Synopsis: Maverick mentalist - Race Worden was his name and he was a human being trying to live peacefully in his allotted niche on the colony world Mavia... until the day he moved a stone slab by mental projection. Until that moment, he had regarded himself as a simple pawn on the vast social board. But it raised him to a higher status at once - possibly a castle or bishop of knight. The kings of the board, they who ruled the human cosmos, had the telekinetic-telepathic power. They had crowned themselves with the stars and all the rest of humanity were theirs to move or sacrifice as they wished. But a maverick mentalist - even one like Race who did not even know the rules of their games nor the extent of his place - was not to be tolerated. He had to be removed from the board before he broke up their cozy zodiac. (from the back cover of the DAW Books first edition)