2026 fantasy novella in the World of the Five Gods (formerly known as
Chalion). A hedge-sorcerer is dying, and the Temple has a use for her
demon, if the demon agrees. Meanwhile, a blinded cavalryman comes
seeking healing…
This starts off as two problems apparently solving each other:
the cavalryman can't be healed, but the demon can give him a sorcerous
sense which might be of some use. Of course, that will mean his
training for some years as a student of theology, and that was even
less part of his plan for his life than being blinded and unable to
work with horses was.
What world-building Bujold's adding this time is what sorcery means to
those outside the temple structure, both the desperate lack of
knowledge about it and the reasonable fear they have of the temple's
people breaking up a functioning partnership. And the positive
resolution looks as though it may help towards that situation too, not
just the immediate problem of Cinar and his newly-educated demon.
As I understand it, Bujold writes these (and the recent Vorkosigan
books) only when she feels she has something new to say. It's working
well for me!
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