Nanny read it, and let it drop on to the table.
“Come on,” she said. “We ain't got much time!”
“What's the matter?”
“And bring the sugar bowl!”
Nanny wrenched open the door and hurried toward her broomstick.
“Come on!”
Magrat picked up the card. The writing was familiar. She'd seen it several times before, when calling on Granny Weatherwax unexpectedly.
It said: I ATE'NT DEAD.
“Halt! Who goes there?”
“What're you doing on guard with your arm in a sling, Shawn?”
“Duty calls. Mum.”
“Well, let us in right now.”
“Are you Friend or Foe, Mum?”
“Shawn, this is almost-Queen Magrat here with me, all right?”
“Yes, but you've got to-”
“Right now!”
“Oooaaaww, Mum!”
Magrat tried to keep up with Nanny as she scurried through the castle.
“The wizard was right. She was dead, you know. I don't blame you for hoping, but I can tell when people are dead.”
“No, you can't. I remember a few years ago you came running down to my house in tears and it turned out she was just off Borrowing. That's when she started using the sign.”
“But-”
“She wasn't sure what was going to happen,” said Nanny. “That's good enough for me.”
“Nanny-”
“You never know until you look,” said Nanny Ogg, expounding her own Uncertainty Principle.
Nanny kicked open the doors to the Great Hall.
“What's all this?”
Ridcully got up from his chair, looking embarrassed.
“Well, it didn't seem right to leave her all alone-”
“Oh dear, oh dear,” said Nanny, gazing at the solemn tableau.
“Candles and lilies. I bet you pinched 'em yourself, out of the garden. And then you all shut her away indoors like this.”