On Wednesday October 12, 2022, I published the sixth episode of The Knave of Nodderton on Amazon Vella titled Trapped and Tangled.

My goodness, the stats are just dismal.

It’s a characteristic of Vella given the mysterious alchemy of their search algorithms and what goes in their story carousels. My story shall exist forever in the background. But I’m not going to let toiling in obscurity get me down!

In this episode, we rejoin Danros and I give the reader a wealth of insight into his character. To begin with, he’s looking for a way out of Auchenshuggle and the role he’s been forced to play. His current predicament wasn’t orchestrated and it turns out he’s more of a victim than we thought.

Next, Danros is a skilled thief and he’s sneaking about Rendaldo’s manor trying to find a way out. Unfortunately, a secret door eludes him.

We also learn how he came to possess the Palantir and how the device works. We also get a glimpse of the treasure he’s amassed during his stay in Auchenshuggle.

And a bit of scrying toward the end allows us to see that Gammond has a part to play in his misery.

By now, I think my reader is getting the impression that Danros isn’t necessarily the villain of the story. As always, you should look for the fella with the goatee.

This episode marks a turning point in the story where the reader’s let in on the joke. The wrathwizards are really a ruse disguising real villainy in the background. More of Danros’ plight can be seen in this episode, and why the pressure is mounting on him to get out before it’s too late.

Coming up in Episode 7, Gammond arrives in Auchenshuggle where (from Episode 5) he’s expecting to stay at the Bird & Rye. Well, you can probably guess how that’s going to go.

Thanks for reading!

R