Despite unexpected company and an enormous load of distractions, I had a productive night of writing and have finally passed the one-third milestone. I actually made up a tiny bit of my wordage deficit, although I'm still 4,700 words short of where I need to be. After a disturbingly slow start, I fell into a pretty good rhythm, and could've kept going for a while longer if I hadn't started nodding off. It was at that point I looked at the clock and realized it was 2 in the A.M. Suffice to say, I'm a wee bit punchy this morning.

After dinner, Jachym lay in his bed, wrapped in a warm quilt. Gauthier snored loudly across the room. Jachym stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep despite a full mug of beer and two bowls of barley soup. Sighing, he kicked off his covers and put on his bondsash.

"What're you doing?" mumbled Radek from the bed next to him.

"Gotta piss," said Jachym, slipping out the door.

He did have to piss, he realized as he walked down the hall. But he didn't want to go back and use the chamber pot where Radek and Gauthier could see. And it was too cold to go all the way out to the outbuilding. By way of compromise, Jachym opened the back door of the Kostel and pissed off the rear step. Looking at the muddy puddle he'd made, he made a mental note to watch his step in the morning.

I've mentioned before how this book keeps throwing surprises at me, and last night was no exception. I finished chapter 9 fully expecting chapter 10 to open with Jachym and the rest of Tsukr Vondra's party rolling into the great city of Rokanyky. Nope. Turns out they're stopping at some of the towns along the way for much-needed rest and good food leavened with infodump. Imagine that. And Tsukr Vondra is about hear some news of what's been going on in Rokanyky while she's been gone that she finds quite troubling.

30,300 / 90,000 (33.7%)

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