Fairy Debt Read online

This dragon was unlikely to be particularly impressed with the king's tea. Smickled-on-Twee was a small principality and not precisely prosperous. The honey glazed whole pig with thyme and raisins was not as big as it would have been in the more sophisticated Bugdoon-near-Schmoo. Nor were the mounds of tiny new potatoes drizzled in melted butter and sprinkled with mint quite as delicate or as minty as they would have been in Schmoo itself. But the bread was certainly up to par; I'd been lounging about wasting Child Wishes on it all morning. There were huge crispy brown loaves shaped like tortoises and filled with sweetmeats; small round honey-soaked buns rolled in cinnamon; and long skinny cheese-encrusted baguettes. The dragon ate sixteen loaves in all, and I had to sneak away to the kitchen to make sure the second batch came out as good as the first.

  The dragon consumed three of the princess's famous peacock dishes, eight racks of lamb smeared with roasted garlic and rosemary, two platters of pork sausage with hot mustard, and several spit-roasted pheasants. Between each course the dragon picked up his teacup and gazed deeply into the murky depths. The fifth time that he did this, the princess stopped me when I came from a bread check and asked me about it.

  "He's doing what?" I said.

  "Talking dragoonish into his teacup."

  I looked at the dragon. At that moment he was stuffing his face with a trencher of bacon-and-tomato stuffed quail. I was suspicious. So far as I knew, only naiads and daemons used the teacup network. What was this dragon up to? I examined the huge beast. There was something oddly familiar about his markings. Had we met before? I crinkled my forehead in thought. Then I remembered. Once, long ago, an earth dragon had turned up at a fairy potluck. Could this possibly be the same one? I squinted at him – six horns, sour expression... yes, it must be. And if this dragon was talking into his teacup, I bet I knew who he was talking to.

  I snuck a cup of tea off of the high table myself and retreated into a corner of the room.

  "Aunt Twill," I hissed into the cup.

  The surface of the tea shivered slightly and Aunt Twill's wrinkled face appeared in the dark brown liquid, looking harried.

  "Aunt Twill, what are you up to?"

  "Add a little milk will you, dearie? You know the spell is easier in milky tea."

  I ignored her and said firmly, "Aunt Twill!"

  My aunt had the good grace to look slightly guilty. "He's been asking about your banana puff cupcakes for ages. So I thought, why not send him along?"

  I was shocked. "Aunt Twill!"

  Aunt Twill straightened her spine. "Now don't go taking that tone with me, nestling. This is quite the opportunity. The princess is at risk, the castle in danger, and you and your Child's Wishes can save the day."

  Just then, behind me, the dragon sent up a great roar and tipped over the high table. There was a cacophony of sound as plates, 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 wizards got magic in the first place?) Obviously, Aunt Twill had promised my Wishes to this earth dragon.

  He left, moving awkwardly across the cobbled stone bailey, out the barbican and over the moat. Soon he was out of sight.

  The courtiers heaved a collective sigh, and then everyone, including the king and the princess, stared at me.

  I wasn't paying attention because something very strange was happening to my wings. I took off the jester's hat in order to concentrate. Then I found I had to take off my whole uniform as my wings were starting to push against it. It was a good thing I always wore fairy garb underneath.

  Sure enough, in a very short space of time, there I stood in front of the whole court — with fully grown wings!

  I looked at the king. He was staring at me in wonder.

  "You saved my mother once," I said, "but she died without repayment. So I've been serving your daughter in secret in her stead." I flapped my wings experimentally and they lifted me easily into the air. I was a little wobbly, but I could stay up and that was the important part. It was nice to look down on people for a change. "My cupcakes have saved your daughter from certain death, so my debt to you is fulfilled."

  I looked down at the princes
s fondly. "Goodbye, Princess Goob."

  She grinned up at me. "Goodbye, Cups."

  "But wait," said the king, "Don't you have to stay? Be her fairy godmother, make her beautiful and graceful and stuff like that?"

  I shook my head. "I could choose to stay if I thought she needed my help. But I think she'll do perfectly fine without me." I thought about all the gatekeeper's daughters Goob and I had met, and the miller's sons we'd laughed with, and the servants who'd helped us in the kitchen, and the goose-girls who'd gossiped with us. "I think there are others who need fairy godmothers far more than princesses," I said. And with one more wave to Princess Goob, I flew out of the castle and away into the forest.

  I sent the earth dragon my Child's Wishes by butterfly post the very next day. I also sent him the recipe for banana puff cupcakes. I understand he grew even fatter.

  I kept in touch with Princess Goob. Right up through the time when she became Queen Goob. She'd married by then. A nice young writer-fellow I found for her, named Adoulphus Grimm. They had two children, both boys. I became a kind of adopted aunt, since I had far too many fairy godmother gigs by then to take on them as well. I did tell them about my exploits though, usually over Sunday tea. Fairy-tales, the boys called them. I had no idea they would write them all down. But that's another story.

  About The Author

  New York Times Bestselling author Gail Carriger writes to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She survived her early years by reading most of her local library and memorizing Greek battles. Eventually she escaped small-town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. In pursuit of further finishing, Ms. Carriger traveled the historic cities of Europe; subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. Gail now resides in the Colonies, where she is surrounded by fantastic shoes and insists on tea imported from London.

  The Parasol Protectorate books are: Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, and Timeless. Soulless won the ALA's Alex Award. She is currently writing The Finishing School, a young adult series set in the same universe. Etiquette & Espionage was an immediate New York Times bestseller. Curtsies & Conspiracies is due out November 5, 2013.

  The Parasol Protectorate

  Soulless

  Changeless

  Blameless

  Heartless

  Timeless

  Finishing School

  Etiquette & Espionage

  Short Stories

  My Sister's Song

  Marine Biology