Vetinari paused, and carefully squared up the paperwork in front of him, as if he now felt he"d gone too far.
"However, obviously I do not wish to put you under any kind of pressure," he finished.
In Vimes"s confused, lukewarm brain, one word bobbed to the surface.
"Crumble?"
Lord Vetinari"s secretary leaned down and whispered into his master"s ear.
"Ah, I believe I meant "rumble"," said Vetinari brightly.
Vimes was still trying to cope with the international news digest.
"All this over one murder?" he said, trying to stifle a yawn.
"No, Vimes. You said it yourself: all this over thousands of years of tension and politics and power struggles. In recent years things have gone in certain ways, causing power to shift. There are those who would like it to shift back, even if it returns on a tide of blood. Who cares about one dwarf? But if his death can be turned into a casus belli" - here Lord Vetinari looked at Vimes"s sleepy eyes and went on -"that is, a reason for war, then suddenly he is the most important dwarf in the world. When did you last get some proper sleep, Vimes?"
Vimes muttered something about "not long ago.
"Go and have some more. And then find me the murderer. Quickly. Good day to you."
Not just thrones trembling, Vimes managed to think. Your chair is wobbling a bit, too. Pretty soon some people will be saying: who let all these dwarfs in here? They undermine our city and they don"t obey our laws. And the trolls? We used to chain "em up like guard dogs, and now they"re allowed to walk around threatening real people!
They"d be gathering now, the plotters, the people who chatted quietly in the corner at parties, the people who know how to fashion opinion into knives. Last night"s little affray had been turned into a joke that had probably dismayed the party people, but you couldn"t do it twice. Once things began to spread, once a few humans had been killed, you wouldn"t need to talk behind closed doors any more. The mob would scream on your behalf.
They undermine our city and they don"t obey our laws ...
He climbed into the coach on legs that were only marginally under his control, muttered an instruction to head for Pseudopolis Yard, and fell asleep.
It was still night time in the city of endless rain. It was never not night time. No sun rose here.
The creature lay coiled in its alley.
Something was seriously wrong. It had expected resistance. There was always resistance, and it always overcame it. But even now, when the invisible bustle of the city had slowed, there was no way in. Time and again it"d be sure that it had found a point of control, some tide of rage it could use, and time and again it"d be slammed back here, into this dark alley where the gutters overflowed.
This was not the usual kind of mind. The creature struggled. But no mind had ever beaten it. There was always a way ...
Through the ruin of the world the troll staggers ...
Brick lurched out of Dolly Sisters Watch House, clutching his head with one hand and, in the other, holding the bag that contained as many of his teeth as Detritus had been able to find. The sergeant had been very decent about dat, Brick thought. Detritus had also explained to him exactly what would have been happening to him had his second blow hit the human, graphically indicating that finding Brick"s teeth would have been secondary to finding a head to put them in.
He"d gone on to say, though, that there might be a place in the Watch for any troll who could still stand up after a headful of Big Hammer, and maybe Brick might like to conduct his future behaviour with an eye to this.
So, Brick thought - insofar as the term could be applied to any brain activity within two days of Big Hammer - the future was looking so bright that he had to walk along with his eyes almost shut, although that was probably the Big Hammer again.
But
He"d heard the other trolls talking. And the watchmen, too. All dis stuff about a troll killing a dwarf down in dat new mine. Now, Brick was still certain he hadn"t killed no dwarf, even after half an ounce of Scrape. He"d gone over and over it in what currently remained of his mind. Trouble was, the Watch had all dese tricks dese days, dey could tell what a guy had for dinner just by looking at his plate. An" he"d lost a skull down there too, he was sure o" dat. Like, dey could jus" sniff it and know it was him! Except it wasn"t him, right? "Cos dey said der troll dropped his club, an" Brick still had his club "cos he hit dat top watchman wi" it, so maybe that was what dey called an Ally By? Yes?
Despite the cerebral gurgling noise of the Big Hammer draining away from his higher brain functions, Brick suspected that it wasn"t. An" anyway, if dey lookin" for a troll what done der deed, and dey find out I was dere, lost a skull an" everyt"in" an" I say, okay, I was dere but I never walloped no dwarf, dey"ll say, ho yus, pull der other one, it is havin" bells on.
Right here, and right now, Brick was feeling a very lonely troll.
Dere was nothin" for it. Dere was only one person who could help him wi" dis one. It was too much t"inkin" for one troll.
Slinking through alleys, pressed against walls, keeping his head down, avoiding every living creature, Brick sought out Mr Shine.
Angua decided to go straight to Pseudopolis Yard, rather than a closer Watch House. That was HQ, after all, and besides, she always kept a spare uniform in her locker.