The Last Phoenix (9 page)

Michael blinked. “Babs who?”

“Bab
Zoo-way-la
!” Fenella emphasized each syllable. “They were just building a big wall around Cairo that year, and Bab Zuweila's a grand old stone gate on the southern side. It was the perfect spot to watch the sunset. I seem to recall I hung around there for a bit after I was reborn, and it wouldn't do for you to run into my earlier self at that point in time. It wouldn't do at all.”

“We'll be careful,” Jason told her.

Jess took a deep breath and checked her watch. “We should get going. It's eleven thirty now, so we've got a good while before we need to start worrying about sunset.”

Michael raised the old, cold feather and the others reached out to touch it. “I guess when we go into the past, we switch the spell around?”

“You do.” Fenella nodded and coughed again, a hard, hacking sound. “Just remember what I told you about causing ripples in the birdbath of time,” she added. “You must pass through the past like shadows.”

“We'll try,” Milly promised.

Michael nodded. “And wrap up warm or something,
Fenella, okay?” He took a deep breath. “
Time of yore, be never gone
. We want Cairo, August twenty-sixth, 1092!”

The feather burned copper-bright in his hand, and a strange coldness icicled through his fingers. The world began to spin again. A golden haze settled on the workshop around them, and the ground seemed to lurch as if they'd stepped inside some great celestial lift headed for the ground floor of creation.

“Next stop, the eleventh century,” Jason gasped, as the world dissolved around them. “Here we go!”

J
ason felt the gold haze lift, and he gasped as his senses were assaulted from all sides.

It was burning hot, the sunlight so bright he had to shield his eyes. Smells of spice, sweat, and sewage thickened the air. The breeze was like a hairdryer blasting his skin, and he tasted sand on his lips. He and the others had arrived in a crowded, crumbling street of brick. Market stalls were arranged in a haphazard jumble with crowds of customers pushing past the children as if they weren't there. The noise was incredible—cries in exotic accents mingled with the braying of donkeys and the creak of cart wheels. Ornate towers stretched up from sun-baked mosques like tall candles, teetering high above the surrounding buildings.

“Wow!” was all Jason could find to say.

“I can't believe it!” Milly said.

Jess was staring around in amazement. “We've made it. We've traveled into the past!”

Michael grinned. “Good to know that the bird's not entirely useless!”

“You don't fool us,” teased Jess. “You really like Fenella.”

Michael frowned. “Shut up!” His frown deepened as a large man pushed past him with a camel. “Maybe we should get out of the way a bit.”

“And keep our voices down,” Jess warned as she looked around. “We don't want everyone knowing we're foreign.”

“Our clothes stand out by a mile,” Michael muttered. Most people were wearing long, grimy robes and were walking about barefoot or in sandals through the dust. He looked down at his Nikes, and the hems of his jeans sticking out from beneath the cotton trousers and felt horribly conspicuous. “Let's keep our heads down and check the map.”

“It's 1092,” Jason said, still boggled as Michael led the way across the filthy street to a crumbling wall. Scrawny chickens flapped about their ankles as they walked. “I just can't believe it.”

Jess laughed out loud. “It's awesome. We spend years learning history at school and then suddenly we're right here in it!”

“Just hope I don't lose that feather,” said Michael, “or
we really
will
be right in it!”

“Don't you dare,” Milly warned him.

“As if.” Michael was doing his best to sound laid back, but Jason could see the excitement dancing in his eyes. “Get the map out then, Jase.”

Jason unrolled the map. The street lines zigzagging across the parchment seemed deeper and better defined in the scorching sunlight. A red X was pulsing in a strange sort of circle, quite close by. “That must be where Fenella's nest is! It looks like we have to go this way.”

Cautiously, keeping tight hold of the map, Jason set off through the chaotic city streets. Medieval Cairo seemed a place of great contrasts. Small children in rags stared wide-eyed as rich, perfumed ladies swept past. Beggars crowded the gutters, their arms outstretched toward well-to-do men browsing stalls crammed with exotic delicacies.

Michael lingered beside a stall of crockery. “I bet a couple of these clay plates would be worth a fortune back in our time. Why didn't I bring my phoenix gold?”

Jess frowned, reached through her robes and checked her trouser pocket. “Actually, I've got one of
my
bits of phoenix gold with me!”

“Lend me some,” Michael urged her.

“No way,” she retorted. “Let's just find the ashes and go back.”

“I think we've got to go down here,” Jason declared, peering around the corner onto a quieter, narrow street.

They set off again. The street backed onto some old ruins, and the houses were made from the same stone.

“We're nearly there.” Jess was peering at the map over Jason's shoulder.

“These ruins look a bit like old-fashioned temples,” said Jason. “I bet they were still being used when Fenella was reborn before this time, so she came back to the same spot!”

“Look!” Michael stopped in his tracks.

Jason gulped. Three bearded men wearing black and gold robes were climbing over the low roofs of the buildings. They had long swords strapped across their backs and looked more than happy to use them. Behind them, ten more men were swarming over the ruins. His heart thumping, Jason looked up from the red cross in its circle on the map to a tall, broken pillar leaning upward to the sky like the tusk of a long-dead mammoth, crowned with a crumbling mess of smoking black sticks. “There it is,” he hissed. “We've found the nest.”

“But
they've
found it first!” Michael groaned as two of the black-robed men lifted down the large spiky mess. “What do they want with it?”

Milly pointed. “Look at the picture on their robes!”

Jason squinted into the sunlight and saw the stylized figure of a golden bird embroidered on the garments.

“Fenella said she'd had phoenix-worshipping cults after her,” Jess remembered.

Michael nodded. “Looks like those men must be in her fan club.”

“What are we going to do?” asked Jason nervously. “I bet they won't let us get near the ashes.”

“Maybe we could
buy
the ashes from them,” suggested Jess. “With phoenix gold.” She pulled one of Fenella's glittering gifts from her pocket. “They're bound to know what it is.”

“Too risky,” Michael began to say, but then Milly grabbed Jess by the arm.

“Oh no!” she said in dismay. “They've seen it—the gold!”

With a stab of alarm, Jason saw that Milly was right. One of the sword-wielding guards was calling out to his friends behind him, while the other two watched the children intently. Suddenly, one of the men cupped a hand to his mouth and gave a strange warbling cry. He started to wave his sword hand at them in a “come here” gesture.

Michael gulped. “He wants us to go over. Quick! Run!”

But as the children turned, they found two more
swarthy, bearded men in black and gold blocking their way. “That guard wasn't calling to us, he was calling to
them
!” Jason cried.

Jess shrieked as one of the men moved in and grabbed her by the wrist, twisting hard. He stared down at the phoenix gold in her hand and started babbling in excitement.

“Get off her!” Michael shouted. Milly kicked the man on the shin but his friend unsheathed his sword and raised it threateningly. Jason glanced behind and saw the men on the rooftops scrambling down to street level, ready to get them.

“The feather!” Michael yanked it from his pocket and held it up in the air. “Everyone touch the feather, I'll get us out of here.”

“Don't show them that, Michael!” Jason yelled. “They might recognize it—”

But it was too late. The man with the raised sword gasped at the sight of the feather, his eyes practically out on stalks. He lunged forward, his large hands closing on it. “No!” Michael shouted, tightening his grip on the other half. Desperately, he twisted clear…

And the feather snapped in half.

Michael stared at the top part of the precious feather while Milly screamed at the top of her lungs. A few wary
faces appeared at the windows of the houses around them to see what all the noise was about. Out of ideas himself, Jason started shouting too. If they could only get someone to help them…

But already one of the men was bundling Jess away down the narrow dusty street.

“Get off my sister!” Jason roared. He stooped to pick up a rock and threw it at the man holding Jess. The shot went wide and he yelled in frustration.

Michael ran after the men, bunching his fists. “Hang on, Jess!” But the man with the half-feather lashed out with his sword and Michael recoiled. “Ow!” he shouted, falling to the dusty ground.

“Michael!” cried Jess frantically through a mouthful of fingers.

Milly ran to her brother. He had a long, red cut down his bare forearm. Michael stared at the wound in disbelief. “He could've taken my arm off—
that's
what my future self tried to warn me about!”

“Guys, look!” Jason pointed at the rest of the black-and-gold gang. They had scrambled down from the rooftops and were pounding away down the street in the opposite direction. “We've got to go after Jess!”

Michael nodded, shoved his half-a-feather in his pocket, and jumped back up. “It's three against two—four if Jess
can break that bloke's grip.”

“If only they didn't have swords,” Milly wailed.

Jason bit his lip. “We've got to try. Come on!”

They ran off down the higgledy-piggledy streets in pursuit. But almost straightaway, they came to a junction and couldn't tell which way Jess and her abductors had gone.

Milly marched up to the nearest merchant. “Did you see a girl dragged away by two bad men? Did you see where they went?”

The merchant stared down at her, baffled by her strange language and appearance. Michael grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her to the left. “We'll try down here,” he announced grimly.

They threaded their way through the busy street. Milly tripped over somebody's foot and Jason nearly lost his turban several times. The street branched off again in three possible directions. Jason chose the middle path, lined on both sides with high turreted towers. But as they turned a sudden corner they found the street completely blocked by a herd of cattle. They tried to turn around and go back, but a crowd had already built up behind them.

Milly looked helplessly at Michael and Jason. “We've lost them!”

“Wait a minute,” said Michael, turning to Jason. “The map! It shows where the ashes are, right?”

“Right!” Jason suddenly got his meaning. “And those men were all dressed the same and looked part of the same group. They went different ways so we couldn't follow them, but they're bound to meet up again later.”

Milly gave a hopeful smile. “You mean that if we find the ashes on the map, then maybe we'll find Jess?”

“And the other half of the feather,” said Michael. “If we can stick the bits back together, we might just stand a chance of getting out of this place.”

Jason took out the map. The red cross pulsing on the parchment was slowly moving out from the maze of city streets. He felt worried sick. “I hope Jess is okay.”

Michael winced as he dabbed at his forearm. “If only we knew a bit more about those weirdo geezers who've taken her…”

As he spoke, ornate writing bloomed into being on the map. “Look!” Jason said. “The map's telling us!”

“They must be bonkers,” said Michael simply.

Milly hugged herself despite the heat. “And they've got Jess! They must think she's the girl in the prophecy.”

“Well, we've got to get her back,” said Jason, swallowing hard as the vivid red cross slowed to a halt near the edge of the page. “The question is—how?”

N
umb with fear, thirsty, and too shocked even to struggle very hard, Jess found herself manhandled out of the streets and through a valley littered with broken masonry.

Her two captors forced her inside a narrow cave. The sudden cool was welcome, but the inky, frightening blackness was not. With a chill of foreboding Jess saw flickering light on the rock walls ahead—and in the next moment found herself shoved forward into the mouth of a large, smoky cavern.

Some kind of underground temple,
she realized. It was octagonal in shape and stank of burning tar. Golden symbols in Arabic were painted on the eight walls together with more phoenix designs. Flaming torches hung at intervals against the pitted rock, sixteen in total, casting an eerie light. A kind of campfire burned in the center of the cavern, with a small cauldron suspended over it.

Jess started as a man came striding out of the shadows
in the rear of the cave. He was dressed in black and gold like those who had brought her here, but even in the flickering firelight she could see his robes were of a finer quality. From the way her captors bowed to him, he was clearly important—
a priest, perhaps,
Jess thought. He wore a turban set with a large amber jewel in the shape of a phoenix. He marched right up to Jess and peered at her closely with dark, intelligent eyes.

One of her guards held out the gold he'd taken from her. The priest took it reverently and kissed it.

The other guard held out the half-feather. The priest studied it closely—then gave Jess a gloating smile and spoke a word in his indecipherable language.

“Ow—get off!” Jess cried, as her headdress was pulled away to reveal her blond hair. The priest's smile grew even wider.

There was a scrabbling noise behind her as two more cultists came into the cave, carefully carrying the ashen remains of Fenella's nest between them.

“Ahhhh,” said the priest, smiling as the newcomers bowed down toward him. The two men then rested the nest carefully on top of the cooking pot. One of them took a torch from the wall and poked it into the center of the crumbling nest, knocking ash and charcoal down into the tar-stinking substance smoking away inside the cauldron.

Tears prickled in Jess's eyes. “Fenella needs that ash,” she whispered. She had never felt more scared and helpless in her life.

The priest turned back to Jess with a triumphant look on his face. “
Alchiber
,” he said, and mimed dipping the stem of the broken feather into the cauldron before scrawling in the air.

“Writing?” guessed Jess. “Ink?”

The priest turned and crossed to the cauldron and reverently scratched the tip of the broken feather against the crumbling outer edge of the nest. Then he raised the feather high into the air, ready to dip it into the tarry concoction bubbling away in the cauldron…

“Um…” came a familiar voice, “please may we have our feather back?”

Jess turned and gasped. It was Michael, standing in the doorway to the cavern temple with his hands behind his back.

Where's Jason and Milly?
But as the thought flashed across her mind, the nearest cultist growled and raised his sword.

“Be careful, Michael!” she screamed.

As the man approached, Michael swung out one arm and revealed what he was holding—his Game Boy Advance. At the press of a button, the little screen lit up and showed a
scene of a knight fighting a dragon while tinny rock music echoed around the cave at top volume. The man with the sword backed away in alarm and looked to the priest for guidance.

As he did so, Jess took full advantage of the distraction—she stamped on the foot of one captor and elbowed the other in the stomach. Both were caught off guard, and as they staggered back Jess wrenched her arms free and pointed to the priest. “He's got it, Michael!”

“Right…” Michael held up his Game Boy like a protective shield, swinging it slowly from side to side. The cultists cowered as he brought the game system to bear on them.

Of course,
Jess realized,
people in this time have never seen anything like a Game Boy! They must think it's magic.

“Fear my internal front-light and two hundred forty by one hundred sixty–pixel resolution!” shouted Michael, trying not to cough on the smoke as he advanced on the astonished priest. “Bow down before my five hundred twelve simultaneous colors in character mode! And
give me the other half of my feather
!”

With a sudden movement he swiped the feather from the priest's grip. Jess lunged for her phoenix gold—but the priest yelled out a string of words and held the little slab over his cauldron, clearly threatening to drop it into the
evil-smelling mixture unless Michael backed off.

“You can keep the gold,” said Jess, grabbing a handful of crunchy black nest ash. “This is worth a million times more.”

“What?” Michael turned to argue—and glimpsed black-and-gold movement behind her. One of the cultists was lumbering toward them, sword raised. As Michael took in that particular sight, the priest lunged for his Game Boy.

Desperately, Michael ducked out of the way so that the priest and guard collided. At the same moment, Jess gave both cultists an almighty shove that sent them staggering against the cauldron, knocking it flying in a blaze of cinders. Both men howled and hopped about, their bare feet singed by the campfire wood, and other cultists tried to pick up the hot metal container before its contents spilled out completely.

Michael ran for the exit. “Let's make like bananas—and peel!”

Jess frowned as she raced after him, clutching the ashes. “You mean ‘split.'”

“Damn!” Michael burst out into the passageway. “My action hero lines need a bit of work!”

Jess could hear angry voices and footfalls echoing close behind. Michael ran on ahead, the Game Boy's bright screen pushing back the shadows to light their way.

“They're gaining on us!” Jess panted. “Where's Jason? And Milly?”

“Funny you should ask,” Michael shot back. “They've got my sash.”

“This is no time to worry about your clothes!” Jess exclaimed, realizing that the blue sash around his waist was missing.

Michael grinned. “This Sun Bird bunch are the ones who should be worried!” The passage narrowed ahead, with large rocks protruding at ground level either side of the passage. “When I give the word, keep running but jump in the air.”

“What?” Jess frowned.

“Word!”
Michael yelled, leaping into the blackness. Jess copied him. As she cleared the ground, she glimpsed a length of blue material move beneath her. Looking over her shoulder she gasped to see Jason and Milly crouched on either side of the passage, pulling Michael's missing sash taut between them—a shiny nylon tripwire!

A second later the first cultist ran straight into it at full speed and fell flat on his face. His friends behind him couldn't stop in time and went the same way. Soon several of the Brothers were trapped in a struggling pile, blocking the passageway.

“We did it!” cried Milly, jumping to her feet.

“Did you get the feather?” Jason asked Michael breathlessly.

“Yes! He was brilliant!” Jess beamed, as Milly threw her arms around them both. “And actually, so was I!” She waved her blackened hands, still clutched tightly together. “I got the ash!”

Milly whooped. “Fantastic!”

“But the Brothers won't stay down for long,” said Michael. “Come on!”

He led the charge for the exit. The brightness of the Egyptian daylight broke blindingly around them as they charged away down the rubble-filled valley, Michael in front, Jess clutching the ashes, and Jason and Milly holding hands as they ran.

Michael paused behind a big boulder. “Right, let's touch the two bits of feather together and whiz ourselves back to the present. Everyone hold on!”

Panting and grimy, the others did so, hearts pounding as they cast nervous glances over their shoulders. “Say it then, Michael!” Jess urged him.

“Time before us, take us on,”
he intoned, “back to the day we left!”

The children waited tensely. But nothing happened.

“It must be
really
broken!” said Milly fearfully.

Jess felt as if icy water was filling her stomach. “We're
stuck here in the past.”

“We can't be,” said Michael, uselessly pressing the two parts of the feather together. “We just can't be!”

“Bab Zuweila,” cried Jason. “That new gateway Fenella told us about—the perfect place to watch the sunset, she said.”

Michael stared at him incredulously. “We're up to our ears in dog-doo and you want to watch the
sunset
?”

Jason shook his head. “Fenella told us to stay away from that gate in case she was hanging around. Perhaps she can help us.”

“But she told us to steer clear of her,” Milly said.

“It's the Sun-Bird Brothers' swords I want to steer clear of!” cried Michael as he saw the cultists burst out of the cave tunnel entrance.
“Run!”