Delivered by the Defender (Kindred Tales)

Oh my God—look at that! Right here in public!

Selena felt weak in the knees as she watched the blatantly sexual display. The scene was like something right out of one of the BDSM romance books she loved to read—she couldn’t believe it was happening right in front of her face! It was simply fascinating.

But she was so focused on the retreating Ma’shorkan couple, that she didn’t notice anything else around her—which was why she was so surprised when she suddenly found herself surrounded by a big group of Ma’shorkan children.

“Nice lady, kind lady!” one of them exclaimed, pushing his face into hers and holding out a hand. “You have sweets and treats for us? Do you, nice lady? Do you? Do you?”

“Uh…” Selena was caught completely unawares. She was used to kids—she taught orchestra for a living, after all—but these were much younger than her usual students. They looked to be around eight or nine, she thought—if Ma’shorkan kids aged the same way human ones did.

Before she could formulate an answer, all of the kids—there seemed to be ten or fifteen of them—were shoving and pushing against her, holding their hands out and demanding, “Sweets and treats! Sweets and treats!” in their high, shrill voices.

“Stop, stop!” Selena begged. “I don’t have anything for you!”

Or did she? Remembering the box of tic-tacs she’d brought with her and never opened, she tucked her violin case under her right arm and dug in the left pocket of her sweater. Finally, she found the small plastic box and pulled it out.

“Okay, okay—one at a time. One at a time!” she exclaimed, popping open the small box with her thumb and beginning to dole out one or two of the tiny candies to each groping hand.

She was so focused on fairly distributing the tic-tacs, that she didn’t even notice she was being moved by the milling gang of kids from the main thoroughfare to a small, dark, side hallway, well back from the rushing crowds of spaceport traffic.

It wasn’t until the tic-tacs ran out and she was saying, “No, that’s all I have! I’m sorry—all gone,” and shaking the empty box that she looked around and saw where she was.

Hey, this isn’t right! Unease brushed lightly over her skin like a questioning hand, making her shiver. She thought the kids were probably harmless, but she didn’t like how easily they’d herded her away from the main traffic of the spaceport and into this dark little hallway. Were they trying to rob her? She clamped her right arm more firmly over her violin case and tightened her grip on her carry-all cube.

“That’s all,” she said to them, using her sternest teacher voice. “And now I really have to go.”

She started to push through them, but suddenly a big, hard hand gripped her left wrist.

“You’re not going anywhere, little bimbap,” a low voice snarled in her ear. “You’re staying right here with me.”

8

Selena turned to face her attacker as the group of kids who had surrounded her suddenly scattered. He was a tall Ma’shorkan man with dark green and blue skin and an evil squint to his purple eyes. He wasn’t one of the aliens with a double face, but that didn’t matter to Selena—one face was bad enough, especially considering the way he was leering at her and grabbing her wrist.

“Hey, let me go!” she exclaimed, yanking to try and get away from him. She still had her carry-all cube in her right hand and she swung it at him now, trying to get free. But this caused her violin case—which was tucked under her right arm—to fall to the ground. “My violin!” Selena yanked even harder, desperate to get away and reclaim her precious instrument.

“I told you, you’re not going anywhere,” the Ma’shorkan man hissed. He was dressed in a long, ratty-looking robe with stains down the front, and he was completely bald. But he made up for the lack of hair on his head with his long, greasy-looking, blue beard, which hung down to his belt. “You’re mine now, little bimbap,” he told Selena. “Mine—I claim you!”

“You can’t do that!” Selena exclaimed. “I…I’m an Independent Female—I have the Seal to prove it!”

She nodded down at the wrist he was gripping, where the bright yellow silk with its royal blue seal could still be seen through his grimy fingers.

“Ah yes, the Seal. Let’s just take care of that, shall we?”

And he pulled out a knife.

Selena gasped in horror at the sight of the long, gleaming blade that had appeared—seemingly by magic—in her attacker’s hand. But she didn’t get a chance to look at it long. With one smooth slice, he ran the razor-sharp tip down her arm and wrist, cutting away the yellow silk band, which fluttered to the floor beside her violin case.

Selena tried to jerk away as he moved the knife and felt a stinging pain—the blade had sliced a long, thin wound down her arm from the underside of her elbow all the way to the palm of her hand.