Sharra's Exile (56 page)
Authors: Marion Zimmer Bradley
“By your leave, sir, I am going out on the ship which takes to the stars at sunset, with my wife and daughter. I will gladly serve for a term, after which you will be able to educate the people of Darkover to choose their own representatives…”
Danvan Hastur held out his hand. He said, “I would gladly have seen your father in this post,
Dom
Lewis. The people of Darkover—and I myself—have cause to be grateful to the Altons.”
Lew bowed and said, “I hope I may serve you well,” and Hastur said, “All the Gods bless you and speed you on your way.”
Regis left his grandfather talking with Lawton—he was sure a time would come when they would like and respect one another, if not yet—and went out into the anteroom with Lew. He took him into a kinsman’s embrace. “Will you come back when your term is over, Lew? We need you on Darkover—”
A momentary look of pain crossed Lew’s face, but he said, “I don’t think so. Out there—on the edge of the Empire— there are new worlds. I—I can’t look back.”
There have been too many deaths here
…
Regis wanted to cry out, “Why should you go into exile again?” But he swallowed hard and bent his head, then raised it, after a moment, and said, “So be it,
bredu
. And wherever you go, the Gods go with you.
Adelandeyo
.”
He knew he would never see Lew again, and his whole heart went after him as he went out of the room.
The Empire is his, and a thousand million worlds beyond worlds
.
But my duty lies here. I am
—
Hastur
.
And that was enough. Almost.
As the red sun was setting behind the high pass, Regis stood with Danilo on a balcony overlooking the Terran Zone, watching as the great Terran ship skylifted, bound outward to the stars.
Where I can never
go. And he takes with him the last of my dreams of freedom, and of power
—
Do I want the love of Power or the Power of Love?
And suddenly he knew that he did not really envy Lew. No woman had ever loved him as Lew had
been loved, no. But Dyan had left, in his death, a shining legacy of another kind of love; something he had heard, and only half remembered from his years in St. Valentine-of-the-Snows, returned suddenly to his mind,
“Dani, what is that thing the
cristoforos
say… greater love hath none…”
Danilo returned, in the most ancient dialect of
casta
, the one they had spoken at the monastery:
“Greater love no man knoweth than he who will lay down his life for his fellow.”
Dyan had laid his life down for them all, and in his death, Regis had come to a new understanding; love was love, no matter whence it came or in what form. Some day he might love a woman in this way; but if that day never came, he would accept the love that was his without shame or regret.
“I will not be King,” he said, “I am Hastur; that is enough.” An echo stirred in his mind, a memory that would never wholly surface.
Who are you ?
Hastur
… it was gone, like a stilled ripple in the Lake. He said, “I’m going to need a lot of—a lot of help, Dani.”
And Danilo said, still in the most ancient dialect of Nevarsin, “Regis Hastur, I am your paxman, even to life or death.”
Regis wiped his face… the evening fog was condensing into the first drops of rain, but it felt hot on his eyes. “Come,” he said, “my grandfather must not be left too long alone, and we must take counsel how to educate our sons—Mikhail, and Dyan’s little son. We can’t stand here all night.”
They turned and went side by side into the Castle. The last light faded from the sky, and the great ship, outward bound into the Empire, was only a star among a hundred thousand other stars.
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THE FRIENDS OF DARKOVER
So popular have been the novels of the planet Darkover that an organization of readers and fans has come into being, virtually spontaneously. Several meetings have been held at major science fiction conventions, and more recently specially organized around the various “councils” of the Friends of Darkover, as the organization is now known.
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Newsletter
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- Sharra's Exile
- Heritage and Exile 02 - A Novel of Darkover
- Marion Zimmer Bradley
- Heritage and Exile 02 - A Novel of Darkover