Abi Elphinstone - The Bickery Twins and the Phoenix Tear

Also by

Abi Elphinstone

Casper Tock and the Everdark Wings

Sky Song

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Aladdin hardcover edition August 2020

Text copyright 2020 by Abi Elphinstone

Originally published in Great Britain in 2020 by Simon & Schuster UK as Jungledrop

Jacket illustration copyright 2020 by Petur Antonsson

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Jacket designed by Heather Palisi

Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia

Author photograph by Pui Shan Chan Jones

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Elphinstone, Abi, author. | Title: The bickery twins and the phoenix tear / by Abi Elphinstone. |

Description: New York : Aladdin, 2020. | Series: The Unmapped chronicles ; [2] | Audience: Grades 4-6. |

Summary: Twins Fox and Fibber find themselves in one of the Unmapped Kingdoms and set off on a quest to find the Forever Fern hidden deep in the glow-in-the-dark rainforests of Jungledrop Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020002262 (print) | LCCN 2020002263 (eBook) |

ISBN 9781534443105 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534443129 (eBook)

Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy. | MagicFiction. | Quests (Expeditions)Fiction. | TwinsFiction. |

Brothers and sistersFiction. | Adventure and adventurersFiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.E465 Bic 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.E465 (eBook) | DDC [Fic]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002262

LC eBook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002263

For Freddie, my godson

Heres to all the adventures well go on together up north.

W hen you become a grown-up, several rather troubling things happen at once: your knees stop working as well as they used to; you spend large chunks of the day harping on about homework, vegetables, and bedtimes; and you fall asleep the moment you sit down in a comfortable armchair. But with all the dodgy knees, nagging, and nodding off comes wisdom. Or does it? Because if grown-ups were truly wise, then they would know about the Unmapped Kingdoms. But they do not. They are far too busy to believe in magic. And yet, if they did, they would realize that the world is very much not as they know it.

You see, at the beginning there were no big bangs or black holes. There was just an egg. A rather large one. And out of this egg a phoenix was born. It wept seven tears when it found itself alone, and as these tears fell, they became our continents and formed the earth as you and I know it, although to the phoenix all this was simply known as the Faraway. But these lands were dark and empty, so, many years later, the phoenix scattered four of its golden feathers, and out of these grew secretunmappedkingdoms, invisible to the people who would go on to live in the Faraway, but holding the magic needed to conjure sunlight, rain, and snow, and every untold wonder behind the weather, from the music of a sunrise to the stories of a snowstorm.

Now, had a hippogriff or a unicorn been in charge, things might have got out of hand (for though these beasts like to boss others around, they are rarely on time for anything and are far too vain to govern fairly). But a phoenix is the wisest of all magical creatures, and the very first phoenix knew that magic grows strange and dark if used selfishly, but if it is used for the greater good, it can nourish an entire world and keep it turning. So the phoenix decreed that those who lived in the Unmapped Kingdoms could enjoy all the wonders that its magic brought, but only if they, in turn, worked to send some of this magic out into the Faraway so that the continents there might be filled with light and life. If the Unmappers ever stopped sharing their magic, the phoenix warned, both the Faraway and the Unmapped Kingdoms would crumble to nothing.

The phoenix thought long and hard about which magical creatures to appoint as rulers of each Unmapped Kingdom. The cloud giants were tall and strong, but they tended to fall asleep when anything important needed to be done. The snow trolls were kind and clever, but rather too keen on firing crossbows. And so the phoenix settled on the Lofty Huskswizards born under the same eclipse and marked out from the other Unmappers on account of their wisdom, unusually long life expectancy, and terrible jokes. And although the Lofty Husks in each kingdom took a different form, they ruled fairly, ensuring that every day the magic of the phoenix was passed on to the Faraway.

The four kingdoms all played different roles. Unmappers in Rumblestar collected marvelsdroplets of sunlight, rain, and snow in their purest formwhich dragons transported to the other kingdoms so the inhabitants there could mix them with magical ink to create weather scrolls for the Faraway: sun symphonies in Crackledawn, rain paintings in Jungledrop, and snow stories in Silvercrag. Little by little, the Faraway lands came alive: plants, flowers, and trees sprang up, and so strong was the magic that eventually animals appeared and, finally, people.

Years passed and the phoenix looked on from Everdark, a place so far away and out of reach that not even the Unmappers knew where it lay. But while a phoenix may be wise, it cannot live forever. And so, after five hundred years, the first phoenix died and, as is the way with such birds, a new phoenix rose from its ashes to renew the magic in the Unmapped Kingdoms and ensure it was shared with those in the Faraway.

A period of peace and prosperity followed, and every five hundred years the Unmappers learned to watch for a new phoenix rising up into the sky to restore the Unmapped magic and herald the arrival of another era. Everyone believed things would continue this way forever.

When youre dealing with magic, though, forever is rarely straightforward. There is always someone, somewhere, who becomes greedy. And when a heart is set on stealing magic for personal gain, suddenly ancient decrees and warnings slip quite out of mind. Such was the case with a harpy called Morg who grew jealous of the phoenix and its power.

Four thousand years ago, Morg breathed a curse over the nest of the last phoenix on the very night of the renewal of magic. The old phoenix burst into flames, like the rest of its kind had done before it, but this time the flames burned black and no new phoenix appeared from the ashes. And so Morg seized the nest as her own and set about seeking to claim all the magic of the Unmapped Kingdoms for herself.