The Alton Gift is a science fiction novel by American writers Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross in the Darkover series.
In terms of Darkover's timeline, the book starts three years after the death of Regis Hastur in Traitor's Sun, and is a continuation of that story.
Domenic Alton-Hastur arrives at Comyn Castle in Thendara, accompanying the body of his late grandmother, Javanne Lanart-Hastur.
He is reunited with his cousin, Alanna Alar, an emotionally unstable young woman who is unable to control her outbursts of temper and laran.
Domenic and Danilo Syrtis-Ardais learn that Alanna appears to have a version of the Elhalyn gift, which shows the possessor multiple possible futures.
His family takes him to Neskaya Tower, where the keeper, Silvana, and her underkeeper, Illona, identifies him as a Terran.
They encounter a man who appears to be suffering from Trailmen's Fever (from The Planet Savers), which all believe to have been wiped out over 40 years prior.
He meets Liam, an associate of Francisco Ridenow, who tells him that the Comyn Council will not agree to hear him.
The following day, Danilo Syrtis-Ardais surprises the council with another revelation – a candidate to fill the vacant Aillard seat, Darius-Mikhail Zabal.
Illona informs Marguerida that Marilla Lindir-Aillard's collapse was not caused by a heart attack, but by Trailmen's Fever.
Marguerida takes a party to the abandoned Terran spaceport, to search out records of the vaccine created nearly 50 years earlier to treat a similar epidemic.
Domenic announces his engagement to Alanna, but she declines, saying she needs training at a Tower to master her laran gifts.
The Keeper's Council charges Marguerida with the misuse of her laran at the battle of the Old North Road, while acknowledging that she saved most of their lives by doing so.