The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine

dead. Not because we’re stingy.
    Queen Hermione II tried again. “There’s plenty—”
    â€œMaybe you thought I couldn’t come up with a good gift. You thought I would run out of ideas, like Aurora here.”
    But I did think of a good gift, Aurora thought. How many people are ten times as smart as everybody else?
    Belladonna roared, “You think I’m stupid like her? Is that what you think? Hump? Herm? Hmm?”
    â€œOf course we don’t think you’re stupid,” King Humphrey II said.
    â€œI’ll show you I can think of a new and special gift.” She leaned over the cradle. “Kitchy coo.”
    Oh no, Sonora thought, wincing at the furious face. Somebody stop her! Do something!
    Everyone was silent, frozen.
    I have to do it, Sonora thought. I have to talk her out of whatever she’s going to do. “Excuse . . .” Her voice was too low. She’d never said anything before. She swallowed and tried again. “Excuse—”
    Belladonna didn’t hear. “Annadora gave the baby good health, which she will keep until my gift takes place. So my gift to the ootsy tootsy baby”—she waved her wand—“is that she will prick herself with a spindle and die!”

Two
    W hen? Sonora wondered. When will I prick myself? When I’m eighty? Or in the next five minutes?
    â€œI can’t stay,” Belladonna cackled. “I must fly.” She vanished.
    Queen Hermione II snatched Sonora up and held her tight.
    Tears ran down King Humphrey II’s face in rivers. What good was it being king if fairies could do this to you?
    â€œIt won’t happen,” the queen shouted. “I won’t let it. You’re not going to prick yourself with anything, sweetheart, baby dove.”
    Sonora wondered if her mother could prevent it. Or did it have to happen? If it had to happen, it had to happen. She’d just enjoy everything until it did. Sonora breathed deeply. Her mother smelled so good.
    The fairy Adrianna coughed. “Nobody seems to remember that I haven’t given Sonora my gift yet.”
    King Humphrey II threw himself down on his knees and clutched the fairy’s skirts. Queen Hermione II put Sonora back in her cradle and threw herself down on her knees too.
    â€œPlease save our baby,” the king pleaded.
    â€œI can’t reverse another fairy’s gift,” Adrianna said, freeing her skirts from the king’s grasp. “That would cause a fairy war, and believe me, you don’t want that. I thought of making Sonora artistic. What do you think?”
    â€œCan’t you do anything to save her?” the queen sobbed.
    â€œTutors will teach her to draw and play the harp,” the king said.
    Adrianna went to the cradle. “Let me think.” It was mean of Belladonna to kill the kid because of her parents’ mistake. “I can change Belladonna’s wish a little. She has to prick herself. I can’t do anything about that. . . . I know.” She waved the wand over the cradle. “Sonora will prick herself, but she will not die. My gift is that she will sleep for a hundred years instead of dying. Oh, this is brilliant!” The fairy beamed at the king and queen. “At the end of a hundred years a highly eligible prince will wake her by kissing her. How’s that?”
    Hmm, Sonora thought. A hundred years . . . her parents would be dead by the time she woke up! She started crying and howling and bawling. And wishing the fairy Allegra hadn’t given her a loving heart.
    King Humphrey II picked her up. “Funny baby.” He bounced her up and down. “She doesn’t cry when the fairy says she’s going to die. But when Adrianna saves her . . .” He bowed to the fairy. “Then she cries.”

    â€œâ€˜I CAN’T REVERSE ANOTHER FAIRY’S GIFT ,’ A DRIANA SAID .”
    â€œWe can go to the banquet hall