The Truth (Discworld 25)

'Yeah, a walk in the dark,' said Boddony.

Goodmountain sighed. The rest of us will get on with the paper, shall we?' he said.

After a minute or two there was the sound of a few axe blows, below them, and then someone swore in dwarfish, very loudly.

'I'm going to see what they're doing,' said Sacharissa, unable to resist any more, and hurried away.

The bricks that once had filled the old doorway were already down when she got there. Since the stones of Ankh-Morpork were recycled over the generations no one had ever seen the point of making strong mortar, and especially not for blocking up an old doorway. Sand, dirt, water and phlegm would do the trick, they felt. They always had done up to now, after all. '

The dwarfs were peering into the darkness beyond. Each one had stuck a candle on his helmet.

'I thought your man said they filled up the old street,' said Boddony.

'He's not my man,' said Sacharissa evenly. 'What's in there?'

One of the dwarfs had stepped through with a lantern.

There's like... tunnels,' he said.

The old pavements,' said Sacharissa. 'It's like this all round this area, I think. After the big floods they built up the sides of the road with timber and filled it in, but they left the pavements on either side because not all the properties had built up yet and people objected.'

'What?' said Boddony. 'You mean the roads were higher than the pavements?'

'Oh, yes,' said Sacharissa, following him into the gap.

'What happened if a horse pi-- if a horse made water on the street?'

'I'm sure I don't know,' sniffed Sacharissa.

'How did people cross the street?'

'Ladders.'

'Oh, come on, miss!'

'No, they used ladders. And a few tunnels. It wasn't going to be for very long. And then it was simpler just to put heavy slabs over the old pavements. And so there's these - well, forgotten spaces.'

There's rats up here,' said Dozy, who was wandering into the distance.

'Hot damn!' said Boddony. 'Anyone brought the cutlery? Only joking, miss. Hey, what do we have here... ?'

He hacked at some planks, which crumbled away under the blows.

'Someone didn't want to use a ladder,' he said, peering into another hole.

'It goes right under the street?' said Sacharissa.

'Looks like it. Must have been allergic to horses.'

'And... er... you can find your way?'

'I'm a dwarf. We are underground. Dwarf. Underground. What was your question again?'

'You're not proposing to hack through to the cellars of the Inquirer, are you?' said Sacharissa.

'Who, us?'

'You are, aren't you.'