Wishing for Trouble Read Free

carved upon it. ‘We think it’s some kind of wishing ring. It brought us here, and every time we wish for anything, no matter how stupid, it happens.’
    â€˜That’s my ring!’ the countess shouted. ‘Give it back to me now!’

    â€˜It’s not your ring, it’s Timmy’s ring,’ Emmy answered at once. She looked down at the ring, which was beginning to burn her, and shook her hand to cool it.
    â€˜That is the seal ring of the Lyonessa family,’ the countess said imperiously. ‘I have heard many tales of it. See! Does it not have my family shield upon it?’ She waved one hand at the banner that hung behind her, which showed a red lion rearing up on its hind paws. ‘Legend has it that the ring was blessed by a fairy, but until now I thought that was just a story, like the one that it was stolen by a dragon many years ago.’
    Ben and Tim glanced at each other, and grinned, remembering their friend the dragon.
    â€˜It is my ring, and I want it back. Now!’ the countess demanded.
    Swiftly, Emmy slid the burning ring off her finger and gave it to Nick. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Nick’s got it now. He can’t take it off until he’s had his three wishes.’
    â€˜Which I won’t be wasting on coats of armour, or silly dresses,’ Nick said loftily.
    The countess scowled. ‘Guards! Arrest them! Get me my wishing ring, and throw them in the dungeon!’

Guards began racing towards them, shouting at the tops of their voices.
    Nick took a deep breath. ‘Freeze!’ he shouted.
    The guards rushed upon them, waving their swords and pikes and maces.
    â€˜Urn, I mean, I wish you would all freeze!’
    At once, every single person in the room – apart from the five children and Jessie – were encased in a shining sheath of ice. Through the ice, their boggling eyes and screaming mouths could still be seen.
    â€˜Do you reckon it’ll hurt them, being frozen solid?’ Ben said. ‘Maybe you should have wished they would all just stop shouting at us.’
    â€˜And listen?’ Tim suggested.
    â€˜And be nice,’ Emmy said.
    Nick was rather taken aback that his wish had been fulfilled quite so literally. ‘Um, OK,’ he said. ‘I wish that … everyone would stop being frozen, and not be cold, or get frostbite or anything, but all be still and quiet and listen to us …’
    â€˜And be nice,’ Emmy said.
    â€˜â€¦ and be nice to us,’ Nick finished.
    The five children watched with some trepidation as the ice melted away, and the crowd of people in the room stood quietly, listening.
    â€˜Maybe the ring did belong to your family a long time ago,’ Ben said to the countess, ‘but finders keepers. It’s our ring now, and we need it to get home again.’
    â€˜Indeed, of course, you are absolutely right,’ the countess said. ‘You must forgive me. It is just that I was hoping the wishing ring could help us. I could wish for a rain of boiling oil to descend from the sky upon our enemies, or for those cursed traitors to all get the plague and drop dead on the field, or …’

    â€˜I guess this is the countess being nice,’ Ben murmured to Emmy.
    â€˜Or for boils to appear on all their bottoms …’
    Tim and Lach giggled, and the countess shot them a furious glance. There was a huge bang, and the whole castle shook. Everyone screamed and shrank together.

    â€˜Sorry to interrupt,’ Ben said politely, ‘but I guess you couldn’t tell us what’s going on out there?’
    â€˜We are under siege,’ the countess said, her voice trembling. ‘The villain leading the assault is my neighbour Lord Dastardly, who thinks that because I am just a girl, and an orphan, he can claim my land and my castle as his own. He has had us besieged for months!’
    â€˜There, there, little cabbage,’ the woman in the