‘Er… what you should be doing,’ said the demon, looking very worried. ‘What you should be doing. I don’t understand it… er… something seems to be wrong…’
Angua stopped trying to rub the collar off against a bulkhead. It wasn’t working, and the silver pressing against her skin seemed to freeze her and burn her at the same time.
Apart from that — and a silver collar on a werewolf was a fairly major that — she’d been treated well. They’d left a plate of food, a wooden plate, and she’d let her wolf side eat it while the human side shut its eyes and held its nose. There was a bowl of water, quite fresh by Ankh-Morpork standards. She could see the bottom of the bowl, at least.
It was so hard to think in wolf shape. It was like trying to unlock a door while drunk. It was possible, but you had to concentrate every step of the way.
There was a sound.
Her ears pricked up.
Something tapped once or twice under the hull. She hoped it was a reef. That meant… land, possibly… with any luck she could swim ashore…
Something clinked. She’d forgotten about the chain. It was hardly necessary. She felt as weak as a kitten.
There was a rhythmic noise, like something chewing at the wood.
A tiny metal point splintered through the wall just in front of her nose, and rose an inch.
And someone spoke. It sounded far off and distorted, and perhaps only a werewolf would have heard it, but words were happening, somewhere under her paws.
‘—can stop pedalling now, Corporal Nobbs.’
‘I am knackered, sarge. Is there anything to eat?’
‘There’s some more of that garlic sausage. Or there’s the cheese. Or cold beans.’
‘We’re in a tin with no air and we’re supposed to eat cheese? I ain’t even going to comment on the beans.’
‘I’m very sorry, gentlemen. Things were rather rushed and I had to take food which would keep.’
‘It’s just that it’s getting a bit… crowded, if you get my meaning.’
‘I will pay out the rope as soon as it’s dark and we can surface and take on air.’
‘Just so long as we get rid of the air we’ve got, that’s all I’m saying…’
Angua’s brows wrinkled as she tried to make sense of this. The voices were familiar. Even muffled as they were, she recognized the tones. The vague feeling that fought its way through the mists of animal intellect was: friends.
The tiny little unchangeable centre of her thought: good grief, next thing I’ll be licking hands.
She laid her head down near the point again.
‘—way to do it, young man. There you go again! Sink ships? I can’t imagine how anyone could think of such a thing!’
Names. Some of those voices had… names.
Thinking was getting harder. That was the silver at work. But if she stopped, she might forget how to start again.
She stared at the point of metal. The point of metal with sharp edges.
The tiny human part of her mind raged at the wolf brain, trying to get it to understand what it needed to do.
It was after midnight.
The lookout man knelt on the deck in front of 71-hour Ahmed and trembled.
‘I know what I saw, wali,’ he moaned. ‘And the others saw it too! Something rose up behind the ship and began chasing us! A monster!’
Ahmed looked at the captain, who shrugged. ‘Who knows what lies on the floor of the sea, wali?’
‘Its breath!’ moaned the seaman. ‘There was a great roar of breath like the stink of a thousand privies! And then it spoke!’
‘Really?’ said Ahmed. ‘This is not usual. What did it say?’
‘I did not understand!’ The man’s face screwed up as he tried to assemble the unfamiliar syllables. ‘It sounded like…’ he swallowed, and went on, ‘“Ye gods, that was better out than in, sarge!”’
Ahmed stared at him. ‘And what did that mean to you?’ he said.
‘I do not know, wali!’
‘You have not spent much time in Ankh-Morpork?’
‘No, wali!’
‘Then return to your post.’
The man stumbled out.
‘We have lost speed, wali,’ said the captain.
‘Perhaps the sea monster is clutching at our keel?’
‘It pleases you to joke, lord. But who knows what has been disturbed by the rising of the new land?’
‘I shall have to see for myself,’ said 71-hour Ahmed.
He walked alone to the stern of the ship. Dark waters sucked and splashed and left a phosphorescent glow edging the wake.
He watched for a long time. People bad at watching didn’t last long in the desert, where a shadow in the moonlight could be just a shadow or it could be someone anxious to help you on your way to Paradise. The D’regs came across many shadows of the latter persuasion.
D’reg wasn’t their name for themselves, although they tended to adopt it now out of pride.{68} The word meant enemy. Everyone’s. And if anyone else wasn’t around, then one another’s.
If he concentrated, he might believe that there was a darker shape about a hundred yards behind the ship, very low in the water. Waves were breaking where waves shouldn’t be. It looked as though the ship was being followed by a reef.
Well, well…
71-hour Ahmed was not superstitious. He was substitious, which put him in a minority among humans. He didn’t believe in the things everyone believed in but which nevertheless weren’t true. He believed instead in the things that were true in which no one else believed. There are many such substitions, ranging from ‘It’ll get better if you don’t pick at it’ all the way up to ‘Sometimes things just happen.’
Currently he was disinclined to believe in sea monsters, especially ones that spoke in the language of Ankh-Morpork, but he did believe that there were a lot of things in the world that he didn’t know about.
In the far distance he could see the lights of a ship. It didn’t seem to be gaining on them.
This was much more worrying.
In the darkness 71-hour Ahmed reached over his shoulder and grasped the handle of his sword.
Above him, the mainsail creaked in the wind.
Sergeant Colon knew he was facing one of the most dangerous moments in his career.
There was nothing for it. He was out of options.
‘Er… if I add this A and this O and this I and this D,’ he said, the sweat pouring down his pink cheeks, ‘then I can use that V to make “avoid”. Er… and that gets me, er, a… what d’you call these blue squares, Len?’
‘A “Three Times Ye Value of Thee Letter” score,’ said Leonard of Quirm.
‘Well done, sergeant,’ said Lord Vetinari. ‘I do believe that puts you in the lead.’
‘Er… I do believe it does, sir,’ squeaked Sergeant Colon.
‘However, I find that you have left me the use of my U, N and A, B, L, E,’ the Patrician went on, ‘which incidentally lands me on this Three Times the Whole Worde square and, I rather suspect, wins me the game.’
Sergeant Colon sagged with relief.
‘A capital game, Leonard,’ said Vetinari. ‘What did you say it was called?’
‘I call it the “Make Words With Letters That Have All Been Mixed Up Game”, my lord.’