As every student of exploration knows, the prize goes not to the explorer who first sets foot upon the virgin soil but to the one who gets that foot home first. If it is still attached to his leg, this is a bonus.
The weathercocks of Ankh–Morpork creaked around in the wind.
Very few of them were in fact representations of Avis domestica. There were various dragons, fish and miscellaneous animals. On the roof of the Assassins’ Guild a silhouette of one of the members squeaked into a new position, cloak and dagger at the ready. On the Beggars’ Guild a tin beggar’s hand asked the wind for a quarter. On the Butchers’ Guild a copper pig sniffed the air. On the roof of the Thieves’ Guild a real if rather decreased unlicensed thief turned gently, which shows what you are capable of if you try, or at least if you try stealing without a licence.
The one on the library dome of Unseen University was running slow and wouldn’t show the change for
half an hour yet, but the smell of the sea drifted over the city.
There was a tradition of soap–box public speaking in Sator Square. ‘Speaking’ was stretching a point to cover the ranters, haranguers and occasional selfabsorbed mumblers that spaced themselves at intervals amongst the crowds. And, traditionally, people said whatever was on their minds and at the top of their voices. The Patrician, it was said, looked kindly on the custom. He did. And very closely, too. He probably had someone make notes.
So did the Watch.
It wasn’t spying Commander Vimes told himself. Spying was when you crept around peeking in windows. It wasn’t spying when you had to stand back a bit so that you weren’t deafened.
He reached out without paying attention and struck a match on Sergeant Detritus.
‘Dat was me, sir,’ said the troll reproachfully.
‘Sorry, sergeant,’ said Vimes, lighting his cigar.
‘It not a problem.’
They returned their attention to the speakers.
It’s the wind, thought Vimes. It’s bringing something new…
Usually the speakers dealt with all kinds of subjects, many of them on the cusp of sanity or somewhere in the peaceful valleys on the other side. But now they were all monomaniacs.
‘–time they were taught a lesson!’ screamed the nearest one. ‘Why don’t our so–called masters listen to the voice of the people? Ankh–Morpork has had enough of these swaggering brigands! They steal our fish, they steal our trade and now they’re stealing our land!’
It would have been better if people had cheered, Vimes thought. People generally cheered the speakers
indiscriminately, to egg them on. But the crowd around this man just seemed to nod approval. He thought: they’re actually thinking about what he said…
‘They stole my merchandise!’ shouted a speaker opposite him. ‘It’s a pirate bloody empire! I was boarded! In Ankh–Morpork waters!’
There was a general self–righteous muttering.
‘What did they steal, Mr Jenkins?’ said a voice from the crowd.
‘A cargo of fine silks!’
The crowd hissed.
‘Ah? Not dried fish offal and condemned meat, then? That’s your normal cargo, I believe.’
Mr Jenkins strained to look for the speaker.
‘Fine silks!’ he said. ‘And what does the city care about that? Nothing!’
There were shouts of ‘Shame!’
‘Has the city been told?’ said the enquiring voice.
People started to crane their heads. And then the crowd opened a little, to reveal the figure of Commander Vimes of the City Watch.
‘Well, it’s… I…’ Jenkins began. ‘Er… I…’
‘I care,’ said Vimes calmly. ‘Shouldn’t be too hard to track down a cargo of fine silks that stink of fish guts.’ There was laughter. Ankh–Morpork people always like some variety in their street theatre.
Vimes apparently spoke to Sergeant Detritus, while keeping his gaze locked on Jenkins. ‘Detritus, just you go along with Mr Jenkins here, will you? His ship is the Milka, I believe. He’ll show you all the lading bills and manifests and receipts and things, and then we can sort him out in jig time.’
There was a clang as Detritus’s huge hand came to rest against his helmet.
‘Yessir!’
‘Er… er… you can’t,’ said Jenkins quickly. ‘They… er… stole the paperwork as well…’
‘Really? So they can take the stuff back to the shop if it doesn’t fit?’
‘Er… anyway, the ship’s sailed. Yes! Sailed! Got to try and recoup my losses, you know!’
‘Sailed? Without its captain?’ said Vimes. ‘So Mr Scoplett is in charge? Your first officer?’
‘Yes, yes–’
‘Damn!’ said Vimes, snapping his fingers theatrically. ‘That man we’ve got in the cells on a charge of being Naughtily Drunk last night… we’re going to have to charge him with impersonation as well, then? I don’t know, more blasted paperwork, the stuff just piles up…’
Mr Jenkins tried to look away but Vimes’s stare kept pulling him back. The occasional tremble of a lip suggested that he was preparing a riposte, but he was bright enough to spot that Vimes’s grin was as funny as the one that moves very fast towards drowning men. And has a fin on top.
Mr Jenkins made a wise decision, and got down. ‘I’ll…. er… I’ll go and sort… I’d better go and… er…’ he said, and pushed his Way through the mob, which waited a little while to see if anything interesting was going to happen and then, disappointed, sought out other entertainment.
‘You want I should go ad have a look at his boat?’ said Detritus.
‘No, sergeant. There won’t be any silk, and there won’t be any paperwork. There won’t be anything except a lingering aroma of fish guts.’
‘Wow, dem damn Klatchians steals everything that ain’t nailed down, right?’
Vimes shook his head and strolled on. ‘They don’t have trolls in Klatch, do they?’ he said.
‘Nossir. It’s der heat. Troll brains don’t work in der heat. If I was to go to Klatch,’ said Detritus, his knuckles making little bink–bink noises as he dragged them over the cobbles, ‘I’d be really stoopid.’
‘Detritus?’
‘Yessir?’
‘Never go to Klatch.’
‘Nossir.’
Another speaker was attracting a much larger crowd. He stood in front of a large banner that proclaimed: GREASY FORANE HANDS OFF LESHP.
‘Leshp,’ said Detritus. ‘Now dere’s a name that ain’t got its teef in.’
‘It’s the land that came back up from under the sea last week,’ said Vimes despondently. . ,
They listened while the speaker proclaimed that Ankh–Morpork had a duty to protect its kith and kin on the new land. Detritus looked puzzled.
‘How come dere’s dese kiff and kin on dere when it only just come up from under der water?’ he said.
‘Good question,’ said Vimes.
‘Dey been holding dere breath?’
‘I doubt it.’
There was more in the air than the salt of the sea, Vimes thought. There was some other current. He could sense it. Suddenly, the problem was Klatch.
Ankh–Morpork had been at peace with Klatch, or at least in a state of non–war, for almost a century. It was, after all, the neighbouring country.
Neighbours… hah! But what did that mean? The Watch could tell you a thing or two about neighbours. So could lawyers, especially the real rich ones to whom ‘neighbour’ meant a man who’d sue for twenty
years over a strip of garden two inches wide. Peopled live for ages side by side, nodding at one another amicably on their way to work every day, and then some trivial thing would happen and someone would he having a garden fork removed from their ear.
And now some damn rock had risen up out of the sea and everyone was acting as if Klatch had let its dog bark all night.
‘Aagragaah,’ said Detritus, mournfully.
‘Don’t mind me, just don’t spit it on my boot,’ said Vimes.
‘It mean–’ Detritus waved a huge hand, ‘like… dem things, what only comes in…’ he paused and looked at his fingers, while his lips moved’… fours. Aagragaah. It mean lit’rally der time when you see dem little pebbles and you jus’ know dere’s gonna be a great big landslide on toppa you and it already too late to run. Dat moment, dat’s aagragaah.’
Vimes’s own lips moved. ‘Forebodings?’
‘Dat’s der bunny.’
‘Where does the word come from?’
Detritus shrugged. ‘Maybe it named after der soun’ you make just as a t’ousand ton of rock hit you.’
‘Forebodings…’ Vimes rubbed his chin. ‘Yeah. Well, I’ve got plenty of them…’
Landslides and avalanches, he thought. All the little snowflakes land, light as a feather – and suddenly the whole side of a mountain is moving…
Detritus looked at him slyly. ‘I know everyone say “Dem two short planks, dey’re as fick as Detritus”,’ he said, ‘but I know which way der wind is blowin’.’
Vimes looked at his sergeant with a new respect.
‘You can spot it, can you?’
The troll’s finger tapped his helmet twice, knowingly.
‘It pretty obvious,’ he said. ‘You see up on der roofs dem little chickies and dragons and stuff? And dat poor bugger on der Fieves’ Guild? You just has to watch ’em. Dey know. Beats me how dey always pointin’ der right way.’