Sourcery

Still the rumbling went on, sending its disquieting harmonics dancing through the palace. It is a well-known factoid that there are frequencies that can cause panic, and frequencies that can cause embarrassing incontinence, but the shaking rock was resonating at the frequency that causes reality to melt and run out at the corners.

Nijel regarded the dripping ceiling and cautiously tasted it.

‘Lime custard,’ he said, and added, ‘I suppose there’s no chance of stairs, is there?’

More fire burst from Rincewind’s ravaged fingers, coalescing into an almost perfect escalator, except that possibly no other moving staircase in the universe was floored with alligator skin.

Nijel grabbed the gently spinning wizard and leapt aboard.

Fortunately they had reached the top before the magic vanished, very suddenly.

Sprouting out of the centre of the palace, shattering rooftops like a mushroom bursting through an ancient pavement, was a white tower taller than any other building in Al Khali.

Huge double doors had opened at its base and out of them, striding along as though they owned the place, were dozens of wizards. Rincewind thought he could recognise a few faces, faces which he’d seen before bumbling vaguely in lecture theatres or peering amiably at the world in the University grounds. They weren’t faces built for evil. They didn’t have a fang between them. But there was some common denominator among their expressions that could terrify a thoughtful person.

Nijel pulled back behind a handy wall. He found himself looking into Rincewind’s worried eyes.

‘Hey, that’s magic!’

‘I know,’ said Rincewind. ‘It’s not right!’ Nijel peered up at the sparkling tower.

‘But—’

‘It feels wrong,’ said Rincewind. ‘Don’t ask me why.’

Half a dozen of the Seriph’s guards erupted from an arched doorway and plunged towards the wizards, their headlong rush made all the more sinister by their ghastly battle silences. For a moment their swords flashed in the sunlight, and then a couple of the wizards turned, extended their hands and— Nijel looked away.

‘Urgh,’ he said.

A few curved swords dropped on to the cobbles.

‘I think we should very quietly go away,’ said Rincewind.

‘But didn’t you see what they just turned them into?’

‘Dead people,’ said Rincewind. ‘I know. I don’t want to think about it.’

Nijel thought he’d never stop thinking about it, especially around 3 a.m. on windy nights. The point about being killed by magic was that it was much more inventive than, say, steel; there were all sorts of interesting new ways to die, and he couldn’t put out of his mind the shapes he’d seen, just for an instant, before the wash of octarine fire had mercifully engulfed them.

‘I didn’t think wizards were like that,’ he said, as they hurried down a passageway. ‘I thought they were more, well, more silly than sinister. Sort of figures of fun.’

‘Laugh that one off, then,’ muttered Rincewind.

‘But they just killed them, without even—’

‘I wish you wouldn’t go on about it. I saw it as well.’

Nijel drew back. His eyes narrowed.

‘You’re a wizard, too,’ he said accusingly.

‘Not that kind I’m not,’ said Rincewind shortly.

‘What kind are you, then?’

‘The non-killing kind.’

‘It was the way they looked at them as if it just didn’t matter—’ said Nijel, shaking his head. ‘That was the worst bit.’

‘Yes.’

Rincewind dropped the single syllable heavily in front of Nijel’s train of thought, like a tree trunk. The boy shuddered, but at least he shut up. Rincewind actually began to feel sorry for him, which was very unusual – he normally felt he needed all his pity for himself.

‘Is that the first time you’ve seen someone killed?’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘Exactly how long have you been a barbarian hero?’

‘Er. What year is this?’

Rincewind peered around a corner, but such people as were around and vertical were far too busy panicking to bother about them.

‘Out on the road, then?’ he said quietly. ‘Lost track of time? I know how it is. This is the Year of the Hyena.’

‘Oh. In that case, about—’ Nijel’s lips moved soundlessly – ‘about three days. Look,’ he added quickly, ‘how can people kill like that? Without even thinking about it?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Rincewind, in a tone of voice that suggested he was thinking about it.

‘I mean, even when the vizier had me thrown in the snake pit, at least he seemed to be taking an interest.’

‘That’s good. Everyone should have an interest.’

‘I mean, he even laughed!’

‘Ah. A sense of humour, too.’

Rincewind felt that he could see his future with the same crystal clarity that a man falling off a cliff sees the ground, and for much the same reason. So when Nijel said: ‘They just pointed their fingers without so much as—’, Rincewind snapped: ‘Just shut up, will you? How do you think I feel about it? I’m a wizard, too!’

‘Yes, well, you’ll be all right then,’ muttered Nijel.

It wasn’t a heavy blow, because even in a rage Rincewind still had muscles like tapioca, but it caught the side of Nijel’s head and knocked him down more by the weight of surprise than its intrinsic energy.