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‘Speaking as a poet,’ said Conina carefully, ‘ould you say about this situation?’

Creosote shifted uneasily ‘Funny old thing, life,’ he said

‘Pretty apt’

Nijel lay back and looked up at the hazy stars Then he sat bolt upright

‘Did you see that?’ he demanded

‘What?’

‘It was a sort of flash, a kind of-’

The hubward horizon exploded into a silent flower of colour, which expanded rapidly through all the hues of the conventional spectru into brilliant octarine It etched itself on their eyeballs before fading away

After a while there was a distant rumble

‘Soust of ind picked up the etting to his feet ‘I’ him’

He reached out for Rincewind’s shoulder just as so a noise like a flock of geese on nitrous oxide It disappeared into the desert behind them Then there was a sound that would have set false teeth on edge, a flash of green light, and a thuet the carpet’

She claently by the ar a somna on his foot

He opened his eyes

‘Where a’

Rincewind blinked at the mist, the sky, the circle of stones, Conina, the circle of stones again, and finally back at the sky

‘What’s been happening?’ he said

‘Soical fireworks’

‘Oh It’s started, then’

He lurched unsteadily out of the circle, in a way that suggested to Conina that perhaps he wasn’t quite awake yet, and staggered back towards the remains of the fire He walked a few steps and then appeared to re

He looked down at his foot, and said, ‘Ow’

He’d almost reached the fire when the blast from the last spell reached them It had been aimed at the tower in Al Khali, which enty miles away, and by now the wavefront was extres as it surged over the dunes with a faint sucking noise; the fire burned red and green for a second, one of Nijel’s sandals turned into a seon flew out of the Seriph’s turban

Then it was past and boiling out over the sea

‘What was that?’ said Nijel He kicked the badger, as sniffing at his foot

‘Hmm?’ said Rincewind

‘That!’

‘Oh, that,’ said Rincewind ‘Just the backwash of a spell They probably hit the tower in Al Khali’

‘Itto affect us here’

‘It probably was’

‘Hey, that was my palace,’ said Creosote weakly ‘I mean, I knoas a lot, but it was all I had’

‘Sorry’

‘But there were people in the city!’

They’re probably all right,’ said Rincewind

‘Good’

‘Whatever they are’

‘What?’

Conina grabbed his arm ‘Don’t shout at him,’ she said ‘He’s not himself’

Ah,’ said Creosote dourly, ‘an improvement’

‘I say, that’s a bit unfair,’ Nijel protested ‘I ot me out of the snake pit and, well, he knows a lot-’