“What’s so amusing?” she demanded.
“You’d be like a turtle in something like that,” he replied. “You wouldn’t be able to move.”
“The drawings are only intended to give you a general idea,” she told him, trying to keep a grip on her temper.
“Why don’t you be a good girl and take these to a dressmaker?” he suggested. “I work in steel, not brocade or satin. Armor like this would be useless, and so uncomfortable that you wouldn’t be able to wear it.”
“Then modify it,” she grated from between clenched teeth.
He glanced at her design again, then deliberately crumpled her drawings in his fist and threw them into the corner. “Foolishness,” he grunted.
Ce’Nedra resisted the urge to scream. She retrieved the drawings. “What’s the matter with them?” she persisted.
“Too much here.” He stabbed a thick finger at the shoulder represented on the drawing. “You wouldn’t be able to lift your arm. And here.” He pointed at the armhole on the breastplate she had drawn. “If I make it that tight, your arms would stick straight out. You wouldn’t even be able to scratch your nose. As long as we’re at it, where did you get the whole notion in the first place? Do you want a mail shirt or a breastplate? You can’t have both.”
“Why not?”
“The weight. You wouldn’t be able to carry it.”
“Make it lighter then. Can’t you do that?”
“I can make it like cobwebs if you want, but what good would it be if I did? You could cut through it with a paring knife.”
Ce’Nedra drew in a deep breath. “Master armorer,” she said to him in a level voice, “look at me. In all the world do you think there’s a single warrior small enough for me to fight?”
He considered her tiny form, scratching his bald head and looking down at her with pursed lips. “You are a bit undergrown,” he admitted. “If you aren’t going to fight, why do you need armor?”
“It’s not actually going to be armor,” she explained to him rather impatiently, “but I need to look like I’m wearing armor. It’s sort of in the nature of a costume.” She saw instantly that her choice of words had been a mistake. Delban’s face darkened, and he threw her drawings away again. It took another ten minutes to mollify him. Eventually, after much wheedling and outrageous flattery, she persuaded him to consider the whole notion as something in the nature of an artistic challenge.
“All right,” he surrendered finally with a sour look, “take off your clothes.”
“What?”
“Take your dress off,” he repeated. “I need exact measurements.”
“Do you realize what you’re suggesting?”
“Little girl,” he said testily, “I’m a married man. I’ve got daughters older than you are. You are wearing underclothes, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but ”
“That will satisfy the demands of modesty. Take off the dress.”
With a flaming face, Ce’Nedra removed her dress. Durnik the smith, who had watched the entire exchange from the doorway with an open grin on his face, politely turned his back.
“You ought to eat more,” Delban told her. “You’re as scrawny as a chicken.”
“I can do without the comments,” she replied tartly. “Get on with this. I’m not going to stand around in my chemise all day.”
Delban picked up a piece of stout cord with knots tied in it at regular intervals. He took a great many measurements with the cord, meticulously recording them on a piece of flat board. “All right,” he said finally. “That ought to do it. Go ahead and get dressed again.”
Ce’Nedra scrambled back into her dress. “How long will it take?” she asked.
“Two or three weeks.”
“Impossible. I need it next week.”
“Two weeks,” he repeated stubbornly.
“Ten days,” she countered.
For the first time since she had entered his workshop, the blunt man smiled. “She’s used to getting her own way, isn’t she?” he observed to Durnik.
“She’s a princess,” Durnik informed him. “She usually gets what she wants in the end.”
“All right, my scrawny little princess.” Delban laughed. “Ten days.”
Ce’Nedra beamed at him. “I knew you’d see it my way.”
Precisely ten days later, the princess, with Durnik once again in tow, returned to Delban’s workshop. The mail shirt the craftsman had fashioned was so light that it could almost have been described as delicate. The helmet, hammered from thin steel, was surmounted with a white plume and was encircled with a gold crown. The greaves, which were to protect the fronts of Ce’Nedra’s legs, fit to perfection. There was even an embossed shield rimmed with brass and a light sword with an ornate hilt and scabbard.
Ce’Nedra, however, was staring disapprovingly at the breastplate Delban had made for her. It would quite obviously fit-too well. “Didn’t you forget something?” she asked him.
He picked the breastplate up in his big hands and examined it. “It’s all there,” he told her. “Front, back, all the straps to hook them together. What else did you want?”
“Isn’t it a trifle – understated?” Ce’Nedra suggested delicately.
“It’s made to fit,” he replied. “The understatement isn’t my fault.”
“I want it a little more-” She made a sort of curving gesture with her hands.
“What for?”
“Never mind what for. Just do it.”
“What do you plan to put in it?”
“That’s my business. Just do it the way I told you to.”
He tossed a heavy hammer down on his anvil. “Do it yourself,” he told her bluntly.
“Durnik,” Ce’Nedra appealed to the smith.
“Oh, no, princess,” Durnik refused. “I don’t touch another man’s tools. That just isn’t done.”
“Please, Delban,” she wheedled.
“It’s foolishness,” he told her, his face set.
“It’s important,” she coaxed. “If I wear it like that, I’ll look like a little boy. When people see me, they have to know that I’m a woman. It’s terribly, terribly important. Couldn’t you – well just a little bit?” She cupped her hands slightly.
Delban gave Durnik a disgusted look. “You had to bring her to my workshop, didn’t you?”
“Everybody said you were the best,” Durnik replied mildly.
“Just a little bit, Delban?” Ce’Nedra urged.
Delban gave up. “Oh, all right,” he growled, picking up his hammer. “Anything to get you out of my shop – but not clear out to here.” He made an exaggerated gesture.
“I’ll depend on your good taste, Delban.” She smiled, patting his cheek with a fond little laugh. “Shall we say tomorrow morning?”
The armor, Ce’Nedra decided the following morning as she inspected herself in the mirror, was perfect. “Well, what do you think, Adara?” she asked her friend.
“It looks very nice, Ce’Nedra,” the tall girl replied, although a bit dubiously.
“It’s just exactly right,” Ce’Nedra said happily, turning so that the blue cape fastened to the shoulder pieces of the breastplate flared and swirled dramatically. The gleaming mail shirt she wore under the breastplate reached to her knees and wrists. The greaves covering her calves and the armguards reaching to her elbows were inlaid with brass; Delban had steadfastly refused the notion of gold. The armor did chafe a bit through the thick linen undershirt she wore, Ce’Nedra privately admitted, but she was prepared to accept that. She brandished her sword, studying the effect in her mirror.
“You’re holding it wrong, Ce’Nedra,” Adara suggested politely.
“Show me,” Ce’Nedra said, handing over hex sword.
Adara took the weapon and gripped it firmly, its point low. She looked extremely competent.
“Where did you ever learn to do that?” Ce’Nedra asked her.
“We’re given instruction,” Adara replied, handing back the sword. “It’s traditional.”
“Help me on with my shield.”
Between them, they managed to gird the princess in all her warlike equipment.
“How ever do you keep it from getting tangled up in your legs?” Ce’Nedra demanded, fumbling with the long scabbard at her waist.
“Hold on to the hilt,” Adara told her. “Do you want me to go along?”
Ce’Nedra thought about that as she smoothed her hair and settled her plumed helmet more firmly in place. “I guess not,” she decided rather reluctantly. “I think I’ll have to face them alone. Do I really look all right?”
“You’ll be fine,” Adara assured her.
A sudden thought struck the princess. “What if they laugh?” she demanded in a frightened voice.
“You could draw your sword on them, I suppose,” Adara replied gravely.
“Are you making fun of me, Adara?”
“Of course not, Princess,” Adara answered with an absolutely straight face.
When Ce’Nedra reached the door to the council chamber, she drew in a deep breath and entered, once again without knocking. Knocking would have been inappropriate, suggesting somehow that she had doubts about her right to be there.
“Well, gentlemen?” she said to the assembled kings and generals as she stepped to the center of the room where they could all see her. King Rhodar rose politely. “Your Majesty,” he greeted her, bowing.