Champion of Fire & Ice - Megan Derr Page 0,9

wear tonight?" Lee asked.

"Something??ow did you say it earlier? Gilded. Grayne may not take his position, or this situation, seriously, but I do, and I want the whole court to note the difference."

Lee grinned, slow and mischievous and just one of the many reasons Cimar was proud and delighted to have him for a squire. Finishing his food, he arranged the dirty dishes neatly on the tray and rose. "I'll take all this back to the kitchen, then get your supper clothes ready before resuming work on the leathers. I won't have everything done, but I'll get enough of it, and the rest I can finish while we travel."

"Sounds a fine plan." Lee departed, and Cimar returned to his sewing, finishing up the hems easily enough and moving on to start on new embroidery. That would take him an age, even as simple as it was, but there was nothing to be done about that.

Many knights didn't even bother, considering such frivolities beneath them. The reality was that those who didn't have women they could make do the work would rather spend the money on beer and the like than on clothes they'd just ruin in a fight anyway. For most of them, clothes were something to be easily replaced. They'd never known what it was like to make clothes from whatever scraps they could find, with embroidery and other needlework the only way to make it remotely pretty.

He hummed softly as he started on the tunic he'd wear when he returned from the quest. It was a deep midnight blue, with his rowan tree crest in delicate gray. Before, he'd embroidered the hem in a simple leaves and flowers design. This time, though, he rather favored stars, with larger ones in gray thread and smaller ones in soft amber that was closer to gold. It would take longer, but be worth the effort.

After this one, he'd tackle his emerald green tunic, though what design he'd use for that, he had no idea. But it was his finest one, and he would wear it when he won the challenge. There was no other outcome he would tolerate. The only way he'd accept loss was if Grayne killed him, which Grayne would likely try to do at least once, but Cimar would be damned if he lost to that worthless excuse of a knight, especially over the matter of a fallen comrade's honor, especially when he was fighting on behalf of Davrin.

Cimar took a deep breath and paid more care to his stitches as he realized he was yanking at the thread. He focused on happier thoughts as he worked: of Davrin, of getting to travel about for a short time, even if it were to roust bandits. Spending time with Lee, his horses, getting to put the skills he'd worked so hard on to real use.

Lee returned several minutes later, looking pleased with himself, so some sort of mischief had been accomplished. Humming along with Cimar, he set immediately to work preparing his clothes for that evening, a beautiful ice blue tunic with a geometric diamond pattern that had taken Cimar months of work, his perpetual rowan meticulously stitched so the diamond pattern spread out from it, leaving the tree itself hollow, noticeable for the absence of the pattern that was everywhere else. There were matching hose and shoes to go with it, but thankfully none of the elaborate nonsense for his hair that was so popular at the moment, as he kept his short and safely away from the labors and headaches of courtly fashion.

"Do you want the white cloak or the gray with this?"

"White."

Lee nodded and went back to work, and so far as Cimar's days went, it was one of the most pleasant he'd enjoyed in a long time.

*~*~*

Some hours later, bathed and dressed and fussed over by Lee, despite the fact he was perfectly capable of dressing himself, Cimar said, "Thank you, Lee. You're welcome to join me if you like, as ever, but by all means go spend the night with your lovers. Just be back here before dawn, since the earlier we head out, the better, and I can't imagine His Majesty will give us anything that doesn't send us miles upon miles away."

"I will. Thank you, my lord. Now get."

Cimar left the peace and quiet of his room and headed off to the contained chaos of the dining hall, where no doubt it would be far more crowded than usual as everyone came