Penric takes responsibility for two young girls when they are thrown into a pirate hold together. He and Desdemona shelter the girls and do their best to rescue them from being sold into slavery.
I loved the story and learning about the girls and their passed mother. My favorite passage was when Penric lost his temper. ( )

In the late stages of her career, Lois McMaster Bujold has turned her hand to a series of novellas set in her five gods universe. Penric and Desdemona are now the most knowledgeable sorcerer-demon pair in the world, but it doesn’t save them from pirates. When his ship is captured, Penric finds himself in charge of the safety of two young girls. The catch is that every good deed causes an equal amount of chaos. Just follow the dead ship rats and watch out for the frayed ropes.
As much as I might wish for another Vorkosigan story, this series continues to entertain. ( )

A chronologically late entry in the Penric and Desdemona series. Penric is recently married, and on his way home from a mission for his employer, the Duke of Orbas.
Penric is caught by pirates, and as he tries to escape, he meets two young girls meant to be sold as slaves. Prompted by his god, he decide to rescue them. They end up on a pirate island, where they escape from their captors, but remain marooned. In order to leave the island, Penric and Desdemona ends up creating all sorts of havoc. ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2022/05/202272-orphans-of-raspay-lois-mcmaster.ht... ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3679703.html

Another of the great sequence of novellas featuring novice sorceror Penric and his possessing demons, this time kidnapped by pirates and thrown together with two young parentless girls. Bujold is one of the very few genre authors who can convincingly take parenthood (in this case, surrogate parenthood) as a major theme of her stories, and makes the relationship between Penric and his unexpectedly acquired wards drive a well-structured narrative. I had forgotten also how complex the World of the Five Gods is, with varied languages and cultures. It’s also, as usual with Bujold, very witty. Recommended. ( )