Thud! (Discworld 34)

Axes and clubs were being waved, spears were being pointed, there were charges and countercharges and single combats. Across the whole length of the picture, dwarfs and trolls were locked in ferocious battle, hacking and smashing

He thought: who"s missing?

"Sir Reynold, could you help me?" he said quietly, lest the nascent thought turn tail and run.

"Yes, commander?" said the curator, hurrying over. "Doesn"t Lady Sybil do the most exquisite-"

"She"s very good, yes," said Vimes. "Tell me ... how did Rascal know all this stuff?"

"There hwere many dwarf songs about it, and some troll stories. Oh, and some humans hwitnessed it."

"So Rascal could have read about it?"

"Oh, yes. Apart from the fact that he put it in the wrong part of the valleah, he got it down quite accurately."

Vimes didn"t take his gaze off the paper battle.

"Does anyone know why he put it in the wrong place, then?" he said.

"There are several theoreahs. One is that he hwas deceived by the fact that the dead dwarfs hwere cremated at that end of the valley, but after the storm that is hwhere many of the bodies ended up. There hwas also a great deal of dead hwood for bonfires. But I believe he chose that end because the view is so much better. The mountains are so dramatic."

Vimes sat down, staring at the sketch, willing it to yield its secret. Everyone will know the secret in a few weeks, Mr Shine had said. Why?

"Sir Reynold, was anything going to happen to the painting in the next couple of weeks?" he said.

"Oh, yes, said the curator. "Hwe would have installed it in its new room.

"Anything special about that?"

"I did tell your sergeant, commander," said the curator a little reproachfully. "It is circular. Rascal always intended it to be seen in the round, as it were. So that the viewer could be there."

And I"m nearly there, too, Vimes thought.

"I think the cube told the dwarfs something about Koom Valley," he said, in a faraway voice, because he felt as though he was already in the valley. "It told them that the place where it was found was important. Even Rascal thought it was important. They needed a map, and Rascal painted one, even if he didn"t know it. Fred?"

"Yessir?"

"The dwarfs weren"t bothered about damaging the bottom of the

painting because it doesn"t contain anything important. It"s just people. People move around."

"But, with respect, commander, so do all those boulders," said Sir Reynold.

"They don"t matter. No matter how much the valley has changed, this picture will work," said Vimes. The glow of understanding lit his brain.

"But even the rivers move over the years, and any amount of rocks have rolled down from the mountains," said Sir Reynold. "I"m told the area looks nothing like that now."

"Even so," said Vimes, in the same dreamy voice, "this map will work for thousands of years. It doesn"t mark a rock or a hollow or a cave, it just marks a spot. I can pinpoint it. That is, if I had a pin.

"I have one!" said Sir Reynold triumphantly, reaching to his lapel. "I spotted one in the street yesterday, and of course hwe all know the old saying: "See a pin and pick it up, and all day long-""

"Yes, thank you," said Vimes, taking it. He walked to the end of the table, picked up one end of the painting, and dragged it back down the length of the table, the heavy paper flapping after him.

He pinned the two ends together, held up the circle he had made, and lowered it over his head.

"The truth is in the mountains," he said. "For years you"ve been looking at a line of mountains. It"s really a circle of mountains."

"But I knew that!" said Sir Reynold.