“You cannot mean to forbid me to go to a celebration that is going to be held in my honor!”
It was just after dinner at the Castle of Arus, and the Princess, her Chief minister, and her governess were all in the Princess’ personal study, where another domestic storm was brewing.
Coran sighed in exasperation at the mutinous expression on his charge’s face. The Princess tended to be a mite stubborn at certain things – and once she had made up her mind at something… “Your Highness, in the light of Lotor’s recent attempt to abduct you, you cannot, in all honesty, blame me for restricting you within the Castle – the upcoming celebration at the town of Erheil notwithstanding.”
Allura, who was sitting at her desk with all her books spread in front of her, clenched her hands on top of the desk and closed her eyes in a visible attempt to reign in her temper. “Coran, you have been ‘restricting’ me to this Castle for four weeks – four weeks, Coran!” she exclaimed, her eyes flying open and pinning him with her irate blue gaze. “I have been virtually made a prisoner in my own Castle, and what does that say about me as the ruler of Planet Arus?”
Nanny glared at Allura and placed her arms across her chest. “It says that we consider our one and only princess a precious treasure that needs to be protected from the scum of the universe,” she said crisply, moving to stand by Coran with an equally stubborn look on her face. “The boys can go to Erheil and represent you – but you are not going anywhere, young lady.”
“All this hiding says that I am coward, and you both know it!” Allura stormed, standing up and throwing up her hands in frustration. “How do you expect the people to believe in my ability to lead them and to defend them when all it takes to make me go into hiding is a feeble attempt at kidnapping! I must go to Erheil tomorrow.”
“It was not a feeble attempt at all, Allura – Lotor and Haggar planned that attack well, knowing that it was your routine to ride around the towns surrounding the Castle on that particular day of the week, ” Coran said, his eyebrows meeting at the bridge of his nose. He began to pace the room in an attempt to check his own frustration. “If Hunk hadn’t been with you – if Captain Keith hadn’t been nearby to serve as backup…“
“That point is moot, Coran – Hunk and Keith were there, and they protected me,” Allura interrupted matter-of-factly, knowing that she had him there, and he could not use that argument against her. “And even if they hadn’t been, I would have been perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
Coran’s mouth twisted under his thick mustache
and rolled his eyes. It was moments like these when he wished his King
hadn’t bred so much spirit into his only daughter – or at least that he
had stayed around long enough to help curb it a little.
At that moment, the door to the study opened,
and all three people in the room paused to see who had interrupted their
private caucus. Keith strode in with a small, uncertain smile, his quick
glance resting on each of the three tense faces in the study, obviously
assessing the gravity of the situation he had been asked to plunge headfirst
into by the crafty old chief minister.
Coran had always thought the young Captain to be astute, and he was aware that Keith had picked up the undercurrents in the room as soon as the door had opened. Coran had summoned Keith into the study in the hope that he would be able to catch the Princess off-guard and sway her into seeing the sense of staying within the Castle. On the other hand, in the likely event that he couldn’t, Coran meant to get Keith’s promise to serve as head of the Princess’ personal guard on the way to Erheil.
Keith bowed to the surprised Princess then to Nanny. “Good afternoon, Your Highness, Nanny. Coran, you asked to see me?”
Coran nodded to him and resumed his pacing. “Keith, I meant to ask you for your opinion on an important matter of security,” he began, shooting a glance at the indignant Allura, who was aware that Coran had enlisted a valuable ally in the leader of the Voltron Force. “As you know, the people of Erheil have invited the Princess to attend their annual festival, this year to be held in her special honor.”
Keith nodded, stroking his chin. “Erheil – that would be the town just on the other side of the mountain, wouldn’t it? About two hours away on horseback at full gallop – the narrow pass makes it impossible for any of our hovercrafts to get through.”
“Yes, that’s the one,” Coran said, with an approving nod at Keith’s knowledge of the surrounding terrain, pausing and turning to him in mid-stride. “I just wanted to know if you personally think that it would be safe to allow the princess to travel that distance in light of the present circumstances.”
Keith shrugged noncommittally, glancing at Allura’s furious face with dawning understanding. Coran saw Allura’s blue eyes flashing signals of pleading to the young Captain as he met her gaze. Keith turned back to Coran, the wary expression on his face indicating his mixed sentiments.
“Maybe if the Princess can bring one of the lions and one of us to escort her –“ Keith began reluctantly.
“That’s just it, Keith – I can’t bring any of the Lions tomorrow because all of them are up for a long overdue maintenance service that Coran refuses to postpone,” Allura cut in, rolling her eyes and trying to play on the his sympathy. “I mean to go on horseback – it’s faster that way through the pass – with a full escort, of course,” she added hastily when she saw Keith’s pinched expression.
Keith’s lips tightened with evident disapproval at the mention of horseback. Open travel in that way was more dangerous, even more so because Allura was bound to ride in sidesaddle – formal ceremonies required her to wear one of her unwieldy gowns instead of her more practical utility jumpsuit.
Coran looked at Keith and grimaced. “Now, I’m sure you see how foolhardy it would be for the Princess to go such a distance on horseback, barely protected –“
“I already said that I would be taking an escort – Keith, please make Coran see reason!“
Keith’s arms were crossed at his chest and his expression remained impassive as he appeared to be mulling over matters in his mind.
As they all waited for Keith’s reply, Coran saw Allura grit her teeth at the underhandedness of his move to drag Keith into the argument. Coran knew that she hated giving the impression of being a brat to her captain and instructor because it cut to pieces all the effort she was making to prove that she could be as professional as any other member of the team. She wanted to show him that she was really worthy of flying with them and taking Sven’s place as the pilot of Blue Lion.
The shrewd minister also had an idea that the young Captain was not as indifferent to the Princess as she thought he was. Nonetheless, he wasn’t above using Allura’s evident ignorance of the fact to his advantage.
“Captain Keith?” Coran asked, sighing as he caught another of Allura’s furious glares being sent in his direction. “Would you like to give us your opinion on the matter?”
Keith cleared his own throat and studiously avoided the princess’ hopeful expression and met Coran’s exasperated look. “To be perfectly honest, I think that given the circumstances, open travel is a big risk for the princess to take,“ he said, looking away from Coran’s smug expression and ignoring the Princess’ angry gasp and Nanny’s approving nod.
“But, Keith –“ she began then trailed off when the expression in the dark eyes pinning her blue gaze silently told her not to interrupt.
After a moment’s pause, he turned back to Coran. “As I said, I don’t think that it would be a good idea for her to go such a distance as exposed as that, even with an escort. Still, I think that if we handpick the best men to escort her and formulate a definite plan of action in case of an attack, I think that we’d be able to minimize the risks – that is, if she still insists on going.”
Allura gnashed her teeth at the slight emphasis on the word ‘insists,’ hearing the veiled reproach in Keith’s words – or at least that was what she thought was a reproach. “Yes, Captain, I happen to think that this affair is important enough for me to ‘insist on going,’” she said, ice in her voice, with a hurt glance at him for taking Coran’s side. She turned away from all three of them with her nose in the air. “I will not have my people think of me as a coward.”
Keith shrugged and gave Coran a look of amused exasperation and sympathy.
Nanny, who up till then had been watching the exchange in an uncharacteristic silence, threw up her hands clucking in agitation. “Ach, you are a stubborn, stubborn girl!” she exclaimed. She turned to Coran with a withering glare at the old statesman. “You are not going to stand for this, are you, Coran?”
Coran sighed, knowing that it was impossible to change Allura’s mind once it was set on a course of action, especially when the decision involved ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ of what being the ruler of Planet Arus was all about. “Unfortunately, Nanny, I must,” Coran capitulated with a resigned shrug, earning a disgusted snort from Nanny. “It’s settled then. The Princess may go to Erheil.”
“Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn!” Nanny muttered. She turned to Coran and the slightly amused Keith and gave them both a fulsome glare. “If anything should happen to her – both of you will answer to me, do you understand?”
With one last humph, she picked up her skirts and stalked out of the room, leaving silence behind her.
Coran cleared his throat again and turned to the Princess, who still had her nose in the air in obvious vexation – a vexation that now also included Keith. “Very well, Princess, if you really must go to Erheil tomorrow, you may as well have the best possible protection.” He nodded towards Keith. “Captain Keith, I would like to request that you be the one to head the security detail that will escort the Princess to the celebration at Erheil tomorrow morning.”
Keith hesitated a moment, taking a glance at the fuming princess, then slowly nodded in agreement. “All right,” he said quietly. “One thing though. Princess, you have to promise me that you will do exactly as I say if someone does attack us.”
Allura’s temper, still frayed by Coran and Nanny’s double-teaming and now by Keith’s evident lack of faith in her ability to follow orders during an emergency, flared viciously.
“Thank you very much, Captain, for your unfailing trust in my ability to follow even the most simple of instructions,” she said scathingly, turning her back to both her Chief minister and the Commander of the Voltron Force, her erstwhile friends. “It truly warms my heart that the very person who trained me how to fly one of the most powerful ships in this galaxy actually doesn’t think me any better than a child.”
Keith’s expression didn’t alter by a flicker, although Coran noticed a slight clenching of the fist that often signaled beginning irritation in the younger man. Coran grinned to himself, sensing that yet another skirmish was about to erupt between the two young people in the room, something that he always enjoyed watching – although he would never admit it to either one of them.
Keith was the only one on the Force whose opinions were truly valued by Allura. Although she respected all the members of the Force, it was obvious that it was Keith she admired and respected the most, both as a pilot and a leader. At the same time, while Keith, like all the members of the Force, was occasionally in awe of the Princess’ station, he was the only one who did not let it stop him from going head to head with her when she was wrong.
“I only treat people as they deserve to be treated – and trust those who deserve to be trusted,” Keith countered evenly, causing the Princess to flinch slightly.
“Are you trying to imply that I am acting like a child?” she said in a low, hurt voice, still refusing to look back at the two men behind her. “That you don’t trust me?”
Keith sighed and shot a baffled glance at Coran, who merely answered with a smile of mild amusement and a shrug meant to tell him that he was on his own.
“Of course I trust you,” Keith said, refuting the second accusation but not the first as he raked a hand through his already unruly dark hair, a fact that was not lost on Allura. “I admitted that the day I agreed to teach you how to fly the Blue Lion –“
She whirled around to face him, her eyes shooting off blue sparks. “You agreed to teach me to fly only because you didn’t have any choice in the matter,” she snapped, her voice breaking at the end. “If you really had a choice, you would never have let me in that cockpit in the first place!”
“I admit that’s true, but not for the reason you think!” Keith flared back, finally losing his own temper.
Allura, surprised by the rare show of anger directed at her, was momentarily speechless.
Keith took advantage of the breech to make his point. “You constantly tell us that we don’t understand the kind of responsibility you carry as the ruler of your planet and the only surviving member of the Royal House, but you don’t seem to understand what it would mean for Arus to lose you in one single, meaningless battle. And just as you have responsibilities, so do we.”
“I never asked you to make me your responsibility, Captain,” she said coolly, the emphasis on his rank subtly reminding him that she was, in spite of everything, still in charge.
Keith drew a deep breath and lowered his voice with considerable effort in deference to her rank, but his next words were tempered with steel. “But your safety is our responsibility. Your Highness, you may not care about what could happen to you when we’re out there, fighting for your planet or doing things you feel you have to do as Princess of Arus – but the rest of us do,” he said in a low, quiet voice that vibrated with intensity. He paused as he drew her eyes towards his. “And for as long as I’m on the watch, I will do all that I can to keep you safe – with or without your help, even if it means giving my life for yours.”
Allura’s gaze locked with his, stunned by the well-aimed reproach in his words, as well as the gravity of his pledge. Coran held back a smile, wanting to applaud at the way Keith made his point to Allura, the same point that he and Nanny had been trying to get her to see for the past half an hour.
After a lengthy pause, the Princess closed her eyes and slowly nodded, the expression on her face softening. She took a deep breath of her own then looked back at him. “I understand your concerns, as well as Nanny’s and Coran’s,” she finally said softly. “But you also have to understand that I’m not some fragile doll any of you have to protect.”
Keith smiled at her in an offering of truce. “Princess, I never meant to imply anything by asking for your promise other than what it was,” he said just as quietly.
“All right, Keith – I promise,” she said reluctantly. “Although I don’t see any need for it to make it – I always follow orders from you when we’re in battle, don’t I?”
“Only when you think it’s a good idea to do so,”
he joked, grinning and sending Coran a mischievous wink.
Allura’s face suddenly tightened in irritation
once more. “Well, you have your promise, Captain,” she said coolly, “but
I’d like you to know that this is one of those times when I really, really
hate you.” Picking up her skirts, she regally strode out of the study,
pausing at the door to send another angry glare at Coran as well. “And
that goes for you, too, Coran. I’ll be ready by first light tomorrow morning.”
The door closed behind her with a soft swish.
Keith looked at Coran and gave a groan. “It was supposed to be a joke!” he exclaimed, throwing up his hands, the gesture of a man at the end of his rope. “Women!” he snorted. “How do you do it, Coran? I never understood them and I never will!”
Coran shook his head, laughing at last. “On the contrary, Keith – I think you handle her pretty well,” he said in between chuckles. He suddenly sobered and gazed at a young Allura’s portrait on the wall with her father and mother. “You’re good for her – and at the rate she’s going, I need all the help I can get.” He gave a sigh and turned to the stunned young man standing beside him.
Keith was looking at Coran with a disgruntled expression, trying to see what the older man knew. Coran simply smiled and raised his eyebrows in question. “We best begin making plans for tomorrow – you have your job cut out for you. I suppose you would like to look over the list of men on duty for tomorrow morning?” he said, all-business now. “I can punch that out for you in the computer in Castle Control.” He walked to the door and it swished open. “Shall we go?”
The younger man nodded slowly, still looking at Coran with a tinge of wariness that made the minister want to laugh. Instead, he walked out of the room and beckoned Keith to follow him.
Keith, after one last lingering glance at the
portrait of the royal family on the wall, quickly followed him out.
The Worst Enemy -- Perceptions