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

now,” the queen said.
    Sonora fought to catch her breath. She had to explain. “Wait,” she said finally. “Wisten!” Talking was hard without teeth. She tried again. “Listen!” There. She’d done it.
    The king’s jaw dropped, and he almost dropped Sonora too.
    â€œIf I sleep for a hundred years, Mother and Father—” She started crying again. “Mother and Father will die before I wake up.”
    â€œShe can talk!” the queen said.
    â€œAnd what if I have a dog or—”
    â€œYou can talk!” King Humphrey II lifted Sonora way above his head. “The ibble bibble baby can talk!”
    And Belladonna said I couldn’t think of a good gift, the fairy Aurora thought, smirking. How many gifts make month-old babies talk?
    â€œDon’t let them die while I’m asleep,” Sonora begged.
    She’s right, the queen thought. But we can’t criticize Adrianna’s gift. She could get mad and harm Sonora.
    â€œUm . . .” Adrianna said. If she really wanted to help Sonora, she had to fix as much as she could. “Suppose I do it this way. Suppose, when Sonora falls asleep, everybody in the castle sleeps along with her.”
    â€œExcellent,” the king said. “Except sometimes we’re in the courtyard.”
    â€œAll right.” She waved her wand. “Everybody from the moat on in will fall asleep and sleep for a hundred years.” She chuckled. “Sweet dreams.”
    When the fairies left, King Humphrey II and Queen Hermione II had a long talk about the hundred-year sleep. They should have included Sonora, who would have had lots of good ideas. But Sonora was in the nursery, being rocked in her cradle by a Royal Nursemaid.
    â€œMaybe it doesn’t have to happen,” the queen said, brushing away a tear. “We’ll be very groggy when we wake up.”
    â€œWe’ll issue a proclamation,” King Humphrey II said. “No spindles inside the castle.”
    â€œNo needles,” Queen Hermione II added. “Nothing sharp. Maybe if anything pricks her she’ll fall asleep.”
    â€œNo knives. No swords. No toothpicks. We’ll build a shed and keep everything in there.”
    â€œBelladonna didn’t say when Sonora would prick herself,” the queen said. “She could be fifty when she does it.”
    â€œNo prince will marry her if he knows she’s going to nap for a hundred years,” the king said. “He could be out hunting, and when he comes home, nobody greets him. They’re all fast asleep.”
    The queen agreed. “Besides, the servants would panic if they knew. The whole court would leave.”
    They decided to keep the hundred-year sleep a secret. They didn’t think of telling Sonora to keep it a secret too, because they kept forgetting how smart she was. But they didn’t need to tell her because she already knew. She’d figured it out ten seconds after Adrianna gave the gift. Now, while she lay in the darkened nursery, she was thinking it all over instead of sleeping. She’d save sleeping for her hundred-year snooze.
    The fairy’s gift would come true, Sonora decided. If her head could change shape and if she could become plump just because of a fairy, not to mention getting smart twice, then of course she’d prick herself and sleep for a hundred years.
    Sonora also figured out that her parents would try to keep the gift from happening by hiding the spindles. But wherever they were hidden, she’d find them and take one. She wasn’t going to prick herself by accident at the worst possible moment. No. She would do it on purpose when the time was exactly right.

Three
    T he Royal Nursemaids couldn’t get used to Sonora. It was so strange to change the diaper of a baby who was reading a book, especially a baby who blushed and said, “I’m so sorry to bother you with my elimination.”
    In her bath,