Delivered by the Defender (Kindred Tales)

Which is how it should be, he told himself firmly. She’s too damn tempting—the more time you spend with her, the more time you’ll want to spend with her and you know you can’t break your vow.

So instead of continuing the conversation about curves and weight, he gestured at the lighted cube.

“This is how it works: you simply place each piece of luggage into the weigh box and it will be automatically scanned and recorded.”

He demonstrated by putting her carry-all cube in first. The yellow light inside the box turned green for a moment, then blue, which indicated he could remove the piece of luggage because its contents and weight had been recorded.

But when he started to put her violin in as well, she stopped him.

“Wait! This isn’t going to hurt my instrument, is it?” There was an anxious look in her eyes, as though he’d proposed putting a beloved pet into some kind of danger instead of an inanimate object.

“No, of course not,” Valen promised her. “Though you can certainly check it after the weighing if you’d like.”

“Well…okay.”

Selena watched anxiously while he put the violin case into the weigh box and waited for the lights to change color. When it was blue, he took it out and handed it to her.

She opened the case, revealing an instrument like nothing Valen had ever seen before. It was shaped not unlike Selena herself, with a curving body like an overfull hourglass. There was a long neck or handle sticking out from one end, with strings pulled tight across it that extended the length of the body.

Selena took the instrument out and examined it carefully before plucking several of the strings and nodding to herself. She looked relieved as she carefully placed the violin back in its case.

“Okay, it’s fine. I should have checked it earlier, after…after what happened in the hallway, but I was really shaken up.”

“I’m certain you were. But as you can see, all is well.”

She smiled apologetically.

“Sorry to be so persnickety about it. I mean, I know it’s not a Stradivarius or anything, but I’m really attached to it and I can’t afford to replace it right now—not on a teacher’s salary. You know?”

Actually, Valen had no idea what she was talking about, but he was quite interested. It seemed the little Elite had an intense passion for music, which was not unlike his own intense passion for the law.

“What is a ‘Stradivarius?’” he asked as she tucked the instrument back into its case.

“Oh, a violin made by a very famous, extremely skilled craftsman, who lived a long time ago on Earth,” she explained. “They can cost millions of dollars because of their beautiful tone and the fact that they’re so rare.” She nodded down at her own instrument. “Now, my violin is a Hart and Son—made in London around 1899. It’s a nice instrument and it took me a long time to save up for it, but it’s definitely not the highest-end violin you can get.”

“Fascinating,” Valen murmured, looking on with interest as she finished fastening the case closed again. “I feel rather sorry that I’ll never get to hear you play it,” he admitted—to himself as much as to her.

“Well, I’m supposed to play at the Emperor’s gala,” she told him. “So if you’re still in town…er, on Ma’shorka Centra, I mean…”

Actually, Valen had no plans to stay that long. He had meant to come here and do the deposition, argue the case, and then take the next shuttle back to the Mother Ship in order to prepare for another, more complicated case he had pending in the future. But he couldn’t help wishing he could see the little Elite play her violin, though he knew very well he shouldn’t—he found her much too attractive already.

“I’ll have to check my schedule,” he said politely. “But now we must get going. If you’re satisfied that all is well with your instrument?”

“Yes, it seems fine.” She finished fastening the case and handed it back to him. “But don’t you have any luggage to weigh?”

“I had already weighed it and had it sent on ahead to my residence, just before I caught the scent of your blood and heard you screaming,” Valen explained.

“Oh. Oh, yes…of course.” She went pale and nodded. “Thank you again for saving me. But…why did we have to weigh our luggage in the first place?”

“It’s a mandate by the Ma’shorkan government,” Valen explained. “They have calculated the exact mass of their planet and they are determined that it must not decrease by even an iota. So you must be very careful not to take anything away with you that you didn’t bring in the first place.”

“So…no souvenirs?” she asked.

“Souvenirs?” He frowned, not understanding.

“On Earth, when we visit a new place—a new town or country—we buy little mementoes to remind us of our trip,” Selena explained. “Like…a key ring with the name of the place printed on it, or a refrigerator magnet, or sometimes even a polished rock from the area we’re visiting.” She shrugged. “Something like that.”