'I know the Disc is carried through space on the backs of four elephants that stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin,' said Mort.
'That's just part of it. I meant the whole universe of time and space and life and death and day and night and everything.'
'Can't say I've ever given it much thought,' said Mort.
'Ah. You ought. The point is, the nodes are part of it. They stop death from getting out of control, see. Not him, not Death. Just death itself. Like, uh —' Albert struggled for words – 'like, death should come exactly at the end of life, see, and not before or after, and the nodes have to be worked out so that the key figures . . . you're not taking this in, are you?'
'Sorry.'
'They've got to be worked out,' said Albert flatly, 'and then the correct lives have got to be got. The hourglasses, you call them. The actual Duty is the easy job.'
'Can you do it?'
'No. Can you?'
'No!'
Albert sucked reflectively at his peppermint. That's the whole world in the gyppo, then,' he said.
'Look, I can't see why you're so worried. I expect he's just got held up somewhere,' said Mort, but it sounded feeble even to him. It wasn't as though people buttonholed Death to tell him another story, or clapped him on the back and said things like 'You've got time for a quick half in there, my old mate, no need to rush off home' or invited him to make up a skittles team and come out for a Klatchian take-away afterwards, or . . . It struck Mort with sudden, terrible poignancy that Death must be the loneliest creature in the universe. In the great party of Creation, he was always in the kitchen.
'I'm sure I don't know what's come over the master lately,' mumbled Albert. 'Out of the chair, my girl. Let's have a look at these nodes.'
They opened the ledger.
They looked at it for a long time.
Then Mort said, 'What do all those symbols mean?'
'Sodomy non sapiens,' said Albert under his breath.
'What does that mean?'
'Means I'm buggered if I know.'
That was wizard talk, wasn't it?' said Mort.
'You shut up about wizard talk. I don't know anything about wizard talk. You apply your brain to this here.'
Mort looked down again at the tracery of lines. It was as if a spider had spun a web on the page, stopping at every junction to make notes. Mort stared until his eyes hurt, waiting for some spark of inspiration. None volunteered.
'Any luck?'
'It's all Klatchian to me,' said Mort. 'I don't even know whether it should be read upside down or sideways.'
'Spiralling from the centre outwards,' sniffed Ysabell from her seat in the corner.
Their heads collided as they both peered at the centre of the page. They stared at her. She shrugged.
'Father taught me how to read the node chart,' she said, 'when I used to do my sewing in here. He used to read bits out.'
'You can help?' said Mort.
'No,' said Ysabell. She blew her nose.
'What do you mean, no?' growled Albert. This is too important for any flighty —'
'I mean,' said Ysabell, in razor tones, 'that I can do them and you can help.'