Terry Pratchett - Thud

`But now look at this, sir,' said Angua, leading him on. `They were destroying them. .

There was another stalagmite, lying on its side in a pool. It had been smashed off at the base. And it was ... a dwarf.

Dwarfs crumble after death just like humans, but all the armour, mail, chains and heavy leather mean there's no great change to the

eye of the casual observer. The flowing rock had covered it all in a glistening shroud.

Vimes straightened up and looked across the cavern. Shapes loomed in the gloom, all the way to the near wall where the drip of ages had formed a perfect ivory waterfall, frozen in time.

`There are more?'

`About twenty, sir. Half of them had been smashed before you ... arrived. Look at this one over here, sir. You can just make them out. They're sitting back to back, sir.'

Vimes stared at the figures under the glaze, and shook his head. A dwarf and a troll, together, cemented in rock.

`Is there anything to eat?' he said. It wasn't the most awe-inspired thing to say, but it came from the stomach, with feeling.

`Our rations got lost in the excitement, sir. But the dwarfs will share theirs. They aren't unfriendly, sir. Just cautious.'

`Share? They have dwarf bread?'

`I'm afraid so, sir.'

`I thought it was illegal to give that to prisoners. I think I'll wait, thanks. And now, sergeant, you can tell me about the excitement.'

It hadn't exactly been an ambush; the dwarfs just caught up with them. Their captain had been given rather wide orders to follow Vimes and his party, and there had been a certain chilliness when he found that the party included two trolls. This was still Koom Valley, after all. Vimes felt a pang of sympathy for him; he'd had a simple job to do, and suddenly it was full of politics. Been there, done that, bought the singlet.

Forward Grag Bashfullsson, who had a way with words. Since they were all going the same way ...

And it had been a long way. The fleeing dwarfs had brought

down the ceiling not far from the entrance tunnel, and a journey that had taken Vimes a few minutes had taken the pursuers the best part of a day, even with Sally scouting ahead. Angua spoke of caves even bigger than this, of vast waterfalls in the dark. Vimes said, yes, he knew.

Then the words of Where's My Cow? had boomed under Koom Valley, shaking the rock of ages and making the stalactites hum in sympathy, and the rest had been a matter of running ...

`I can remember reading to Young Sam,' said Vimes slowly. `But there were these ... strange pictures in my head.' He stopped. All that anger, all that red-hot rage, had flowed out of him in a torrent, without thought. `I killed those damn soldiers. .

`Most of them, sir,' said Angua cheerfully. `And there's a couple of miners who got in the way who'll be aching for months.'

It was all coming back to Vimes now. He wished it wasn't. There was always a part of the human brain that objected to fighting dwarfs. They were child-sized. Oh, they were also at least as strong as a human, and more resilient, and would take any advantage in a fight, and if you were lucky you learned to overcome that prejudice before you were hacked off at the knees, but it was always there ...

`I remember those old dwarfs,' he said. `They were cowering like little maggots. I wanted to smash them. .

`You resisted for almost four seconds, sir, and then I brought you down,' said Angua.

`And that was a good thing, was it?' said Vimes.

`Oh, yes. It's why you're still here, commander,' said Bashfullsson, appearing from behind a stalagmite. `I'm glad to see you up and about again. This is an historic day! And you still have a soul, it appears! Isn't that nice?'

`Now you listen to me-' Vimes began.

`No, you listen to me, commander. Yes, I knew you'd come to Koom Valley, because the Summoning Dark would come here. It needed you to bring it. No, listen to me, because we don't have much time. The Summoning Dark symbol commands an entity as old as the universe. But it has no real body and very little physical strength; it can cover a million dimensions in the blink of an eye but could barely make it across a room. It works through living creatures, especially ones it finds ... amenable. It found you, commander, a cauldron of anger, and in small subtle ways it saw that you got it to this place.'

`I believe him, sir,' said Angua quickly. `It was the one called up as a curse by one of the miners. Remember? The one who drew the sign in his own blood? On a locked door? And you-'

`There was a door that stung when I touched it, I remember...' said Vimes. `Are you telling me that behind that door he- Oh, no . .

`He was already dead by then, sir, I'm positive about that,' said Angua quickly. `We couldn't have saved him.'

'Helmclever said-' Vimes began, and Bashfullsson must have seen the panic rising in his eyes, because he grabbed both Vimes's hands and spoke fast and urgently: `No! You didn't kill him! You didn't even touch him! You were afraid that if you did I'd say you'd used force, remember?'

`He dropped dead! How much force is that?' Vimes shouted. His voice echoed, and heads turned all across the cavern. `There was the symbol, wasn't there?'

`It's true that the ... creature tends to leave a, a signature on events, but you would have had to touch him! You did not! You did not raise a hand! I think you would have resisted even then! Resisted and won! Do you hear me? Calm down. Calm down. He died of fear and guilt. You must realize that.'

`What reason did he have to feel guilty?'

`Every reason, for a dwarf. That mine bore down so heavily on him.' The grag turned to Angua. `Sergeant, could you get the commander some water? It's as pure in these pools as anywhere in the world. Well, it is if you pick one without a body floating in it.'

'Y'know, you could have avoided that last sentence,' said Vimes. He sat down on a rock. He could feel himself shaking.

`And then I got the damn thing here?' he managed.

`Yes, commander. And it got you here too, I suspect. Cheery says

she saw you drop into churning water half a mile from where we are

now. Even a champion swimmer wouldn't have survived that.' `I woke up on a beach-'

`It got you there. It swam your body for you.' `But I was all knocked about!'

`Oh, it wasn't your friend, commander. It needed to get you here in one piece. It didn't have to be a good-looking piece. And then ... you disappointed it, commander. You disappointed it. Or, perhaps, impressed it. It's hard to tell. You wouldn't strike the helpless, you see. You resisted. I had the sergeant here bring you down because I was frightened that the struggle inside would rip your tendons from your bones.'

`They were just frightened old men. .

`And so it appears to have let you go,' said the dwarf. `I wonder why? Historically, anyone subject to the Summoning Dark dies insane.'

Vimes reached up and took a mug of water from Angua. It was teeth-achingly cold and the best drink he'd ever tasted. And his mind worked fast, flying in emergency supplies of common sense, as human minds do, to construct a huge anchor in sanity and prove that what had happened hadn't really happened and, if it had happened, hadn't happened much.

It was all mystic, that's what it was. Oh, it might all be true, but how could you ever tell? You had to stick to the things you can see. And you had to keep reminding yourself of that, too.

Yeah, that was it. What had really happened, eh? A few signs? Well, anything can look like you want it to if you're wound up enough, yes? A sheep can look like a cow, right? Ha!

As for the rest, well, Bashfullsson seemed a decent lad, but you didn't have to buy into his world view. Same with Mr Shine. That sort of thing could spook you.

He'd been wound up about Young Sam, and when he'd seen those devil guards of course he'd gone for them. He hadn't been getting much sleep lately. It seemed like every hour brought some new problem. The mind played funny tricks. Surviving the underground river? Easy. He must have kept himself afloat. There were a lot of things the body would rather do than die.