Instead of Three Wishes (12 page)
Read Instead of Three Wishes Online
Authors: Megan Whalen Turner
“Yes,” said his prime minister.
Â
Orvis also came to see Nele. He stopped him after work while he walked down the dark street toward home. Orvis wanted to explain that he wasn't really the king and wasn't on any account to mention the king business to anyone. He said everything very slowly, and he said it twice to make sure Nele understood. Once again, he'd failed to notice Bet standing in the shadows until Bet stepped forward and suggested that a gold piece might keep everyone's mouth shut.
Orvis handed over the gold piece and went home in a terrible mood. When his daughter asked about the puppet show, he snapped that of course they wouldn't go. Spend good money on a puppet show? He was sick to death of them and hoped never to see another.
Â
When Orvis was gone, Bet said, “He does think you're an idiot, doesn't he?”
“He's got a good reason,” said Nele, and described the scene in the throne room. The two young bakers walked down the street with their arms filled with leftover bread, laughing.
“What shall we do with our gold coin?” asked Bet.
“Same as we did with the silver ones, I think,” said Nele.
They had wine and cheese for dinner every night for a month, and with the money left over they went to the puppet show. The bakers at the Monemvassia bakery still kidded Nele about his brief career as the crown prince and, much to Orvis's disgust, someone wrote the whole business down and called it the story of the baker king.
MEGAN WHALEN TURNER
is the author of
INSTEAD OF THREE WISHES, THE THIEF
, which was awarded a Newbery Honor, and its sequels,
THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA
and
THE KING OF ATTOLIA
. She lives in Ohio. Visit her online at http://home.att.net/~mwturner.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
INSTEAD OF THREE WISHES
. Text copyright © 1995 by Megan Whalen Turner. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition August 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-196841-9
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com