The rising sun bathed the Castle of Lions on top of the hill with its warm orange light, with the promise of another pleasantly sunny spring day coming.
Keith looked at the slowly brightening sky in approval as he stood before the rec room window overlooking the bridge, already fully dressed and ready to depart. It would be a good day for a ride – except that he wasn’t looking forward to this ride. Although, he, Coran, and Lance had spent half the night up the night before to plan in detail the progress of the small group from the Castle of Lions to the town of Erheil, Keith knew from experience that too much could still go wrong.
The sound of the door swishing behind him distracted Keith from his thoughts.
“Hey, Keith, Nanny wants us all to have some breakfast before leaving – it’s a long ride,” Lance said, joining Keith at the window and looking down at the horses and the men below with a slight frown. “Am I still going to be flanking today? I would have thought you might want to do that, be her shadow and the one to get her out of there.”
Keith shook his head, his fierce gaze still fixed on the hated sidesaddle that was being placed upon Allura’s silver-gray mare. “No, I’d really rather be in the lead,” he confirmed. “Besides, I don’t think that the Princess would like me to be anywhere close to her today.”
Lance chuckled at that. “You’ve annoyed her again, haven’t you?” he asked with a mischief filled grin of his own.
Keith’s face took on a sheepish expression. “I seem to annoy her pretty easily most of the time,” he admitted with a sigh, rubbing a hand behind his neck.
“She doesn’t think you like her very much.”
“She what?” Keith turned to Lance with a bewildered look on his face, his forehead creasing as he frowned. “Where in the world did she get that idea?”
Lance took a step back and held out his hands waving them frantically to ward Keith off. “Hey, look, I don’t know how her mind works and how things are between the two of you – I’m just telling you what I pick up from how she asks about you,” he explained hastily. Then he paused, frowning. “Although it really wouldn’t hurt if you didn’t hold yourself so distantly from her,” he added an afterthought.
“You know I don’t mean anything by that,” Keith
said uneasily, not having realized that anyone else had noticed. “That’s
just the way I’ve always been.”
“Sure,” Lance drawled, a glint of skepticism in his eyes. “But I’ve known you a long time, Cap, and this is the first time you’ve been more concerned about being purely professional than making someone feel welcome to any team of yours.” He looked at Keith’s uncomfortable expression with some speculation. “Or maybe you’re just using being a professional as an excuse to forget something else?”
Keith snorted at that, raking a hand through his hair. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Lance grinned as he noted the gesture. “Sometimes I wonder,” he said, as Keith turned away from him to take one last look at the preparations being done below. “Anyway, we better get down to breakfast before Nanny throws a fit at us for making food wait.”
Keith slowly nodded. “Yes, we have a long way to go. Best to start early.”
“You’re worried, aren’t you?”
Keith sighed. “I don’t have a very good feeling about this,” he admitted reluctantly. “Of course, it’s better this way than to forbid her from going and having her hatch up some scheme to sneak out of the Castle just to be able to attend.” At this he shot Lance a meaningful glance, and Lance squirmed uncomfortably. “We’ll just have to hope for the best. You will remember what to do in case of an attack?”
Lance nodded gravely. “The Princess above everyone else,” he said softly. “Don’t worry, Keith, I’ll get her out of there or die trying.”
“I know, Lance,” Keith replied with one final
sigh. “So would I.”
They had been travelling for about three-quarters of an hour, the Princess and all nine of her security detail. The Princess and one of her maids were sandwiched among the nine men, with Keith riding at the head flanked by an Arussian lieutenant.
The early morning sun was beating against Allura’s delicate white forehead as they cantered through the sloping open green valley towards the woods at the foot of the next mountain. Although it wasn’t hot enough for her to feel the sharp stinging pain of a beginning burn, she could feel droplets of sweat beginning to form on her face and under the heavy curtain of golden hair cascading down her back. And no matter how used she was riding sidesaddle, her muscles weren’t any less painful when she traveled long distances at a canter.
Just like Nanny to insist on her wearing her formal riding habits today.
“’If you’re going to that ceremony today because you’re a princess, you better go the dressed like princess – or else I’ll keep you locked inside your room, Coran or no Coran,’” Allura mimicked to herself, imitating Nanny's thick burr and shaking her head the way Nanny did when she was delivering a lecture. It relieved some of her irritation at not being allowed to wear her jumpsuit but not the one she couldn’t seem to shut off towards a particular man in a red uniform riding at the head of the team who had been ignoring her all morning.
“You wanted something, Princess?” Lance said, riding up beside her and looking at her flushed face in concern. “I thought I heard you say something.”
“Oh no, no – everything’s fine, thank you,” she replied hastily, smiling to hide her discomfort and delicately wiping off her brow with one hand. “I was just… talking to myself.” She winced as the next canter gave her a painful jostle, then glared at Keith’s impassive back. A soft, wise chuckle made her head swivel in embarrassed surprise back towards Lance.
He smiled at her in a combination of sympathy and amusement. “Don’t worry, Princess, Keith plans to call a halt once we reach the cover of the woods,” he consoled her as he fell back into position. “You can stretch your muscles then while we go on foot for a while.”
It was another ten minutes before the entire group reached the shelter of the woods, and, for Allura, the ten minutes weren’t over soon enough. True to Lance’s word, Keith allowed a break as soon as they were well into the woods. Allura dismounted nimbly off her mare, standing erect despite some protesting muscles in her legs and her back, refusing to let anyone see her discomfort, grateful for the chance to stretch.
Muted conversations between the soldiers, Lance’s lighthearted flirting with the maidservant, and the rhythmic sound of horses’ hooves drowned out the usual sounds of the Arussian woods in springtime.
Allura, however, was oblivious to the sounds, enchanted as she was by the sight of the sunbeams streaking through the trees and creating dappled patterns where they shone past the leaves on the forest floor, the spicy scent of the woods flooding her senses with joy. She quickly forgot her tiredness as she felt the kiss of the lingering traces of mist on her face, her pinched expression softening to a smile as she breathed deeply and allowed the beauty around her to wash over her.
After a few moments, her natural curiosity overrode her sated senses, and her eyes quickly scanned around her for the current object of her displeasure.
He had walked slightly ahead of them and had paused inadvertently at a pool of sunlight, the diffused light framing his well-built physique and bringing out the dark chocolate glints in his hair, looking like someone from out of one of her dreams. His entire body was tense as he craned his neck to look above him, his alert senses obviously tuned in to every nuance of sight and sound that could be unusual around them, not allowing himself the break that he had given his men.
And he was doing this to protect her.
The thought tugged gently at Allura’s heart, causing her breath to catch in her throat.
It must be so lonely to do as he does, she realized with a pensive smile. It must be difficult enough to be responsible for so many lives without his having to contend with a petulant, oversensitive princess.
Without any conscious intent, she increased her
pace to catch up with him just as he resumed walking so that they were
side by side, their horses on either side of them. He shot her a surprised
glance for breaking formation and a tentative smile that she returned,
but neither of them spoke, savoring the comfortable silence hanging between
the two of them.
The Worst Enemy -- The Hunt Begins