'But she got out,' said Magrat.
* Whereas in Ankh-Morpork, business was often so slow that some of the more go-ahead Guild members put adverts in shop windows offering deals like 'Stab two, poison one free'.
'Yes, it does you good to let your hair down,' said Nanny.
'Huh. Rural myths,' said Granny.
They drew nearer to the city walls. Then Magrat said, 'There's guards on the gate. Are we going to fly over?'
Granny stared at the highest tower through narrowed eyes. 'No,' she said. 'We'll land and walk in. So's not to worry people.'
'There's a nice flat green bit just behind those trees,' said Magrat.
Granny walked up and down experimentally. Her boots squeaked and gurgled in watery accusation.
'Look, I said I'm sorry,' said Magrat. 'It just looked so flat!'
'Water gen'rally does,' said Nanny, silting on a tree stump and wringing out her dress.
'But even you couldn't tell it was water,' said Magrat. 'It looks so ... so grassy with all that weed and stuff floating on it.'
'Seems to me the land and the water round here can't decide who is which,' said Nanny. She looked around at the miasmic landscape.
Trees grew out of the swamp. They had a jagged, foreign look and seemed to be rotting as they grew. Where the water was visible, it was black like ink. Occasionally a few bubbles would eructate to the surface like the ghosts of beans on bath night. And somewhere over in the distance was the river, if it was possible to be that sure in this land of thick water and ground that wobbled when you set foot on it.
She blinked.
'That's odd,' she said.
'What?' said Granny.
'Thought I saw . . . something running ..." muttered Nanny. 'Over there. Between the trees.'
'Must be a duck then, in this place.'
'It was bigger'n a duck,' said Nanny. 'Funny thing is, it looked a bit like a little house.'
'Oh yes, running along with smoke coming out of the chimney, I expect,' said Granny witheringly.
Nanny brightened. 'You saw it too?'
Granny rolled her eyes.
'Come on,' she said, 'let's get to the road.'
'Er,' said Magrat, 'how?'
They looked at the nominal ground between their reasonably dry refuge and the road. It had a yellowish appearance. There were floating branches and tufts of suspiciously green grass. Nanny pulled a branch off the fallen tree she was sitting on and tossed it a few yards. It struck damply, and sank with the noise of someone trying to get the last bit out of the milkshake.
'We fly over to it, of course,' Nanny said.
'You two can,' said Granny. 'There's nowhere for me to run and get mine started.'
In the end Magrat ferried her across on her broom, Nanny bringing up the rear with Granny's erratic stick in tow.
'I just 'ope no-one saw us, that's all,' said Granny, when they'd reached the comparative safety of the road.
Other roads joined the swamp causeway as they got nearer to the city. They were crowded, and there was a long line at the gate.