”

“So it is.” Milly looked down at her grubby trousers and sighed.

Fenella burst out coughing again and they all looked round. She sat on the countertop, looking drained after all the excitement.

“Fenella, are you okay?” Milly asked anxiously.

“I've told you, don't go worrying about me, my little
finch. I'll be just fine.” Fenella heaved a sigh. “But oh, you've had such a dreadful time. You've put yourself in such danger for me—and done it twice. I simply can't ask you to do any more. I can't ask you to risk your lives for a phoenix's foolish fancy. I forbid it!”

“No way!” said Michael. “We've got two things from your list and we're going to get the rest of it.” He looked at the others. “Aren't we?”

Jason, Jess, and Milly all nodded firmly.

“Peru and Mount Quamquangle, here we come!” said Jess.

“Bless you,” said Fenella fervently. “Well, in any case, you must come and find me after you've been to school. Have a lovely day.” She took a labored breath. “'Tis education forms the common mind!' Who said that? That old poet—Alexander Pope! Besotted with me, he was—silly old fool. I had to leave England and spend the rest of the eighteenth century in America.”

“You know so much about history,” said Jason.

Fenella smiled. “I've lived it, pet. Here, there, and yonder. The noble and notable have always had a knack of finding me…just look at you four!”

Jess cleared her throat. “Fenella, that ash we fetched will give your chick experience, right?”

The phoenix nodded. “So Skribble says, lovie.”

“Would it work on people?” Jess went on. “Would it make them…clever?”

“I suppose it might communicate some of the great wisdom I've gathered over the centuries to those with the right minds.” Fenella gathered herself and hopped into the kiln. “Now, good night, my kind, brave ducklings! Goodnight to you all…”

“Good night,” Jess murmured, lost in thought. And as the others said their farewells to the phoenix, she picked up the battered old feather from the workbench and studied its blackened tip.

Then she slipped it carefully up her sleeve, waved good-bye to Fenella, and left the workshop.

J
ess sighed and stared at her open history book. Now back in her bedroom at Moreways Meet, reading by the light from her desk lamp while Milly slept peacefully in the bed across the room, she could hardly believe that just a few hours ago she had been caught up in life-threatening danger in Egypt. Already it felt like a fading dream.
But it
was
real,
she thought, looking at the broken and dusty feather on her desk, and at the neat pile of costumes Milly had washed.

With a shiver, she remembered the final look the Sun Bird priest had given her. Such a knowing look in his dark, watchful eyes…

There is always one who watches,
Skribble had said.

“That priest is long gone,” she told herself firmly, and looked again at her history book:

John Hancock (1737–93) was president of the Continental Congress. He used his wealth to help finance the American Revolution.

Jess leaned her forehead on her hand. There was so much to learn. She had history first thing the next morning and her teacher, Mrs. Riley, was bound to give them a test. She always did.
I've hardly done any studying the last few days
. Jess hit her head with her fist. “Go in, go in,
go in
,” she muttered to the words on the page.

But they didn't. Instead, pictures of the crowded streets in Cairo filled her mind—the clothes people were wearing, the buildings, the sounds and smells.
Pity I'm not doing medieval Egypt in history,
she thought.

Her eyes glanced toward the feather again.
Maybe I could use it to go to America at the time of the Revolution…

She dismissed the idea immediately. Even if the repair held, the feather was probably almost out of time-puff by now.

Jess turned the feather slowly over in her hands, looking at the ashy tip that the priest had made ready to write with. If that ash was supposed to give the chick all Fenella's wisdom, perhaps it could do the same for her?

Excitement gathered in the pit of her stomach as she thought of everything Fenella must have seen in the last twenty thousand years.
If I knew all that,
thought Jess,
I'd get straight As on every history test!

She looked at the ash. She was so tempted. Just one
little taste and maybe she could have all Fenella's phoenix wisdom. Fenella said she'd been in America during the eighteenth century. Maybe she knew all about the Revolution…

Quickly, Jess licked the ash before she could change her mind.

For a split second all she thought was,
Ew, it tastes like grit!
But the next second a bright gold light seemed to explode inside her head. Pictures flashed through her mind, pictures of things Fenella had seen, people she had met—kings, sultans, and emperors. There were fields of corn, rivers, mountains, woods, a pyramid with a camel beside it…The haze of images continued—fields and forests, castles collapsing, the Eiffel Tower flinging girdered arms up to the sky, two armies fighting on a great muddy plain as she flew overhead.

Jess gasped and covered her eyes with her hands, but the pictures crowded into her head, flashing faster and faster—until suddenly, they stopped.

Jess slowly lowered her hands. Milly shifted slightly in her bed. The streetlights were shining in through a gap in the curtain.

Okay, I'm still here. I'm all right,
thought Jess with a feeling of relief.

She shook her head slightly. It felt strange. Almost as if
her mind went on and on, much deeper and much further than it had before.

Her eyes fell on the open book in front of her. As she looked at the picture of John Hancock—a tall man with a long nose, wearing a gray wig and a smart jacket with gold trim—a commentary seemed to start up in her head.
Ooooh, that John Hancock, now he was a nice man…
It sounded like Fenella, somehow speaking inside her mind!
Got me out of a tight spot with an overcurious raccoon. Everyone thought he had got his money from a smuggling uncle but little did they know about the phoenix gold that I gave him. I stayed with him quite awhile. The times we sat in his study as he practiced his signature for that Declaration of Independence document he was all in a tizzy about. Lovely, he was, proper lovely…

Jess caught her breath. This was seriously weird! She felt like she really
knew
John Hancock, just as Fenella had once done.
I bet I'll be able to answer any questions Mrs. Riley asks about him,
she thought in delight. She turned over the next page of her history book and read the chapter title: “The Battle of Bunker Hill.”

Oh dearie me, what a to-do there was about that!
Fenella's voice seemed to say.
There I was nesting quietly in a chestnut tree on a lovely sunny night in June and suddenly all these soldiers arrived, about to have a battle. Of
course when they spotted me, their leader, dear William Prescott, immediately paid me the full respect and reverence due to a phoenix and moved all those men to a different hill two thousand feet away. Bless them. The fighting that went on, though! Gave me quite a turn!

Jess broke off her thoughts, and the phoenix voice fell obligingly silent. “Amazing,” Jess breathed. But her history exam wasn't just going to be about things that Fenella might have seen or people she had met. There were often questions about long boring negotiations and treaties. How would the phoenix know about those?

Once again, it was almost as if she had Fenella in her head, tossing helpful memories her way.
Well, I remember sitting with that fine, upstanding man Benjamin Franklin, in 1783, talking about the Treaty of Paris and how he and his friends were about to sign it to end the war. I reminded him to make sure they could do their fishing up in Newfoundland. You can't beat a bit of cod from the seas around there. I do like a nice bit of fish now and then…

A grin spread across Jess's face.

“Brilliant,” she whispered.

 

“Bye, then,” Jess called to Jason and Milly, picking up her school bag and heading out of the kitchen. She hadn't had
a chance to tell them what she'd done the night before, but she was sure they were bound to think it was a good idea.

Oooh, I remember talking about ideas with Marcel Proust, the famous writer, over cakes in 1919. I've no idea what he was on about. Silly old duffer…

Jess shook her head a little worriedly, and the phoenix voice went quiet. As she opened the front door, Michael came hurtling down the stairs, hair flattened with some water, his tie even more crooked than normal. “Wait, Jess! I'm coming with you!”

Jess blinked. Michael never walked into school with her. He always arrived at the very last second before the bell for class rang, whereas she liked getting in early. She could get herself organized for the day and chat to her friends.

“What's going on?” Jess said as they headed down the drive.

Michael shrugged. “Just thought I'd walk in with you. Keep you company.”

Jess didn't believe him for a second. “Is this because you hope your friends will go easier on you after your multiplex disaster Saturday night if someone else is with you?”

“No!” Michael started to protest. Then he looked away. “Well…”

Jess didn't say anything. She knew she'd feel the same if it were her. They walked along in silence for a few minutes,
then Jess decided to confide in him.

“Michael, I…I used a bit of magic last night. I tasted some of the ash that was left on the feather.”

“What, you? Little Miss Sensible?” Michael's eyes widened. “But if it works on you like it's meant to work on the chick, you should be super brainy by now!” He peered at her. “You seem normal.”

“I
am
still normal,” said Jess. “It just seems to have given me some of Fenella's experiences. I know loads about what happened back in the past now.” She told him about some of the things she had seen in her mind.

“That sounds cool,” said Michael, looking impressed. “You'll have no problem in history!”

Jess grinned. “Here's hoping. And, I mean, it's not really cheating, is it?”

“Er, yes. Big time.” Michael shrugged. “What else would you call it?”

“A helping hand from a friend,” Jess said decisively, and told herself that was okay.

They reached the school gates and Michael's attention was distracted by his mates—and Rick the Slick—standing around near the bike sheds. They nudged each other as they saw him.

“Hey, Michael!” said Thomas with a grin. “No one from the primary school mugged you on the way in, then?”

“See you brought your big sister as a bodyguard.” Josh smiled at Jess. “You know, I wouldn't mind a bodyguard if I could find one as cute as that.”

“Nothing about your body's worth guarding,” Jess retorted. “Catch you later, Michael.” She walked away as the sniggering and comments continued behind her.

“No little old ladies jumping out from behind bushes to get you then?” Sam teased.

“There was one,” Michael answered breezily. “Luckily her walker frame got stuck in a crack on the pavement, so I escaped.”

His mates laughed, and Jess felt a slight wave of relief. Maybe he was going to survive the day.
Hope I do too,
she thought as she went into the main building and the double doors swung shut behind her.