Exactly two officers and twelve droids later, the paladins stopped before a large, pale-pink building that stood directly in the middle of the city. The houses all around them were perfectly silent, but Shiro still got that crawling feeling on the back of his neck that meant they were being watched.
Not that he could blame the Dharvellans for being curious, but it still made him feel more on edge than ever.
"Wow," said Hunk. "That looks like it was made out of a single stone."
"An asteroid, actually," Coran said. "That castle has been there since the planet was first settled, almost eight thousand years ago."
Shiro motioned Lance forward and pointed to a nearby pillar. "I take it that the Galra are already inside?"
Lance darted to his assigned position as Coran answered. "You're at the back of the castle – they entered through the front. A whole lot of Galra are showing up on my scanners, but they're just standing there. Something must have stopped them."
"Maybe they're sightseeing," offered Lance from behind the pillar.
"It is possible, but not likely," remarked Coran, apparently not recognizing the blue paladin's statement for a joke.
"In we go," said Shiro. "Lance! Cover us."
He sprinted into the open, Keith half a step behind him, Pidge and Hunk trailing a bit. Not a soldier in sight . . . So far, so good.
The moment the four of them reached the shelter of a large archway opening onto the castle's courtyard, Lance rushed to join them and they all peered inside.
"No one here. Allura, where do we go from here?"
"Just head straight in. The king is in the main room. He's got most of his soldiers setting traps for the Galra, so you should have a few moments."
"Right."
The king of Dharvel, who stood waiting to greet them, reminded Shiro of no one so much as Sam Holt. He knew Pidge had seen the resemblance, too, because she stopped with a little gasp. The king was short and slight, with a wispy beard and longish hair. He wore cerulean robes and a crown, and was loading his gun with practiced ease.
At least they wouldn't be protecting an inexperienced ruler.
"Thank you for coming so quickly, paladins," he said. "I am King Kiwan. Your princess tells me the plan is for you to protect us in order to keep the Galra from using us as hostages."
"Yes," said Shiro. "Wait – 'us'?"
"My family," said Kiwan, glancing over his shoulder. "My brother and his family are already in safe houses, as are my wife's parents. But my wife and child and I will require your assistance. There is an underground fortress at the far edge of this city. . ."
"I don't think we can get there," said Pidge, bringing up the map again. "With the streets empty, we'll show up the minute the Galra decide to scan. We were probably seen coming here as it is."
"Well, we know reinforcements aren't arriving from outside the planet," said the king, turning on a communicator. "Princess?"
Allura's bushy hair swung behind her as she turned to face her camera. "It would be best if you didn't leave the castle. Hundreds of droids just left the supercruisers and are spreading through the streets."
"Oh, man!" Hunk sighed. "I knew we should have taken them out while we had the chance!"
"Your Majesty," said Shiro, turning back to the king. "What is the most easily defensible room in this castle?"
"The throne room. But – Black Paladin, while my wife and I are more than willing to help you resist the Galra, I ask that you send two of your paladins with my daughter. The warlord wants us, but he might not know we have a child."
Shiro considered. He didn't want to split up – some paladins dodging around the castle, others barricaded in a room, both groups incapable of going to the other's assistance. Still . . . if the Galra managed to break in, having a backup team would be useful. Besides, seeing as how both the king and the queen wanted to fight the Galra, he'd be having a hard enough time protecting them without having to worry about a child.
In the end, it would probably be safer all around.
"Fine," he said.
Kiwan gave him a grateful nod and opened a nearby door. "I'll get them."
As soon as he vanished, Shiro turned and regarded the others thoughtfully.
"Hunk, I'll definitely need your bayard's firepower in the throne room," he said, placing a hand on the yellow paladin's shoulder.
Hunk grinned. "Good. I haven't gotten any droids yet today – well, except for the ones flying those ships . . ." He trailed off, counting on his fingers.
"I'm hoping we can keep the Galra outside the room," Shiro continued, "But if we don't, I'll need someone with a melee weapon."
Keith looked like he was about to volunteer, but just then the king came back in accompanied by a slender woman with long, flowing blue hair.
"My wife, Tira." Kiwan introduced her hurriedly, and she nodded. Despite her sweeping skirts and draped sleeves, Tira was holding a long spear with crackling light sparking on its tip. It looked as though it were capable of inflicting a very powerful shock indeed.
"Green Paladin," said Tira. "Your princess has told me that you are exceptionally good at working with technology. I have the keeping of the castle's passwords and codes."
She held out a small memory chip. "I am trusting you not to let this fall into enemy hands. With this, you will be able to access every system in the entire castle from the main database."
"Where's the database, exactly?" asked Pidge, taking the memory chip as though it were more valuable than gold. Shiro could practically hear the plans clicking behind her large brown eyes.
"In the throne room."
"That settles that question," said Lance. "Looks like I'm stuck with Keith."
"More like I'm stuck with you." Keith's retort was quiet, but Shiro still heard it, and he made sure to give them both a very pointed look.
"My general has our child," said Kiwan, waving someone from the next room.
An immense Dharvellan, almost the size of a Galra, joined them, a tiny bundle wrapped in his arms.
Lance almost squawked. "A baby?!"
He sounded positively delighted.
Keith, on the other hand, blinked once or twice and said nothing.
If the situation hadn't been so tense, his expression might have made Shiro laugh. As it was, he was able to control his instinctive smile with comparative ease.
The general carefully transferred the tiny pink bundle to Lance's arms, rather than Keith's; this was mostly because Lance was practically hopping up and down, hands outstretched, and Keith was standing motionless, his mouth ever so slightly open. Once the baby was safely settled against Lance's blue-and-white armor, the general left without a word.
"Hurry, paladins!" cried Allura. "The Galra have only one more hallway to get down before they reach the throne room."
King Kiwan raised his gun. "This way!"
The queen followed him, her skirts billowing, and Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk fell into step behind them. Shiro glanced over his shoulder to see Keith staring after him with a mildly shellshocked expression, while Lance cooed at the baby princess in the background.
"Keith, Lance," he said, even as he left the room. "Keep to the small, out-of-the-way rooms. Stay in constant touch with all of us." Then, more to Keith than to Lance, he added, "You'll be fine."
"Aww, look at her, Keith! She's so tiny!"
"Yeah," said Keith, sparing the baby half a glance as he opened a door leading to an outer hall. "You'd better stay behind me. I'll handle any fighting."
The blue bayard, which had been left on the floor, vanished into Lance's armor with a flash as he held one hand over it. "You're right," he said, wrapping both arms protectively around the baby and touching her cheek with his nose. "We don't want to scare you with loud shots, do we, little girl?"
"That's – not what I meant . . ." Keith gave up.
They traveled down an emptily echoing hallway and slipped through a small door into another vacant room. Keith knew they needed to find a place where they would not be discovered, but had no idea where that would be.
"Coran," he muttered. "Do you see any Galra near our position?"
"None so far, Number Four. I suggest you head upstairs, though. A few scouts are heading right past the throne room."
"Stairs – right."
Keith was halfway to the opposite door when a gasp from Lance made him swing around.
Lance was staring down at the baby, frowning.
"What's wrong?" Keith demanded.
"They didn't tell us her name!"
Keith blinked. "Lance, that's not importa–"
"It is so important! But yeah, keep moving. I'll think up one as we go."
Keith had no idea why Lance would bother giving the baby a name – she had one already, didn't she? – but decided not to argue about it.
Pidge scrunched herself up behind the main database, plugging in the queen's memory chip and pulling up her wrist consul simultaneously. Hunk stood next to her, watching with interest. Shiro glanced around the room, noting where the doors were and how many pillars could be easily used for cover.
Kiwan and Tira stood directly in front of their thrones, as though they were conducting a diplomatic function, with the Galra as their guests.
Shiro stepped over to them. "Don't you think it would be better to take cover immediately? They'll break down the door the minute they get here."
Queen Tira hesitated. "An ambush . . .? It wouldn't be honorable."
The king nodded, one hand on his wife's arm. "We Dharvellans have always fought in the open."
"You'll be fighting in the open soon enough," Shiro told them. "And believe me when I say that the Galra do not concern themselves with fighting honorably."
"Do two wrongs make a right?" asked Kiwan.
"Look," said Shiro, casting a quick glance at the bolted door. "All I want you to do is to stand behind those pillars. If you stay here, you'll be shot down almost immediately."
"Yeah," Pidge piped up from where she was working. "And besides, we're not in a duel or something. They're just a bunch of mindless droids."
Hunk joined in. "Well, droids and maybe a Galra or two. But you can wait until they shoot at you to shoot back if you want. I mean, I'd rather shoot them before they could shoot me because they're going to anyway, but . . ."
The queen's eyes narrowed for a moment, and then she turned to Shiro and said, "Very well. Where do you want us?"
He positioned her behind a pillar on one side of the door, and Kiwan on the opposite side. After checking on Pidge once more, he himself stood to one side, in plain view of the door, and summoned his shield.
"Allura? What are the Galra doing?"
"Standing directly outside the door. I assume they are planting –"
There was a huge explosion, and pieces of stone whizzed through the air.
"– explosives," finished Allura.
Shiro smirked a little, activating his prosthetic hand and leaping forward.
Through the haze of dust and smoke surrounding him, he noticed Kiwan firing, not erratically or fast, but calmly, taking deliberate aim before each shot. It seemed that this people, peaceful as their life had been so far, were nonetheless well trained in the arts of defense.
Tira did not engage the droids head-on; instead, she stayed in the shadows, waiting. Every time a droid got close, she moved with the speed of a snake, slammed her crackling spear into its face or torso with her blue hair whipping around her face, then dodged back into hiding.
Shiro, moving with the precision that always served him so well, worked his way towards Pidge, ducking and slicing as he went. "Allura, how many enemies are we looking at?"
"At least a hundred," she answered immediately. "A good number of them are moving around the throne room and spreading through the ground floor and there are more on their way."
"Can you do anything from your end?"
"We're hovering above the city, taking out any large groups that we can safely target," she said. "They haven't gone near the lions, but I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do at the moment."
"No, it's fine," he said. "Pidge?"
She raised a hand imperatively. "I'm about to make a disaster out of the castle," she said.
Shiro wasn't sure whether or not her gleeful tone was cause for concern or not, but for the moment, he went back to blocking lasers and fighting droids. Hunk fired short bursts through the open doorway, discouraging the enemy's advance.
"Okay, Shiro," said Pidge in clipped tones. "Here's the plan . . ."
