More people had arrived outside the forge. The crowd stretched all the way across the square.
The hammering stopped. Jason's voice, quite close, said:
“We're coming out now.”
“They're coming out now,” said Nanny
“What'd she say?”
“She said they're coming out now.”
“They're coming out now!”
The crowd pulled back. The doors swung open.
Granny emerged, leading the unicorn. It walked sedately, muscles moving under its white coat like frogs in oil. And its hooves clattered on the cobbles. Ridcully couldn't help noticing how they shone.
It walked politely alongside the witch until she reached the centre of the square. Then she turned it loose, and gave it a light slap on the rump.
It whinnied softly, turned, and galloped down the street, toward the forest. . .
Nanny Ogg appeared silently behind Granny Weatherwax as she watched it go.
“Silver shoes?” she said quietly “They'll last no time at all.”
“And silver nails. They'll last for long enough,” said Granny, speaking to the world in general. “And she'll never get it back, though she calls it for a thousand years.”
“Shoeing the unicorn,” said Nanny, shaking her head. “Only you'd think of shoeing a unicorn, Esme.”
“I've been doing it all my life,” said Granny.
Now the unicorn was a speck on the moor land. As they watched, it disappeared into the evening gloom.
Nanny Ogg sighed, and broke whatever spell there was.
“So that's it, then.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to the dance up at the castle?”
“Are you?”
“Well. . . Mr. Casanunda did ask if I could show him the Long Man. You know. Properly. I suppose it's him being a dwarf. They're very interested in earthworks.”
“Can't get enough of them,” said Casanunda.
Granny rolled her eyes.
“Act your age, Gytha.”
“Act? Don't have to act, can do it automatic,” said Nanny. “Acting half my age . . . now that's the difficult trick. Anyway, you didn't answer me.”
To the surprise of Nanny, and of Ridcully, and possibly even of Granny Weatherwax herself, she slipped her arm around Ridcully's arm.
“Mr. Ridcully and I are going to have a stroll down to the bridge.”
“We are?” said Ridcully