Moving Pictures (Discworld 10)

'Maybe we ought to put up a statue to them, or something.'

'I'm not sure about that,' said Victor. 'I mean, considering what dogs do to statues. Maybe dogs dying is all part of Holy Wood. I don't know.'

Ginger traced the outline of a knothole on the tabletop.

'It's all over now,' she said. 'You do know that, don't you? No more Holy Wood. It's all over.'

'Yes.'

'The Patrician and the wizards won't let anyone make any more clicks. The Patrician was very definite about it.'

'I don't think anyone wants to make any,' said Victor. 'Who's going to remember Holy Wood now?'

'What do you mean?'

'Those old priests built a kind of half-baked religion around it. They forgot all about what it really was. That didn't matter, though. I don't think you need chants and fires. You just need to remember Holy Wood. We need someone to remember Holy Wood really well.'

'Yeah,' said Ginger, grinning. 'You'd need a thousand

elephants.' !

'Yeah.' Victor laughed. 'Poor old Dibbler,' he said. 'He never got them, either . . . '

Ginger moved a fragment of potato round and round on her plate. There was something on her mind, and it wasn't food.

'But it was great, wasn't it?' she burst out. 'We had something really amazing, didn't we?'

'Yes.'

'People really thought it was good, didn't they?'

'Oh, yes,' said Victor sombrely.

'I mean, didn't we bring something really great into the world?'

ood upright, ten feet tall, rested its hands on the hilt of the sword, and halted. It didn't look very much different from its posture on the slab, but this time there was an air of alertness about it, a sense of huge energies idly ticking over. It paid no attention at all to the four who had awoken it.

The screen stopped its wild pulsating. Something had sensed the presence of the golden man and was focusing its attention on him. Which meant that it was temporarily removing it from elsewhere.

There was a stirring from the audience. They were waking up.

Victor grabbed the Librarian and Detritus.

'You two,' he said. 'Get everyone out of here. Get them out of here fast.'

'Gook!'

The Holy Wood people didn't need much encouragement. Seeing the shapes on the screen clearly, without the cushion of hypnosis, was enough to make anything brainier than Detritus have a sudden urge to be a long way away. Victor could see them struggling over the seats, fighting to escape from the pit.

Ginger started to follow them. Victor stopped her.

'Not yet,' he said, quietly. 'Not us.'

'What do you mean?' she demanded.

He shook his head. 'We have to be the last ones out,' he said. 'It's all part of Holy Wood. You can use the magic, but it uses you, too. Besides, don't you want to see how it all ends?'

'I had rather hoped to see how it all ends from a long way off.'