Mira's Last Dance (4th Published story in the Penric & Desdemona series) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Mira's Last Dance is the fourth (in publication, fifth chronologically as Bujold published a midquel last month) in the Penric and Desdemona series of Novellas. It's also a direct sequel to "Penric's Mission," concluding the story of Penric's journey with Arisaydia and Nikys. It's also the shortest Penric story, which is especially notable after Penric's Mission which is by far the longest.
The story in sum: As Penric attempts to lead Nikys and her brother to Orbas, the trio take refuge in a brothel, where Penric gets the idea to pose as a courtesan - with the help of his demon's past life as the Courtesan Mira of Adria - in order to aid their journey to safety. But the demon remnant of Mira has her own ideas of how this strategy can work, and it could risk them everything....and perhaps ruin his relationship with Nikys, with whom he has become more and more smitten.
As usual, Bujold's story has some excellent and witty dialogue, particularly between Penric and Desdemona and her multiple personalities. The story is surprisingly unpredictable, with an ending that rings true. That said, the shortness of this story is definitely notable especially compared with its predecessor and Bujold time-skips over the most notable event in the story. I'm not sure if I'd want to read what exactly happens during that time jump (not spoiling, sorry), but it's a weird situation to set up a major cliffhanger and then just jump to "Yeah it worked out perfectly okay!" Still, I've enjoyed this as I've enjoyed this whole series so far - Bujold stories remain light and fun, even if occasionally heartbreaking, and I look forward to reading the next Penric story once my library has it in audiobook.
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