“Help!” Ali cried, waving frantically at the knight “Help!”
“Sorry,” the knight said, looking petrified. “I'm not a real knight you know. I'm just the kitchen boy. Baron Wolfgang asked me to pose for this picture, but I don't know anything about fighting dragons!” And looking very apologetic, he scrambled onto his horse and galloped off, clinging to the horse's mane. “By the way, nice whisk,” he called back over his shoulder to Ali. “Very good quality.”
“Yes, but it's not going to help me stop a dragon, is it?” Ali threw the whisk down in disgust.
The dragon was hovering above Ali and Genie now, shooting flames in their direction. Ali ducked, feeling the ends of her hair singe.
“Quick!” Genie said suddenly. “Get Barry's peppermints out of your backpack!”
Ali stared at her “Genie, this is no time to be thinking about food. We're being attacked by a fire-breathing dragon!”
“Just do it,” Genie insisted.
With shaking fingers, Ali undid the other backpack pocket and pulled out a handful of peppermints. She passed them to Genie, who waited until the dragon opened his mouth to roar again. Then she hurled the mints toward him.
A couple of them landed right in the dragon's mouth. He stopped roaring and looked surprised. There was a faint hiss and all the flames disappeared.
Genie turned to grin at Ali. “See?These mints give you ‘cool, fresh breath'!” she explained, singing the last few words of a jaunty tune. “I saw the commercial while you were at school.”
“Thankgoodness for that!” Ali said. The dragon was crunching noisily on the peppermints as if he was enjoying them. He didn't seem half so scary now. Gently flapping his wings, he flew down and landed on the rock beside them. Then he began nosing around Ali's backpack like an inquisitive dog.
“Here, have them all!” Ali said. She took out the rest of the peppermints and put them down on the rock The dragon sniffed at them, his enormous nostrils quivering.
Genie reached out and patted his shiny green scales. “He's cute, isn't he?” she said. “Can we take him home with us?”
Ali shook her head, remembering what had happened with the tiny purple tiger that had come to life from the chocolate ad. Although he was very cute, it had been nearly impossible to keep him a secret from Ali's mom. A fire-breathing dragon would be even more of a challenge! “I think we'd better leave the dragon here in the painting where he belongs,” she said. “Come on, let's get back to the castle before anyone wonders where I've gone.”
“Okay.” Genie sighed, patting the dragon on the head. “Bye!”
She raised her arms in the air and murmured a couple of magic words. A cool breeze swirled around Ali and Genie, lifting them off their feet and wrapping them in drifts of smoke.
Ali closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she found to her relief that she was back in the Long Gallery beside the painting. Genie was mini size again, hanging out of Ali's backpack pocket
“I hope the picture isn't damaged,” Ali said. But the painting was exactly the same as it had been before with the handsome kitchen-boy knight fighting the fine-breathing dragon. The only difference was that there was now a red-haired lady in a long white dress chained to the rock instead of Genie:
‘Thank goodness for that!” Ali said. “Now we'd better try to find everybody. I have no idea where they've gone.”
“Shhh.” Genie put her finger to her lips and grinned. “If you listen carefully, you can hear Barry Jones clanking!”
Ali followed the noise of moving armor out of the Long Gallery and down another corridor The rest of her class was heading to the castle restaurant to eat their packed lunches. By the time Ali joined them, they were already sitting at the tables in the wood-paneled room, which was hung with more paintings. Barry's suit of armor was standing in the corner and Mary was sitting at the table closest to it
“I'm starving!” Barry was complaining in a muffled voice.
“We'll have to share our lunches with Barry,” Mary said in a low voice to Ali. “Otherwise he's not going to get anything to eat”
“Okay” Ali agreed. She opened her lunch box and took out a cheese and tomato sandwich. She made sure that no one was watching herTiffany Andrews and her friends were sitting at the next table. Ali knew that Tiffany would go straight to Mrs. Jasmine if she found out Barry was stuck inside a suit of armor But Tiffany, Sara, and Melanie were too busy talking to take any notice, so Ali quickly slid the sandwich through the slit in Barry's visor
“Cheese? Yuck!” Barry said in disgust. “I hate cheese.”
“I've got ham,” Mary said, pushing a sandwich through the hole.
“I hope it hasn't got any lettuce on it,” Barry grumbled.
Ali and Mary rolled their eyes at each othenThen Ali's heart sank as she noticed Mrs. Ledbetter staring at the suit of armor from the other side of the room.
“That's not supposed to be in here!” Looking very put out, the guide stood up with her hands on her hips. “Who's moving all these suits of armor around, that's what I'd like to know! I'll have to have a word with the curator about this.”
“Keep still, Barry,” Ali whispered nervously.
“Mrs. Ledbetter, perhaps you could tell us something about the paintings in this room while we're eating our lunch,” Mrs. Jasmine said.
“Very well.” Mrs. Ledbetter waved her hand around the room. “These are alt portraits of the Popplehoff family through the centuries.”
Ali gazed at the pictures. The Popplehoffs seemed quite a miserable bunch. Not one of them was smiling.
“They don't look like much fun, do they?” Genie whispered, echoing Ali's thoughts as she poked her head out of the backpack pocket “Can I have some lunch?” Ali rooted around in her lunch box and gave Genie a chunk of cheese and the top of a chocolate sandwich cookie. “This is Henrietta Popplehoff when she was ten years old.” Mrs. Ledbetter pointed at the portrait hanging above the fireplace. It showed a sulking girl in a frilly blue and white dress, holding a china doll. “Apparently, Henrietta was very spoiled,” Mrs. Ledbetter explained, glancing at Tiffany Andrews. “She used to have a fit of temper if her father didn't bring her a new doll whenever he'd been away from home. The collection of dolls we saw in the Green Bedroom belonged to her”
“Henrietta sounds even brattier than Tiffany!” Mary whispered to Ali.
“I'm still starving,” Barry moaned from inside the armor “Can I have a cookie?”
Making sure no one was looking, Ali slid a chocolate cookie through the opened visor and sat down again.
“Henrietta's ghost is supposed to haunt the castle,” Mrs. Ledbetter added with a smile. “Some people claim to have seen a ten-year-old girl in an old-fashioned blue and white dress wandering about.”
“Don't be scared, class,” Mrs. Jasmine said hastily. “There's no such thing as ghosts.”
“Oh, I wouldn't be scared if I saw a ghost.” Tiffany Andrews yawned, looking bored. “I'd just walk right up to it and Say ‘Boo!'“
Sara and Melanie giggled.
“I tell you what” Tiffany had lowered her voice, but Ali and Mary could still hear what she was saying. “Let's go and look for the ghost!”
“Ooh, yes!” Sara and Melanie said together
The three girls pushed back their chairs and slipped out of the restaurant. No one saw them go except for Ali and Mary.
“I bet Tiffany would be frightened out of her wits if she did meet a ghost,” Mary said, laughing. “I wish she would!”
Then she froze. Oh no! Had she just used her thind wish? What if Tiffany really did meet a ghost now? But it wasn't really my wish, Ali told herself It was Mary's wish-^she had just agreed with it! But she couldn't stop worrying.
Mary was feeding Barry another chocolate cookie, so Ali tapped gently on the backpack pocket. “Genie, was that a wish?” she whispered.
Genie appeared, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “Was what a wish?” she asked. “Sorry, I didn't, hear anything. I was having a nap.”
Quickly Ali explained what she had said when she was talking to Mary.
“I don't know if that was a wish or not,” Genie said. “I do feel a bit strange, J?ut that doesn't necessarily mean there's magic around. It might be the cheese I just ate.”
Suddenly a bloodcurdling scream echoed down the corridor; and Tiffany, Sara, and Melanie rushed into the restaurant
“It's, the ghost!” Tiffany shrieked, her face white. “We've seen the ghost!”