Delivered by the Defender: Kindred Tales 34 by Evangeline Anderson

Author:Evangeline Anderson [Anderson, Evangeline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evangeline Anderson Books
Published: 2021-06-25T18:30:00+00:00

38

Selena hoped the nasty incident hadn’t ruined their beach day. She couldn’t ever remember having so much fun since she was a kid—maybe because having a stern and caring Master to look up to allowed her to let the responsible, adult side of herself go for a little while.

She was about to say something about that to Valen, when something out in the ocean caught her eye.

“Oh, what’s that? Is he riding something?” she exclaimed, pointing.

Far out in the clear blue-green water, a Ma’shorkan man appeared to be skimming along the surface of the ocean. At first, Selena thought he was doing some kind of a trick or maybe the Ma’shokan equivalent of surfing. But when she squinted, she saw that he was holding what looked like long reins in his hands and tugging them this way and that.

“Oh, that’s a glave rider,” Valen explained. “They live on islands far out on the ocean so they can be near their beasts.”

“What’s a glave?” Selena asked. “Is it some kind of fish?”

“Not a fish—a kind of mammal, actually—an aquatic animal which breathes air,” Valen said. “Just watch—in a moment you might see it crest.”

As he spoke, the glave rider rose suddenly out of the air. His feet were planted on an enormous, humped back covered in shining blue-green skin. The Ma’shorkan rider whooped in delight as his beast plunged back down again. For a moment Selena could only see his head, skimming the surface of the water, and then the animal under him rose up until he was riding high once more.

“Oh my God, it’s huge!” Selena breathed. “That looks like so much fun!”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Valen murmured. He looked down at her. “Would you like to try it?”

“What—me? How?” Selena asked. “I don’t know how to steer a, uh, glave.”

“You don’t have to steer it—the glave rider does that,” he explained. “You just ride behind him on the glave’s back—would you like to try it?”

“Well, sure! I mean, if we really can.” She looked up at him. “I think it would be amazing!”

Valen smiled and she noted with relief, that some of the earlier anger and strain had left his face.

“Then let’s go to the pier and flag him down,” he said.

The pier, up ahead, was made of sun-bleached purple wood that had faded to a pale lavender. Some people were fishing from the sides, letting down long-handled nets and pulling up wriggling silver fish to dump into insulated bags at their feet. Others were strolling hand in hand, eating cream cones and other beach delicacies, which mostly seemed to consists of different kinds of glistening, juicy meat on sticks.

Valen led Selena to the very end of the pier, where a Ma’shorkan man was standing beside a sign that said, “Glave Riding Here!” He spoke to the man for a moment and then money was exchanged.

The Ma’shorkan got out a long, twisted, spiral horn—or was it a shell? Selena couldn’t tell. Anyway, he put it to his lips and blew a long, melodious blast that drifted out onto the water.

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