Penric & Desdemona, Part 6
by Lois McMaster Bujold

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted October 27, 2025
Edits and Addendum on May 2, 2026

Testimony of Mute Things / Darksight Dare

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I started reading and reviewing the Penric stories in February 2023, about eight years late, but since all but one are novellas I managed the first eleven that year, one a month. There were a couple more added in '24, and Testimony of Mute Things is the second for '25. It is also the second to be published out of chronological order. It is the fifteenth story overall, my reviews on six different pages so far. The first three pages conformed to the omnibus volumes released by Baen Books, which included three each. But Testimony belongs in the fourth position, following "Penric's Fox," and before "Masquerade in Lodi," which is the other story published out of order. One of these days, if and when Bujold decides she won't, or can't, write anymore, I may go back and rearrange the order on a few pages. But for now, other than Masquerade and Testimony, the others are in both publication order, and in the order of Penric's life experiences.

In the first three stories Pen worked in Martensbridge, the capital city of his home country of the Cantons. He was the court sorcerer to Princess-Archdivine Llewen kin Stagthorne, but by the fourth he was elsewhere, Llewen having passed away at that point. Testimony has him still in her service, as they travel from Martensbridge to Occo, which lies adjacent to the borders of the Cantons, Adria, and Carpagamo. Several recent wars had shifted the borders back and forth, and now Llewen is to preside over a tribunal to determine another realignment, not only for political and military reasons, but also to which country the abbeys/monastaries/schools of the Five Gods in Occo would owe fealty. In one of the other stories it became apparent the various factions of the Gods were as much politically administrative as they were religious, and with politics comes the matter of money and power. Another country was involved too, Saone, but since that is to the east, with both the Cantons and Carpagamo in between it and Adria, I am not sure how and why they were involved. The last map I have seen does not show the town of Occo.

Pen expected to mainly be an assistant secretary to Llewen during the tribunal, as well as interpreter, but something else comes up where his talents were useful. At one of the first gatherings before the conclave, a woman approaches him to plead for a private audience with Llewen. She would not confide in Pen as to what she wished to discuss, but it was already late and Llewen was occupied with other duties, so Pen tells her to return in the morning. But by morning word comes that the woman had died during the night, supposedly due to apoplexy, a stroke. Llewen sends Penric for his, and Desdemona's, analysis, thinking their supernatural Sight would either confirm that or come to a different conclusion. Examining the body, Pen says death was by snake bite, and the position of the wound leads him to conclude the snake had been in her chamberpot, which had a lid, but the snake was no longer there. The snake, an asp, is found under a wardrobe, Des kills it, and Pen concludes someone else had placed the snake in the chamberpot. Thus the death was a murder. Was the motive for her murder connected to what she wished to discuss with the Princess-Archdivine?

While Llewen oversees the conclave, over several days, Penric meets with magistrates and others, particularly other women who lived at the same boarding house. The deceased was a temple divine, and also a clerk for the Occo treasurer's office. What did she wish to discuss with Llewen? Did it concern the political realignment, or was it more closely associated with Occan finances? Many people were not aware of the capabilities of a sorcerer, what their demon could bring to their senses and observational skills. Without revealing what and how he is doing it, Pen identifies several likely suspects based on their actions and speech, both what they do and say, and what they don't say, how they react to questions even if they think they are being circumspect. Needless to say, Penric does get to the truth, through his sorcerer skills as well as his intellect, but also coincidence, being in the right place at the right time. As in all the other stories, Penric impresses all, gaining friends and allies, even if we never see them again. In addition to his talents as regards legal and criminal matters, he is able to see into the hearts and minds of others, and thus is able to aid a young orphan to find a better path than they had been on.

Since Bujold has been releasing these on her own, not through a publication house, I haven't heard about them until she has uploaded them to the various e-book distributors. Earlier today I replied on her blog, inquiring if she was aware Bookshop is now offering e-books. I would prefer to buy from them, but I settled for Kobo this time, as I did for the previous story. I again need to repeat that I have enjoyed everything of hers I have read to one extent or another. All are recommended, and I can't imagine that won't be the case with the next one too, whenever we might be lucky enough to read it..

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Posted May 2, 2026
Darksight Dare was published a little more than a week ago, April 23. The previous story was a flashback to an earlier time in Penric's life, but this closely follows the story before that, the one in which Pen was gored by the demonic ox. It has only been a few months. He is healing okay, but still not complete, so the next adventure comes a bit before he was ready, but it is his duty to tackle any case brought before him if at all possible. A boy from a village in the hills west of Vilnoc comes for his help. His Aunt Iva is a hedge sorcerer, who had received her elemental demon from another woman she attended for many years. Iva is very ill, and no one in the family, or anyone else nearby, wants to inherit the demon when she dies. Pen didn't want to risk injury to himself on horseback, so he and Glytho go most of the way by coach, but do have to take horses a few miles to complete the journey. Once there Pen knows Iva is near death, but he hopes they can make it back to Vilnoc in time, in order for Saint Iroki to judge whether the demon could be safely accepted by another candidate, or whether it should be sundered and sent back to the Bastard's hell. They do make it back in time, barely, but by then there is something else for Pen to deal with.

Two young men, the brothers Cinar and Iocho Camurat, had served with Nikys' brother Adelis in Cedonia, Cinar as a cavalry officer, Iocho a scribe. Cin had been captured by Rusylli raiders, and blinded by a hot poker. Adelis had been blinded before Pen met him and Nikys (in the fourth story, Penric's Mission), and Pen had restored his sight, but Adelis's eyes had been damaged with boiling vinegar. Pen regrets to tell Cinar that his injuries are too severe for him to cure, he was lucky the pokers hadn't penetrated further, which would have killed him. But…Pen has a different thought, which might help with both of his dilemmas. Desdemona has helped Pen develop his "spirit sight," to see in darkness, or with his eyes closed, which helps when he wants to observe things while who he is watching thinks he is asleep. Could Cinar benefit by accepting the demon from Iva? That will take a lot of finesse on Pen's part, due to the majority opinion of demons and sorcerers. Iva had been hesitant to inquire at the temple near her, since she suspected the demon would be sundered and lost. Cinar had expected Pen to restore his sight as he had done for Adelis. He had been a horseman from a very young age, and wanted to return to the cavalry, not to become a sorcerer. He was sure that would mean years of boring work training at a seminary, the last thing he ever wanted to do. Pen convinces him to at least consider it, giving them one of the books he had translated of the Learned Ruchia's work. Io reads to him, while Pen regrets not telling them to stick to the first few chapters.

Iva's end is fast approaching. Pen and Desdemona are able to communicate with Iva's demon, and they present the demon the choice of moving to Cinar, or to a woman at the Mother's temple. Knowing it is likely his only chance of ever seeing anything again, Cinar waits patiently for the demon to decide. He senses the demon's presence, and their plea for acceptance, which Cinar grants. As had happened with Pen when Desdemona entered him, Cinar loses consciousness, and is quite disoriented when he comes to back in the boarding house where they had been staying. Gradually he and the demon adust to the situation, and he even begins to see things in a vague, blurry way, although he wonders if he is only imagining it. It starts out as just a grey fog, with barely discernible outlines of objects, but then Io comes into the room, flooding Cin's visual sense with swirling colors, which is Io's soul shining through. They go out for a stroll around Vilnoc, which Cin enjoys even if his sight is restricted to close quarters, but Pen tells him that will improve, that he and Desdemona's spirit sight ranges as far as a bowshot at least. I won't detail what happens next, except that Cinar panics when Io reads the later chapters of the book. He fears what he has gotten himself into. Saint Iroki had still not shown up, but he stumbles upon Cin and Io after they run away. Pen also catches up to them, and seemingly all is right with the world. Iroki declares the White God wants Iva's demon to remain in Cinar, and it is just possible he can be a sorcerer and at least a horse trainer, even if not a cavalryman. That will have to suffice.

Pen and Des are featured of course, but this is as much Cinar's story as anyone else's. It includes his depression of losing what he had loved for so long, then his fear he might lose the one chance he had of regaining a semblance of that life again. Several previous characters are also involved, including Pen's adopted daughter Otta, now training to be a temple divine, and Kittio, the boy who had received the demon from the ox. Nikys of course, but still not as important to the story as I have been hoping for a long time, but she does have her duties maintaining their home, which now includes a second son, just four months old. Pen has clearly established himself as the most integral and important sorcerer in all of Orbas, but his training of others will hopefully lighten the load, since he mosts wants to continue his translations, getting as many books printed and distributed as possible, which is essential to his teaching efforts. Another very strong story, another recommendation from me.

Related Links:
Go back to the start of the series with Penric & Desdemona, Part 1: the first 3 novellas
Then Part 2: novellas 4-6
Part 3: novellas 7-9
Part 4: the novel The Assassins of Thasalon + novella #10
Part 5: novellas 11-13
A list of all my Bujold reviews

 

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