The Last Phoenix Read online

  Jason opened his mouth to speak, then looked at Michael warily.

  “Yes, you’re completely right!” said Milly, her eyes shining in wonder.

  Michael groaned. “You’re as bad as Jase!”

  But his sister ignored him totally. “Who are you? What are you?”

  “I think I know,” Jason said quickly. “You’re a phoenix, aren’t you?”

  The bird gave a delighted screech. “Ooooh! I can see Skribble was spot on about you. Sharp as a new pin he said you were. Yes, you’re dead right. I am a phoenix—the phoenix, to be precise. There’s only me. I’m the only phoenix in the whole wide world!” She looked around at them all. “My name’s Fenella. Pleased to meet you.”

  “Fenella the phoenix?” Jess echoed. Michael groaned weakly again.

  “Wait a moment…” Still in shock, it had taken a few seconds for Milly to process what the bird had said. “Skribble was spot on? Do you mean to say you know Skribble?”

  “Me? Know Skribbaleum El Lazeez Ekir?” Fenella chuckled. “Oh yes, my little chickabiddy! And what a worm he is.” She affected a swoon. “If I were seven hundred years younger…So clever he is! If I hadn’t lost that wonderful magic map he gave me I’d have found you a lot sooner. I remembered the general area, but when you reach my age, you get a little hazy about the details…”

  “Magic map?” Jess said wonderingly.

  “It was leading you to us!” Milly realized.

  “And that’s why the names of the trees were marked on it!” Jason finally cracked the puzzle. “You were navigating by them as you flew overhead.”

  “We wanted magic back in our lives,” Milly whispered, her eyes shining as she stared at Fenella. “And now we’ve got it!”

  Jess nodded dubiously. “But if there’s one thing Skribble taught us, it’s be careful what you wish for.”

  “You must be Jess,” said Fenella. “Skribble said you were the sensible one.” She looked at Milly and her smile grew wider. “And this pretty little chicken is young Milly, I presume. I can see why Skribble has a soft spot for you! Kind and sweet and fair, he told me.”

  Milly glowed with pleasure.

  “And Jason, the bright boy who saw me for what I am. ‘Perceptive.’ That’s how Skribble described you.” Finally, Fenella’s blue eyes fixed on Michael with a look of surprise. “And so you must be Michael. I must say, I can’t see what Skribble was talking about.”

  Michael’s eyes narrowed. “What did the worm say?”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that, pet,” Fenella said hastily. “He can’t have meant it. Just his idea of a little joke, I’m sure. You seem a very fine, upstanding young man to me.” She looked at him from under her eyelashes. “And so brave, trying to rescue me like that! Oooh, such chivalry makes my feathers ruffle.”

  Michael blushed and Milly giggled.

  “So, why are you here?” Jess asked. “Why did Skribble tell you to find us?”

  With a cheerful laugh, Fenella landed and looked up at them hopefully. “I have a little favor to ask of you. Skribble said he was sure you would help. However, I’m feeling a bit chilly right now.” Fenella shivered and then looked toward the shed. “Do you think we could maybe pop inside your little home and discuss it?”

  “That’s not where we live,” Milly said, realizing the bird thought they lived in the shed. “It’s where Dad keeps his tools.”

  “Is it?” Fenella struck her forehead with her wing. “Dearie me, aren’t I silly? Skribble said you lived in a den, you see.”

  “Our den is a room inside that big house,” said Milly, pointing behind her. “Would you like to go there?”

  “Yes, please, pet,” said Fenella. “I’ve cooled off my feathers now so I won’t start any more blazes—”

  “Hang on, hang on,” Michael interrupted. “What is this favor the worm said we’d help you with?”

  Fenella gave Michael a coy look. “Cut to the chase, eh? Very well, then, I’ll go and get my reason for coming here! Back in a moment. Don’t go away.” She flapped back inside the shed.

  “Wow!” breathed Milly. “Isn’t she wonderful?”

  Jess grinned at Michael. “She seems to like you, her brave young man.”

  Crossing his arms and hunching his shoulders, Michael glared at his stepsister. “I’m just glad it was no one horrid after us.”

  “I wonder what she’s gone to get,” said Jason.

  Just then Fenella emerged with what looked to be a smooth, red-gold football under one wing.

  “What’s that?” asked Milly in astonishment.

  “Strange and baffling is what it is, my little jam puddings.” Fenella plonked the gleaming object on the grass. “I’ve laid an egg! Me, the one and only phoenix!” She looked both proud and puzzled. “I mean, what’s that all about?”

  Jess, Milly, and Michael exchanged confused looks. “Um…what’s so weird about a bird laying an egg?” said Michael.

  But Jason was nodding excitedly as if he understood. “The phoenix doesn’t need an egg. There’s just her. She lives to be really old and then sort of bursts into flame and is reborn from her ashes. You come back, don’t you, Fenella—time and time again…”

  “That’s it exactly, lovie,” said Fenella proudly. “I go up in smoke, my ashes sit around for a while, then they catch light and I’m reborn as a brand-new, bright-eyed, and ever so slightly more slinky phoenix! Well, a girl can dream!” She threw back her beak and laughed raucously. “There was this one time I came back with the biggest, featheriest bottom you ever saw. Every time I flew up to my nest, it was like an eclipse of the sun!”

  She gave another noisy peal of laughter, but Milly looked alarmed. “Poor Fenella, burning up like that…doesn’t it hurt?”

  “No, lovie, not a bit!” Fenella reassured her. “The whole magnificent process tickles more than anything. I do like a bit of heat…” She shivered, and looked hopefully at the children.

  “Let’s go inside,” urged Jess. “You can tell us more when we’re in the den.”

  “Ooooh, thank you.” Fenella looked delighted. “Just lead the way!”

  A few minutes later, Fenella was perched on a big squashy beanbag in the middle of the den, her egg tucked between her feet and her tummy, her plumage softly glittering in the sunlight through the window. The children sat in front of her, Jason and Milly on the floor, Michael and Jess on the sofa.

  “Can I pet you?” Milly asked, looking at the phoenix in awe.

  The bird beamed. “Oh, yes. I do like a bit of a rub now and then. And I’ve lowered my temperature, so you’ll be quite safe.”

  Milly tentatively stroked Fenella’s golden back. It was like touching a feathery hot water bottle. “Is that okay?”

  Fenella cooed and rearranged her wings. “That’s lovely. I am sorry about your workbench in the shed, you know.”

  “Don’t worry. Mark hardly ever goes in there,” said Jess. “He won’t notice for ages.”

  Fenella sighed. “I’m usually quite good at keeping my cool, but I’m getting these hot flushes at the moment. It’ll be my age. I’ve burned up and come back at least twenty times, you know. Once every thousand years…”

  “That’s well ancient!” Michael said in awe.

  “I prefer to use the word mature,” said Fenella.

  “That’s not a word in Michael’s vocabulary,” Jess assured her.

  Keen to solve the mystery, Jason leaned eagerly toward the golden bird. “So, if you normally come back out of ashes, why have you laid an egg?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know, sweet pea!” the phoenix said. “I’ve only laid an egg once before—about five centuries ago. I woke up one morning with a bit of a tummyache and then, pop! Out it came!”

  “But then…” Jason frowned. “Does this mean you aren’t the only phoenix in the world?”

  “No, no. There’s still just me. You see…the egg didn’t hatch. I went and lost it.” Fenella’s smile slipped a little. “Typical me. I laid it—then
I mislaid it soon after. Oooh, I was ever so upset.” One of her blue eyes brimmed with a golden tear, which fell with a smoky sizzle to her plumage. “It gets lonely, you see, being the one and only phoenix. It would be my wish come true to have someone to look after. Someone I could share the years with. But alas, there it was—my one shot at bringing a new little phoenix into the world, or so I thought, and I’d blown it.” Her golden brow creased with determination. “But now I’ve been given a second chance and I’ll not mess things up again. I’ll hatch this egg whatever it takes.” She twittered. “Unfortunately, it seems to take a lot. At least, so Skribbaleum says, and he is an expert.”

  Jess raised an eyebrow. “He is?”

  Milly clasped her hands together. “How is Skribble? Is he okay? Did somebody nice pick up the lamp we put him in? Did they—”

  “So many questions, my little duckling!” Fenella chuckled. “I’m not entirely sure what’s happened to him since he bade you au revoir, but I bumped into him in Morocco.”

  “Morocco?” Jason echoed. “Wow! What was he doing there?”

  “Well,” said Fenella, rustling her feathers with the air of someone who has a story to tell. “Just picture it. There I was, perched in a tree in the Souss-Massa National Park one beautiful summer’s evening, just a few weeks back, when I heard these angry voices overhead. It was two humans in a hot air balloon! Rough fellers they were—proper hooligans—fighting over a magic lamp!” She shook her head disapprovingly. “They tussled and the lamp fell out of the basket. Just like that! It came tumbling past my beak and ended up on the forest floor.” Fenella smiled. “I picked it up, rubbed the side, and out popped Skribble.”

  Jess was full of curiosity. “So what did he say?”

  “Well, I took him back to my nest for a lovely cup of green tea and it turned out he knew a prophecy about my egg! He’d read it while locked up in the Great Genie Library all that time ago.” Fenella cooed proudly. “Just think, me and my little egg in a prophecy in the Genie Library! How grand is that?”

  “What did the prophecy say?” Michael asked.

  Fenella shook her feathers proudly. “That any egg I lay contains ‘power unheard of in all the realms,’ and that if it is to hatch properly I have to build a very special nest and get hold of four extra-rare ingredients.”

  “What are they?” asked Jason eagerly.

  Fenella’s voice grew grander, more theatrical. “‘To hatch a phoenix egg, one needs four wondrous things. First, a…’” She paused and then looked crestfallen. “Actually, lovies, I’ve forgotten. Have you got my map there?”

  “Hold on…” Jason pulled it out from his back pocket—and gasped. “It’s changed!” he squeaked. “The map doesn’t show our house and Moreways Meet anymore.”

  “Of course not,” chuckled Fenella as Michael, Milly, and Jess crowded around to see. “It’s a magic map, remember? And since I’ve found you, it doesn’t need to lead me here any longer—so it’s showing what I’ve got to find next. Remind me, Michael, pet, would you?”

  Michael stared. The yellowed paper now displayed four intricate line drawings—one depicting the sun with a strange pattern scratched all over it; one showing an old Egyptian pyramid topped with a bundle of sticks; one illustrating a mountain peak topped with a leaf-shaped rain cloud; and the final image describing a kind of deformed stick of celery with leaves like hands and a heart perched on top. A few lines of exotic, slanted handwriting accompanied each of the cryptic scenes.

  He read aloud:

  “If the hatching of a phoenix egg is to be properly achieved…1. You must capture a shaft of tomorrow’s sunshine and spin that glorious light into golden thread; said thread to be thrice-woven between the sticks and fibers of the birthing nest to ensure the hatchling’s fine fortune.

  2. You must acquire the ashes of the last phoenix nest from old Cairo, which when scattered in the new nest shall impart wisdom and experience to the hatchling.

  3. You must harvest a stalk of silphium, a fine rare herb that can be found deep in the rain forests of Peru. Polish the shell with said stalk to aid balance, grace, and precision of movement in the hatchling.

  4. You must gather the first dewdrop from the summit of the sacred Mount of Quamquangle at the Hour of Sun-Arise, and daub the drop upon the eggshell so as to ensure the hatchling sings in tones the sweetest…”

  Michael put down the map and sighed. “Something tells me this is going to take more than a quick trip to the store.”

  Fenella nodded wisely. “It will take magic, ingenuity, and a good deal of courage.”

  “So is this why Skribble told you to find us, Fenella?” asked Milly. “He wants us to help you get all these things?”

  Fenella nodded. “I’m a little bit on the forgetful side, as you might have noticed, and me and maps, well—we just don’t get along. I don’t stand a chance of gathering all those things, not with time pressing the way it is.”

  “And so Skribble said we’d help,” said Jason.

  Michael nodded glumly. “Cheers, Worm.”

  “Of course we’ll help!” Milly exclaimed.

  Fenella preened herself. “Well, if you do, you won’t find me ungenerous. I’ll pay you…in gold.”

  Michael gasped. “Gold?”

  “Special phoenix gold.” Fenella nodded proudly. “Magical stuff, spun from the sunlight.”

  “Is it worth something, though?” Michael pressed her eagerly, “Like real gold?”

  “It puts real gold in the shade!” the phoenix cried. “I’ve seen men fight to the death for a speck of the stuff in the markets of old Cairo. Rarer than an eagle’s tears and brighter than the polestar, it is.”

  “Gold…” Michael’s eyes were agleam. “I can see it now—move over Rick the Slick, there’s a new millionaire in town!”

  “Shut up a minute, Michael.” Jess looked searchingly at the golden bird. “Fenella, you said something about time pressing. What did you mean by that?”

  Fenella sighed. Her body seemed to deflate a little. “I’m nearing the end of my life, dearies. In this old body, anyway.”

  Milly frowned. “What?”

  “I’ve come to know the signs, you see,” the phoenix went on. “Feeling the cold, losing my way, overheating. In a matter of days it’ll be time for my next rebirth—and without all those magical ingredients, my egg will never hatch.” She sniffed. “And this is my last chance, Skribble said so. He told me it is written in the prophecy that only the body that laid the egg can hope to hatch it—and that I will never lay another egg!” Tears glittered in her eyes again. “Oh, dearies, I always got by just fine on my own…But now that I know there’s a chance to have a chick, if I blow it I’m not sure I can go on as the only phoenix in all this big, wide world.” She cradled her unlikely egg and looked imploringly at the Worthingtons. “Can you help a tired old bird, lovies? Can you make my only dream come true?”

  Jess looked at Jason, Michael, and Milly in turn. “Do we need to talk about this?”

  Milly hardly seemed to hear her. “We get to do magic!”

  “We get to go to all sorts of cool places,” said Jason.

  “And we get away from all the normal boring problems in our lives,” added Michael. “All that and gold, too!”

  Fenella crossed her wings and closed her eyes. “Then…what do you say?”

  “What can we say?” Jess smiled and looked at the others. “Except…yes!”

  Chapter Five

  “You mean it?” cried Fenella. “You’ll help me?” She whooped loudly and took off into the air. The egg went tumbling. Jason dived forward to catch it. He missed, and it landed with a thunk on the carpet.

  “Oooh!” Fenella flapped down, scooped up her egg and pressed her beak against it, cooing softly. “I’m sorry, pet, so sorry…”

  Jason was cringing. “Why am I rubbish at anything sporty?”

  “That didn’t look like anything sporty to me, mate,” grinned Michael. Jess gave him a shove.

  �
�Is the egg all right?” asked Milly anxiously.

  “Right as pie, I’m sure.” Fenella held the egg to her ear and shook it vigorously. Then, apparently satisfied, she tucked it firmly under her wing. “And with you lovely little quacklets questing away for my special ingredients, so bravely…” She shot a loving look at Michael. “Well! I’ve got a real fighting chance of hatching it!”

  “You can stay here while we’re away,” declared Milly. She liked the idea of having a pet phoenix in the den.

  “It’s a bit chilly, lovie,” Fenella said kindly. “And as I get closer to my next ‘becoming,’ I’m going to need as much heat as possible for the egg and me.”

  “We could wrap you in blankets?” Jason suggested.

  “Or get the heater down from the attic,” said Michael.

  Fenella gave a tinkling laugh. “I’m talking about real heat, my dears. Fiery heat!”

  “What about an oven?” Milly suggested.

  “Yeah, I can see Dad and Ann asking a phoenix to shift every time they put in dinner!” Michael said.

  “Oh, they wouldn’t see me if I didn’t want them to,” Fenella assured him. “I can make myself completely undetectable to anyone I choose.”

  Michael was impressed. “You can?”

  “Truly! It’s a little knack I have evolved,” Fenella confided. “Being a unique and magical bird, I attract all kinds of interest, and not all of it welcome. Hunters, tourists, cults of phoenix worshippers…they’ve all pursued me over the years. So I’ve learned to hide myself from those I don’t want to see me, while staying in plain sight for those I do.”

  Jess smiled uncertainly. “You can’t, can you?”

  Fenella’s eyes twinkled. “A little demonstration, lovie?”

  “Hey, she’s gone!” Jason declared.

  Michael frowned. He could see Fenella plainly. “No, she hasn’t!”

  “She has, though!” Milly laughed, and Jess nodded, reaching out with her hands uncertainly as if she really couldn’t see Fenella.