Vimes still wasn’t properly awake. Exhaustion and the importunate ghosts of adrenalin sizzled around the edges of his consciousness, but he saw the burning man unfold himself and stand upright.
His red-hot body gave little pings as it began to cool. Where it stood, the floor charred and smoked.
The golem raised his head and looked around.
‘You!’ said Vimes, pointing an unsteady finger. ‘Come with me!’
‘Yes,’said Dorfl.
Dragon King of Arms stepped into his library. The dirt of the small high windows and the remnants of the fog made sure there was never more than greyness here, but a hundred candles yielded their soft light. He sat down at his desk, pulled a volume towards him, and began to write.
After a while he stopped and stared ahead of him.
There was no sound but the occasional spluttering of a candle.
‘Ah-ha. I can smell you, Commander Vimes,’ he said. ‘Did the Heralds let you in?’
‘I found my own way, thank you,’ said Vimes, stepping out of the shadows. The vampire sniffed again. ‘You came alone?’ ‘Who should I have brought with me?’ ‘And to what do I owe the pleasure, Sir Samuel?’ ‘The pleasure is all mine. I’m going to arrest you,’ said Vimes.
‘Oh, dear. Ah-ha. For what, may I ask?’ ‘Can I invite you to notice the arrow in this crossbow?’ said Vimes. ‘No metal on the point, you’ll see. It’s wood all the way.’
‘How very considerate. Ah-ha.’ Dragon King of Arms twinkled at him. ‘You still haven’t told me what I’m accused of, however.’
‘To start with, complicity in the murders of Mrs Flora Easy and the child William Easy.’
‘I am afraid those names mean nothing to me.’
Vimes’s finger twitched on the bow’s trigger. ‘No,’ he said, breathing deeply. They probably don’t. We are making other enquiries and there may be a number of additional matters. The fact that you were poisoning the Patrician I consider a mitigating circumstance.’
‘You really intend to prefer charges?’
Tdprefer violence,’ said Vimes loudly. ‘Charges is what I’m going to have to settle for.’
The vampire leaned back. ‘I hear you’ve been working very hard, Commander,’ he said. ‘So I will not’
‘We’ve got the testimony of Mr Carry,’ lied Vimes. ‘The late Mr Carry.’
Dragon’s expression changed by not one tiny tremor of muscle. ‘I really do not know, ah-ha, what you are talking about, Sir Samuel.’
‘Only someone who could fly could have got into my office.’
Tm afraid you’ve lost me, sir.’
‘Mr Carry was killed tonight,’ Vimes went on. ‘By someone who could get out of an alley guarded at both ends. And I know a vampire was in his factory.’
Tm still gamely trying to understand you, Commander,’ said Dragon King of Arms. ‘I know nothing about the death of Mr Carry and in any case there are a great many vampires in the city. I’m afraid your . . . aversion is well known.’
‘I don’t like to see people treated like cattle,’ said Vimes. He stared briefly at the volumes piled in the room. ‘And of course that’s what you’ve always done, isn’t it? These are the stock books of Ankh-Morpork.’ The crossbow swung back towards the vampire, who hadn’t moved. ‘Power over little people. That’s what vampires want. The blood is just a way of keeping score. I wonder how much influence you’ve had over the years?’
‘A little. You are correct there, at least.’
‘ “A person of breeding”,’ said Vimes. ‘Good grief. Well, I think people wanted Vetinari out of the way. But not dead, yet. Too many things’d happen too fast if he were dead. Is Nobby really an earl?’
‘The evidence suggests so.’
‘But it’s your evidence, right? You see, I don’t think he’s got noble blood in him. Nobby’s as common as muck. It’s one of his better points. I don’t set any score by the ring. The amount of stuff his family’s nicked, you could probably prove he’s the Duke of Pseudopolis, the Seriph of Klatch and the Dowager Duchess of Quirm. He pinched my cigar case last year and I’m damn certain he’s not me. No, I don’t think Nobby is a nob. But I think he was convenient.’
It seemed to Vimes that Dragon was getting bigger, but perhaps it was only a trick of the candlelight. The light flickered as the candles hissed and popped.
‘You made good use of me, eh?’ Vimes carried on. Td been ducking out of appointments with you for weeks. I expect you were getting quite impatient. You were so surprised when I told you about Nobby, eh? Otherwise you’d’ve had to send for him or something, very suspicious. But Commander Vimes discovered him. That looks good. Practically makes it official.
‘And then I started thinking: who wants a king? Well, nearly everyone. It’s built in. Kings make it better. Funny thing, isn’t it? Even those people who owe everything to him don’t like Vetinari. Ten years ago most of the guild leaders were just a bunch of thugs and now . . . well, they’re still a bunch of thugs, to tell the truth, but Vetinari’s given ’em the time and energy to decide they never needed him.
‘And then young Carrot turns up with charisma writ all over him, and he’s got a sword and a birthmark and everyone gets a funny feeling and dozens of buggers start going through the records and say, “Hey, looks like the king’s come back.” And then they watch him for a while and say, “Shit, he really is decent and honest and fair and just, just like in all the stories. Whoops! If this lad gets on the throne we could be in serious trouble! He might turn out to be one of them inconvenient kings from long ago who wanders around talking to the common people” ‘
‘You are in favour of the common people?’ said Dragon mildly.
The common people?’ said Vimes. ‘They’re nothing special. They’re no different from the rich and powerful except they’ve got no money or power. But the law should be there to balance things up a bit. So I suppose I’ve got to be on their side.’
‘A man married to the richest woman in the city?’
Vimes shrugged. The watchman’s helmet isn’t like a crown. Even when you take it off you’re still wearing it.’
That’s an interesting statement of position, Sir Samuel, and I would be the first to admire the way you’ve come to terms with your family history, but’
‘Don’t move!’ Vimes shifted his grip on the crossbow. ‘Anyway . . . Carrot wouldn’t do, but the news was getting around, and someone said, “Right, let’s have a king we can control. All the rumours say the king is a humble watchman so let’s find one.” And they had a look and found that when it comes to humble you can’t beat Nobby Nobbs. But … I think people weren’t too sure. Killing Vetinari wasn’t an option. As I said, too many things would happen too fast. But to just gently remove him, so that he’s there and not there at the same time, while everyone tried out the idea . . . that was a good wheeze. That’s when someone got Mr Carry to make poisoned candles. He’d got a golem. Golems can’t talk. No one would know. But it turned out to be a bit. . . erratic.’
‘You seem to wish to involve me,’ said Dragon King of Arms. ‘I know nothing about this man other than that he’s a customer’
Vimes strode across the room and pulled a piece of parchment from a board. ‘You did him a coat of arms!’ he shouted. ‘You even showed me when I was here! “The butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker!” Remember?’
There was no sound now from the hunched figure.
‘When I first met you the other day,’ said Vimes, ‘you made a point of showing me Arthur Carry’s coat of arms. I thought it was a bit fishy at the time, but all that business with Nobby put it out of my mind. But I do remember it reminded me of the one for the Assassins’ Guild.’
Vimes flourished the parchment.
‘I looked and looked at it last night, and then I wound my sense of humour down ten notches and let it go out of focus and looked at the crest, the fish-shaped lamp. Lampe au poisson, it’s called. A sort of bilingual play on words, perhaps? “A lamp of poison?” You’ve got to have a mind like old Detritus to spot that one. And Fred Colon wondered why you’d left the motto in modern Ankhian instead of putting it into the old language, and that made me wonder so I sat up with the dictionary and worked it out and, you know, it would have read “Ars Enixa Est Candelam”. Ars Enixa. That must have really cheered you up. You’d said who did it and how it was done and gave it to the poor bugger to be proud of. It didn’t matter that no one else would spot it. It made you feel good. Because we ordinary mortals just aren’t as clever as you, are we?’ He shook his head. ‘Good grief, a coat of arms. Was that the bribe? Was that all it took?’