Witches Abroad (Discworld 12)

'Well, if I was a Duc with no more claim on things than a smudgy will and a little bottle of ink with the cork still out, I'd be lookin' for any chance to make things a bit more official,' said Nanny. 'Marryin' the real heir'd be favourite. He could thumb his nose at everyone, then. I bet she don't know who she really is, eh?'

'That's right,' said Mrs Gogol. 'The Duc's got friends, too. Or keepers, maybe. Not people you'd want to cross. They've brought her up, and they don't let her out much.'

The witches sat in silence for a while.

Granny thought: no. That's not quite right. That's how it'd appear in a history book. But that's not the story.

Then Granny said,' 'Scuse me, Mrs Gogol, but where do you come in all this? No offence, but I reckon that out here in the swamp it'd be all the same whoever was doing the rulin'.'

For the first time since they'd met her, Mrs Gogol looked momentarily uneasy.

'The Baron was ... a friend of mine,' she said.

'Ah,' said Granny understandingly.

'He wasn't keen on zombies, mark you. He said he thought the dead should be allowed their rest. But he never insisted. Whereas this new one . . .'

'Not keen on the Interestin" Arts?' said Nanny.

'Oh, I reckon he is,' said Granny. 'He'd have to be. Not your magic, maybe, but I bet he's got a lot of magic around him.'

'Why d'you say that, lady?' said Mrs Gogol.

'Well,' said Nanny, 'I can see that you, being a lady o' spirit, wouldn't put up with this if you didn't have to. There's lots of ways to sort matters out, I 'spect. I 'spect, if you dint like someone, their legs might unexpectedly drop off, or they might find mysterious snakes in their boots ..."

'Alleygators under their bed,' suggested Granny.

'Yes. He's got protection,' said Mrs Gogol.

'Ah.'

'Powerful magic.'

'More powerful'n you?' said Granny.

There was a long and difficult pause.

'Yes.'

'Ah.'

'For now,' Mrs Gogol added.

There was another pause. No witch ever liked admitting to less than near-absolute power, or even hearing another witch doing so.

'You're biding your time, I expect,' said Granny kindly.

'Wifing your strength,' said Nanny.

'It's powerful protection,' said Mrs Gogol.

Granny sat back in her chair. When she spoke next, it was as a person who has certain ideas in their mind and wants to find out what someone else knows.

'What sort?' she said. 'Exactly?'

Mrs Gogol reached into the cushions of her rocking-chair and, after some rummaging, produced a leather bag and a pipe. She lit the pipe and puffed a cloud of bluish smoke into the morning air.

'You look in mirrors a lot these days, Mistress Weather-wax?' she said.