You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
In Exile's Song, Margaret Alton (also known as Marja or Marguerida), daughter of Lewis Alton and part-chieri Thyra Darriel, comes home to Darkover. Estranged from her father since she left her home on the planet Thetis to attend University, Margaret is a musicologist. Together with her mentor, Ivor Davidson, she has come to survey Darkover's musical traditions. Sadly, just days after they arrive, Ivor dies suddenly of a heart attack, and Margaret is left to continue his research alone - if she can, on a planet as relentlessly patriarchal as Darkover.
From the moment she lands, Margaret finds parts of her long-suppressed childhood surfacing, often with unexpected consequences. She is also thrown headlong into the complex politics of Darkover, since she is the heiress to the powerful Alton Domain, which has been under the Wardenship of Gabriel Lanart-Alton since her father Lew's departure from Darkover - and Gabriel is loathe to relinquish his position and power.
Travelling in the Hellers with a Renunciate guide, Margaret is struck down with a severe case of threshold fever as her long-dormant laran awakens. Rafaella takes her to the nearby Ardais estate. While struggling with her new abilities, Margaret realises that as a child she was overshadowed by the long-dead Keeper Ashara; she confronts Ashara in a psychic battle in the Overworld, and destroys Ashara's tower there, breaking the ancient leronis' power over her - but in doing so, the patterns within the great matrix at the heart of Ashara's Tower are branded into the flesh of her hand. While recovering from her illness, Margaret meets - and is deeply attracted to - Mikhail, who currently serves as young Dyan Ardais' paxman.
When Margaret's kinsman Gabriel arrives and demands that she return to Armida, she is at first inclined to ignore him and leave Darkover, when her father urges her telepathically to go to Armida.
While fending off pressure from Gabriel and his wife Javanne to accept a proposal from one of their older sons, Margaret discovers just how powerful and dangerous her laran is - woken by one of Gabriel's grandchildren, she accidentally uses the Alton Voice and sends the child's spirit into the Overworld. She also discovers that she has the Alderan gift of seeing the future, when she sees danger ahead for another of the children - which so distresses the child's mother that she insists on leaving Armida with her husband and family in the face of a growing storm. The child is gravely wounded in a carriage accident.
In the midst of this turmoil, Lew arrives at Armida, having given up his Senate seat and returned to Darkover with his dying wife, Diotima Ridenow, and brings Margaret back with him to Thendara.
The novel ends with Regis Hastur announcing that he is reforming the Comyn Council, and appointing Mikhail Regent of Elhalyn, in the absence of any suitable heirs.
From the moment she lands, Margaret finds parts of her long-suppressed childhood surfacing, often with unexpected consequences. She is also thrown headlong into the complex politics of Darkover, since she is the heiress to the powerful Alton Domain, which has been under the Wardenship of Gabriel Lanart-Alton since her father Lew's departure from Darkover - and Gabriel is loathe to relinquish his position and power.
Travelling in the Hellers with a Renunciate guide, Margaret is struck down with a severe case of threshold fever as her long-dormant laran awakens. Rafaella takes her to the nearby Ardais estate. While struggling with her new abilities, Margaret realises that as a child she was overshadowed by the long-dead Keeper Ashara; she confronts Ashara in a psychic battle in the Overworld, and destroys Ashara's tower there, breaking the ancient leronis' power over her - but in doing so, the patterns within the great matrix at the heart of Ashara's Tower are branded into the flesh of her hand. While recovering from her illness, Margaret meets - and is deeply attracted to - Mikhail, who currently serves as young Dyan Ardais' paxman.
When Margaret's kinsman Gabriel arrives and demands that she return to Armida, she is at first inclined to ignore him and leave Darkover, when her father urges her telepathically to go to Armida.
While fending off pressure from Gabriel and his wife Javanne to accept a proposal from one of their older sons, Margaret discovers just how powerful and dangerous her laran is - woken by one of Gabriel's grandchildren, she accidentally uses the Alton Voice and sends the child's spirit into the Overworld. She also discovers that she has the Alderan gift of seeing the future, when she sees danger ahead for another of the children - which so distresses the child's mother that she insists on leaving Armida with her husband and family in the face of a growing storm. The child is gravely wounded in a carriage accident.
In the midst of this turmoil, Lew arrives at Armida, having given up his Senate seat and returned to Darkover with his dying wife, Diotima Ridenow, and brings Margaret back with him to Thendara.
The novel ends with Regis Hastur announcing that he is reforming the Comyn Council, and appointing Mikhail Regent of Elhalyn, in the absence of any suitable heirs.