Demon Daughter, written by Lois McMaster Bujold and self-published on January 8, 2024 as an e-book is a novella in the World of Five Gods set a few years after Knot of Shadows.
Publisher's Summary[]
A six-year-old shiplost girl draws the kin Jurald family of Vilnoc into complex dilemmas, and sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona into conflict—with each other. It will take all of Penric’s wits, his wife Nikys’s wisdom, and the hand of the fifth god’s strangest saint to untangle the threads of their future.
Plot Summary[]
Otta, age 6, on her family ship The Golden Chance, was playing with a straw doll when Ilpo the ship boy came by and showed her a rat. Charmed, she took it and was planning to make a pet of it. However, First Mate, not liking rats, pitched it overboard.
The rat had a brand new elemental demon, which transferred to Otta. She passed out, and when she awoke she was starting fires all over the ship. Alarmed, First Mate tossed her overboard.
She came ashore in Orbas at the village of Zerbo. The locals initially sought to help her, but when fires started around her they became alarmed. They put her at the bottom of a dry well and sent to the nearest city, Vilnoc, for help. Otta was miserable and scared -- fires kept starting around her, which she couldn't control; she was afraid that those fires had sunk The Golden Chance and killed her family and friends; and she couldn't turn off her second sight, meaning everyone around around her seemed to filled with strange swirling colors and lights.
Thus, Penric kin Jurald and his wife Nikys traveled to the village. Penric confirmed that she had a brand-new demon and Nikys acquired enough trust to allow conversation. With a bit of teaching, Otta learned how to control her new fire-creation skill so that she could be safely brought out of the well; Penric and Nikys decided to take her to their home while they sought her ship and thought about what action to take. Desdemona responded to the situation by taking a liking to the elemental and seeking to take care of it. She was not pleased at all about taking Otta and her elemental demon to the Saint of Pef to have the demon destroyed.
Over the next few days, Otta learned more Cedonian and some very basic sorcery, and named her demon Atto. Penric's friends Laxo and Symo made inquiries for the ship on his behalf. Meanwhile, Otta became friends with Penric and Nikys' daughter Rina. However, despite Penric's best efforts, Otta proved unable to control her second sight, which continued to vex her with a constant view of other people's souls.
As time went on, Penric and Desdemona found themselves in an increasingly ugly argument about what to do with Otta and Atto; Desdemona wanted to simply hide the two of them to protect Atto, while Penric felt it was his duty to allow the White God to decide, even if he found it distasteful. Meanwhile, Penric's searches for her ship were not yet successful; Otta continued to worry the fires she started had sunk it.
Eventually, a response from Blessed Iroki arrived, inviting Otta, Penric, and Penric's family to Pef. So the next day, Penric, Otta, Nikys, Rina -- and Desdemona and Atto -- set off by coach. Penric explained to Otta that the Saint could take Atto away. He added that she could ask to keep her demon, but if she kept the demon, she could not return to her family ship (if it was still above the water). Talking in bed with Rina on the first night of the journey, Otta realized that the Saint didn't just take demons away and give them to someone else, but destroyed them. Otta felt the decision increasingly difficult, to be cut off from her family or to give Atto up for destruction.
Desdemona, having failed at destroying Iroki's message, continued to try and prevent Otta from reaching Pef, breaking the coach's axle when Penric was distracted, which delayed their trip by a day. Penric admitted that Desdemona was refusing to talk to him or work with him, leaving him without his sorcerous powers.
As the coach passed Dogrita, a courier caught up with them with news -- The Golden Chance had managed to reach a port and repair. Otta and her at-the-time-uncontrolled demon had not killed anyone or destroyed the family ship, much to her relief.
When the family arrived at Iroki's home, he decided to take Otta with him alone to the river. There the two of them sat quietly for a time; Otta broke the silence by stating that she did not wish to return to her ship. At that point, she discovered that instead of talking simply with Iroki, she was actually speaking to the demon god, the Bastard. She chose to keep Atto, remaining a sorceress. As a gift from the Bastard, Otta abruptly became able to reliably control her second sight.
Some weeks later, Laxo and Symo appeared at Penric's home: they'd found Otta's mother, Louka Harosdottis. Louka wished to take Otta back, but was dismayed to learn that Otta still had the demon. After some conversation, she concluded it would be best for Otta to live as part of Penric's family, with possible visits.
That night, Nikys questioned Penric and Des about Penric's seeming youthfulness -- Louka could hardly believe the two were the same age, as Penric looked around 25. Des admitted she had been using subtle magic to keep Penric young, or at least young-seeming, though she wasn't sure how well it would continue to work. Nikys, pleased by Penric's youthful good looks and preferring not to bury a second husband, urged her to keep doing so.
Major Characters[]
Supporting Characters[]
- Saint Iroki
- Llewyn kin Jurald (Wyn)
- Idrene Gardiki
Minor Characters[]
Errata[]
When Otta arrived at Pef, the book states "Otta had never been in a woods before, only around harbor towns". But a few pages later, Otta saw Iroki's soul as "like some deep, deep woodland pool" -- a type of pool she would have never seen.