Fairy Debt Read Free Page A

platters, knives, and teacups slid to the floor.
    "Gotta go," I said, drinking the tea unceremoniously.
    I turned and rushed toward the chaos.
    The dragon was yelling in dragoonish — a sort of rolling fuzzy language. I don't speak it well myself, but I gathered he wasn't entirely pleased with the meal.
    I ran up to Princess Goob. "Stay out of his reach as much as possible and keep feeding him bread. It's very filling." She looked at me with wide eyes and I could tell she really wanted to ask how I knew so much about dragons. But instead she just nodded.
    I turned to run back to the kitchens.
    "Where are you going?" asked the princess in a panic.
    "I have to make banana puff cupcakes! Your life may depend upon it."
    Strange as that statement was, Princess Goob merely nodded again. That's what I liked about that girl, no silly interfering when there's work to be done.
    Once in the kitchen, I marched straight up to the Most Cook.
    "I need to make banana puff cupcakes."
    The cook looked at me in a harried kind of way. He had about a hundred deserts all going at once. "At the moment," he said, "the needs of the Least Jester don't particularly concern me."
    I stared up at him. "The princess's life depends upon it."
    The thing I've learned about humans is, if you make a bizarre enough statement, they simply don't know what to do. In this case, it was easier for the Most Cook not to argue with me. He pointed at a small oven and a bit of counter space in one corner and I went off to find myself a stepping stool so I could use both.  With the help of Ernest, one of the Least Cooks, who was very tall and liked assisting me, I managed to gather all the ingredients and get to work. There were only six small bananas, almost completely black and very sad, so I used every last Child's Wish I had on that one batch of cupcakes. I decided to let the earth dragon eat up as much of the other deserts as possible first so that he had very little room left. That way my cupcakes would come as a kind of crowning glory to the whole high tea experience.
    Eventually evening rolled around, which signified the end of tea. All the cooks were looking exhausted, there was very little food left in the storage cellars, and servants began to slink down to hide in the kitchen away from the dragon.
    I removed my banana puff cupcakes from the oven, popped them out of the pan, swirled strawberry buttercream frosting on the top, and arranged them on a platter using up the very last of my Wishes to make sure they were as perfect as they could possibly be.
    Then I whisked them up onto one shoulder and carried them into the banquet hall. A hush had descended upon the room in my absence. Everyone was looking at the dragon, who was polishing off the last of the raspberry parfait and muttering into his teacup between bites.
    "Where are they?" I heard him grumble into his tea.
    I inched up beside him and slid the cupcake platter onto the table in front of him.
    The dragon sniffed and looked up.
    He poked a claw into one of the puffy yellow cakes and delicately popped the confection into his mouth. He chewed for a moment, swallowed thoughtfully. Then he closed his eyes and sighed.
    "Just as I remember," he muttered to the teacup in dragoonish. The teacup chirruped back at him in the dulcet tones of my Aunt Twill. I couldn't hear exactly what she said but the dragon nodded vigorously and replied, "You have a deal."
    He poked a cupcake onto each of his front claws, leaving one behind on the platter for Mr. Manners. Then he turned away from the table and slithered awkwardly out the front entrance, on his elbows to keep the cupcakes from dragging on the floor.
    He turned at the door to look back.
    "I await my Wishes, little fairy," he said, looking directly at me.
    I realized what Aunt Twill had done. When a fairy reaches adulthood and trades in child's magic for the real thing, she has a choice as to who gets to keep the magic of the Wishes. (How else do you think human