"I know, sir. She hasn"t slept in her basket, either.
In a dank cellar that once was an attic and was now half full of mud, the vurms poured out of a small hole where wooden planks had long since rotted away.
A fist punched up. Soggy timber split and crumbled.
Angua pulled herself up into this new darkness, then reached down to help Sally, who said, "Well, here"s another fine mess.
"Let"s hope so," said Angua. "I think we need to go up at least one more level. There"s an archway here. Come on."
There had been too many dead ends, forgotten, stinking rooms and false hopes, and altogether too much slime.
After a while the smell had become almost tangible and then it managed to become just another part of the darkness. The women wandered and scrambled from one dripping, fetid room to another, testing the muddy walls for hidden doors, searching for even a pinprick of light in the ceilings hanging with interesting but horrible growths.
Now, they heard music. Five minutes" wading and slithering brought them to a blocked-in doorway, but since it had been filled using the more modern Ankh-Morpork mortar of sand, horse dung and vegetable peelings, several bricks had already fallen out. Sally removed most of the rest with one punch.
"Sorry about that," she said. "It"s a vampire thing."
The cellar behind the demolished wall had some barrels in it and
looked as if it was regularly used. There was a proper door, too.
Dull, repetitive music filtered down between the boards of the ceil
ing. There was a trap door in them.
"O-kay," said Angua. "There"s people up there, I can smell
them-"
"I can count fifty-seven hearts beating," said Sally.
Angua gave her a Look. "You know, that"s one particular talent I"d
keep to myself, if I was you," she said.
"Sorry, sergeant."
"It"s not the sort of thing people want to hear," Angua went on. "I
mean, I personally am quite capable of cracking a man"s skull in my
jaws, but I don"t go around telling everyone."
"I shall make a note of it, sergeant," said Sally, with a meekness
that was quite possibly feigned.
"Good. Now ... what do we look like? Swamp monsters?"
"Yes, sergeant. Your hair looks dreadful. Just like a great lump of
green slime."
"Green?"
"I"m afraid so."
"And my emergency dress is back down there somewhere," said