Twenty-Eight

 

The following night, Abraham returned to the maiden's tower, where he found the girl sitting at the wheeled table, spinning flax into thread. The walls were stacked with baskets of the stuff, waiting to be spun.

Before he could ask, she said, "The king is not satisfied with what I gave him this morning. He insists I must spin even more. He expects the impossible. No one could spin this much thread in a day, even with a spinning wheel."

"If you merely break the curse, I will leave you to your work, and never disturb you again," Abraham said.

She slammed her hands on the table and rose. "I know nothing of curses, unless you are one! Even if I can spin the fibres into thread, I cannot turn it into gold, no matter what the king thinks. Only you can do that. I wish you had never come to me at all, for you will surely get me killed!"

"If I help you again, will you break the curse?" Abraham asked.

"Why won't you listen to me? Why won't any of you stupid men listen to me? I do not know how to break curses, spin straw into gold, or work miracles! I understand waterwheels and spinning wheels and mills, but men's minds spin in such strange ways it is a wonder you can survive at all!" A tear trickled down her cheek. "Yet it is my life at stake, because none of you will listen."

Abraham swallowed. The seer had been certain. Only she could break the curse, no one else. For she had been alone in that tower room until he arrived. "Please," he said simply. "I am sorry for whatever trouble I have caused you. If I make amends, if I help you, would you be willing to at least try to help me break the curse?"

She stared at him for a long time before she said, "Once my work is done, maybe I will be of a mind to help you. Though this will take us all night and into the next day, I am certain."

He wanted to shake her, to demand her word, but he could not bring himself to harm the girl. He had less than a year to live, but if she did not do this task the king had set her, he would outlive her. And any hope for his son.

Her wheel whirred into life – she had no time to spare, waiting for his answer when there was work to be done.

Sighing, Abraham set to work.