Free A World Divided by Marion Zimmer Bradley

the uneven stones, he felt a flat undefined sorrow, as if he were seeing all this with the poignancy of a farewell. It was as if life had opened a bright door, and then slammed it again, leaving the world duller by contrast.
    Suddenly, his feeling of sadness thinned out and vanished. This was only a temporary thing. He wouldn’t be a kid forever. The time would come when he’d be free and on his own, free to explore all the worlds of his own choosing—and Darkover was only one of many. He had tasted a man’s freedom today—and some day it would be his for all time.
    His head went up and he crossed the square toward the spaceport, steadily. He’d had his fun, and he could take whatever happened. It had been worth it.
     
    He had the curious sense that he was re-living something that had happened before, as he entered their apartment in the Quarters building. His father was waiting for him, his face drawn, unreadable.
    “Where have you been?”
    “In the city. At the home of Kennard Alton.”
    Montray’s face contracted with anger, but his voice was level and stern.
    “You do remember that I forbade you to leave the Terran Zone? You’re not going to tell me that you forgot?”
    “I didn’t forget.”
    “In other words, you deliberately disobeyed.”
    Larry said quietly, “Yes.”
    Montray was evidently holding his anger in check with some effort. “Precisely why, when I did forbid it?”
    Larry paused a moment before answering. Was he simply making excuses about having done what he wanted to do? Then he was sure, again, of the rightness of his position.
    “Because, Dad, I’d made a promise and I didn’t feel it was right to break it, without a better reason than just that you’d forbidden it. This was something I had to do, and you were treating me like a kid. I tried to make sure that you wouldn’t be involved, or the Terran Empire, if anything had happened to me.”
    His father said, at last, “And you felt you should make the decision for yourself. Very well, Larry, I admire your honesty. Just the same, I refuse to concede that you have a right to ignore my orders on principle. You know I don’t like punishing you. However, for the present you will consider yourself under house arrest—not to leave our quarters except to go to school, under any pretext.” He paused and a bleak smile touched his lips. “Will you obey me, or shall I inform the guards not to let you pass without reporting it?”
    Larry flinched at the severity of the punishment, but it was just. From his father’s point of view, it was the only thing he could do. He nodded, not looking up.
    “Anything you say, Dad. You’ve got my word.”
    Montray said, without sarcasm, “You have shown me that it means something to you. I’ll trust you. House arrest until I decide you can be trusted with your freedom again.”
    The next days dragged slowly by, no day distinguishing itself from the last. The bruises on his face and hands healed, and his Darkovan adventure began to seem dim and pallid, as if it had happened a long time ago. Nevertheless, even in the dullness of his punishment, which deprived him even of things he had previously not valued—freedom to go about the spaceport and the Terran city, to visit friends and shops—he never doubted that he had done the right thing. He chafed under the restriction, but did not really regret having earned it.
    Ten days had gone by, and he was beginning to wonder a little when his father would see fit to lift the sentence, when the order came from the Commandant.
    His father had just come in, one evening, when the intercom buzzed, and when Montray put the phone down, he looked angry and apprehensive.
    “Your idiotic prank is probably coming home to roost,” he said angrily. “That was the Legate’s office in Administration. You and I have both been ordered to report there this evening—and it was a priority summons.”
    “Dad, if it means trouble for you, I’m sorry. You’ll have to