Phoenix Rising by Bryony Pearce Page A

Toby’s head.
    “Get the door.” Peel didn’t take his eyes from Toby.
    Toby watched, panic stricken as Crocker pushed the door shut. Where was Polly?
    “Now…” Peel gripped the table with one hand and dragged it to one side, leaving Toby completely exposed. Peel blinked at the oven, still sat at an angle and ticking quietly as it cooled. “What’s wrong with my oven?”
    He shot out a hand, but Toby was already racing towards the door. Crocker blocked his way. Crimson feathers brushed the edge of Toby’s vision as he reached the butcher’s block in the centre of the galley. There he stopped, Crocker on one side, Peel on the other, Polly overhead.
    “Don’t be mad, Peel,” he pleaded and he gestured to the line wrapped at his waist. “I need this to fix the boiler.”
    “If you’ve done something to my oven, devil, then the crew’ll be eating you for dinner.”
    Toby held out a hand as Crocker slid behind him. “What have you done, boy?” Crocker smiled.
    Peel growled as he moved and snatched up a cleaver.
    “Wait, you don’t understand.”
    “All I understand is you’ve broken my oven. The herring’ll be ruined. You want the crew to eat raw seagull for dinner? There’s no fishing in these parts and raw seagull ain’t any kind of edible, especially the way Callum catches ’em.” He chopped with the blade and Toby jumped backwards, automatically blocking with Nix as the cleaverwhistled past. The blades clanged together. Toby gasped as Peel’s blade came within a hair of slicing the precious delivery line.
    “It won’t be for long,” Toby pleaded, trying to appease Peel’s rage. “I’ll rig something up as soon as I can. There might be something in the plane that I can use for the oven.”
    Peel slammed his fist on the table with a bang that shook the galley. “Grab him, Crocker.”
    Thin fingers dug into Toby’s shoulder and he leaped to one side with a cry. Polly screeched and Toby ducked as she flew into Crocker’s face, claws outstretched.
    Crocker screamed and released Toby as he tried to knock the parrot away.
    As Peel circled towards him, Toby placed one hand on the edge of the butcher’s block. He slid underneath and out the other side just as Crocker dropped to his knees. Blood poured from his torn cheeks and Polly flew upwards with a triumphant squawk.
    Toby bounded to his feet in one smooth movement. Peel’s fingers tangled in his hair, but failed to get a purchase. With a half-crazed whoop Toby yanked the door open and sprinted along the gangway.
    “Get him!” At his back Crocker and Peel fought in the doorway then burst through.

FIVE
    Toby wrapped his arms around the line to hold it in place and fled towards the boiler room.
    His toes knew the passageways inside out. Ten years of scampering around the Phoenix meant that he knew every single nook and cranny. He didn’t even need to look where he was going. The comforting lullaby crooned by the creaking rigging when the weather was calm and the shrieking death metal of the ship’s rage when she fought a storm were the constant soundtrack to his life.
    Polly’s feathers brushed his cheek as she bobbed up and down on his shoulder, flapping her wings for balance.
    He skidded to a stop at the top of the ladder by the laundry, grabbed the top rung and kicked off. Peel’s arms waved above him before Crocker elbowed his brother aside and started to follow, dripping blood on to Toby’s upturned face.
    Toby jumped the last metre and ran. As Crockershouted behind him, Toby threw himself around the corner towards the boiler room.
    Crocker remained close on his tail. At any other time, Toby would have found a cluster of crew members and hidden in their midst, but today he and Polly were alone.
    Behind him Peel yelled. He had almost caught up with his brother.
    Polly screeched in Toby’s ear and fluttered from his shoulder. Momentarily blinded, Toby slammed into a solid torso, and bounced backwards.
    “Captain.” Crocker skidded