y which time he would have been a father himself, and his own son could be made
heir to the regency. How odd that he had never before acknowledged this
fantasy-that he had never really believed that the task of governing Darkover
would actually be his.
He knew what Regis would have told him-that if he didn't want the life he had,
he should have arranged to have different parents. He had heard this more than
once, but now it failed to make him smile. All he could say for certain was that
he felt as if the walls were closing around him, as if he were an animal trapped
in some snare, ready to bite his paw off in order to escape. He would be watched
over, even more than he already was, and that seemed intolerable. Hadn't he been
a near prisoner in Darkov Castle all of his life? It ha
