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The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel
The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel
The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel
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The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel

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“A master of laugh-out-loud fiction . . . Pratchett has created an alternate universe full of trolls, dwarfs, wizards, and other fantasy elements, and he uses that universe to reflect our own culture with entertaining and gloriously funny results. . . . Nothing short of magical.” —Chicago Tribune

In this first novel in the internationally bestselling Discworld series from legendary New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett (and the first in the Wizards collection), the fate of the Discworld depends on the survival of a naïve—and first-ever—sightseer.

A writer of brilliant imagination favorably compared to Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Douglas Adams, Sir Terry Pratchett created a complex, satirical universe with its own set of cultures and rules, populated with wizards, witches, academics, fairies, policemen, and other creatures both fantastical and remarkably ordinary (including Death himself). Welcome to the Discworld . . . a parallel time and place that sounds very much like our own, but looks completely different—because it’s a flat world sitting on the backs of four elephants who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle.

In this, the maiden voyage through Terry Pratchett’s ingeniously twisted alternate dimension, the well-meaning but spectacularly inept wizard Rincewind encounters something previously unknown in the Discworld: a tourist!

Twoflower has arrived to take in the sights. Unfortunately, he’s cast his lot with a most inappropriate tour guide—a decision that could result in his becoming not only Discworld’s first visitor . . . but quite possibly, its last. And, of course, he’s brought Luggage along, a companion with feet—and a mind—of its own. And teeth. . . .

The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but the Wizards collection includes:

  • The Color of Magic
  • The Light Fantastic
  • Sourcery
  • Eric
  • Interesting Times
  • The Last Continent
  • Unseen Academicals

Editor's Note

Laugh-out-loud magical mayhem…

The zany characters parodying well-worn fantasy archetypes and the lore of the world make this start of the beloved Discworld series immensely charming. It will have you laughing out loud within the first few pages.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateOct 13, 2009
ISBN9780061796845
The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel
Author

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.

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Reviews for The Color of Magic

Rating: 4.083892617449664 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A great break from those really, really, really serious fantasy novels. This one is funny and innovative.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not an easy start. But by now this series is a classic so I powered trough it. Let’s see if it picks up soon.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm glad I finally read this book. I started a few times and never finished the first few pages. I read a few places that most people hate The Colour of Magic and it's his worst one but, because it's the first you have to suck it up and get through it to the other books. So I sucked it up and the funny thing is... just a couple pages in I began to absolutely love it! If this is not the favorite then I can't wait to read them all.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A quick read. Fun and funny. I've been avoiding the discworld novels for years and now that I've read one I haven't the FAINTEST idea why.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A well imagined world with endless possibilities for the hapless.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mr. Pratchett created a very interesting place with the Discworld series, populated with very interesting and thoroughly human characters, with all the weaknesses of humans, whose activities are written about in a spirit of tremendous humor. I'm glad to have found the series and will enjoy reading more books in it.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    1st in a long series. It's like a cross between sci-fi and fantasy. Many difficult to pronounce words, but otherwise it was an interesting read. I'm not going to rush to the rest of the series, but I'll probably get to them some day.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the first Discworld book, and the fourth I have read. It's partly an introduction to Discworld, with a lot of Discworld geography and cosmography, and partly the story of the failed wizard Rincewind and Twoflower, the first tourist. Although many parts were very enjoyable, and I appreciated the information, I don't think Pratchett had quite hit his stride yet in this book. There were bits that dragged a little. Still, I think that if I had picked this up when it first came out I would probably have been motivated to read more in the series as they appeared. Definitely recommended, but if you read this and wonder what all the fuss is about, don't give up!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked The Colour of Magic but was very glad that I had seen the movie first as I had a hard time following some of the transitions otherwise. I have never been much of a fan for humorous writing, but found myself enjoying that Discworld, for all of its nonsense, is wonderfully internally consistent. One could even predict the puns and nonsense if one were to sit down and think about how Discworld works.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
     I adore this series - it appeals to the slightly mad side. Art is supposed to hold a mirror to life, Pratchett does this, only he uses a distorting mirror - it's life, Jim, but not quite as we know it.

    Poor Rincewind is a failure as a wizzard. He does have some skills, with languages and running away from trouble being the key ones. He gets embroiled with the discworld's first tourist's visit to the melting pot that is Ankh Morpork and chaos ensues!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had really enjoyed Good Omens, so I was eager to try the Discworld series. I was entertained with the witty turn on fantasy. I also grew to like the characters quite a lot, which I didn't expect at all from the beginning. I don't think I'll be reading these books straight through, but I wouldn't mind picking one up when I need a laugh and diversion.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Why did I wait 25 years to read this book? Of course, until recently, I wasn't even aware of it's existence. I have to thank the online book club here for introducing me to Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series.

    It was a wild ride keeping up with the mad cap adventures of an improbable tourist, his indestructible over-protective luggage and his cowardly, incompetent wizard of a guide.

    If you're looking for wit, humor and head-spinning antics, this is the novel for you!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I don't know what I was expecting, but I thought the story would be... better? It was funny and fun, but I liked the (2) other, later Discworld books I've read. I still plan on continuing the series, I was just a bit underwhelmed by this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Inept, cowardly, and unintentionally hilarious wizard Rincewind becomes the guide for Discworld's first (and possibly last) tourist, Twoflower, and his extremely aggressive multi-legged trunk/bodyguard, Luggage. This is my first visit to Discworld and, while this introductory voyage can be a little overwhelming with all its details, it works on one level, since the many descriptions of the world's physical wonders and the various odd societal rules make the reader completely empathize with Twoflower's astonishment at all that surrounds him. It's not a flawless read by any means as it is very much an introduction to the world itself and the pace gets borderline frantic when it comes to rushing the characters around to various places on the disc, just to make sure they're on the map, so to speak, and the actual Rincewind/Twoflower story becomes secondary at time, which is a shame. I've been assured that future installments are better paced, have smoother writing, and make more room for Pratchett's completely bonkers characters.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The first Discworld book, in publishing order, is pretty fun. It's also pretty light, a bit scatter-brained: funny without really sticking in my mind. There's something compelling about it, but at the same time it's far from what it could be -- far from being, say, like Good Omens. Still, I know that Pratchett's writing changes and develops throughout the series, and this was enjoyable -- I'll be reading the rest, eventually.

    My favourite thing about this book was the Luggage. I just... found it adorable, somehow.

    Despite liking it in a vague sort of smiling-at-it way, I don't have much to say about it.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I just adore Pratchett. The first thing I ever read by him was Good Omens, which of course, he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. Some of the ideas, being very Gaimanesque, led me to the rest of Gaiman's books, but the snarky, playful humor is (mostly) all Pratchett. It took me quite awhile to figure that out, and to read anything in the Pratchett-universe.

    Since then, I've read several books in the Discworld series. I figured it was high time I started at the (sort of) beginning. Like the books, the reading order is rather convoluted, so theoretically I'm starting with #1, then persisting with some sort of chronological reading order, within the general story arcs.

    Hmmm...

    A part of me expected this to be a weak entry in Discworld, given that it is book #1, and as a general rule, I've found initial books-in-series to lack development. Boy was I ever wrong.

    From the Big Bang Hypothesis, to the Cliffhanger ending, I was teeheeing and snorting through the entire clever, funny, action-packed and reference-rich tale.

    HIGHLY recommended, and if I could adore Pratchett anymore than I already do, I would.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have found another British Author that I love.This book was very enjoyable and I fell in love with Rincewind the Wizard. I recently watched the Colour of Magic movie so had to check out the book. I'm thinking that the movie must have combined the Colour of magic and the light fantastic because there were things in the movie that did not show up in this book. Well the light fantastic is on my to read list so I will be reading that soon anyway.I really love Terry Pratchett's imaginative world he put together and really did not want the story to end. And of course it didn't I just have to read the next book.Some of the words used I believe were more of a British nature but that's understandable since he is a British author.I didn't mind looking them up and take it as a mind expanding experience.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I read this book, I had already seen The Colour of Magic movie several times, and also already read The Light Fantastic book. I was particularly pleased at the extended Wormberg part of the story, and the hydrophobes. Adventure and humour mixed in delicious quantities.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love Terry Pratchett and this is the book that introduced me to his special brand of humor. If you get a chance check out this fun fantasy adventure with a satirical twist!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Okay, first of all I would like to say that I love ALL Terry Pratchett's books, so I am only going to highlight certain ones. I enjoy English humor for one and the way that his hapless universe somehow gets by. To begin The Color of Magic we meet the failed wizard (or ���Wizzard���) Rincewind, and the Discworld's first ever tourist, Twoflower in the city of Ankh-Morpork. Rincewind learns that being a tour guide is more dangerous than staying in Ankh-Morpork under the Patrician's "benevolent" gaze. Feeding the tourists strange appetite for what Rincewind considers everyday things while keeping him from destroying the whole of the Disc maybe more than Rincewind bargained for.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Humorous, but difficult to keep up with as little made sense, though this is what Pratchett was going for "can't map humor." Calls to mind Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide. I think this requires intelligent readers (or witty ones) or lovers of high fantasy/science fiction, to be really enjoyed or understood. [Read and reviewed for class]
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    ok
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What can I say? There is not a more brilliant story teller alive. I have to pace myself through this series to spread the joy. Thank you Sir Pratchett, you are second only to Douglas Adams in this bibliophile's heart.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've come late to Discworld. Maybe a little too late as though I enjoyed this book I found the parody just a little too laboured (particularly the dragon rider stuff). Though I enjoyed it I think I still prefer the wit and originality of the late Douglas Adams. Maybe I should stick to the tv adaptations of Pratchett.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked this one. One of my siblings recommended it ages ago and I finally decided to check it out from the library. I checked first if it was part of a series as I hate to read the 7th book before the 1st or something like that, and was pleasant and impressive to discover is the 1st of a series of 39, I think. Also I found a recommendation of how to read the series that doesn't follow the order of how they were written. I think I might follow it. It was difficult at the beginning as part of reading a book includes the imagination and to imagine the discworld takes a toll. I mean, seriously the author has to tell me how he imagine this world, is just so magic and crazy I LOVE it. It is also a strange place with not common at all people and full of sarcasm about our current world. I loved it. Took me longer to read than juvenile fiction books, my favorite type, but I will highly recommend it to any adult that wants to challenge his/her imagination and creativity. And after reading the 1st you will decide if you read the rest. In my case I'm in the 2nd. They are difficult to find available at the library.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I actually read this book in stages, (i had a break inbetween reading). This was not due to the book, i had study to do. However despite this i picked the book up at where i left it and could remeber exactly what had been read before. The book was far better than the tv show and inspired me to continue to get the rest of Terry's books. Classic!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My first journey into Discworld (I'd read Good Omens before, but not this series). It was actually pretty close to what I expected it would be: zanily fun, satirical, and with some of the best offhanded asides in literature. I quite enjoy the creation of fantastic worlds and their people(s), so I wasn't particularly surprised to find this entertaining.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    So here begins the telling of the stories of Discworld - a crazily inverted world riding on the backs of large elephants, who in turn ride on the back of giant turtle. A world where magic has a color and that color is greenish-purple. We are introduced to some heros and some not-so-heroes. We meet villains, arch sorcerers, extradimensional gods, and some luggage.It actually took me several months and a couple of false starts in order to finish this book. So, while I found it interesting enough to keep going back to, I never found it engaging enough to carve time out of my schedule to finish it off. I've received some pretty solid recommendations of Pratchett and the Discworld books, though, so I'll try at least another one or two - though I can't say for sure when I'll get around to them.On a somewhat relevant note, I *do* find Pratchett's asides to be highly entertaining.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The classic that introduces Rincewind and Twoflower, Fate and Luck, Death and all the rest.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I heard about this series long ago, but never attempted to read the books. I’m not really sure why, maybe it’s because my sense of humour is different to most people’s.Recently, I found myself in a situation where I was able to purchase the ebook at a very reasonable price. I decided to go with the flow. I purchased the book and put it at the top of my “to read” list.My only expectation from the series was built around the word ‘funny’. I’m not sure I would use that word to describe the book, but it was amusing and it did make me smile a lot. That’s good enough for me.I was surprised to find the book actually consisted of four stories, not totally related. The two main characters were delightful and they were the reason I read the book to the end. Unfortunately, the ebook was not ideally formatted and I found it difficult to keep track of where the scenes stopped and started. This caused problems with knowing whose point of view I was reading, which was confusing and distracting.I liked reading the book but wasn’t as impressed as I thought I’d be. I’m not sure I’d be willing to purchase the second ebook to see how things go from here.

Book preview

The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett

Introducing Discworld®

The Discworld is a world not totally unlike our own, except that it is flat, sits on the backs of four elephants who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle, and magic is as integral as gravity to the way it works. Though some of its inhabitants are witches, dwarfs, wizards and even policemen, their stories are fundamentally about people being people.

The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but the Wizards series is a good place to start.

DISCWORLD NOVELS STARRING THE WIZARDS

The Color of Magic

The Light Fantastic

Sourcery

Eric

Interesting Times

The Last Continent

Unseen Academicals

A full list of the Discworld novels in order can be found at the end of this book.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Introducing Discworld®

The Color of Magic: Prologue

The Color of Magic

The Sending of Eight: Prologue

The Sending of Eight

The Lure of the Wyrm

Close to the Edge

The Discworld Novels

About the Author

Also by Terry Pratchett

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Color of Magic

Prologue

IN A DISTANT AND secondhand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part . . .

See . . .

Great A’Tuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the Destination.

In a brain bigger than a city, with geological slowness, He thinks only of the Weight.

Most of the weight is of course accounted for by Berilia, Tubul, Great T’Phon and Jerakeen, the four giant elephants upon whose broad and star-tanned shoulders the Disc of the World rests, garlanded by the long waterfall at its vast circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of Heaven.

Astropsychology has been, as yet, unable to establish what they think about.

The Great Turtle was a mere hypothesis until the day the small and secretive kingdom of Krull, whose rim-most mountains project out over the Rimfall, built a gantry and pulley arrangement at the tip of the most precipitous crag and lowered several observers over the Edge in a quartz-windowed brass vessel to peer through the mist veils.

The early astrozoologists, hauled back from their long dangle by enormous teams of slaves, were able to bring back much information about the shape and nature of A’Tuin and the elephants but this did not resolve fundamental questions about the nature and purpose of the universe.

For example, what was A’Tuin’s actual sex? This vital question, said the astrozoologists with mounting authority, would not be answered until a larger and more powerful gantry was constructed for a deep-space vessel. In the meantime they could only speculate about the revealed cosmos.

There was, for example, the theory that A’Tuin had come from nowhere and would continue at a uniform crawl, or steady gait, into nowhere, for all time. This theory was popular among academics.

An alternative, favored by those of a religious persuasion, was that A’Tuin was crawling from the Birthplace to the Time of Mating, as were all the stars in the sky which were, obviously, also carried by giant turtles. When they arrived they would briefly and passionately mate, for the first and only time, and from that fiery union new turtles would be born to carry a new pattern of worlds. This was known as the Big Bang hypothesis.

Thus it was that a young cosmochelonian of the Steady Gait faction, testing a new telescope with which he hoped to make measurements of the precise albedo of Great A’Tuin’s right eye, was on this eventful evening the first outsider to see the smoke rise hubward from the burning of the oldest city in the world.

Later that night he became so engrossed in his studies he completely forgot about it. Nevertheless, he was the first.

There were others . . .

The Color of Magic

FIRE ROARED THROUGH THE bifurcated city of Ankh-Morpork. Where it licked the Wizards’ Quarter it burned blue and green and was even laced with strange sparks of the eighth color, octarine; where its outriders found their way into the vats and oil stores all along Merchant Street it progressed in a series of blazing fountains and explosions; in the streets of the perfume blenders it burned with a sweetness; where it touched bundles of rare and dry herbs in the storerooms of the drugmasters it made men go mad and talk to God.

By now the whole of downtown Morpork was alight, and the richer and worthier citizens of Ankh on the far bank were bravely responding to the situation by feverishly demolishing the bridges. But already the ships in the Morpork docks—laden with grain, cotton and timber, and coated with tar—were blazing merrily and, their moorings burnt to ashes, were breasting the river Ankh on the ebb tide, igniting riverside palaces and bowers as they drifted like drowning fireflies toward the sea. In any case, sparks were riding the breeze and touching down far across the river in hidden gardens and remote rickyards.

The smoke from the merry burning rose miles high, in a wind-sculpted black column that could be seen across the whole of the Discworld.

It was certainly impressive from the cool, dark hilltop a few leagues away, where two figures were watching with considerable interest.

The taller of the pair was chewing on a chicken leg and leaning on a sword that was only marginally shorter than the average man. If it wasn’t for the air of wary intelligence about him it might have been supposed that he was a barbarian from the Hubland wastes.

His partner was much shorter and wrapped from head to toe in a brown cloak. Later, when he has occasion to move, it will be seen that he moves lightly, catlike.

The two had barely exchanged a word in the last twenty minutes except for a short and inconclusive argument as to whether a particularly powerful explosion had been the oil bond store or the workshop of Kerible the Enchanter. Money hinged on the fact.

Now the big man finished gnawing at the bone and tossed it into the grass, smiling ruefully.

There go all those little alleyways, he said. I liked them.

All the treasure houses, said the small man. He added thoughtfully, Do gems burn? I wonder. ’Tis said they’re kin to coal.

All the gold, melting and running down the gutters, said the big one, ignoring him. And all the wine, boiling in the barrels.

There were rats, said his brown companion.

Rats, I’ll grant you.

It was no place to be in high summer.

That, too. One can’t help feeling, though, a—well, a momentary—

He trailed off, then brightened. We owed old Fredor at the Crimson Leech eight silver pieces, he added. The little man nodded.

They were silent for a while as a whole new series of explosions carved a red line across a hitherto dark section of the greatest city in the world. Then the big man stirred.

Weasel?

Yes?

I wonder who started it.

The small swordsman known as the Weasel said nothing. He was watching the road in the ruddy light. Few had come that way since the Deosil Gate had been one of the first to collapse in a shower of white-hot embers.

But two were coming up it now. The Weasel’s eyes, always at their sharpest in gloom and half-light, made out the shapes of two mounted men and some sort of low beast behind them. Doubtless a rich merchant escaping with as much treasure as he could lay frantic hands on. The Weasel said as much to his companion, who sighed.

The status of footpad ill suits us, said the barbarian, but, as you say, times are hard and there are no soft beds tonight.

He shifted his grip on his sword and, as the leading rider drew near, stepped out onto the road with a hand held up and his face set in a grin nicely calculated to reassure yet threaten.

Your pardon, sir— he began.

The rider reined in his horse and drew back his hood. The big man looked into a face blotched with superficial burns and punctuated by tufts of singed beard. Even the eyebrows had gone.

Bugger off, said the face. "You’re Bravd the Hublander,* aren’t you?"

Bravd became aware that he had fumbled the initiative.

Just go away, will you? said the rider. I just haven’t got time for you, do you understand?

He looked around and added: That goes for your shadow-loving fleabag partner, too, wherever he’s hiding.

The Weasel stepped up to the horse and peered at the disheveled figure.

Why, it’s Rincewind the wizard, isn’t it? he said in tones of delight, meanwhile filing the wizard’s description of him in his memory for leisurely vengeance. I thought I recognized the voice.

Bravd spat and sheathed his sword. It was seldom worth tangling with wizards, they so rarely had any treasure worth speaking of.

He talks pretty big for a gutter wizard, he muttered.

You don’t understand at all, said the wizard wearily. I’m so scared of you my spine has turned to jelly, it’s just that I’m suffering from an overdose of terror right now. I mean, when I’ve got over that then I’ll have time to be decently frightened of you.

The Weasel pointed toward the burning city.

You’ve been through that? he asked.

The wizard rubbed a red-raw hand across his eyes. I was there when it started. See him? Back there? He pointed back down the road to where his traveling companion was still approaching, having adopted a method of riding that involved falling out of the saddle every few seconds.

Well? said Weasel.

He started it, said Rincewind simply.

Bravd and Weasel looked at the figure, now hopping across the road with one foot in a stirrup.

Fire-raiser, is he? said Bravd at last.

No, said Rincewind. Not precisely. Let’s just say that if complete and utter chaos were lightning, then he’d be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor and shouting ‘All gods are bastards.’ Got any food?

There’s some chicken, said Weasel. In exchange for a story.

What’s his name? said Bravd, who tended to lag behind in conversations.

Twoflower.

Twoflower? said Bravd. What a funny name.

You, said Rincewind, dismounting, do not know the half of it. Chicken, you say?

Deviled, said Weasel. The wizard groaned.

That reminds me, added the Weasel, snapping his fingers, there was a really big explosion about, oh, half an hour ago—

That was the oil bond store going up, said Rincewind, wincing at the memory of the burning rain.

Weasel turned and grinned expectantly at his companion, who grunted and handed over a coin from his pouch. Then there was a scream from the roadway, cut off abruptly. Rincewind did not look up from his chicken.

One of the things he can’t do, he can’t ride a horse, he said. Then he stiffened as if sandbagged by a sudden recollection, gave a small yelp of terror and dashed into the gloom. When he returned, the being called Twoflower was hanging limply over his shoulder. It was small and skinny, and dressed very oddly in a pair of knee length britches and a shirt in such a violent and vivid conflict of colors that Weasel’s fastidious eye was offended even in the half-light.

No bones broken, by the feel of things, said Rincewind. He was breathing heavily. Bravd winked at the Weasel and went to investigate the shape that they assumed was a pack animal.

You’d be wise to forget it, said the wizard, without looking up from his examination of the unconscious Twoflower. Believe me. A power protects it.

A spell? said Weasel, squatting down.

No-oo. But magic of a kind, I think. Not the usual sort. I mean, it can turn gold into copper while at the same time it is still gold, it makes men rich by destroying their possessions, it allows the weak to walk fearlessly among thieves, it passes through the strongest doors to leach the most protected treasuries. Even now it has me enslaved—so that I must follow this madman willynilly and protect him from harm. It’s stronger than you, Bravd. It is, I think, more cunning even than you, Weasel.

What is it called then, this mighty magic?

Rincewind shrugged. "In our tongue it is called reflected-sound-as-of-underground-spirits. Is there any wine?"

You must know that I am not without artifice where magic is concerned, said Weasel. "Only last year did I—assisted by my friend there—part the notoriously powerful Archmage of Ymitury from his staff, his belt of moon jewels and his life, in that approximate order. I do not fear this reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits of which you speak. However, he added, you engage my interest. Perhaps you would care to tell me more?"

Bravd looked at the shape on the road. It was closer now, and clearer in the pre-dawn light. It looked for all the world like a—

A box on legs? he said.

I’ll tell you about it, said Rincewind. If there’s any wine, that is.

Down in the valley there was a roar and a hiss. Someone more thoughtful than the rest had ordered to be shut the big river gates that were at the point where the Ankh flowed out of the twin city. Denied its usual egress, the river had burst its banks and was pouring down the fire-ravaged streets. Soon the continent of flame became a series of islands, each one growing smaller as the dark tide rose. And up from the city of fumes and smoke rose a broiling cloud of steam, covering the stars. Weasel thought that it looked like some dark fungus or mushroom.

The twin city of proud Ankh and pestilent Morpork, of which all the other cities of time and space are, as it were, mere reflections, has stood many assaults in its long and crowded history and has always risen to flourish again. So the fire and its subsequent flood, which destroyed everything left that was not flammable and added a particularly noisome flux to the survivors’ problems, did not mark its end. Rather it was a fiery punctuation mark, a coal-like comma, or salamander semicolon, in a continuing story.

Several days before these events a ship came up the Ankh on the dawn tide and fetched up, among many others, in the maze of wharves and docks on the Morpork shore. It carried a cargo of pink pearls, milk nuts, pumice, some official letters for the Patrician of Ankh, and a man.

It was the man who engaged the attention of Blind Hugh, one of the beggars on early duty at Pearl Dock. He nudged Cripple Wa in the ribs, and pointed wordlessly.

Now the stranger was standing on the quayside, watching several straining seamen carry a large, brass-bound chest down the gangplank. Another man, obviously the captain, was standing beside him. There was about the seaman—every nerve in Blind Hugh’s body, which tended to vibrate in the presence of even a small amount of impure gold at fifty paces, screamed into his brain—the air of one anticipating imminent enrichment.

Sure enough, when the chest had been deposited on the cobbles, the stranger reached into a pouch and there was the flash of a coin. Several coins. Gold. Blind Hugh, his body twanging like a hazel rod in the presence of water, whistled to himself. Then he nudged Wa again, and sent him scurrying off down a nearby alley into the heart of the city.

When the captain walked back onto his ship, leaving the newcomer looking faintly bewildered on the quayside, Blind Hugh snatched up his begging cup and made his way across the street with an ingratiating leer. At the sight of him the stranger started to fumble urgently with his money pouch.

Good day to thee, sire, Blind Hugh began, and found himself looking up into a face with four eyes in it. He turned to run.

! said the stranger, and grabbed his arm. Hugh was aware that the sailors lining the rail of the ship were laughing at him. At the same time his specialized senses detected an overpowering impression of money. He froze. The stranger let go and quickly thumbed through a small black book he had taken from his belt. Then he said, Hallo.

What? said Hugh. The man looked blank.

Hallo? he repeated, rather louder than necessary and so carefully that Hugh could hear the vowels tinkling into place.

Hallo yourself, Hugh riposted. The stranger smiled widely, fumbled yet again in the pouch. This time his hand came out holding a large gold coin. It was in fact slightly larger than an 8,000-dollar Ankhian crown and the design on it was unfamiliar, but it spoke inside Hugh’s mind in a language he understood perfectly. My current owner, it said, is in need of succor and assistance; why not give it to him, so you and me can go off somewhere and enjoy ourselves?

Subtle changes in the beggar’s posture made the stranger feel more at ease. He consulted the small book again.

I wish to be directed to a hotel, tavern, lodging house, inn, hospice, caravanserai, he said.

What, all of them? said Hugh, taken aback.

? said the stranger.

Hugh was aware that a small crowd of fishwives, shellfish diggers and freelance gawpers was watching them with interest.

Look, he said, I know a good tavern, is that enough? He shuddered to think of the gold coin escaping from his life. He’d keep that one, even if Ymor confiscated all the rest. And the big chest that comprised most of the newcomer’s luggage looked to be full of gold, Hugh decided.

The four-eyed man looked at his book.

I would like to be directed to a hotel, place of repose, tavern, a—

Yes, all right. Come on then, said Hugh hurriedly. He picked up one of the bundles and walked away quickly. The stranger, after a moment’s hesitation, strolled after him.

A train of thought shunted its way through Hugh’s mind. Getting the newcomer to the Broken Drum so easily was a stroke of luck, no doubt of it, and Ymor would probably reward him. But for all his new acquaintance’s mildness there was something about him that made Hugh uneasy, and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what it was. Not the two extra eyes, odd though they were. There was something else. He glanced back.

The little man was ambling along in the middle of the street, looking around him with an expression of keen interest.

Something else Hugh saw nearly made him gibber.

The massive wooden chest, which he had last seen resting solidly on the quayside, was following on its master’s heels with a gentle rocking gait. Slowly, in case a sudden movement on his part might break his fragile control over his own legs, Hugh bent slightly so that he could see under the chest.

There were lots and lots of little legs.

Very deliberately, Hugh turned around and walked very carefully toward the Broken Drum.

Odd, said Ymor.

He had this big wooden chest, added Cripple Wa.

He’d have to be a merchant or a spy, said Ymor. He pulled a scrap of meat from the cutlet in his hand and tossed it into the air. It hadn’t reached the zenith of its arc before a black shape detached itself from the shadows in the corner of

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