The young heir to the Pao throne, Beran Panasper, flees his usurping uncle Bustamonte when his father, the Panarch of Pao, is killed.
As years pass, Beran\'s suspicion.
Palafox and his peers are obsessed with prestige and dominance, augmenting their bodies technologically, and breeding legions of sons upon indentured women brought from scores of worlds.
His refuge is the austereworld Breakness, under one of the planet\'s ruler-academics - the elderly but immensely powerful Lord Palafox.
The young heir to the Pao throne, Beran Panasper, flees his usurping uncle Bustamonte when his father, the Panarch of Pao, is killed