Spindle(45)

“The curse on it is old, potentially weakening, but yes. The spindle is still very dangerous. Very, very dangerous.” Fanny waggled her finger with emphasis.

“What would the spindle be doing in a peddler’s cart?” Briar asked.

“Bah. Peddler. Describe the woman.”

“It wasn’t a woman. He was an old man with a beard and a cane…”

“Turquoise eyes?”

Briar nodded.

Fanny clenched her hands. “Isodora. Of course. Can’t turn your back for a minute.”

“Who?”

“The fairy who cursed the spindle in the first place. Spiteful thing she is. I didn’t know she had enough power to transform into another look.”

“I thought she was dead. At the end of the fairy tale she dies.”

“Dead? We’ve made that mistake before. No, she’s very much alive. Don’t believe everything you read. Well, that’s it, then. I’ll have to tell—” She caught Briar’s expression and stopped. “No one.”

“I don’t understand why Isodora would bring the spindle here. Sunrise Valley is the middle of nowhere. There aren’t any kings and queens in America. No princesses to…” Briar thought about her name. “Am I related to the original Sleeping Beauty? Is this about revenge because she didn’t die and now Isodora wants to kill me?”

Fanny shook her head. “For one, I don’t know how Isodora got hold of the spindle.” She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Two, no, you are not Aurora’s descendant. It is, however, unfortunate that your mother’s family liked flower names, because Isodora is after revenge. Revenge on me, and your name just makes that revenge taste better. Innocents often do get caught up in these trials.”

“I don’t understand. Why would killing a spinner girl satisfy her revenge?”

“It doesn’t have to be a spinner girl, specifically. She is after a young girl to fulfill her curse so she can have her full power back. Right now her power is tied up in the unfulfilled curse of the spindle.”

A slight smile played at her lips. “I’m the one who stopped her, which is why she and I are in this battle of wills and she wants out. She knows my role is to protect the girls who cross my path and killing one would be devastating to me. Death is against everything I hold dear. The original curse was that Aurora would prick her finger on a spindle and die before her seventeenth birthday. I softened it so that she would only sleep for a lifetime and then awaken with true love’s kiss—my personal touch. The others thought it excessive. They thought the sleeping was enough, but where’s the romance in that? My way, she woke to someone who loved her. I think it was necessary after all that time.”

“But if the curse was for Aurora, then the curse won’t ever be fulfilled.”

Fanny scratched her nose. “I wish it were that simple. It’s the way Isodora made the curse. She was enraged at the time, making herself a bit sloppy. Make no mistake. That spindle can kill you.”

Briar’s heart skipped a beat. “Can’t you stop the curse again?”

“Not this time. The curse must run its course. We’ve held it off as long as we can. Isodora will not be satisfied until a girl dies, and she’s chosen you. I can only hope that my blessing over Aurora and the spindle carries over to another girl, but I don’t know if it will. We’ve never followed a curse as old as this one before. We’ve been watching it very carefully.”

Of all the things to be chosen for. Death.

What would happen to the children then? No one would be watching out for them, trying to keep them together. They’d be put on that orphan train, separated into three different families in three different states. She couldn’t let that happen.

“I’m not going to prick my finger. I know what it truly is now, so I’ll stay away from it.” Seemed like an easy solution.

Fanny looked doubtful. “You don’t feel an overwhelming need to touch it?”

Briar closed her eyes, trying to name what she felt about the spindle. “I feel possessive of it, like I don’t want anyone else to have it. I haven’t wanted to touch the tip.”

“Yet,” Fanny said. “We need to get it out of there right away.”

“It won’t come off. It’s as solid as if it were built with the frame.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Fanny rubbed her hands together. “Then I should try to find Isodora, now that I know she’s here. Can you take the children today?”

“Of course,” Briar said. “Earlier, you hesitated over promising not to tell my secret. Who were you going to tell?”

Fanny shrugged. “I was going to tell Prudence. She’s my overseer.”

Briar’s mouth went dry. “Is she a fairy, too?”

Fanny scrunched up her face, then nodded.

Briar felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She quickly searched her memories for any hint of unusual behavior from Nanny and couldn’t think of a one. “We’ve been under the care of a fairy all this time?” It was like waking up to find out a knife had been dangling over her bed the whole night and the only thing stopping it from hurting her was someone watching it. Briar would have rather been told about the danger so she could have prepared for it.