The Spy in the Tower

Charlotte Grimm was a common looking woman by design. She was the kind of woman who you would not be able to spot out at the market, you might not even recognize the third, fourth, fifth time you met her. This was fine by her, for Charlotte was after all a spy who worked to undermine the Briar Matrons from inside their own organization.

She was a skilled and talented woman, she could ride, sew, fish, clean, write, do math, and many other things that made her useful in almost any situation. In her work as a spy, Charlotte transported letters around the kingdoms for the Briar Matrons by pony and gryphon riding on behalf of the propaganda forces.

When she was not transporting letters across the land and syphoning what secrets she could from them to the rebellion, she often spent her time in the Snow Queen’s castle, trying to hear things that she was not meant to hear.

Charlotte was currently tidying up the tallest tower of the Good King’s Castle. No, Charlotte had to correct herself, it was The Snow Queen’s castle now, and had been for years. The Snow Queen had taken it from the Good King and his family...

It was why she came up here so often. She would go into the old tower’s storage and pull out the dull white and blue tapestry that the young prince had been magically cursed in. Forever frozen in a snowy landscape of a frozen storm. She made it a habit of beating out the dust and wiping the tears away from under his eyes. She didn’t know if it was any better for him to be unfurled, but she knew it made her feel better.

Charlotte was waiting for news from the Fairy Godmother, who was the one that she spied for. It was the battle of Broken Stone Mountain, and Charlotte held her breath that all her spying had been for something worthwhile. It was why there was a series of magic symbols drawn upon the mirror hanging next to the prince’s tapestry. When the Fairy Godmother did the same on her end they would become connected, and it could be wiped away with but a sleeve and a touch of spit.

The Fairy Godmother was much the opposite of Charlotte. She was more godmother than she was fairy, perhaps the only fairy that was something else more than a fairy. She was a gorgeous and handsomely stunning woman with wings like that of a dragonfly, it wasn’t clear in the mirror reflection, but she was a size again larger than most fairies and had the intense eyes of a mature woman.

She also talked to Charlotte through mirrors. 

“Charlotte! Tell me you are there. It was the huntsman, he has betrayed us and the battle was lost.” 

Charlotte heard the words coming from a mirror set near the tapestry, the Fairy Godmother’s words coming from the reflection, that was now a portal showing the Godmother in all her glory. Today, though, her eyes were tinged with great sadness.

“It was a truly scarlet and crimson massacre, the giants strength shook the mountains. The Briar Matrons victory is nearly total.” Said the voice of the Fairy Godmother. Normally filled with whimsy and good cheer was now just sad and gray.

“The witches?” Charlotte asked with as little emotion as she could. They were the most powerful of the grand forces working against the Briar Matrons, if there was still hope to defeat them…? The Fairy Godmother didn’t answer with words; she just slowly shook her elegant head back and forth to let Charlotte know that most had not survived.

Charlotte said nothing for a long enough time that the distance and coldness of this nothing began to fill the room. Eventually she could no longer bear it. “Then, is all lost?” Still without emotion, but now sounding so small.

“Almost, but for now, we must move quickly if the rebellion is to survive.” The Fairy Godmother’s voice had regained a glimmer of its whimsy. Charlotte closed her eyes, focusing on what the Fairy Godmother would say next.

“You’ll need the blood of a frog, a lock of your own hair, a feather from a swan and some body about the weight of your own. You will need to return here with these objects. Also, remove the Prince’s Tapestry from storage…” The Fairy Godmother stopped as she noticed Charlotte’s face shift.

“He is already out of storage.” She said quickly, brushing her hair back and not making eye contact. Neither woman spoke for some time, the unspoken words about how dangerous the Prince’s Curse hung pregnant in the air.

“You must move quickly, I fear the huntsman may know of your treachery.” Said the fairy godmother. The last bit made Charlotte’s heart freeze in her chest, as if the Snow Queen’s powers had already struck her dead.

---

Finding a body big enough to work but light enough she could get it up the tower was the hardest part. She knew of an extra pig carcass that was meant for an upcoming banquette. It would have to do.

Getting the pig carcass up the spiraling tower without being seen had been difficult and uncouth work. The wheelbarrow had broken, her dress was ripped, and she smelled almost as bad as the hog. Yet she was victorious, tumbling through the door in front of the tapestry that remained hanging. The feather of the swan was in her hand. She looked up at the tapestry that held the prince and wiped the tears from his eyes one more time. “Good luck, my prince.”

She took a small bit of soap from the folds of her dress and stepped over to the vanity mirror in the room and resketching symbols on the glass she had wiped away before, “Magic Mirror on the wall, show me the Godmother strong and tall.” 

There was a silken fog that rolled along the reflection, and then, once more, the face of the Fairy Godmother. “Charlotte, did you make it? Things are moving quickly. We need to save as many as we can.”

“I have the items you requested.” Charlotte nodded. “Do not explain, just tell me what to do.”

“Smear the frog’s blood on the pig, and then feed it your hair. With a spell I shall make it so that the pig looks like you, then you shall toss it out the tower window. They will think the Prince’s Curse did its work.” The Fairy Godmother spoke slowly and clearly.

Charlotte listened, doing as she was told. “And the feather?”

“You will be turned into a swan. You’ll fly out of the top tower, and you’ll meet me at the Maidens Ward.” The Fairy Godmother instructed, her finger wagging in the air like a crier on the street corner.

Charlotte hesitated. She had pulled the feather out, and was busy stuffing the hair down the pig’s maw. “The decrepit school of mystic arts? The Briar Matrons will surely look there first…”

“I have put a charm upon the grounds, so that only those who are pure of heart may find them hidden in a mist of confusion. Much magic and a few favors from eons past were required but I do not think the Briar Matrons will be able to penetrate this glamor without great effort and some luck.” There was some amusement in the Fairy Godmother’s voice. “More importantly to the rebellion, I have seen that the Briar Matrons have left several powerful enemies of theirs alive.” 

“The rebellion shall return stronger, Fairy Godmother.” Charlotte moved away from the magically hexed mirror and gave her attention to the objects she had spent so much effort bringing up to the tower. 

Charlotte carefully leaned down and let her lips softly press against those of the pigs while trying not to stare into its cold dead swine eyes. There was a flutter, as it transformed like a strange liquid. The pig almost seemed to melt into a very cold, naked, and dead looking Charlotte. “Lovely...” She muttered to herself as lifted her own corpse. “Still much too heavy.” She grunted and with no lack of effort hurled it from the tower, where several would later speak to seeing Charlotte leap to her fate.

“May mothers magic hold me dear.” Charlotte whispered like a prayer clutching the feather under her chin and waited for the Fairy Godmother’s spell to change her.

---

On the day the Briar Matrons won their final victory against the First Rebellion, there was a strange event in the Snow Queen’s highest tower. Her favorite meeting room that she had used to drive so many of her enemies to insanity using the Prince’s Curse. One of her propaganda couriers had apparently been going up there, and had been driven to the same fate as so many.

But the Queen was not one to be fooled so easily. She could feel the magic in the air and a stench of deception flowing down the stone of her towers.

“Recover the body! Freeze it. Do not let it thaw!” She ordered her guards “Make sure her brothers hear nothing of this, I must examine the body before they do.”

While investigating the room the old vanity mirror drew the Queen’s attention. “Oh sister, your vanity knows no boundaries, are you still the finest I wonder.” She made her way to the large mirror.

She was about to invoke one of her favorite incantations when the guard rushed into the room. “We found the body, milady!”

“Wonderful” Before taking off, she took a final glimpse at the room and at Prince hanging on the wall. “Mmm, you’re going to hang there a little longer. Prince. You may still be needed.” The Queen gave a dark smooth laugh that had not a single note of music or mercy in it before she smoothly strode from the room to begin looking at the corpse.

When the night came, a faint yellow glow could be spotted in the tower's window for just a moment, though the guard who saw it assumed it was but another guard with a candle. However, it was the mists in the vanity mirror gathered once more.

“Prince, can you hear me?”

“I can. Yes, yes I can?! Who is there? I’m so cold! So cold…”

“I failed you when you were born, and I have failed you while you were trapped, used as a weapon. It is time to make amends, dear Prince.”