Free Fire over Swallowhaven by Allan Frewin Jones Page B

stamping her foot. She jammed her fists on her hips and turned to the phoenix, every prickle on her body quivering with frustration and annoyance. “Now look here, Mr. Phoenix, we came all the way here—battling pirates and navigating through Slatterkin’s Reef, I might add—with the specific purpose of giving you back your feather so you could tell us your secret.”

    “Esmeralda?” murmured Trundle, plucking at her sleeve. “It might not be wise to yell at him.”
    “Be quiet a moment, Trun,” said Esmeralda. “I’m busy yelling right now.” She glared up at the bemused-looking bird. “So enough with the riddles and the brainteasers and the puzzles. I don’t care what your first is in, mister! Or your second, or, in fact, your third, fourth, and fifth. You want to know what you are? I’ll tell you what you are. You are a loony !”
    “Correct,” croaked the phoenix. “Loony is the answer.”
    “He’s right, you know,” said Trundle. “Loony is the answer. Well, I never! Ishmael had it right all along.”
    “So now will you tell us where the Crown of Fire can be found?” asked Esmeralda.
    “Not just yet,” said the phoenix.
    “Oh, strike me pink and blue!” raged Esmeralda. “What now? Card tricks? A spelling bee?”

    The phoenix lifted its head to the full extent of its threadbare neck and spoke in an increasingly dramatic voice. “The secret of the glorious phoenix bird will only…be…revealed…when…” He paused.
    “Yes?” chorused Jack and Esmeralda and Trundle.
    “…whe-en…”
    “Yes— when ?” they all yelled.
    “When I die!” finished the phoenix.
    An awkward silence descended within the cone of the volcano.
    “Oh,” said Jack. “I see.”
    There was another long pause.
    “And, if you don’t mind us asking,” Esmeralda began, “would you have any idea of when that might be?”
    “Esmeralda!” whispered Trundle. “You can’t ask a question like that.”
    The phoenix frowned at her, as though thinkinghard. “Well,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “I’d say…it should be…some time…about… now !”
    Even as the final word came out of his beak, there was a tremendous roaring noise and a blaze of blinding red fire filled the entire crater, lifting the four animals right off their feet and sending them whirling through the air like dandelion seeds.

S oaring through the air like a Swallowhaven swallow, Trundle came in to land upside down and partway up the crater of the volcano.
    Wallop!
    “Ow!” Blinking and coughing, he slid slowly downward. “Ow! Ouch! Ow-ow-ow!”
    On either side he could hear the gasping and groaning of his companions. They’d fared no better than he had. The titanic explosion set offby the dying phoenix had sent all four of them crashing through the nest and splatted them against the wall of the crater like four badly flung omelets.
    It was a few moments before the white smoke cleared and Trundle and the others managed to get themselves upright and on their feet so they were able to see the full effects of the blast.
    “Didn’t I tell ye it would blow smoke out o’ his parson’s nose?” croaked Ishmael, rubbing dust out of his rolling eyes. “Didn’t old Ishmael tell ’ee?”
    “He’s gone,” gasped Trundle. “Completely gone!”

    “He’s dead,” added Jack. “The poor old fellow.”
    “But what a way to go!” said Esmeralda.
    The straggly nest had been all but blown to pieces as the phoenix expired. And in the place where the old bird had been sitting, there was now nothing but a neat pile of gray ash, shrouded in wisps and strands of white smoke.
    “That’s what I call a death scene,” said Esmeralda, straightening her clothes. “You have to admit, the old guy knew how to make an exit!”
    “But he didn’t tell us the secret!” groaned Trundle. “He…um…went off before he told us where we could find the Crown of Fire.”
    “I’m not so sure he did,” said Jack. He took a step forward.
    “What’s