Getaf said wistfully, “Do they seem to like Vilnoc?”
“So far as I can tell. Though any place must seem better than Lantihera, or whatever slavery would have followed.”
A wry, conceding nod. “I could make sure my travels extend toward Lodi again. And visit, from time to time.” Left unspoken were the hazards of his own trade—Pen was put in mind of Aloro and Arditi, and hoped they’d made it back alive to Adria.
“Well, then, I suggest you put the proposal to your daughters, and discover what they think of it. I see no impediment from this end.”
Getaf’s stiff shoulders eased at this reassurance. “It could be well. It might be very well.”
“It might.” Pen pulled his queue around—Seuka had insisted on her turn to braid, this morning—and fiddled with it, perhaps not concealing his nosiness as much as he’d wish. “Do you think their mother would approve?”
An aching sort of shrug at this reminder of grief. “I can only pray so. But if they flourish, then yes. It was all she ever wanted for her girls, their well-being.”
“How did you two come to meet?” Which wasn’t really the question. But How did you two come to form a bond that could not even be broken by death? seemed too intimate a query for an hour’s acquaintance.
A brief smile. “Through her work, of course. When I was first trying to set up trade in Raspay, what, fifteen years ago now. I moved from being her regular client to her exclusive client whenever I prospered enough for it, which… wasn’t all the time, to my frustration. But we made do. Sometimes, she was my temporary factor, when I could afford no other assistance.”
Which also sounded far more like a merchant’s wife than his mistress. Well, apart from her side-jobs.
“Was she very young and beautiful, back then?”
Getaf waved an indifferent hand. “Only a little younger than me—granted, I was younger then, too. Well-looking enough, as one must be for her trade. But she made the best of herself through tidiness and health, not by the unearned gift that’s the blessing and curse of those born beautiful.” He flicked a shrewd glance at Pen, which Pen pretended not to notice.
Getaf’s expression softened. “But she was the most endlessly kind person I have ever met, of any sex or sort. Her fearless caring terrified me at times. She would take in strays, you know, others of her profession who had run into rotten situations of one sort and another. Especially the young ones, who had grown no slyness or deceit by which to defend themselves. I lost count of the number of secret Quintarians and ill-treated whores and crow-lads I smuggled out of Raspay with me as servants, to release in some port of Ibra in the hopes they might find a safer life. A few escaped Quintarian slaves, too—now, that was a dangerous game all around. I much preferred to just buy out the battered ones at Jedula’s direction, when I could afford it. Better for my poor heart.”
Penric blinked at this new picture. “Did Lencia and Seuka know all this was going on?”
“I don’t think so, or only the tip of it, when Jedula hid someone sick or injured in our house. She would certainly have misdirected or sworn the girls to silence, in those cases. But for the most part she took great care to keep them ignorant of those activities. Because even as shunned as they were in Raspay, they still had a few young friends, if only the children of others in their mother’s trade. And there would have been no controlling their chatter.”
“I see.”
Oh, my, agreed Des.
For the first time, the hidden bud of Jedula Corva’s relationship with her god seemed to unfold its secrets before Pen’s eye like a blooming flower. Beloved, god-touched, great-souled… a saint, even? The true sort, who moved through the world as silently as fishes, unnoticed by carnal eyes that focused only on outward domination and display. Never on a small woman in a small town, being kind. Soul by soul.
And her faithful lieutenant, it seemed. Pen studied the unprepossessing, middle-aged merchant, sitting oblivious to these reflections, anew.
Getaf sighed. “I suppose Jedula spoiled me for any other woman. Any other person, really. My life is going to be much… duller, now.” His grimace didn’t much resemble the buffering smile he evidently intended.
God-touched at least, then. Pen recognized that particular bereft longing left when a great Presence became a great absence. That heartbroken loss only known to those who, at some perilous apogee, had almost grasped that inchoate, indescribable essence.
The gods make it up to us at the end, I suppose. For some, that was a long and tedious wait.
A bustle at the house door; Nikys and the girls bearing trays of cool lemon-water and tasty pastries. Pen amazed the company and amused himself by generating balls of ice for their drinks. He also took this peaceable opportunity to introduce Des; they were successful at not disturbing his visitor too much. The diversion gave time to settle his own upended mind, anyway.
Getaf, who was, Pen mused, a successful trader and therefore negotiator, pitched his proposal to his daughters over the meal. Pen tried to maintain a neutral mien while this was going on, but he supposed his broad smile betrayed him when the girls leaped on his invitation to give the family a personal tour of the chapterhouse that afternoon, to examine what they were being offered more closely. Getaf definitely approved of that mercantile due diligence. Even when the sisters’ caginess was a transparent effort not to sadden him by appearing too eager to leave his protection.
* * *
The agreement between an Order and the parents or guardians of a young dedicat fell somewhere between a dower and an apprenticeship; Getaf, apparently experienced with both sorts of contracts, ironed out the details with the Bastard’s chapterhouse within two days. Waiving the age requirements, upon examination of the matter by the chapter head, was routine enough to scarcely need Pen’s clout. Children so placed would, upon their majority, have the choice of regularizing their oaths to full membership, or leaving for a lay life. Pen had no idea which Lencia and Seuka would finally choose, and finally decided it was not his task to guess so many years ahead.
Good, said Des. You borrow enough trouble already you’d need a counting-house to keep your ledger.
Pen, Nikys, and Getaf together escorted the sisters to their new home. The girls had taken to Nikys—as who would not?—and Nikys to them reciprocally. They all helped haul their few belongings through the chapterhouse’s back courtyard up to their narrow room, which had a glassed casement overlooking the town and the valley that wound up into the hills behind it. Also a wardrobe, a pair of chests, a washstand with its paraphernalia, an inviting bookshelf—Pen approved—and two beds, one on either side; Seuka promptly sat and bounced on hers, consideringly. Lencia stared around in both curiosity and trepidation, but Pen fancied the first was winning.
Then it was time to see Getaf off in turn. The man was plainly torn between concern for Lencia and Seuka, and worrying about what might be happening to his year’s worth of work waiting in a Lodi warehouse. And Jedula Corva’s daughters, Pen was reminded, were not Getaf’s only children that he had left to hope and the care of others while he journeyed, though he tactfully did not speak much of his other family in Zagosur.
It was a short walk from the chapterhouse to Vilnoc’s harbor. The skies had regained the deep blue of summer, and the gulls flashed almost painfully white against it. There were hugs, there were tears, there were probably futile admonishments against the risks of life in Vilnoc and on ships. Then the merchant pressed his coin into the hand of the oarsman and was rowed out to his waiting vessel. Getaf climbed the net and waved one last time before the crew urged him out of their way.
“Will he be safe?” fretted Seuka. All too aware, now, not just of the hazards of the world, but of the fragility of grownups.
“The storm season is over in these waters,” said Penric. “And I don’t think pirates will be attacking ships under Orban flags again so soon. He’s as safe as anyone alive and moving in the world can be.”
Nikys put in, “We can stop at
the Vilnoc temple and pray for him, if you like.”
Lencia looked down at her sandals, up at Penric. “Does it help?”
“For a certainty… only at the very end of all journeys,” said Penric, his god-sworn honesty wrestling down more soothing platitudes. “But at least there we don’t travel alone.”
Lencia, after a sober moment, nodded.
They turned into the city’s streets. Bumping companionably between Penric, Des, and Nikys, the Corva sisters climbed undaunted.
~FIN~
Author’s Note:
A Bujold Reading-Order Guide
The Fantasy Novels
My fantasy novels are not hard to order. Easiest of all is The Spirit Ring, which is a stand-alone, or aquel, as some wag once dubbed books that for some obscure reason failed to spawn a subsequent series. Next easiest are the four volumes of The Sharing Knife—in order, Beguilement, Legacy, Passage, and Horizon—which I broke down and actually numbered, as this was one continuous tale divided into non-wrist-breaking chunks.
What were called the Chalion books after the setting of its first two volumes, but which now that the geographic scope has widened I’m dubbing the World of the Five Gods, were written to be stand-alones as part of a larger whole, and can in theory be read in any order. Some readers think the world-building is easier to assimilate when the books are read in publication order, and the second volume certainly contains spoilers for the first (but not the third.) In any case, the publication order is:
The Curse of Chalion
Paladin of Souls
The Hallowed Hunt
In terms of internal world chronology, The Hallowed Hunt would fall first, the Penric novellas perhaps a hundred and fifty years later, and The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls would follow a century or so after that.
The internal chronology of the Penric novellas is presently
“Penric’s Demon”
“Penric and the Shaman”
“Penric’s Fox”
“Penric’s Mission”
“Mira’s Last Dance”
“The Prisoner of Limnos”
“The Orphans of Raspay”
Other Original E-books
The short story collection Proto Zoa contains five very early tales—three (1980s) contemporary fantasy, two science fiction—all previously published but not in this handy format. The novelette “Dreamweaver’s Dilemma” may be of interest to Vorkosigan completists, as it is the first story in which that proto-universe began, mentioning Beta Colony but before Barrayar was even thought of.
Sidelines: Talks and Essays is just what it says on the tin—a collection of three decades of my nonfiction writings, including convention speeches, essays, travelogues, introductions, and some less formal pieces. I hope it will prove an interesting companion piece to my fiction.
The Vorkosigan Stories
Many pixels have been expended debating the ‘best’ order in which to read what have come to be known as the Vorkosigan Books (or Saga), the Vorkosiverse, the Miles books, and other names. The debate mainly revolves around publication order versus internal-chronological order. I favor internal chronological, with a few adjustments.
It was always my intention to write each book as a stand-alone, so that the reader could theoretically jump in anywhere. While still somewhat true, as the series developed it acquired a number of sub-arcs, closely related tales that were richer for each other. I will list the sub-arcs, and then the books, and then the duplication warnings. (My publishing history has been complex.) And then the publication order, for those who want it.
Shards of Honor and Barrayar. The first two books in the series proper, they detail the adventures of Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony and Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar. Shards was my very first novel ever; Barrayar was actually my eighth, but continues the tale the next day after the end of Shards. For readers who want to be sure of beginning at the beginning, or who are very spoiler-sensitive, start with these two.
The Warrior’s Apprentice and The Vor Game (with, perhaps, the novella “The Mountains of Mourning” tucked in between.) The Warrior’s Apprentice introduces the character who became the series’ linchpin, Miles Vorkosigan; the first book tells how he created a space mercenary fleet by accident; the second how he fixed his mistakes from the first round. Space opera and military-esque adventure (and a number of other things one can best discover for oneself), The Warrior’s Apprentice makes another good place to jump into the series for readers who prefer a young male protagonist.
After that: Brothers in Arms should be read before Mirror Dance, and both, ideally, before Memory.
Komarr makes another alternate entry point for the series, picking up Miles’s second career at its start. It should be read before A Civil Campaign.
Borders of Infinity, a collection of three of the five currently extant novellas, makes a good Miles Vorkosigan early-adventure sampler platter, I always thought, for readers who don’t want to commit themselves to length. (But it may make more sense if read after The Warrior’s Apprentice.) Take care not to confuse the collection-as-a-whole with its title story, “The Borders of Infinity”.
Falling Free takes place 200 years earlier in the timeline and does not share settings or characters with the main body of the series. Most readers recommend picking up this story later. It should likely be read before Diplomatic Immunity, however, which revisits the “quaddies”, a bioengineered race of free-fall dwellers, in Miles’s time.
The novels in the internal-chronological list below appear in italics; the novellas (officially defined as a story between 17,500 words and 40,000 words) in quote marks.
Falling Free
Shards of Honor
Barrayar
The Warrior’s Apprentice
“The Mountains of Mourning”
“Weatherman”
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Ethan of Athos
Borders of Infinity
“Labyrinth”
“The Borders of Infinity”
Brothers in Arms
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
“Winterfair Gifts”
Diplomatic Immunity
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
“The Flowers of Vashnoi”
CryoBurn
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
Caveats:
The novella “Weatherman” is an out-take from the beginning of the novel The Vor Game. If you already have The Vor Game, you likely don’t need this.
The original ‘novel’ Borders of Infinity was a fix-up collection containing the three novellas “The Mountains of Mourning”, “Labyrinth”, and “The Borders of Infinity”, together with a frame to tie the pieces together. Again, beware duplication. The frame story does not stand alone.
Publication order:
This is also the order in which the works were written, apart from a couple of the novellas, but is not identical to the internal-chronological. It goes:
Shards of Honor (June 1986)
The Warrior’s Apprentice (August 1986)
Ethan of Athos (December 1986)
Falling Free (April 1988)
Brothers in Arms (January 1989)
Borders of Infinity (October 1989)
The Vor Game (September 1990)
Barrayar (October 1991)
Mirror Dance (March 1994)
Cetaganda (January 1996)
Memory (October 1996)
Komarr (June 1998)
A Civil Campaign (September 1999).
Diplomatic Immunity (May 2002)
“Winterfair Gifts” (February 2004)
CryoBurn (November 2010)
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (November 2012)
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (February 2016)
“The Flowers of Vashnoi” (May 2018)
… Thirty years fitted on a page. Huh.
Happy reading!
— Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold
Photo by Carol Collins
www.goodreads.com
www.spectrumliteraryagency.com/bujold.htm
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Lois McMaster Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children. She began writing with the aim of professional publication in 1982. She wrote three novels in three years; in October of 1985, all three sold to Baen Books, launching her career. Bujold went on to write many other books for Baen, mostly featuring her popular character Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, his family, friends, and enemies. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages. Her fantasy from Eos includes the award-winning Chalion series and the Sharing Knife series.
Books by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Vorkosigan Series
Falling Free
Shards of Honor
Barrayar
The Warrior’s Apprentice
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Ethan of Athos
Borders of Infinity
Brothers in Arms
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
Diplomatic Immunity
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
CryoBurn
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
The Chalion Series
The Hallowed Hunt
The Orphans of Raspay Page 14
