Thud! (Discworld 34)

"Throat cut. It"d be hard to call it suicide. But he took some time to die. He made it to one of their damn doors which they"d locked shut, and scrawled one of their signs on it in his own blood. Then he sat down and waited to die in the dark. In the damn dark, Carrot! They were working dwarfs! They had shovels and wheelbarrows! They were down there doing a job and when they weren"t needed any more they got the chop! Hacked down and left for the mud! He might even still have been alive down there when Mister Vimes and I went in. Behind their bloody thick door, dying by inches. And do you know what this means?" She pulled a folded piece of card out of her bodice and passed it over.

"A drinks menu?" said Carrot.

"Open it," snapped Angua. "I"m sorry it"s written in lipstick. It was all we could find."

Carrot flipped it open. "Another dark symbol?" he said. "I don"t think I know this one."

There were other dwarf watchmen in the office. Carrot held up the symbol. "Does anyone here know what this means?"

A few helmeted heads shook, and a few dwarfs backed away but a deep voice from the doorway said: "Yes, Captain Carrot. I suspect I do. Does it look like an eye with a tail?"

"Yes ... er ... sir?" said Carrot, staring. A shadow moved.

"It was drawn in the dark? By a dying dwarf? In his own blood? It is the Summoning Dark, captain, and it will be moving. Good morning to you. I am Mr Shine."

Carrot"s jaw dropped as the watchmen turned to look at the newcomer. He loomed in the doorway, almost as broad as he was tall, in a black cloak and hood that hid any possible feature.

"The Mr Shine?" he said.

"Regrettably so, captain, and can I charge you to see that no one in this room leaves for a few minutes after I do? I like to keep my movements ... private."

"I didn"t think you were real, sir!"

"Believe me, young man, I wish it were possible to keep you in that happy state," said the hooded figure. "However, my hand is forced."

Mr Shine stepped forward, pulling a rangy figure into the room. It was a troll, whose look of sullen defiance did not quite manage to conceal knee-knocking terror.

"This is Brick, captain. I deliver him back into the personal custody of your Sergeant Detritus. He has information of use to you. I have heard his story. I believe him. You must move fast. The Summoning Dark may already have found a champion. What else ... oh yes, be sure not to keep that symbol in a dark place. Keep light around it at all times. And now, if you will excuse the theatricals-"

The black robe twitched. Hard, white, blinding light filled the room for a second. When it had gone, so had Mr Shine. All that was left was a large, egg-shaped stone on the stained floor.

Carrot blinked, and then pulled himself together. "All right, you heard," he said to the suddenly animated room at large. "No one is to follow Mr Shine, understood?"

"Follow him, captain?" said a dwarf. "We"re not mad, you know!" "Dat"s right," said a troll. "Dey say he can reach inside o" you an" stop your heart!"

"Mr Shine?" said Angua. "Is he what they"ve been writing about on the walls?"

"It looks like that, said Carrot shortly. "And he said we don"t have much time. Mr ... Brick, was it?"

Whereas Chrysoprase"s trolls had contrived to swagger while standing still, Brick just managed to huddle all alone. You usually need two to huddle, but here was a troll trying to hide behind himself. No one could have hidden behind Brick: for a troll he was stick thin to the point of knobbliness. His lichen was cheap and matted, not the real thing at all, probably the stuff they made up out of broccoli stalks in the back alleys of Quarry Lane. His belt of skulls was a disgrace; some of them were clearly the papier-mache kind that could be bought from any joke shop. One had a red nose.

He looked around nervously, and there was a thud as his club dropped from his fingers.

"I"m in deep copro, right?" he said.

"Certainly we need to talk to you," said Carrot. "Do you want a lawyer?"

"No, I ate already."

"You eat lawyers?" said Carrot.

Brick gave him an empty stare until sufficient brain had been mustered.

"What d"y"call dem fangs, dey kinda crumble when you eat dem?" he ventured.

Carrot looked at Detritus and Angua, to see if there was going to be any help there.

"Could be lawyers," he conceded.