The Last Phoenix (19 page)

Auditions,
she thought as she strode away.
Ha!
An image of her sobbing on Jess's shoulder flashed back into her mind. What was the point in even trying to perform? She knew she didn't get the part. But then she
had
to go, didn't she? If she didn't, the future would be wrong…like it already was. Unless somehow, Fenella was still alive…

Oh, it was all so confusing. She broke into a run.

When she reached the workshop, Skribble was floating around on his pink cloud just above the kiln. He was peering down at the blackened egg in the nest, a thoughtful expression on his face. He jumped as the door burst open. “Ah. It's you, Milly.”

“Hi, Skribble.” As Milly looked at the egg still lying there surrounded by Fenella's ashes, a wave of intense
sadness crashed over her. Her hopes quickly crumbled. The phoenix really had gone. She'd never see her again. “I really miss Fenella,” she whispered.

“Mmm.” Skribble frowned and then cleared his throat. “Where are the others? Are they coming?”

“They'll be here soon, I'm sure. I came on ahead because I wanted to talk to you.” The words suddenly burst out of Milly. “Oh, Skribble! I don't want to go to the auditions! It's going to be awful. I know I'm going to fail and not get the part.”

“Milly, Milly,” said Skribble shaking his head. “Have your adventures with magic really taught you nothing? Surely you know that we can always fashion our own fate.”

“But I saw what will happen, Skribble,” Milly protested. “Although I don't know how, because I thought we couldn't use Fenella's feather to travel forward to a time after she…you know.” Then she noticed the golden feather Mr. Milton had used was lying beside the kiln. “Oh,” she sighed. “Maybe it happened because
that's
still here.”

“Hmm?” Skribble looked over. “Ah, yes. That feather was not consumed in the flames of rebirth, so in magical terms at least it would count as a little of her loveliness still remaining.” He paused. “Although, on the other hand…”

Milly's heart thumped harder as she caught a sudden twinkle in his eye. “Skribble?”

“Traveling into the future is an unpredictable business, my girl. The truth of things can often be deceptive. Very deceptive indeed.” His eyes swiveled around to the egg and a smile creased his face. “For instance…”

Milly followed his gaze and gasped. Strands of smoke had appeared from nowhere, wreathing around the golden egg and the ash.

“What's happening?” she asked.

“I dared to hope…” Skribble scowled and shook his head. “No, I dared to
believe
that—”

The egg rumbled and shook.

“Back, Milly!” the bookworm genie commanded. “Get back from the nest!” He zoomed to the far side of the workshop on his cloud.

Milly ran after him. “What's going on?”

“The egg's about to hatch!” declared Skribble.

“Hatch!” Milly echoed in astonishment. “But…but how? Why?”

Skribble gave no answer as the egg began to grow. Smoke curled around the shell, growing thicker and thicker.

“Come on,” breathed Skribble. “You can do it, my dear! Of course you can!”

Suddenly, the whole nest seemed to explode in flames.
A curtain of fire whooshed upward to the ceiling. Milly gasped and shrank back, putting her hands up to shield herself from the burning heat.

CRACK!

The loud, splitting noise ripped through the air—followed by a joyful whooping cry. The next second, a golden bird had shot out of the top of the flames, turning a somersault in the air, the tip of every golden feather ablaze.

“Fenella!” cried Milly. But this wasn't the Fenella she had last seen. This was a new, slim, and slinky Fenella! Her feathers were long, lustrous, and golden. Her blue eyes danced and shimmered like the clearest, deepest seas. But when the phoenix spoke, there was no mistaking her.

“Milly, love! I'm back! Ooooh, look at your shocked little duckling face. Did you imagine I was gone forever? Not me!” The phoenix whizzed in a mad circle around the workshop. “You can't keep a good bird down! So how are my hips? Do they look big with these new feathers? Oooh, where's a mirror, where's…Hey, look!” she shrieked, spotting the worm on his cloud next to Milly. “There's Skribble! Why…” Her voice got flirtatious as she landed on the window ledge next to his cloud and jutted out her head on one side. “Hello there, you goooorgeous little worm!” She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

Skribble looked flustered. “Um…good day to you
too, Fenella. You are to be congratulated on a feat of quite startling endurance.”

Fenella gave him a playful little nudge with her beak. “Waiting up for me, were you? You wicked little devil! Oooh, yes, I know your sort!”

Milly's heart felt close to bursting. “But Fenella,” she said, “we thought you'd died!”

“Not me, duckling!” She chuckled. “The rebirth from the ashes just took a little longer this time, that's all. It was the chicks! They must have soaked up some of my magic, greedy little beggars, delayed my coming back!”

“Chicks?” Milly repeated, not sure if she'd heard right.

Fenella flew to the nest. The flames were slowly dying down. She fanned away the smoke with her wings. “Just look at them!” she cried. “A clutch of four! Did you ever hear of such a thing in all your born days!”

“Oh, wow…” Milly stared. As the smoke cleared she saw that there, in the nest, sat four small round phoenixes surrounded by the last few flickering flames! Their feathers were fluffy and their blue eyes were huge.

“Two girls, two boys!” Fenella said proudly, nuzzling the nearest chick with her beak.

“But…” Milly turned to Skribble. “How?”

“Oh, yes, Skribble, lovie!” Fenella looked at him expectantly. “Explain, please, do.”

“Ah yes, well…hmm…” Skribble began. “Well, it's my belief that although the gathered ingredients were not actually needed for the hatching, they all contained magic. Given that they surrounded the egg—and that four somewhat magical children were feeding energy into it as well—the magic potential of the egg was actually
increased
. The energies of rebirth lingered on, and instead of one chick, four appeared. Four with rather different qualities, it would appear!”

Following his gaze, Milly realized that one of the chicks was turning rapid somersaults, another was trilling a beautiful song, the third was preening its incredibly beautiful golden feathers, and the fourth was simply looking around with a very wise expression and nodding as if agreeing with a voice in its little head.

“Then we might have helped?” Milly squealed. “Really?”

“I'm sure of it!” Fenella smiled happily. “Oh, Skribble, is there anyone alive more clever than you?”

Milly saw Skribble's mouth begin to twitch into a smile. But then he coughed and hastily reassumed his usual grumpy expression.

The chicks began to cheep and open their mouths. “Listen to the little dears,” Fenella clucked. “I'd better start looking for some grub for them.” She glanced around. “Where are the others then, Milly, lovie?” She looked
suddenly worried. “I hope nothing's happened to them. They are okay, aren't they?”

“Yes,” Milly said quickly. “They'll be here soon. I just came on ahead because I wanted to talk to Skribble.” She remembered about the auditions and glanced at her watch. “Oh, no! The auditions will be about to start. What should I do, Skribble?”

“Go, Milly. The future is not to be feared but to be faced. Remember the words on my map—know yourself, trust yourself,
believe
in yourself.” He glanced at Fenella and the chicks. “And believe in magic! Sometimes the most miraculous things happen when we least expect it.”

“Too right, lovie. It's never too late for a comeback!” Fenella fluttered over. “You know what the ancients of Mount Quamquangle used to say—‘every day we must forget what we know and learn it afresh.' And I know what they mean—just look at me with four scrumptious chicks. Who'd ever have thought it?” She laughed. “No one really knows what the future holds. How boring would it be if you did? Just go into that audition room and do your best. Whatever happens, if you do that, you'll be able to hold your head up high.”

Milly looked from Fenella to Skribble, starting to smile. “Okay,” she said. “I'll go!”

Skribble smiled while Fenella whooped and turned a
loop-the-loop. “You go, my lovely! Go and sing your heart out for me—and for my chicks!”

Milly felt determination flood through her.

“I will,” she declared. “Whatever happens, I really will!”

 

Just as Milly reached the church hall, she saw the others coming up the road. “Where've you been? We've got so much to tell you!” said Jason, running up to her.

“Not as much as I've got to tell you.” Milly panted. “But first I've got my audition!”

“I know,” said Jess, appearing from across the road. “I've been waiting for you at the hall. You shouldn't have left without me, I was worried that weird watching man had got you.”

“He tried to get me and Jase,” said Michael.

Jess stared. “He what?”

“It's okay, he's arrested now and we're fine.” Jason beamed. “Better than fine.”

Better than you can know,
thought Milly, biting back a smile. She was about to blurt out what had happened when Jess yanked hold of her hand and started to drag her away. “Come
on
, Milly. We can all catch up later—you're going to miss your spot.”

“And
we're
gonna miss seeing ourselves,” Michael
added, checking his watch. “Come on, Jase.”

“Just
don't
go into the workshop!” Milly called to them. She wanted to be there when they saw the chicks for the first time. “Promise me you'll wait until after my auditions. Promise!”

“Whatever, weirdo,” Michael called back, but Jason nodded kindly.

“Now get your butt into that audition.” Jess gave Milly a kiss on the cheek. “Little Orphan Annie!”

Taking a deep breath, Milly hurried inside.

 

Jess sat down on the wall and waited anxiously. The minutes dragged by. She wondered how Jason and Michael were doing, meeting themselves from a few days ago and how Milly was getting on inside the church hall. It felt so strange, something so magical and something so ordinary happening around her at the same time.

At long last, the doors opened and people started to come out. Jess saw Milly standing on the top of the steps, tears glistening in her eyes, looking stunned and pale.

“Well, Milly?” Jess called uncertainly.

Milly met her eyes and ran down the steps. “Jess!” She gasped, flinging herself into her stepsister's arms. “Oh, Jess!”

“Hey!” Jess murmured soothingly, her heart sinking.
“Oh, Milly. I'm sorry, but there will be other plays, other parts…”

“No!” Milly said, half sobbing in astonishment and relief. “You don't understand! I'm only crying because I can't believe it! I
got
the part, Jess—I'm Annie!”

“Oh, wow!” Jess hugged her tight. “That's amazing! Your dream come true!”

Milly pulled away suddenly. Her eyes flicked to the gateway where she'd stood and watched this very scene all those crazy days ago. She thought she saw someone running away up the road toward Mr. Milton's house.
Me,
she thought.
I saw this but I didn't know what I'd really seen…Just as none of us knew what we were seeing when Fenella—

“Come on.” Now it was Milly's turn to haul Jess away. “The boys will have finished by now.”

“They're going to wait for us in the gardens,” said Jess, frowning. “But I don't see what the hurry is—”

“You will!”

They ran up the road and down the driveway that led to Mr. Milton's house. Milly ran even faster as she spotted Jason and Michael making for the workshop.

“There you are!” Michael said as they arrived. “We got fed up waiting. You know, it was
so
hard not telling the younger me everything that's happened…” He scanned
Milly's face. “Speaking of hopes going up in smoke, how did it go?”

“I got the part!” cried Milly. “I'm Annie!”

“Brilliant!” exclaimed Jason.

Michael groaned. “So now we have to listen to you singing all day and all night.” Just as she was about to thump him, he grinned. “Nice one, Mil!”

“And you did it without any magic help,” said Jason.

“Probably
because
you didn't have any magic help,” Michael suggested.

“Speaking of magic help…” Milly threw open the door to the workshop dramatically. “Look inside!”

Jess, Michael, and Jason stared. The sound of their collective jaws dropping was almost audible.

There was Fenella, perched on the workbench feeding earthworms to the little balls of golden fluff that were her chicks. Skribble was floating a little way off on a cloud looking slightly worried as the phoenix chicks cheeped and opened their beaks wide and Fenella dropped the worms inside. “There we are, yum, yum, yum.” She looked over at Milly and winked. “Aha, here she is, back again already. Congratulations, pet! We
knew
you'd do it.”

“I didn't know,” Milly admitted, smiling at her and Skribble. “Oh, thank you for making me go.”

“F-F-Fenella!” stammered Jason. “Is that you?”

Michael's eyes were goggling. “You've gone skinny!”

Fenella flapped over and gave Michael an affectionate nip on the end of his nose. “I'd prefer ‘slender' or ‘svelte,' if you don't mind, pet!”

“But you're okay,” Jess squealed. “And you've got chicks!”