Tag Archives: Danise’s younger sister

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 2

Audrey’s House of Joy
Blair Road
Surebleak

In which Audrey and Luken discuss carpets.

What with Luken’s speech here, and Val Con’s reflections last chapter, we’re getting what might be the beginning of a theme: things change, and having changed can’t be made back into what they were before.

This is the first time we’ve heard the name of Luken’s daughter Danise. It doesn’t escape my attention that we don’t get her full name, and I suspect it may be relevant that just a chapter ago we were reminded that a Liaden daughter might not be in the same clan as her father. What with all the scattered parts of Korval wondering about what each other were up to while Plan B was in effect, not to mention the scene in Ghost Ship in which all the members of the clan were at last reunited again under one roof, it’s been pretty firmly established that the members of the clan don’t currently include anybody named Danise.

It might be that she went to her mother’s family instead of her father’s at the outset, like Theo did. Or it might be that she started out in Korval – there’s a mention of Luken having a child in Local Custom, and Liaden custom would have required him to have at least one child for Korval – and ended up in another clan later, like Aelliana did only in the other direction. I expect, given that this is a point being introduced in the early chapters of a novel, that we’ll be getting more details later.

(Another detail that doesn’t escape my attention is that Danise’s younger sister is not said at any point to also be Luken’s daughter. “Sister” encompasses many possibilities in Liaden custom, many of which don’t require that Danise’s sister be kin to Danise’s father, and some of which don’t even require that Danise’s sister be kin to Danise.)

We’ve been told before that Luken, for all that he’s a friendly fellow, is somebody you don’t want to be on the wrong side of when there’s a Balance to be arranged; I think this is the first time we’ve gotten to see it for ourselves.