Free The Alton Gift by Marion Z. Bradley

until now. I always thought Uncle Piedro and Aunt Ariel were shirking their duty in sending Alanna to us. Now, I almost wish I'd gone to live with them in exchange! Why is it so much easier to talk to anyone but my own parents? I don't suppose you could adopt me?"
    Danilo laughed. "I hardly think so. You're what, twenty? By all our traditions, you're no longer a child. A generation ago, you would have a wife and heir by now, and you'd be sitting in the Cortes or managing the family estate."
    "These times are different," Domenic said. "There's so much I have to learn first, not the least of which is how to survive the political intrigue of the Council. I want to find my own way! I don't want to be like one of those string-puppets down at the marketplace."
    "Neither did Regis." Danilo said quietly.
    He remembered all too well that Regis had been under intense pressure to accept his responsibilities to Council and Domain. They both understood that he was expected to marry and father sons, to be everything his 'formidable grandfather demanded.
    "Yet," Danilo said aloud, "in the end, Regis made up his own mind. He accepted his heritage and obligations freely, not because Lord Danvan expected it of him. You've probably heard stories of what Regis did then—leading the expedition to find a cure for trail-men's fever, using the Sword of Aldones to vanquish Sharra, standing up to the World Wreckers. None of these were Lord Danvan's ideas, and none of them had ever been done before. Regis made the position of Regent his own, with his own vision, his own talents. You will, too—"
    Danilo broke off, his telepathic senses alert. There was another person nearby.
    Domenic launched himself from his chair, crossed to the door in two strides, and jerked it open, revealing a beautiful and disconsolate young woman. Danilo recognized Marguerida's fosterling, though he had seen very little of her in the past years. She wore a mismatched orange skirt and lace-trimmed pink velvet jacket, as if she had thrown on the nearest garments to hand.
    "Alanna!" Domenic cried.
    With a cry, the girl threw herself into Domenic's arms. Danilo said, "I think you'd better bring her inside."
    Within a short time, Alanna was seated in one of the leather armchairs, and a second breakfast, with an extra carafe of jaco , had been sent for. Domenic perched beside her on a footstool, chafing her hands between his. She looked pale except for twin spots of hectic color on her cheeks. Her hair curled in damp, unruly tendrils about her face. She had not yet stopped trembling.
    "I know it was wrong to follow you," she said, between hiccoughs. "I couldn't help myself."
    The girl's emotions, like an invisible turbulence, raked Danilo's nerves. Their gazes locked for a heartbeat as his mind touched hers. In that moment, Danilo saw her not as a gently reared damisela but as a creature of ice-pale fire. Strands of light, like colorless flames, flowed from her head and hands. She vibrated with their surging currents, wrapped in a confusion of light and motion—
    With a sob, Alanna buried her face in her hands. "Whatever he's doing, make it stop !"
    " Dom Danilo has done nothing to you, sweetheart—" Domenic said.
    "He's in my mind, I tell you! He's putting things there!"
    The girl swayed in her chair. Danilo caught her in his arms before she fell over. Her hands brushed his, her skin chill and damp. The physical contact intensified the telepathic rapport.
    He stood in the middle of a whirlwind, not of ordinary air, but of light and energy. Images overlapped, like reflections from a ripple-touched pool.
    … he saw himself, holding an unconscious girl in his arms; he saw Domenic do the same…
    … he saw the room empty; he saw himself staring into a cold hearth, a husk of grief, holding a dagger to his chest…
    … he saw Lew Alton burst into the room, the fires of Sharra burning behind his eyes…
    With a soft cry, Alanna sagged in his arms, and the visions disappeared, leaving