Be Careful What You Wish For Read online

  “Go on in,” he said, speaking to both of them. “The judge is waiting.”

  Twenty-Two

  The inside of the courtroom looked like a dungeon—the floors, the walls and even the benches where they were apparently supposed to sit—were all rough gray stone. Rising twenty feet above them at the very front of the court was an impossibly tall stone podium and sitting behind it was the same squat, squinty-eyed, snout-nosed troll that Cass remembered from the U-News.

  “Order in my court! This case is about to start, now that the estimable Counselor O’Shea has deigned to grace us with his presence,” the troll judge snarled in his gargling-with-gravel voice. He banged loudly on the podium with his granite gavel.

  The FG, (who was dressed in sparkly pink as always,) and her little gnome-like attorney jumped apart guiltily. They had been conferring in whispers but they fell silent at once, their eyes wide and frightened. Both of them wore the same pain amplifier wristbands that she and Jake had on, but Cass didn’t see the extra black box that Jake had insisted on having on the wristband of either the FG or her attorney.

  She found to her chagrin that it gave her no pleasure to see her irritating, negligent fairy godmother looking so worried and scared. It only made her feel worried and scared herself. After all, anyone who could frighten the FG was probably not somebody you wanted to mess with. Cass watched Jake apprehensively to see what he would say or do but he kept his face blank and simply ushered her to one of the long stone benches at the front of the court.

  “Your honor,” he said, nodding respectfully at StoneThroat, although he had to look up to do it since the troll judge was sitting so far above them.

  “O’Shea.” The judge nodded back and the yellow, squinty eyes seemed to gleam—or was that a trick of the weak greenish light? “Bailiff,” he shouted. “Call the court to order.”

  Cass hadn’t seen any obvious court attendant other than the imp outside but now a large section of one of the rocky walls appeared to detach itself. A shambling figure that was ten feet tall at least came forward, its joints grinding together as it walked. It appeared to be made completely out of stone, even its eyes, though they were a darker shade than the rest of it.

  “The court of the honorable Judge StoneThroat is now in session,” growled the stone creature. “All rise for the honor of the court.”

  Cass and Jake stood, as did the FG and her lawyer.

  “This is the case of Cassandra Swann verses her fairy godmother, Lucinda LaFleur, whom she is suing for flagrant magical negligence with intent to do harm,” the stone bailiff went on. “Do all parties swear to tell the truth on pain of being smashed?” He pounded the massive boulders that were his fists together, as though to illustrate his point.

  “We do,” Jake said promptly and the FG’s lawyer—who was wearing the same ugly brown suit she had been when Cass had seen her in Judge Rosinbloom’s courtroom—said the same.

  “Good—court is in session.” Judge StoneThroat banged the gavel again—he seemed very fond of the noise it made. “Now, I haven’t had much time to review this case. Why are you suing this fairy?” he demanded, looking directly at Cass.

  “I…she…” Cass gulped. She wasn’t afraid of public speaking but she hadn’t expected to have to do any of the talking—wasn’t that what Jake was there for?

  “Hurry up! You are wasting this court’s time!” Judge StoneThroat barked. He pressed a button on the side of his gavel and pointed it directly at her.

  To her right, Cass saw Jake suddenly stiffen, his jaw clenched tight as though in response to the judge’s action. She wasn’t sure what was happening but she knew she’d better start talking fast.

  “I’m suing the FG, er, Lucinda LaFleur because she’s been screwing up my birthday wishes and the birthday wishes of my sisters for our entire lives…your Honor,” she added quickly as an afterthought.

  “Your Honor, that is simply not true!” the FG exclaimed. “Why, I only—”

  “Silence!” The troll judge pointed at the FG and pressed the button on his gavel again. She gave a sharp little cry of pain and shut her mouth so fast it made Cass think of a trap snapping shut. What was going on?

  “Counselor O’Shea, in what way is this fairy ‘screwing up’ the birthday wishes of your client?” StoneThroat demanded, looking at Jake. “Present evidence at once to support your claim or prepare to be sanctioned.”

  “I have some right here, your Honor. If I may approach the bench?” Jake asked respectfully.

  The judge nodded. “I’ll allow it.”

  Jake rose smoothly and drew something out of the breast pocket of his immaculate suit. As he unfolded it, Cass recognized the picture of the soul-sucker with its awful yellow eyes and long, sharp white teeth. She shivered as she watched her court-appointed elf hand it to the stone bailiff, who in turn handed it up to the waiting Judge StoneThroat.

  “Mm-hmm,” he said, after studying the picture for a while. “And why have you given me a picture of a daemon, Counselor O’Shea?”

  “This daemon is a soul-sucker which was unleashed by the defendant’s latest birthday wish, which she granted to my client not two days ago,” Jake said, frowning. “It attacked my client and the children she was teaching and nearly devoured them. If I had not come to her call when I did, all of them would have been eaten.”

  Judge StoneThroat raised a wiry gray eyebrow at Jake.

  “Is this your way of trying to excuse your inexcusable early departure from my courtroom the other day?” he demanded.

  Jake shook his head.

  “By no means, your honor. I am simply presenting evidence for our case as you ordered.”

  Apparently the FG could no longer be silent.

  “If that miserable little half-breed conjured a soul-sucker out of the Pit it’s because she misused my gift which is not my fault!” she exclaimed, hopping up and fluttering her wings in agitation. “If she says otherwise she’s ly—”

  “Enough!” Judge StoneThroat boomed, pointing his gavel at the FG and pressing the button on the side again. She jumped and gasped as though in pain. “You will speak when you are spoken to, Ms. LaFleur—not before!”

  “It’s not fair,” Cass heard the FG whimper to her attorney. “It’s not like you’re wearing a transfer loop like her attorney is.” She shot a venomous glance at Cass who stared blandly back.

  “I have told you, Lucinda, you don’t pay me enough to take painful sanctions for you—especially when you bring them on yourself,” the gnome-like woman murmured back. “If you’d just hold your tongue the judge wouldn’t have to sanction you.”

  “But she’s lying,” the FG whined loudly, glaring at Cass.

  “I am not!” Cass said hotly.

  “Enough!” Judge StoneThroat pointed the gavel at her this time and pushed the button. Cass didn’t feel a thing but beside her, Jake stiffened again and she saw the muscle in his jaw bunch as he clenched his teeth. His hands curled into fists at his sides but he didn’t say anything, just stood still while every muscle in his big body appeared to tense.

  Suddenly Cass understood what was going on. Every time the judge pressed that button on his gavel and pointed it at someone, he was sending a bolt of pain somehow—“sanctioning” them, as the door attendant had put it. But she wasn’t feeling any of it because Jake was taking it for her—that was the meaning of the transference loop he’d insisted on getting wired to his own pain amplifier band.

  Oh my God, I’m hurting him! Or at least he’s being hurt for my sake. I pissed off the judge but Jake has to take the consequences.

  She felt terrible and wondered if she ought to apologize. Would an apology make the judge more lenient? Or would it piss him off even more that she had dared to speak out of turn again? And why was he sanctioning Jake for so long? When he’d “sanctioned” Lucinda, it had appeared to last only a second, like an electric shock. Then again, he did already have it out for Jake because the elf had left his courtroom early the day before.

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