The Last Phoenix (12 page)

“W
hat are you wearing?” Michael said, as he and Jess came back downstairs.

Milly and Jason had put on their long waterproof school coats over their jeans and T-shirts and were wearing their rain boots.

“We're going to a rain forest,” Jason said. “It's going to be really wet!”

“Yeah, you'd better put waterproof things on too,” Milly told the older two.

“Oh no.” Jess shook her head. “Imagine if Colette or someone saw me on the way to Mr. Milton's!” She winced at the thought.

“I'm with you, Jess,” said Michael. “No way am I giving Rick the Slick another reason for laughing at me!”

Milly sighed theatrically. “You'll be sorry.”

Jason followed her out, keeping his eyes peeled for the weird stranger.

“What have you got in there, Jase?” Michael asked,
patting a bag on Jason's back.

“Supplies,” replied Jason proudly. “Milly and I were looking on the internet and we've packed insect repellent, a torch, a penknife, first aid kit, some water, and—”

Michael rolled his eyes. “This isn't some sort of wave-your-flag-around scout camping trip!” he interrupted. “We're only going to pick some boring old herb and come back.”

“I've decided it's always best to be prepared,” argued Jason. “We weren't very prepared in Egypt, were we?”

Milly nodded. “I'm bringing some of my phoenix gold too.” She pulled it out of the pockets of her waterproof coat.

“Milly, we're going to the jungle,” Jess said. “What use is gold going to be?”

“You never know, there might be some native people there or something,” Milly argued. “It might come in useful for trading or something.”

“So it's the jungle, here we come!” said Michael as they left the main street and turned down the road toward Mr. Milton's house.

“I can't wait!” said Milly. “I hope we see loads of animals. There are lots of them in the rain forest—monkeys and big cats, snakes and spectacled bears…”

“Ssh!” Jess said quickly as she noticed Mr. Milton in
the garden ahead of them. He was carefully pruning some white roses that grew near the statue of the beautiful lady.

Michael groaned. “Here's Mr. Freaky.”

Milly elbowed him just as Mr. Milton looked round. “Back again? My word, you
are
keen!”

Milly gave him her most innocent smile. “Oh yes, we love making pots, Mr. Milton!”

Jess nodded. “Thank you so much for letting us use the workshop.”

The old man looked pleased. “My pleasure. Now don't stop on my account. I'm sure you've got lots to be getting on with and the last thing you want to do is waste time talking to me. Run along, do.”

They said good-bye and hurried to the workshop.

“He's so nice,” said Milly in a low voice. “I feel a bit mean about tricking him.”

Jess nodded. “I hope Fenella does give him some gold.”

“I still say he's a weirdo,” said Michael as they opened the door.

The phoenix was moving around behind the kiln. She looked up as they entered. “Hello, my little chickabiddies.” She jumped out from behind the kiln—or tried to. Her first jump didn't work and she had to flap her wings and try again. She landed on the workbench, breathing heavily. Milly noticed her eyes seemed to be slightly glazed over
and her feathers were hanging limply, a few of them falling out to litter the worktop. “So, you're all ready for your next adventure then?” Fenella paused to take a wheezing breath. “Off to Peru to get some silphium! Well, well, well.” She coughed hard.

“Oh, Fenella. You really don't look well,” Milly said.

“Bless you, lovie. I'm holding up. Not too long to go now.” Fenella searched through the feathers on her left wing. “Now, here's the feather you'll be needing.” She plucked it out and offered it to them. It glowed a soft deep gold. “You'll need to travel back about five hundred years. Silphium became very rare many centuries ago but there were still a few clumps dotted here and there for a few hundred years. I spotted one while stopping briefly in the rain forest in Peru in the early sixteenth century. When was it? About 1510? Yes, I think so…” She tapped her head with one wing. “Anyway, that feather should guide you.”

Jason carefully took the feather. “Thank you.”

“Only watch out. The Peruvian jungles are not very safe, not very safe at all.” The phoenix looked worried. “I really wish you didn't have to go.”

“We'll be fine,” Jess assured her.

“Yeah, we're just going to zoom there and come straight back,” said Michael. “Chill out. Um, warm up, I mean. Whatever.”

They all took tight hold of the feather.

“I hope he'll look after you,” mumbled Fenella weakly. “If he's there.”

“Who?” Milly asked but before Fenella could answer, Jason was already saying the words:

“
Time of yore, be never gone
,” he exclaimed. “Take us to Peru's rain forest in 1510!”

The four children felt the now-familiar rushing, swirling sensation. They spun around and around in a haze of light. Even before their feet thumped into soggy ground, they felt a hot, wet blanket of heat envelop them and heard the buzz of insects and the squawking, shrieking cries of birds above them.

Milly instantly forgot all about Fenella's last words to them as she opened her eyes. Everything seemed green. Trees towered up into the skies, water dripping off their leaves. Long creepers hung down from the branches and the ground was covered with thick ferns and fallen branches overgrown with moss.

“Unbelievable!” breathed Jess.

An enormous blue butterfly fluttered in front of Milly's face. In the canopy of branches she could see glimpses of red, green, and blue birds. Frogs croaked and insects buzzed all around her. “Isn't it amazing?” She gasped.

“Ow!” exclaimed Michael as a mosquito landed on his
arm. “I've been bitten! Or stung! Ow!”

“Look at the toucan up there,” Jason said to Milly, pointing into trees. “And the macaws.”

“Argh!” yelled Michael as an ant the size of a paperclip tumbled off a nearby leaf and landed on him. He shook it off and another mosquito bit him. “Yow!” he yelled, slapping at it with his hand. “We should have got injections from the doctor before we came! Where's that insect repellent, Jason?”

Jason took the can out of his bag but Milly grabbed it off him. “Thought you said we wouldn't need it,” she teased, holding it just out of Michael's reach.

“Gimme!” Michael lunged for the can of spray but Milly jumped back and, caught off balance, Michael stumbled and fell into a patch of ferns.

Milly giggled but then took pity on him. “Here,” she said, offering the can of spray, but as he took it a massive black scorpion scuttled out of the bushes at her feet, its hard back wet and shining, its stinging tail curving over its shell. Milly screamed and jumped into the air. Michael yelled and threw himself backward. Jason shouted and leaped on to a tree stump. Only Jess didn't shout or yell. A voice was speaking in her head.

Oh, those pesky scorpions. No respect for a phoenix. Sting you soon as look at you they would. But it's only
the ones with a red spot on their back you have to worry about. It'd be curtains for you in less than a minute if one of those got you, but the others, well, they're not so bad.

“It's okay,” Jess shouted happily above the uproar as the scorpion scuttled around in a circle. “Fenella knows about scorpions. This one won't kill you.”

“Oh whoop-de-do!” Michael scrambled to his feet and joined Jason on the tree stump. “Perhaps it'll just paralyze us and leave us in intense pain forever. She only knows about how they affect
her
, remember!”

Jess realized he had a point and hauled Milly out of the scorpion's way. Michael chucked the can of insect repellent at it and it scuttled off. He jumped off the log to pick up the can—and a stick came hurtling down from the trees and hit his shoulder. “Ow!” he said, looking up as a chattering, squeaking noise filled the air.

“It's monkeys!” cried Milly in delight as a troop of about twelve monkeys swung through the trees, some of them with babies on their backs. The ones without babies broke sticks off and chucked them down at the children.

Jason ducked, a stick just missing his head. “They're capuchin monkeys,” he said. “Do you remember we read about them on the computer, Milly?”

“I don't care if they're
cappuccino
monkeys handing around free samples,” said Michael, shielding his head.
“Let's just get out of here!”

They hurried away through the trees, leaving the shrieking monkeys behind. They had to scramble through ferns, and soon Jess and Michael's jeans and T-shirts were soaked through with water from the leaves. Milly and Jason weren't faring much better. It was boiling with their jackets on and they were drenched with sweat. They reached a small clearing and stopped, panting for breath.

“Get the map out, Jason,” said Jess, spraying insect repellent all over her and Milly.

Jason pulled the map out of his bag and unfolded it. It showed a forest of trees with a river running through them. A red circle in the bottom left-hand corner marked the children's position. On the bank of the river there was a craggy cliff and a waterfall. Near the bottom of the waterfall, beside the river, was a big red cross.

“Well, that seems clear enough,” said Jess, peering over Jason's shoulder.

“We need to head northeast,” Jason agreed, and pulled a compass out of a small pocket in his bag. “That way.”

Michael grinned at him. “Okay, sometimes it's good to be prepared! Not cool, but good.”

“Let's go,” begged Milly, pushing her damp hair back from her forehead. She was beginning to feel she just wanted to grab the herb and go home.

They set off through the dark, fetid forest. They had to scramble and climb over fallen logs, crash through creepers and clouds of insects, trying to ignore the strange rustling in the bushes around them all the time.

“I think the river must be just through those trees ahead,” Jason said. “I'm sure I can hear water flowing.”

“And this looks more like a path,” said Michael.

“Maybe the animals come this way to reach the water,” Milly suggested.

Jess nodded distractedly. It was hard to concentrate with Fenella's voice nattering away in her head.
Oooh, there's a red-winged beetle, very tasty. Always crunch nicely in the beak they do. And some giant ants. You can't beat a mouthful of them when you're in the mood…

The ferns were definitely flattened down now and it was easier to move through the creepers and tree trunks.

“Come on,” said Michael, speeding up, but just as he did so a large animal dropped down from the trees and landed lithely on the path in front of him. He froze. The creature was about six feet long with a strong muscular body covered with golden-brown hair and cold hazel eyes.

“It's a cougar!” gasped Jason as they all stopped dead. “A mountain lion!”

The large cat lowered its head and flattened its ears. The bottom of its tail flicked slowly from side to side and
a low, savage growl escaped from its mouth.

Michael stepped protectively in front of Milly. Jess grabbed Jason's hand. The icy fear flooding through her had even made Fenella's voice disappear. Every bit of her brain, every scrap of attention was focused on the cougar in front of them.

“What are we going to do?” whispered Milly.

“The feather,” hissed Michael. “It's our only chance.”

But as Jason fumbled for the feather in his pocket, the cougar crouched its muscular body lower and prepared to spring….

W
e're gonna die,
thought Michael. Lunch for a giant cat from five hundred years back. And no one will ever know what happened to us…. He could feel Milly hanging on to his shoulder, hear Jess's short panicky breaths and Jason still rummaging in his pocket. The cougar's ears flicked…

And then suddenly an ear-splitting birdlike shriek tore through the air. It was so loud the leaves on the trees trembled. The cougar shrank closer to the ground in fear.

There was another deafening cry.
What was it?
Michael felt like his heart was about to burst from his body. Needles of fear pricked every inch of his skin.

The cougar turned and leaped into the bushes.

“It's gone!” Jess gasped.

“Something scared it off,” hissed Michael. “But what—?”

Then another animal, even larger than the cougar, clattered through the dense canopy of green and bounded up to the children.

Milly screamed, but Michael just stared. This thing was like no animal he had ever seen before. It was as large as a station wagon. It had the body and hind legs of a full-grown male lion and the head, neck, and front legs of an eaglelike bird. Its beak was sharp and curved, and its talons even longer. Dark gray eyes glared at them from under feathered brows.

“It's…it's a gryphon!” stammered Jess. “Like Mr. Milton's statue.”

The gryphon glared and opened its beak. “Confounded humans, coming here and making a row, giving me a headache. I could murder the lot of you!” He shook his head crossly. “Oh well, come on. Let's have your offering.”

He charged forward with an incredible burst of speed and swiped out with one of his taloned, feathered front legs at Milly. She screamed again and there was a dreadful ripping sound…

“Milly!” Michael, Jess, and Jason all yelled.

Michael expected to see his sister with a massive gash down her body—but only the pocket of her waterproof coat was ripped. The piece of phoenix gold she had brought with her tumbled out, and the gryphon caught it neatly in his taloned foot.

“Thank you.” He looked at it and a faint expression of surprise came into his eyes and he nodded approvingly.
“Phoenix gold! Well, well, well, that doesn't come along every day. Such memories I have of phoenix gold…” He suddenly tucked it into the feathers on his shoulder, shook off his reflective mood and scowled again. “Honestly, screaming and carrying on like hooligans. When I was a young gryphon we were treated with respect, freely offered gold to win our favor. None of this yelling and keeping your gold in your pocket.” He frowned at them. “Haven't seen any people for a while.” He peered at their clothes. “My, my, fashions
have
changed!”

“Gryphons! You…you love gold,” said Jess in a slow, trembling voice as she heard Fenella talking about the fabled creatures in her head. “You guarded the old gold mines of Scythia and attacked anyone who came near—”

“Attack!” the gryphon exploded. “Foolish child, I'd hardly call that an attack! What was I supposed to do, hmm? You weren't exactly standing there offering the gold to me. I had to take it somehow.”

“So…so you don't want to eat us?” stammered Milly.

The gryphon looked revolted. “Eat you? Why in the name of Apollo would I want to do that? You'd taste horrible! Big bones, all that fur on your head…ugh! No, give me a rattlesnake or a juicy fruit bat any day!” He rolled his eyes. “Don't you get any kind of education these days?”

“Well, they don't exactly teach us about gryphons at school,” said Jason, looking in awe at the amazing creature. “If anything, they tell us you're…” He hesitated. “Kind of not real.”

“Not real!”
The gryphon looked apoplectic. “Don't you think I would know if I wasn't real, boy?” He stepped to an inch away from Michael and stared haughtily down his beak at him. “Now, you've given me your gold, so I'll let you live. Go away and get dressed properly, you annoying children.”

Milly bit her lip. “Would you mind if we stayed, um, sir? It's just we're trying to find something. A herb. It's called silphium and—”

“Oh, no!” The gryphon shook his head. “Gold or no gold, you're not having any of the silphium. There are only two clumps left in the world and I'm guarding this one.”

“
You're
guarding it?” echoed Jason, his heart sinking.

“What's so surprising about that?” The gryphon scowled at him. “My kind make very good guards. We love all nature and we hate things becoming extinct. So yes, I'm guarding this clump, and my cousin Harold is guarding one somewhere in Macedonia.”

Michael frowned. “Harold the Gryphon?”

“Maybe it's a sort of magic translation for his real name,” whispered Jason.

“I guess it's no stranger than a phoenix called Fenella,” muttered Jess.

“So! Not a leaf of silphium shall be taken.” The gryphon flexed one of his large taloned feet in warning and fixed Jason with a fierce look.
“Ever.”

“But we really need some,” said Michael. “Not much, just a stalk.”

“Nope.” The gryphon shook his head and raised his talons threateningly. “Now, shove off!”

The children retreated slightly. “What are we going to do?” Jess said in a low voice.

“Pee ourselves?” Michael suggested.

“Maybe we should try and make friends with him,” said Milly. She took a hesitant step toward the gryphon. “I'm sorry if you think we're rude. My name's Milly. What's yours?”

“My name?” The gryphon's frown softened slightly. “You know, no human has ever asked me that before. Too busy fussing and bothering about with their own business to remember basic manners.” He coughed. “As it happens, my name's George.”

Jess, Michael, and Jason exchanged looks.

“George!” Milly blinked. “That's nice. George the gryphon…”

“Fenella knew him!” Jess whispered suddenly. “She told
us so, remember? Back when we first went to Mr. Milton's house and saw the statues of the gryphons there.”

“You're right.” Milly remembered. “She said he was grumpy!”

“Shhh.” Jess held a finger to her mouth, trying to blot out the sonic mayhem of the rain forest to hear Fenella's memories murmur in her head.
I always did have a soft spot for George
.
A bit of a grouch, but then what gryphon isn't? It's not easy being two animals in one and having to wait around for people to bring you gold. I remember us having a lovely time in his eyrie in the Cipo mountains in Brazil before he took himself off to the Peruvian rain forest. Such a sense of duty! But that's no place for a bird like me. I couldn't stay.

She caught her breath and looked at George the gryphon. “You know Fenella, don't you?”

“Fenella?” George looked astonished. “The phoenix?”

“Yes,” said Jess quickly. “She's a friend of yours, isn't she?”

“She was once.” The gryphon's voice softened. “Ah. I miss our talks, but they had to stop when I moved here. The rain forest is no place for a fire bird to live.”

“Fenella's the person we want to help!” Jess burst out. “That's why we're here.”

“Oh?” George looked interested.

“Yes!” Jason held up the golden feather. “She's laid an egg and needs some silphium to hatch it.”

The new warmth in George's eyes vanished. “What do you know about her egg? It was taken from her!” His eyes narrowed. “Or perhaps you had a hand in the taking. It seems you took her gold, after all!”

“That's not true,” Milly protested. “She sent us to find the silphium for her hatchling—”

“But her egg was stolen!” said George.

“No, she's laid another,” said Milly. “And she needs four things to help it hatch. One of them is silphium and—”

“Do you think I'm stupid?” the gryphon interrupted. “If a female gryphon can hatch an egg of blue agate without assistance, why should the magnificent phoenix need silphium? You don't know her at all.” The gryphon's voice rose to an angry shriek. “You've hurt her, haven't you! Hurt her and robbed her. Oh, you've made me angry now.” He reared up, his talons slashing the air, and Michael, Milly, and Jason threw themselves aside.

“Remember the sunset over Lagoa Santa!” Jess blurted out.

George hesitated, swung round to stare at her, the anger still blazing in his eyes. “What?”

“The sunset…when you picked the finest cranberry gourd for Fenella…” Jess gulped. “She—she wishes she'd
thanked you properly and kept it instead of just eating it! She was really pleased that you picked it.”

George lowered his feathered front legs. “She gave you that message for me?”

Jess nodded, too frightened to speak.

“Then I suppose you
must
know her,” he said grudgingly.

“How did you know all that, Jess?” Milly whispered.

“I, er, picked it up after Egypt,” she muttered vaguely, ignoring Michael's knowing look.

“We've been getting Fenella all sorts of things that will help with her new egg,” Jason told George, “which is why she gave us some gold. She wants silphium to place around the egg so her chick will be agile and strong…”

The gryphon frowned. “Stuff and nonsense! I'm telling you, that bird doesn't need silphium. I mean, wherever did she get such an idea?”

“From a genie prophecy,” said Milly.

“Genies!” George tutted. “Meddling misfits.” He shook his head suddenly. “Oh well. If Fenella thinks she needs silphium, then who am I to argue or stand in her way? I'm just glad she has another egg. It broke her heart when she lost the first one.” He sighed. “Very well, children. As a gift to an old friend…you may take some back to her.”

“Oh, thank you!” Milly gasped.

Jason and Jess exchanged delighted looks. Michael whistled in relief.

“Follow me,” said George.

He led them along the path to the banks of a reedy river. Small rodents and insects fled from the lush greenery as he approached. There was a rocky outcropping with a waterfall pouring down into a river of glittering water. And there, at the edge of the riverbank, was a large herb growing with flat yellow flowers and feathery leaves.

George motioned to Milly. She went forward.

“We just need one stalk,” she said warily.

He carefully snapped off a leafy green strand with his beak. “There,” he said grandly, dropping it into her hand.

“Thank you,” said Milly. “We'll tell Fenella all about meeting you.”

The gryphon smiled at her broadly for a moment. “You might suggest she come to visit one day. With the new hatchling, perhaps.”

Milly was about to explain he would be waiting a long time—the Fenella they knew lived five hundred years in the future. But then who knew how long gryphons lived for? “I'll tell her,” she promised.

She carried the herb back to the others, sweaty, disheveled—and beaming all over her face.

“Thank you!” Jess called to the gryphon.

“Cheers, mate!” called Michael.

“Now you've got what you want, go away and stop bothering me,” said the gryphon. But Milly had a feeling that underneath his gruffness he was secretly glad to have seen them.

“Right, where's that feather, Jase?” said Michael, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Jason held out the feather and they all grabbed hold. Milly took one last look around at the green forest with the birds in the trees, the butterflies flitting around, the waterfall cascading into the river beneath. She smiled at George, who was watching them, his eaglelike head held high, his tail swishing. Slowly, he smiled back at her, and a golden shimmer seemed to pass through his eyes.

“Bye!” she called.

“
Time before us, take us on
. Back to when we left!” Jason shouted, and the next moment he and the others were tumbling away through nothingness….

 

“Oh, my poor little ducklings,” Fenella twittered as the Worthingtons reappeared in the workshop. She was resting on the countertop, her feathers drooping, her eyes dull. “Look at you all, hot, wet, and bothered! At least you're back in one piece, though. You
are
in one piece, aren't you?”

Michael heaved himself off the floor. “Think so.”

Jess nodded and rubbed her elbow where it had banged into the workbench upon landing. “We're okay.”

“We've got the herb, Fenella!” said Milly, waving it excitedly.

Milly beamed. “And we saw George!”

“George!” Fenella's eyes lit up briefly. “Oh, my wings and tail feathers! I was hoping you'd meet him. I didn't like to say anything in case he wasn't there and you were disappointed. Did he take care of you then, dearies?”

“Take care!” exclaimed Michael, running his hands through his wet hair. “More like he gave us a heart attack!”

“He did save us from the cougar,” said Milly, taking off her raincoat in the heat of the workshop. “Even if he didn't quite mean to.”

“Oh, George always could be a bit cantankerous.” Fenella wheezed. “But that was just his way. I missed him so much when he went to live in that rain forest.” She smiled sadly. “I like to think he always had a soft spot for me, though.”

“I think he did,” said Milly, stroking her. “When Jess told him about the sunset in wherever it was and the cranberry gourd, he went a bit soppy.”

Fenella seemed pleased, but then she frowned. “But how
would you know about that, Jess, lovie?” she said weakly. “Unless…”

Jess cringed. “Um, you told me about it, I think.”

“Did I, now?” Fenella gathered her breath and looked at her for a long moment. “Well, if you say so, pet.”

“Are you okay?” Michael asked. “You don't look well. You should watch it.”