The Last Phoenix Read online

  “True!” Jess grinned unsympathetically. “Perhaps you should just hole up in Cairo for the rest of your life!”

  Michael retreated back under the duvet with a sigh. Right now, he felt the idea had a lot going for it.

  A little while later, Milly set off to the village hall with Jason, who’d offered to come with her. She knew that Maureen and Ruby, the two ladies who were in charge of costumes, were going to be at the hall that day discussing designs for Annie.

  She glanced at Jason as they hurried along, hoods pulled up against the drizzling rain. He hadn’t said much since they had left the house, so she decided to air what was on her mind. “I can’t believe Michael tried to get you to mug him yesterday. What was he thinking?”

  “I dunno, but I was rubbish,” Jason said sadly. “I didn’t know what to do, and then all his mates saw me. Michael’s going to hate me forever now.”

  “Well, he shouldn’t,” Milly said, looking indignant. “He should never have said he’d buy all his friends tickets and everything in the first place, and then he should have just told them the truth.” She squeezed Jason’s arm. “It’s not your fault, Jase.”

  Jason looked at her gratefully. “Thanks.”

  “Anyway, we’ve got far more important things to think about right now than my dumb brother,” Milly went on. “We’ve got to think about how we’re going to persuade Ruby and Maureen to lend costumes to us!”

  “We could say that Mum and Mark want to borrow them to promote a book,” Jason suggested.

  Milly shook her head. “Too risky. Ruby and Maureen might go to the shop and ask Dad and Ann why they want them.” She thought again. “How about we say we need them for a school project?”

  “I guess,” said Jason. “But they’re not really going to just lend expensive costumes to two kids, are they?”

  “Well, we have to go about it the right way,” Milly said, a crafty look stealing into her eyes. But as she pulled him into the parking lot, she was suddenly vividly reminded of the day before. She broke off and stopped in her tracks. She recalled seeing herself coming out of the hall with a shocked face, remembered watching herself sobbing on Jess’s shoulder…

  “Are you all right?” Jason asked her in surprise.

  “Yes,” Milly said, trying to force her voice to sound normal. It’s not important now, she thought. I’m here because I want to help Fenella. Forget about the auditions. Just think about that.

  Taking a deep breath, she smiled at Jason and led him toward the hall door. “Come on, then.”

  A middle-aged lady with curly red hair was standing in the hall, putting costumes into piles. A younger blond woman was helping her.

  “Hello, Milly,” the red-haired woman said as Milly opened the door.

  “Hi, Ruby!” Milly said with her brightest smile. “Hello, Maureen. This is my stepbrother, Jason.”

  Jason smiled his most trustworthy smile.

  Both ladies beamed back. “So what are you two doing here?” asked Maureen.

  “I knew you were sorting out the costumes and I wondered whether you needed any help,” said Milly. “Jason said he’d come along too. Didn’t you, Jason?”

  “Ummm…yeah,” Jason agreed.

  “That’s so sweet of you both,” Maureen said fondly.

  “We could certainly do with a couple extra pairs of hands,” Ruby agreed.

  “Oh, thank you!” Milly said, as though sorting costumes was what she loved best in the whole world. “We’re going out at eleven with our family, but we’d love to help until then!”

  “Well, take your coats off and come over here,” said Maureen. “We’re trying to pick costumes for the dancers in the chorus. A lot of stuff obviously isn’t suitable and a lot needs chucking…”

  Jason took an armful of clothes with an embarrassed nod. He sorted uncertainly through a ragbag bundle of old outfits, while Milly chattered away to the ladies.

  After several minutes, she casually crossed to a big wardrobe. “Oh wow!” she exclaimed suddenly. “You’ve got some Egyptian costumes! We’re doing an assembly about the Egyptians at school, me and Jason and two friends.” Milly pulled out a couple of hangers loaded with white folds of fabric. “We’re supposed to be dressing up, but we’re just using old sheets.”

  Jason saw Ruby and Maureen exchange looks.

  Milly touched one of the costumes very carefully. “These are so beautiful, so well made. Our teacher would be so amazed if we had something like this.” She smiled sadly at Jason. “Oh well, the sheets will be fine…”

  “You could always borrow these, Milly dear,” said Maureen.

  “Really?” Milly turned to them hopefully.

  Ruby nodded. “How long would you need them for?”

  “I could bring them back tomorrow, after school,” Milly said quickly.

  Ruby smiled. “Well, we wouldn’t lend our costumes to just anyone, but I’m sure you two will take very good care of them.”

  “We will! We promise!” Milly said.

  “We’ve got sashes and robes that go with them, somewhere,” added Maureen.

  “Oh, thank you!” Milly hugged her. “It’s so kind of you!”

  Maureen looked very pleased. “It was kind of you to offer to help, dear. And one good turn deserves another, I always say.”

  Milly looked at Jason, who was standing there speechless—and grinned.

  A little while later, Jason and Milly headed up the drive of Mr. Milton’s house with four carrier bags full of Egyptian costumes, belts, turbans, and head scarves.

  “We’re bound to fit in when we go back to Egypt now,” said Milly, bubbling with enthusiasm.

  They reached the workshop. Jess and Michael were already inside with Fenella. Although the weather was cold and wet, it was as boiling hot as ever inside the building. The golden bird was huddled deep inside the kiln on top of her egg, calling out through the open furnace door.

  “How was I to know you wouldn’t be able to sell my gold, duckie?” the phoenix was protesting. “Merchants today can’t have much taste, that’s all I can say.”

  “And Michael doesn’t have much sense,” Jess added.

  “That’s for sure,” said Milly, smiling sweetly at her brother. “Hello, Fenella. Hi, Jess.”

  Jason smiled around at everyone and held up the carrier bags he was holding. “We’ve brought some outfits!”

  “Oh, great,” Michael muttered.

  “I love a fashion show!” Fenella smiled at the children, but Milly thought the bird was looking less bright today in every sense. Her golden plumage seemed a little tarnished, and her good humor seemed forced. Milly was reminded of how her stepmum, Ann, would quietly soldier on when she was ill or had a headache.

  “Are you feeling okay, Fenella?” she asked.

  “Me, pet?” The phoenix tried to laugh gaily, but began to cough instead. “Oh, don’t you go worrying about me. I’m always a bit wobbly before a rebirth. I confess I don’t usually feel quite so bad as this, but the swan goes on till she drops, they say—and I’ll be blowed if some silly swan’s getting one up on a magical bird like me! Now, these outfits of yours…”

  Milly and Jason emptied the carrier bags out and offered around the costumes. Michael studied his suspiciously—a white tunic and baggy trousers made of thin, flimsy nylon with a bright sapphire-blue sash pinned to the waist. “This looks like a pair of kiddie pajamas,” he complained.

  “They’re fine!” Milly said.

  Jason pulled on some white baggy trousers over his shorts and looked at himself doubtfully. He felt like he was about to star in a pantomime!

  “Don’t you worry, lovie,” said Fenella, seeing his expression. “Anything goes in old Cairo! It’s a real melting pot. And in the height of summer, I mean really melting.”

  “Were you reborn in the summertime, then?” asked Milly.

  “By your calendar…” Fenella closed her eyes and muttered to herself as she worked it out. “August twenty-sixth, 1092.”

&nb
sp; “Then we’re really going back almost a thousand years to get the ash from your last nest,” Jason breathed.

  Michael’s frown grew deeper. “Uh-huh. In a pair of pajamas!”

  “You girls should wear a robe and a head scarf.” Fenella looked thoughtfully at Jason’s straw-colored mop of hair. “And you should certainly wear one of those turbans, lovie. That thatch of yours will stand out like a sparrow at a gathering of eagles!”

  When they all had their costumes and headgear on, Milly twirled around in her robe and trousers. “How do I look?”

  “You look as pretty as an Arabian pigeon,” said Fenella approvingly.

  “I still can’t believe we’re about to go back into the past!” said Jess.

  Jason nodded. “And then we’ve got the jungle in Peru and Mount Quamquangle to look forward to!”

  Fenella raised her wings as far as she could in the cramped confines of the kiln and hunted about her sides for a particular feather. “Now, where is the feather you need…Ah, there it is.” She plucked one out with her beak and tossed it to Michael. The feather was gray and barely glimmered in the light. It felt cold to the touch.

  “That feather’s as old as I am,” Fenella told them. “One of the first I grew at the time of my last rebirth. It’ll take you right back to that August day. The ashes of my nest should still be warm.”

  Jason raised his eyebrows. “You mean we’ll arrive right next to the last nest of your old self?”

  “Well, to be honest, dearie, I’m not quite sure exactly where you’ll end up, but you should be there or thereabouts.” Fenella gave a feeble cough. “The map will guide you in any case.”

  “Of course!” said Michael. “Let’s see it, Jase.”

  Jason pulled the map from his pocket, and Michael, Milly, and Jess gathered around to see. It showed what looked to be a complicated zigzagging maze and a large red cross.

  “Funny how these words are still there on the map.” Jason pointed. “‘Know Yourself, Trust Yourself, Believe in Yourself.’ Skribble said he wanted us to look at them carefully.”

  “Oh, yes, Jess told me you’d seen Skribble,” said Fenella. She looked sad. “I can’t think why he didn’t pop by and see me.”

  “He didn’t seem quite himself,” Milly confided.

  “These words were written on the paper when you were searching for us, Fenella,” Jason realized. “They must have been meant for you.”

  Fenella gave a brief squawk. “I don’t think so, lovie. I don’t know myself, ’cause I’ve no idea why I’ve laid an egg. And I certainly can’t trust myself to hang on to my egg after losing the last one.” She shivered, seemed to shrink into herself a little. “And how can I believe in myself, eh? If I was any kind of useful bird I’d just get on with this business of hatching an egg, wouldn’t I? I wouldn’t need to flit about with all this improbable paraphernalia.”

  “You are a useful bird,” Milly protested.

  “Yeah,” Michael put in. “You’re…” He shrugged, blushing. “Well, you’re cool.”

  “Decidedly chilly, more like!” Fenella smiled at him gratefully. “But thank you, my pets.” She ruffled her wings. “Well, I can make a good start on building my nest while you’re gone, can’t I? Oh, but mind out for Bab Zuweila when you are looking for the ash.”

  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!”

  Chapter Eleven

  Jason 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.”