The Last Phoenix (6 page)

Michael took the feather. “Whoa!” The feather felt hot to his touch, and smelled like old coins. The others crowded round. “How does it work?” Michael asked Fenella.

“You each take hold of the feather—all of you, that's very important, we don't want anyone left behind, do we?” Fenella clucked. “Say the words ‘
Time before me, take me on
' followed by the date you want to go to. When you want to return you say, ‘
Time of yore, be never gone
.' But be careful. A feather can only take you on so many journeys before it runs out of time-puff.”

“Time-puff,” Michael echoed. “That's the technical term, is it?”

Fenella fluttered her eyelashes. “I believe so.”

“Sounds simple enough,” said Jess, taking a deep breath. “And we only want to travel into tomorrow. Twenty-four hours.”

Michael nodded and held out the shimmering quill. “Come on, guys,” he whispered. “Let's do this.”

Cautiously, they all reached out to touch the feather.

“After three,” Jess said, a feeling of warmth flooding through her fingers. “You say it, Michael. One, two, three…”

“
Time before us, take us on!
” cried Michael. “Twenty-four hours from
now
!”

T
he world blurred into a golden haze. Milly felt herself whirling around and around. Faster and faster she went until abruptly she stopped. As her feet thumped into the ground, she blinked and looked into the others' shocked faces.

“Whoa. Now that was seriously freaky,” said Michael, giving his head a shake.

Jess looked around the overheated workshop. “Are we in the future? It all looks exactly the same.”

Milly caught her breath. It
was
all the same but just slightly different. “The pots have gone!” she exclaimed.

“And look at the rain.” Jason pointed out of the open door. “It was sunny a moment ago!”

“And look what else,” said Michael, pointing to the ledge. “Fenella's gone too.” He carefully opened the kiln door, and a blast of heat escaped. The egg sat safely inside, half-hidden beneath a layer of ash, but Fenella was nowhere to be seen.

Milly looked worried. “What's happened to her?”

“She said she was going to stay undetectable,” Jason reminded her. “She probably wants to stay out of our way. After all, it could be dangerous to meet us in the future.”

Michael frowned. “What are you on about?”

“We've jumped a day ahead of ourselves in time,” Jason reminded him. “We were standing in Saturday, and now it's Sunday. When we go back, we'll jump back to Saturday and tell Fenella all about our adventures. Which means the Fenella here with us on Sunday will know if we succeed or not.”

“All the more reason she
should
be here, then,” said Michael.

Jason shook his head. “If we only know what to do because Fenella tells us now on the Sunday—and
she
only knows because we told her what we did when we go back to Saturday—then…” He puffed out his cheeks and let out a long breath. “Well, it's sort of impossible, isn't it?”

“It's called a time paradox,” said Milly. “Paradoxes are bad. I read it in a sci-fi book.”

“Looks like we'll have to do things the hard way then,” said Michael.

“Maybe harder than we think,” said Jess. “That rain's pretty heavy. And if there's no sun we can't get the ray of tomorrow's sunshine that Fenella needs.”

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

“Wait a minute,” said Jason thoughtfully. “What about
today's
tomorrow?”

The others looked confused.

“The map didn't say
which
tomorrow we had to get a ray of sunshine from,” Jason explained. “Every day in the future is a tomorrow!”

Michael clapped Jason on the back. “You're right! We just keep going forward day by day until we find us some sunshine.”

“Of course!” Relief flooded Jess's face.

Milly took hold of the feather again, and the others followed suit. “What are we waiting for?”

“
Time before us, take us on!
” Michael declared. “Another twenty-four hours!”

There was the same feeling of whirling around in a golden haze and the same thump of their feet into the ground as they stopped. They all looked around.

“It's not raining but there's still no sun,” Jess observed, looking out at the overcast sky.

“What did we expect?” sighed Michael. “It's summer in England. Of course there's no sun.”

“Maybe it comes out later,” Jason mused. “Can I say the spell?” Michael nodded. “
Time before us, take us on—
six hours from now!”

The shimmer and the spin rippled through them. Jason imagined they were grains of sand falling through golden waters…

His excitement ebbed as he opened his eyes and found it was raining again outside.

“We'd better be careful,” said Milly anxiously. “The feather might run out of time-puff if we use it too often.”

“And we mustn't forget what time it was when we left,” Jess added. “If we lose track of when sunset is, we'll be stuck here!”

“Uh-oh. Look.” Michael held out his wrist. “My watch isn't working.”

Jason frowned. “Well, it was about eleven a.m. when we left Saturday. So with all the jumps, and since we've only been here five minutes, now it must be about five thirty-five on Monday afternoon.”

“We'd better keep going,” said Jess. “Let's jump a few days, Michael.”

Michael cleared his throat as they all touched the feather again. “
Time before us, take us on
—forty-eight hours from now.”

Onward they whizzed once more. The strange, tingling, flying sensation was growing familiar. This time when the world stopped spinning and they landed, they all gasped.

“Sun!” cried Milly, looking out at the cornflower-blue
sky. It was streaked with white fluffy clouds and the sun was shining down.

Michael went outside and cautiously tapped the crystal at the base of the feather. “I guess we just point this into the sunshine and watch it glow.”

“Try it!” Jess urged him.

Michael thrust the crystal up toward the sky. The sun shone down. As it hit the crystal, the jewel started to flicker feebly with light. But as the sun disappeared behind a cloud, the light disappeared too.

“Oh,” said Milly in disappointment. “The sun mustn't be strong enough.”

“Never mind,” said Jess. “It will come out again soon. Let's wait for a bit.”

“A bit!” Jason said. “It's Wednesday. We're in the middle of next week.”

It was a weird feeling. They wandered outside to join Michael.

Jason immediately noticed something was different. He frowned and then realized what it was. “The statue of the woman has gone,” he said.

“I wonder what's happened to it,” said Jess.

“Oh, who cares about some old statue,” said Michael impatiently. “I'm thinking about the gold we'll be getting. What are you going to buy, Jase?”

“I dunno. My own laptop would be cool.” Jason sighed. “Though I guess soccer coaching's what I really need.”

“I wish I could buy a perfect singing voice,” sighed Milly. “But seeing as I can't have that, I'm going to get tickets to see
High School Musical
on tour and I'll buy myself some new clothes, like a new riding hat and jodhpurs.”

“Wish money could help me pass my exams,” said Jess.

Michael fidgeted and glanced at his broken watch. “Come on then, sun.”

“There's a song about the sun coming out tomorrow in
Annie
,” said Milly. “I'm doing it for my audition.” She looked to the sky, threw her arms wide, and started to sing.

“Milly!”
Jess and Michael exclaimed.

“What?” Milly said in surprise. “I may as well practice if we're hanging around here. My audition's only four days away and—” She broke off, her eyes widening slightly. “Four days,” she whispered to herself. “It's Wednesday—
today
!”

“Wait a sec—sun alert!” Michael interrupted. The sun poured out through a crack in the clouds, and Michael angled the jewel on the feather toward it. “Here we go again…”

This time, the sunbeam was brighter. But the little glow-
crystal barely glimmered.

Milly's forehead crinkled. “It's still not working!”

“Wait a minute!” cried Jason. “My magnifying glass! We can use it to focus the sun's rays into the crystal!” He patted his pockets. “I was using the glass to look at the treasure map this morning and put it in my jeans pocket…” He fished inside—but pulled out only a plastic handle. “Oh no! The glass itself must have snapped off when I fell on the floor, trying to catch Fenella's egg!”

Michael scowled. “Nice one, doofus.”

“It was a good idea, though,” said Milly.

“I wish I had a spare one with me,” said Jason.

“What are we going to do?” Jess frowned. “We can't keep hopping through time trying to find stronger sunshine—we could run out of feather power and get stuck in the future!”

“And it's getting on to evening,” Milly pointed out. “The sun will be getting weaker, not stronger.”
And I'm in the church hall even as we speak, doing my audition,
she thought. Would she get the part, or would she fail? Right now, in this future world, she was finding out for real. The thought was like a tickle under her skin.

“Oh, no way!” said Jess suddenly, her attention caught by two figures coming down the stone steps.

“Michael!” Jason squeaked, pointing. “It's…it's us!”

“Me and you, Jase—the next-week versions!” Michael blinked. “Whoa, it's a bit weird to be here and see us over there too isn't it?”

Jason nodded, dumbstruck. It did feel very odd.

“I wonder what you've been doing inside Mr. Milton's house?” said Jess.

“Maybe we've just bought it with all our phoenix gold!” Michael laughed.

“I wonder where
we
are?” said Jess to Milly.

Milly nodded in a preoccupied way. She knew
exactly
where she would be right now. And it was only a five-minute walk from here to the church hall…

The future Michael and Jason walked down the steps and across the grass together. They looked a bit nervous, like they were watching out for someone.

Michael turned to the others. “Look, this is too good a chance to let pass. Let's go and ask ourselves if we find the sunshine. If we don't, then we might as well head off home.”

“But what if we only head off home because we told ourselves to?” said Jason. “It's a paradox again!”

“You worry too much. It'll be cool.” Michael clapped him on the back and hurried toward the rose garden. “Come on, let's go and meet our future selves!”

Jason was about to set off after him when Jess's voice stopped him in his tracks. “Don't you dare!”

“I—I have to,” Jason said, scurrying away. “I just thought of something. If Michael's right about those future versions knowing what we need…”

Jess groaned. “Come on, Milly, we'd better make sure they don't do anything too dumb.”

“Um, I think I might just stay here,” said Milly. “I don't want to risk mucking up the future.”

“Well, just make sure you don't move from this spot,” Jess instructed her. “We can't go home if we're not all together.”

Milly nodded, and watched Jess turn away. Future Michael and Future Jason were sitting on a bench in the garden, and
her
Jason and Michael were about to catch them up.
I will stay here,
she thought. Fenella hadn't peeped into the past to see what had happened to her egg. So what right did she have to learn how her audition was going to go in the future?

But Fenella losing an egg was a big event
, Milly thought.
Me getting to be Annie isn't. And I'll find out anyway in a few days…

She hesitated a moment longer. Then she ran toward the fence.

 

As Jess ran after Jason and Michael, she saw Future Michael and Future Jason staring grimly as their younger selves approached.

“So there we are,” said Future Jason. “I mean, there
you
are.”

Jason felt a shiver pass right through him. It was like staring at a perfect double of himself. He felt unbelievably creeped out.

“I know you're feeling unbelievably creeped out,” said Future Jason kindly. “I am too!”

“Don't look so surprised to see me, mate,” Michael told his future self as he closed the distance between them. “You're me—you must have been expecting this.”

“Smart aleck,” Future Michael retorted. “Actually, I can remember everything you said.”

“Oh, yeah?” Michael asked, but Future Michael said it too at exactly the same time. They both laughed in perfect harmony. Jess rolled her eyes.

“Look at this!” Future Michael held out his arm and showed off a long deep scratch.

“Ouch.” Michael winced.

“I'd say watch out for the guy with the sword and half a feather, but what's the point,” said Future Michael. “You won't.”

“This is tricky, isn't it?” said Future Jason, with a sigh. “We really can't tell you much. See, you've got to just carry on and do the things you did, otherwise Michael and I won't be in the right position to be here in your future now
and none of this works…”

“But tell me,” said Jason. “Do you have a magnifying glass?”

Future Jason nodded shiftily and pulled it out. “Yes, because I remember you asking me. I brought Mark's along. Leave it by the workshop door when you're finished.”

“I will,” Jason said as he took it.

“And to answer your question about will you or won't you,” said Future Michael, turning back to his other self, “Jason's right. I can't tell you a thing. Just let Jase get on with it.”

“What a cop-out!” Michael complained. “Don't tell me I actually listened to that dumb bird?”

Future Michael's eyes flashed with bitter anger. “Shut it.” He looked away. “You don't know what you're talking about.”

“You'd better go,” said Future Jason. “Take care, and good luck.”

“You're going to need it,” said Future Michael glumly.

Jess started at his tone. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Future Michael was clearly dying to tell her something. But then Future Jason grabbed him and started to bundle him away.

“Do we manage to get everything for Fenella in time?” Jess called after them nervously. “And Milly and me—we
are all right, aren't we?”

“Right now, you're with her at her dumb audition,” said Future Michael.

“I wish we could tell you everything,” Future Jason called earnestly to Jess, “but we really can't. Now quickly, you know what to do—get the sunshine and get out of here before we manage to muck up your future, our past, and who knows what else!”