Asterisk because I had to do a considerable amount of revising the numbers. I was looking at my wordcount, and the numbers were off. Like, seriously off. I had written over two thousand words, but the counter wasn’t advancing by the same amount. So I went looking, and I discovered that some of the text wasn’t checked off as being part of the final text. When I told it to include those parts, wordcount went up to over twenty-seven thousand. Which means I’m not actually behind on wordcount, after all! In fact, I’m 45% done with the book already. Happy day!
“What’s going on here? And what aren’t you telling me?”
“That’s the same question Dolores asked me. Oh, right, sorry, you haven’t met.” I looked at the door. It had closed, dammit. “Anyway, she’s the woman whose goons you’ve been pounding on. She actually was playing it straight: all she wanted was for you to get your stuff and then out of her life, only without killing her idiot nephew. Grabbing me was supposed to make you stay cool enough to stay your hand. I would have told her it wouldn’t work out that way, except she already sent the note. Guess she’s not used to Adventurers.”
“Or used to being on the other side from them,” grumbled Lucas. “You don’t let people take hostages. It never ends well.”
“Yeah, well, that’s why I thought you’d come in through the window!” I waved at it. “It’s what, only three stories? You’d climb up, bust in, we’d turn the bedsheets into ropes, and duck out of here. Easy-peasy.”
“Didn’t you fall out of the Castle, the last time you tried the improvised rope feat? Right into a rosebush?”
“Oh, you heard about that?”
“Four people made sure to tell me. With gestures, and everything.”