"I cannot wait three days, your highness," Balcos said through gritted teeth. "For all I know, Zarkon may have leveled Falkor to the ground by now."
"Look, I want the princess to have the royal wedding that she deserves," Nanny fumed. "And I cannot arrange another grand affair by this afternoon. As it is, it would take a miracle to plan a beautiful wedding in three days."
Coran rubbed his temples. They were all gathered in the castle rec room to discuss Allura’s wedding to Prince Balcos, including Admiral Tagor and Kayla, as well as Lance, Hunk, and Keith. Pidge was with Leland, giving him a tour of the Castle of Lions to keep him out of trouble.
The Prince had agreed to all of the concessions that Allura had asked for so far – that she be allowed to stay on Arus after defending Falkor until Zarkon was defeated and peace in the Denubian Galaxy was ensured; that Balcos take up residence in Arus and train under Keith and the rest of the Force before he be given access to any of the Lions; and that, once Allura had settled in Falkor , she would be allowed to visit Arus at least once every moon. What surprised everyone, though, was his vehemence in denying to delay the wedding for three more days.
"I want the ceremony to be this evening – so that we may fly to Falkor at first light tomorrow morning," Balcos insisted.
Lance couldn’t believe that Keith was just sitting through this without saying a word. Wasn’t he even going to let everyone know that Zarkon hadn’t even begun attacking Falkor, nor even showed any signs of open hostility? How could Balcos say that he was so concerned about his planet when he hadn’t even checked the on condition of the situation on Falkor since he got to Arus? And what about Kayla? Lance glanced at the girl’s way, and saw her bravely biting her lower lip and fighting to show any emotion. That jerk. How could he hurt her this way? Well, if Keith wasn’t planning on saying anything, he would. He opened his mouth and was prepared to give a piece of his mind when he felt a hand on his arm.
It was Keith’s. He had a warning look on his face. Trust me, Keith mouthed. Lance didn’t think it was a good idea not to say anything, but he believed in Keith, so he shut up. He whispered to Hunk to keep his cool as well.
Allura just wanted to get negotiations over with so that she could go to her room and have her cry. Negotiations, what a perfectly horrid term to say in the same breath as marriage. Ever since she had made the decision to accept the Prince’s proposal, she had felt numb. She couldn’t allow herself to feel anything or think about anyone. She just wanted to finish this business and go on with the future that was being forced on her. It didn’t help things any that none of her friends were even protesting what was going on. It was as if not a single one of them really cared what happened.
"Fine, let’s have the wedding this evening, after sunset," Allura said, abruptly standing up from the chair she had been sitting in. "If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my chambers." Her voice wobbled dangerously at the last word.
"But, Princess," Nanny protested.
"This evening, Nanny," Allura said. "Please excuse me." Before anyone else could say anything, she was already out of the room.
"That settles it then," Coran said. "We shall have the ceremony in the Ballroom tonight."
Balcos smiled smugly. Hunk wanted to punch his lights out.
Keith crossed his arms in front of him and frowned. "But my dress whites haven’t even been cleaned yet," he whispered to Lance under his breath. Lance looked at him in surprise. Allura was actually agreeing to marry the jerk, and all that Keith was worrying about were his dress whites?
"Everybody is going crazy," Lance muttered in
disgust. He looked over at Kayla, who wasn’t doing very well at hiding
her grief. He held out a hand to her. "Let’s get out of here." Kayla took
it, and they both left the room.
"You didn’t even say a word," Lance fumed at Keith. "Not a single word about any of our suspicions. Not a word!"
"Sorry to have disappointed you, Lance," Keith said dryly, taking a seat by Kayla, "but if you remember, I did ask you to trust me. I have my reasons." He turned to Kayla and gently lay a hand on her shoulder. "Kayla, what are the chances that Balcos is in cahoots with Zarkon and his slimy crew?"
Kayla started, then shok Keith’s comforting hand off her shoulder in an abrupt motion. "He’d never do that, never." Kayla glared at Keith indignantly through her tears for even thinking Balcos capable of such betrayal. The fierce expression on Kayla's face reminded Keith of Allura in one of her I-am-a-princess-don’t-mess-with-me moods. The memory almost made him smile.
"Not even to save his own world?" Keith asked. "Not even if Zarkon was holding Falkor hostage in exchange for one Arusian princess?"
Everyone was silent.
"Not even to save Falkor," Kayla finally replied. "He would fight tooth and claw to the death to protect Falkor, but he would never betray another planet in order to do so. Balcos has a streak of honor as wide as the Diamond Galaxy."
"Not unlike some people I know," muttered Lance.
At that Keith did manage to break into a smile.
"Why do you ask, Keith?" Kayla asked, curious.
"Because it’s the only logical explanation," Keith replied. "Tell me, Kayla, if Balcos is not working with Zarkon, why did Zarkon willingly let him get through his forces above Falkor after only putting up a token resistance?"
Kayla stared at Keith, horrified at what he was saying. She did remember passing out of Falkor’s orbit relatively easily. At the time, she thought it was because all the ships in the fleet used their cloaking devices to get past Zarkon, but she realized that no cloaking device would be able to keep the enormous energy build up from reaching Zarkon’s sensors at close range.
Keith went on. "If Zarkon were really bent on destroying Falkor, he would have destroyed the ship Balcos rode on to reach us. He never would have allowed Balcos to get through to the only force in this galaxy that has a good chance of stopping the forces of Doom."
"I – I don’t know," Kayla finally admitted. "All I do know is that he would never turn traitor willingly. He would die first."
"He doesn’t feel right," Hunk put in.
"You love him," Keith told Kayla, sighing heavily. Kayla nodded. He gazed at Kayla steadily for a long time. "This is going to be difficult, but I’m going to tell you this because I trust you," he began. He motioned for Hunk to sit beside him before going on. "There is a huge mass of energy building up just above Arus air space. I have reason to believe that Zarkon and Haggar have enough forces out there to crush the planet right now."
"Then how come we’re not doing anything about it?" Hunk shouted, jumping to his feet and preparing to run back into the Castle and launch his lion.
"Easy, Hunk," Keith warned, putting a restraining hand on his arm. "We can’t move as long as we don’t know what we’re up against. If we fly up there and it turns out that Balcos is up to no good, we’ll be leaving the castle defenseless against his attack. It doesn’t help that his own ship is housed inside our docking bay."
"Keith’s right," Lance said. He raked a hand through his hair in frustration. "But how come you didn’t say anything during that meeting if you were so worried?"
"Because I don’t want them to think that we’re suspecting anything. It wouldn’t do us any good to tip our hand when we have no plan on countering whatever scheme Haggar has…" Keith paused thoughtfully, then his face lit up. "That’s it!"
"What’s it?" Hunk asked. Kayla looked confused. Lance, however, had gotten the idea as soon as the words came out of Keith’s mouth, and he was smiling smugly.
"Kayla, If you believe that Balcos is not capable of doing something like this on his own then the reason he’s acting this way may be because Haggar has some sort of spell on him," Lance answered for Keith. Keith nodded. "But if that’s the case, how do we force Haggar’s hand and win Balcos back?"
Keith rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It was easier to focus now that he was more aware of what they were up against. He glanced at Kayla, who was looking up at him hopefully. Then he smiled.
"Let’s go inside the Castle first, then I’ll tell you," he said.