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gome coffee?" He hesitated, then said, "You couldn't be Lord Hastur; that must be your father?"

"Grandfather. For me the proper address is Lord Regis." He accepted the proffered Terran drink, finding it bitter but rather pleasant. Dan Lawton led him into a tall shaft which rose upward at alarming speed, opening on a glass-enclosed viewing terrace. Below him an enormous cargo ship was in the final stages of readying for takeoff, with refueling cranes being moved away, scaffoldings and loading platforms being wheeled like toys to a distance. The process was quick and efficient. He heard again the waterfall sound, rising to a roar, a scream. The great ship lifted slowly, then more swiftly and finally was gone ... out, beyond the stars.

Regis remained motionless, staring at the spot in the sky where the starship had vanished. He knew therewere tears in bis eyes again but he didn't care. After a little while Lawton guided him down the elevatorshaft. Regis went as if sleepwalking. Resolve had suddenly crystallized inside him.

Somewhere in the Empire, somewhere away from the Domains which had no place for him, there mustbe a world for him. A world where he could be free of the tremendous burden laid on the Comyn, aworld where he could be himself, more than simply heir to his Domain, his life laid out in preordainedduties from birth to grave. The Domain? Let Javanne's sons have it! He felt almost intoxicated by thesmell of freedom. Freedom from a burden he'd been born to-and born unfit to bear!

Lawton had not noticed his preoccupation. He said, "I'll arrange an escort for you back to Comyn

Castle, Lord Regis. You can't go alone, put it out of your mind. Impossible."

"I came here alone, and I'm not a child." "Certainly not," Lawton said, straight-faced, "but with the situation in the city now, anything might happen. And if an accident occurred, I would be personally responsible."

He had used the casta phrase implying personal honor. Regis lifted his eyebrows and congratulated bunon his command of the language.

"As a matter of fact, Lord Regis, it is my native tongue. My mother never spoke anything else to me. It was Terran I learned as a foreign language." "You are Darkovan?" "My mother was, and kin to Comyn. Lord Ardais is my

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mother's cousin, though I doubt he'd care to acknowledge the relationship."

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Regis thought about that as Lawton arranged his escort. Relatives far more distant than that were oftenseated in Comyn Council. This Terran officer-half-Terran-might have chosen to be Darkovan. He had asmuch right to a Comyn seat as Lew Alton, for instance. Lew could have chosen to be Terran, as Regiswas about to choose his own future. He spent the uneventful journey across the city thinking how hewould break the news to his grandfather.

In the Hastur apartments, a servant told him that Danvan Hastur was awaiting him. As he changed hisclothes-the thought of presenting himself before the Regent of Comyn in house clothes and felt slipperswas not even to be contemplated-he wondered grimly if Lew had said anything to his grandfather. Itoccurred to him, hours too late, that if anything had happened to him, Hastur might well have held Lewresponsible. A poor return for Lew's friendship!

When he had made himself presentable, in a sky-blue dyed-leather tunic and high boots, he went up tohis grandfather's audience room.

Inside he found Danvan Hastur of Hastur, Regent of the Seven Domains, talking to Kennard Alton. Ashe opened the door, Hastur raised his eyebrows and gestured to him to sit down. "One moment, my lad, Til talk to you later." He turned back to Kennard and said in a tone of endless patience, "Kennard, myfriend, my dear kinsman, what you ask is simply impossible. I let you force Lew on us-"

"Have you regretted it?" Kennard demanded angrily. "They tell me at Arilinn that he is a strong telepath, one of their best. In the Guard he is a competent officer. What right have you to assume Marius would bring disgrace on the Comyn?"

"Who spoke of disgrace, kinsman?" Hastur was standing before his writing table, a strongly built old man, not as tall as Kennard, with hair that had once been silver-gilt and was now nearly all gray. He spoke with a slow, considered mildness. "I let you force Lew on us and Fve had no reason to regret it. But there is more to it than that Lew does not look Comyn, no more than you, but there is no question in anyone's mind that he is Darkovan and your son. But Marius? Impossible,"

Kennard's mouth thinned and tightened. "Are you ques-

tioning the paternity of an acknowledged Alton son?" Standing quietly in a corner, Regis was glad

Kennard's rage was not turned on him.

"By no means. But he has 'his mother's blood, his mother's face, his mother's eyes. My friend, you know

what the first-year cadets go through in the Guards...."

"He's my son and no coward. Why do you think he would be incompetent to take his place, the place to

which he is legally entitled-"

"Legally, no. I won't quibble with you, Ken, but we never recognized your marriage to Elaine. Marius is legally, as regards inheritance and Domain-right, entitled to nothing whatever. We gave Lew that right. Not by birth entitlement, but by Council action, because he was Alton, telepath, with full laran. Marius has received no such rights from Council." He sighed. "How can I make you understand? I'm sure the boy is brave, trustworthy, honest-that be has all the virtues we Comyn demand of our sons. Any lad you reared would have those qualities. Who knows better than I? But Marius looks Terran. The other lads would tear him to pieces. I know what Lew went through. I pitied him, even while I admired his courage. They've accepted him, after a fashion. They would never accept Marius. Never. Why put him through that misery for nothing?"

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Kennard clenched his fists, striding angrily up and down the room. His voice choked with rage, he said, "You mean that I can get a cadet commission for some poor relation, or for my bastard son by a whoreor an idiot, sooner than for my own legitimately born younger son!"

"Kennard, if it were up to me, Fd give the lad his chance. But my hands are tied. There has been enough

trouble hi Council over citizenship for those of mixed blood. Dyan-"

"I know all too well how Dyan feels. He's made it abundantly clear."

"Dyan has a great deal of support in Council. And Marius* mother was not only Terran but half-Aldaran. If you had hunted over Darkover for a generation, you could not have found a woman less likely to be accepted as the mother of your legitimate sons."

Kennard said in a low voice, "It was yoor own father who had me sent to Terra, by the will of Council,when I was fourteen years old. Elaine was reared and schooled on Terra, but she thought of herself as Darkovan. I did not even know

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of her Terran blood at first. But it made no difference. Even had she been all Terran ..." He broke off. "Enough of that It is long past and she is dead. As for me, I think my record and reputation, my years commanding the Guard, my ten years at Arilinn, prove abundantly what I am." He paced the floor, his uneven step and distraught face betraying the emotion he tried to keep out of his voice. "You are not a tele-path, Hastur. It was easy for you to do what your caste required of you. The Gods know I tried to love Caitlin. It wasn't her fault But I did love Elaine, and she was mother to my sons."

"Kennard, I'm sorry. I cannot fight the whole Council for Marius, unless-has he laran?"

"I have no idea. Does it matter so much?"

"If he had the Alton gift, it might be possible, not easy but possible, to establish some rights for him. There are precedents. With laran, even a distant kinsman can be adopted into the Domains. Without it ... no, Kennard, Don't ask. Lew is accepted now, even respected. Don't ask more."

Kennard said, his head bent, "I didn't want to test Lew for the Alton gift Even with all my care, it camenear to killing him. Hastur, I cannot risk that againl Would you, for your youngest son?"

"My only son is dead," Hastur said and sighed. "If I can do anything else for the boy-"

Kennard answered, "The only thing I want for him is his right, and that is the one thing you will not give. Ishould have taken them both to Terra, You made me feel I was needed here."

"You are, Ken, and you know it as well as I." Hastur's smile was very sweet and troubled. "Some day, perhaps, you may see why I cant do what you wish." His eyes moved to Regis, fidgeting on the bench.

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He said, "If you will excuse me, Kennard... T

It was a courteous but definite dismissal. Kennard withdrew, but his face was grim and he omitted anyformal leave-taking. Hastur looked tired. He sighed and said, "Come here, Regis. Where have you been? Haven't I trouble enough without worrying that you've run away like a silly brat, to look at the spaceshipsor something like that?"

The last time I gave you too much trouble, Grandfather, you sent me into a monastery. Isn't it too badyou can't do it again, sir?"

"Don't be insolent, you young pup," Hastur growled. "Do you want me to apologize for having no welcome last night? Very well, I apologize. It wasn't my choice." He came and took Regis in his arms, pressing his withered cheeks one after another to the boy's. *Tve been up all night or I'd think of some better way to welcome you now." He held him off at arm's length, blinking with weariness. "You've grown, child. You are very like your father. He would have been proud, I think, to see you coming home a man."

Against his own will, Regis was moved. The old man looked so weary. "What crisis kept you up allnight, Grandfather?"

Hastur sank down heavily on the bench. "The usual thing. I expect it's known on every planet where the Empire builds ' a big spaceport, but we're not used to it here. People coming and going from all cornersof the Empire. Travelers, transients, spacemen on leave and the sector which caters to them. Bars,amusement places, gambling halls, houses of... er ..."

"I'm old enough to know what a brothel is, sir."

"At your age? Anyway, drunken men are disorderly, and Terrans on leave carry weapons. By agreement, no weapons can be carried into the old city, but people do stray across the line-there's no way of preventing it, short of building a wall across the city. There have been brawls, duels, knife fights and sometimes even killings, and it isn't always clear whether the City Guard or the Terran spaceforce should properly handle the offenders. Our codes are so different that it's hard to know how to compromise. Last night there was a brawl and a Terran knifed one of the Guardsmen. The Terran offered as his defense that the Guardsman had made him what he called an indecent proposition. Must I explain?"

"Of course not But are you trying to tell me, seriously, that this was offered as a legal defense for

murder?**

"Seriously. Evidently the Terrans take it even more seriously than the cristoforos. He insisted his attack on the Guardsman was justifiable. Now the Guardsman's brother has filed an inteot-to-murder on the Terran. The Terrans aren't subject to our laws, so he refused to accept it and instead filed charges against the Guardsman's brother for attempted murder. What a tangle! I never thought I'd see the day when Council had to sit on a knife fight! Damn (he Terrans anyhow!"

"So how did you finally settle it?"

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Hastur shrugged. "Compromise, as usual. The Terran was deported and the Guardsman's brother washeld in the brig until the Terran was off-planet; so nobody gets any peace except the dead man. Unsatisfactory for everyone. But enough of them. Tell me about yourself, Regis."

"Well, 111 have to talk about the Terrans again," Regis said. This wasn't the best time, but his grandfather might not have time to talk with him again for days. "Grandfather, I'm not needed here. You probably know I don't have laran, and I found out in Nevarsin'that I'm not interested in politics. IVe decided what I want to do with my life: I want to go into the Terran Empire Space Service."

Hastur's jaw dropped. He scowled and demanded, "Is this a joke? Or another silly prank?"

"Neither, Grandfather. 1 mean it, and I'm of age."

"But you can't do that! Certainly they'd never accept you without my consent"

"I hope to have that, sir. But by Darfcovan law, which you were quoting at Kennard, I am of legal age to

dispose of myself. I can marry, fight a duel, acknowledge a son, stand responsible for a murder-"

"The Terrans wouldn't think so. Kennard was declared of age before he went But on Terra he was sent to school and required, legally forced, mind you, to obey a stipulated guardian until he was past twenty. You*d hate that."

"No doubt I would. But I learned one thing at Nevarsin, sir-you can live with the things you hate."*

"Regis, is this your revenge for my sending you to Nevarsin? Were you so unhappy? What can I say? I wanted you to have the best education possible and I thought it better for you to be properly cared for, there, than neglected at home."