‘’o’s yer fwiend, Gaspode?’
There was a snigger.
‘Ah,’ said Gaspode. ‘Uh. Hi, guys.’
Two dogs emerged from the alley. They were huge. Their species was indeterminate. One of them was jet black and looked like a pit bull terrier crossed with a mincing machine. The other … the other looked like a dog whose name was almost certainly ‘Butch’. Both top and bottom set of fangs had grown so large that he appeared to be looking at the world through bars. He was also bow-legged, although it would probably be a bad if not terminal move for anyone to comment on this.
Gaspode’s tail vibrated nervously.
‘These are my friends Black Roger and—’
‘Butch?’ suggested Angua.
‘How did you know that?’
‘A lucky guess,’ said Angua.
The two big dogs had moved around so that they were on either side of them.
‘Well, well, well,’ said Black Roger. ‘Who’s this, then?’
‘Angua,’ said Gaspode. ‘She’s a—’
‘—wolfhound,’ said Angua.
The two dogs paced around them hungrily.
‘Big Fido know about her?’ said Black Roger.
‘I was just—’ Gaspode began.
‘Well, now,’ said Black Roger, ‘I reckon you’d be wanting to come with us. Guild night tonight.’
‘Sure, sure,’ said Gaspode. ‘No problem there.’
I could certainly manage either of them, Angua thought. But not both at once.
Being a werewolf meant having the dexterity and jaw power to instantly rip out a man’s jugular. It was a trick of her father’s that had always annoyed her mother, especially when he did it just before meals. But Angua had never been able to bring herself to do it. She’d preferred the vegetarian option.
‘’ullo,’ said Butch, in her ear.
‘Don’t you worry about anything,’ moaned Gaspode. ‘Me an’ Big Fido … we’re like that.’
‘What’re you trying to do? Cross your claws? I didn’t know dogs could do that.’
‘We can’t,’ said Gaspode miserably.
Other dogs slunk out of the shadows as the two of them were half led, half driven along byways that weren’t even alleys any more, just gaps between walls. They opened out eventually into a bare area, nothing more than a large light well for the buildings around it. There was a very large barrel on its side in one corner, with a ragged bit of blanket in it. A variety of dogs were waiting around in front of it, looking expectant; some of them had only one eye, some of them had only one ear, all of them had scars, and all of them had teeth.
‘You,’ said Black Roger, ‘wait here.’
‘Do not twy to wun away,’ said Butch, ‘’cos having your intestines chewed often offends.’
Angua lowered her head to Gaspode level. The little dog was shaking.
‘What have you got me into?’ she growled. ‘This is the dog Guild, right? A pack of strays?’
‘Shsssh! Don’t say that! These aren’t strays. Oh, blimey.’ Gaspode glanced around. ‘You don’t just get any hound in the Guild. Oh, dear me, no. These are dogs that have been …’ he lowered his voice, ‘ … er … bad dogs.’
‘Bad dogs?’
‘Bad dogs. You naughty boy. Give him a smack. You bad dog,’ muttered Gaspode, like some horrible litany. ‘Every dog you see here, right, every dog … run away. Run away from his or her actual owner.’
‘Is that all?’
‘All? All? Well. Of course. You ain’t exactly a dog. You wouldn’t understand. You wouldn’t know what it was like. But Big Fido … he told ’em. Throw off your choke chains, he said. Bite the hand that feeds you. Rise up and howl. He gave ’em pride,’ said Gaspode, his voice a mixture of fear and fascination. ‘He told ’em. Any dog he finds not bein’ a free spirit — that dog is a dead dog. He killed a Dobermann last week, just for wagging his tail when a human went past.’
Angua looked at some of the other dogs. They were all unkempt. They were also, in a strange way, un-doglike. There was a small and rather dainty white poodle that still just about had the overgrown remains of its poodle cut, and a lapdog with the tattered remains of a tartan jacket still hanging from its shoulder. But they weren’t milling around, or squabbling. They had a uniform intent look that she’d seen before, although never on dogs.
Gaspode was clearly trembling now. Angua slunk over to the poodle. It still had a diamante collar visible under the crusty fur.
‘This Big Fido,’ she said, ‘is he some kind of wolf, or what?’
‘Spiritually, all dogs are wolves,’ said the poodle, ‘but cynically and cruelly severed from their true destiny by the manipulations of so-called humanity.’
It sounded like a quote. ‘Big Fido said that?’ Angua hazarded.
The poodle turned its head. For the first time she saw its eyes. They were red, and as mad as hell. Anything with eyes like that could kill anything it wanted because madness, true madness, can drive a fist through a plank.
‘Yes,’ said Big Fido.
He had been a normal dog. He’d begged, and rolled over, and heeled, and fetched. Every night he’d been taken for a walk.
There was no flash of light when It happened. He’d just been lying in his basket one night and he’d thought about his name, which was Fido, and the name on the basket, which was Fido. And he thought about his blanket with Fido on it, and his bowl with Fido on it, and above all he brooded on the collar with Fido on it, and something somewhere deep in his brain had gone ‘click’ and he’d eaten his blanket, savaged his owner and dived out through the kitchen window. In the street outside a labrador four times the size of Fido had sniggered at the collar, and thirty seconds later had fled, whimpering.
That had just been the start.
The dog hierarchy was a simple matter. Fido had simply asked around, generally in a muffled voice because he had someone’s leg in his jaws, until he located the leader of the largest gang of feral dogs in the city. People — that is, dogs — still talked about the fight between Fido and Barking Mad Arthur, a rottweiler with one eye and a very bad temper. But most animals don’t fight to the death, only to the defeat, and Fido was impossible to defeat; he was simply a very small fast killing streak with a collar. He’d hung on to bits of Barking Mad Arthur until Barking Mad Arthur had given in, and then to his amazement Fido had killed him. There was something inexplicably determined about the dog — you could have sandblasted him for five minutes and what was left still wouldn’t have given up and you’d better not turn your back on it.
Because Big Fido had a dream.
‘Is there a problem?’ said Carrot.
‘That troll insulted that dwarf,’ said Stronginthearm the dwarf.
‘I heard Acting-Constable Detritus give an order to Lance-Constable … Hrolf Pyjama,’ said Carrot. ‘What about it?’
‘He’s a troll!’
‘Well?’
‘He insulted a dwarf!’
‘Actually, it’s a technical milit’ry term—’ said Sergeant Colon.
‘That damn troll just happened to save my life today,’ shouted Cuddy.
‘What for?’
‘What for? What for? ’Cos it was my life, that’s what for! I happen to be very attached to it!’
‘I didn’t mean—’
‘You just shut up, Abba Stronginthearm!{77} What do you know about anything, you civilian! Why’re you so stupid? Aargh! I’m too short for this shit!’{78}
A shadow loomed in the doorway. Coalface was a basically horizontal shape, a dark mass of fracture lines and sheer surfaces. His eyes gleamed red and suspicious.