"I"ll come with you," said Bashfullsson quickly.
"I think I need no assistance," lied Vimes, as coolly as he could.
"I"m sure you do not," said the dwarf. "But Captain Gud is a little nervous."
"He"ll be a lot nervous if I don"t like what I see," said Vimes.
"Yes. That"s why I"m coming with you," said Bashfullsson.
Vimes set off across the cavern a little faster than he felt was comfortable. The grag kept up by skipping at every other step.
"Don"t think you know me, Mr Bashfullsson," Vimes growled. "Don"t think I took pity on those bastards. Don"t think I was merciful. You just don"t kill the helpless. You just don"t."
"The dark guards seemed to have no trouble with the prospect," said Bashfullsson.
"Exactly!" said Vimes. "By the way, Mr Bashfullsson, what kind of dwarf doesn"t carry an axe?"
"Well, as a grag, my first resort, of course, is to my voice," said the grag. "The axe is nothing without the hand, and the hand is nothing without the mind. I"ve trained myself to think about axes."
"Sounds mystical to me," said Vimes.
"I suppose it would," said Bashfullsson. "Ah, here we are."
Here was the area that the newly arrived dwarfs had occupied. Very military, Vimes thought. A defensive square. You"re not sure who your enemies are. And neither am I.
The nearest dwarf regarded him with that slightly defiant, slightly uneasy look he"d come to recognize. Captain Gud straightened up.
Vimes looked over the dwarf"s shoulder, which was not hard to do. There were Nobby and Fred Colon, and both of the trolls, and even Cheery, all sitting in a huddle.
"Are my men under arrest, captain?" he said.
"My orders are to detain everyone found here," said the captain. Vimes admired the flatness of the response. It meant: I am not interested in a dialogue at this time.
"What is your authority here, captain?" he said.
"My authority comes threefold: the Low King, mining law and sixty armed dwarfs," said Gud.
Bugger, thought Vimes. I forgot about mining law. This is a problem. I think I need to delegate. A good commander learns to delegate. Therefore I will delegate this problem to Captain Gud.
"That was a good answer, captain," he said, "and I respect it." In one movement he pushed past and headed for the watchmen. He stopped dead when he heard the sound of drawn metal behind him, raised his hands, and said, "Grag Bashfullsson, will you explain matters to the captain? I have stepped into his custody, not out of it. And this is not the time or place for rash action."
He walked on without waiting for a reply. Admittedly, banking on the fact that someone would get into trouble if they killed you would probably come under the heading of rash action, but he"d just have to live with that. Or, of course, not.
He hunkered down by Nobby and Colon.
"Sorry about this, Mister Vimes," said Fred. "We were waiting on the path with some horses and they just turned up. We showed "em our badges but they just did not want to know."
"Understood. And you, Cheery?"
"I thought it"d be best to stay together, sir," said Cheery earnestly. "Right. And you, Detr-" Vimes looked down, and felt the bile rise. Brick and Detritus both had chains on their legs.
"You let them shackle you?" he said.
"Well, it seemed to be gettin" all poll-itical, Mister Vimes," said Detritus. "But say der word and me an" Brick can have "em off, no trouble. Dey"re only field chains. My granny could"ve bust out of "em."
Vimes felt the anger rising, but put a lid on it. Right now, Detritus was being rather more sensible than his boss. "Don"t do that, not until I say so, he said. "Where are the grags?"
"They"re guarding them in another cave, sir," said Cheery. "And the miners. Sir, they said the Low King is on his way!"