The Last Phoenix by Linda Chapman Read Free Book Online Page B

nice.”
    â€œOoooh!” Fenella rustled her feathers. “That’s what I call nice!” She blinked up at Milly through her longeyelashes. “I do like my head scratched too…”
    â€œOkay.” Milly giggled and scratched the bird’s head. Fenella cooed and clucked. “Jess, come and stroke her too!”
    Jess gently brushed her palm against the phoenix’s wings. Fenella went into a fit of tweeting and twittering.
    â€œSorry to interrupt the giggle-fest,” said Michael, “but isn’t it about time we got cracking on this quest of yours? And any chance of some gold up front?”
    â€œMichael!” Milly chided.
    â€œOh, lovie,” said Fenella, sighing as Jess tickled her chin. “I only wish I could oblige you. But I’ll need some of tomorrow’s sunshine first.”
    â€œOf course.” Jason showed Michael the map and pointed to the first instruction. “‘You must capture a shaft of tomorrow’s sunshine and spin that glorious light into golden thread.’”
    Michael frowned. “Yeah, but how can we really get sunlight from tomorrow? That’s impossible.”
    â€œNot with phoenix magic, it isn’t.” Fenella’s blue eyes were agleam. “My feathers can be used to travel into the past, present, and future. A single one can take you back to any point in this body’s lifetime and to anywhere in the world I could reach. Or whisk you off to any point in the future where my loveliness can still be found.”
    â€œWhat?” asked Milly, looking confused.
    Jason frowned. “I think I get it. We can use your feathers to go into the past or into the future but only in your current life span. So if it’s about a thousand years since you were last reborn, we can’t go back further than that. And we can’t go forward past the time of your next rebirth.”
    â€œExactly, pet!” Fenella nodded. “I couldn’t have put it better myself. And to get the ingredients in the prophecy, you will need to travel, not just from here to Cairo, Peru, and the summit of Mount Quamquangle, but through the past, present, and future as well.”
    The Worthingtons exchanged looks. “Wow! Imagine going back into the past,” said Jason. “Seeing things as they really were…”
    Jess grinned. “Maybe it’ll help with my history exam!”
    â€œI want to go into the future and see what happens to us!” said Milly.
    Michael’s eyes lit up. “And never mind the gold—if we go into the future, I want to find out tonight’s lottery number!”
    â€œThat’s an idea,” said Jess, excitedly. “We can all be rich!”
    â€œEr, just a minny-mo, lovies,” Fenella called over their excited chatter. She looked somewhat apologetic. “Magic like mine doesn’t come without a couple of ground rules, I’m afraid. And one of them is that my powers cannot beused to change the future or the past. It’s too dangerous.”
    â€œHow can us lot becoming mega-rich be dangerous?” Michael protested.
    â€œTime is like a giant birdbath,” announced Fenella. “Every decision we make sets the water rippling. So if you jump into the future and decide to cheat, you start a dirty great ripple in the middle of an existing ripple…” Her eyes glazed over. “Oooh, it gets ever so complicated.”
    But Michael wasn’t ready to give up yet. “Look, surely if we—”
    â€œNo, no, no !” cried Fenella, unexpected passion in her voice. “If it were safe to part the mysterious curtains of time, don’t you think I’d have gone back to the past and stopped myself from losing my last egg? Or found out what happened to the poor thing at the very least?” She calmed down, deflating a little. “But I couldn’t. It’s impossible. What’s done is done, and what shall be, shall