* You're normal,' said Cheery, shyly. 'I like you.'
Angua patted her on the head. 'You say that now,* she said, 'but when you've been around here for a while you'll find out that sometimes I can be a bitch... What's that?'
'What?'
'That... painting. With the eyes....'
'Or two points of red light,' said Cheery.
'Oh, yeah?'
'It's the last thing Father Tubelcek saw, I think,' said the dwarf.
Angua stared at the black rectangle. She sniffed. 'There it is again!' /
Cheery took a step backwards. 'What? What?'
'Where's that smell coming from?' Angua demanded.
'Not me!' said Cheery hurriedly.
Angua grabbed a small dish from the bench and sniffed at it. This is it! I smelled this at the museum! What is it?'
'It's just clay. It was on the floor in the room where the old priest was killed,' said Cheery. 'Probably it came off someone's boot.'
Angua crumbled some of it between her fingers.
'I think it's just potters' clay,' said Cheery. We used to use it at the guild. For making pots,' she added, just in case Angua hadn't grasped things. 'You know? Crucibles and things. This looks like someone tried baking it but didn't get the heat right. See how it crumbles?'
'Pottery,' said Angua. 'I know a potter . , .'
She glanced down at the dwarfs iconograph again.
Please, no, she thought. Not one of them?
The front gate of the College of Arms - both front gates - were swung open. The two Heralds bobbed excitedly around Corporal Nobbs as he tottered out.
'Has your lordship got everything he requires?'
'Nfff,' said Nobby.
'If we can be of any help whatsoever - '
'Nnnf.'
'Any help at all - ?'
'Nnnf.'
'Sorry about your boots, m'lord, but the wyvern's been ill. It'll brush off no trouble when it dries.' Nobby tottered off along the lane. 'He even walks nobly, wouldn't you say?' 'More... nobbly than nobly, I think.' 'It's disgusting that he's a mere corporal, a man of his breeding.'
Igneous the troll backed away until he was up against his potter's wheel.
'I never done it,' he said. ;It turned out Nanny Nobbs weren't quite dead the first time.'
'So why have you taken all this time off?'
'Don't like to say, sir...'