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Thought I'd forgotten it, for ait out 'You can cohtness of day, aVerence blinked He wasn't used to daylight

'Esme,' said Nanny 'There's someone to see you'

Granny turned slowly and squinted at the ghost

'I saw you in the dungeon, didn't I?' she said 'Who're you?'

'Verence, King of Lancre,' said the ghost, and bowed 'Do I have the honour of addressing Granny Weatherwax, doyenne of witches?'

It has already been pointed out that just because Verence cas didn't mean that he was basically stupid, and a year without the distractions of the flesh had done wonders as well Granny Weatherwax considered herself totally unsusceptible to buttering up, but the king was expertly applying the equivalent of the dairy surplus of quite a large country Boas a particularly good touch

A ave a stiff little bow in return, because she wasn't quite sure what 'doyenne' meant

'I'et up now,' she added, regally

King Verence reround

'I crave a boon,' he said urgently

'Here, how did you get out of the castle?' said Granny

'The estee 'I reasoned, if I ao where the stones go I aeher apron'

'Not the first, either,' said Granny, auto you, Granny Weatherwax, to restore my son to the throne'

'Restore?'

'You knohat I ood health?'

Granny nodded 'The last ti an apple,' she said

'It is his destiny to be King of Lancre!'

'Yes, well Destiny is tricky, you know,' said Granny

'You will not help?'

Granny looked wretched 'It'sif you meddle in politics Like, once you start, you can't stop Funda with funda to help?'

'Wellnaturally, one day, when your lad is a bit older'

'Where is he now?' said the king, coldly

The witches avoided one another's faces

'We saw him safe out of the country, you see,' said Granny aardly

'Very good fa put in quickly

'What kind of people?' said the king 'Not commoners, I trust?'

'Absolutely not,' said Granny with considerable firination 'Not common at all Very uncorat for help

They were Thespians,' said Magrat fir found hi automatically

'Oh,' he said 'Good'

'Were they?' whispered Nanny Ogg 'They didn't look it'

'Don't show your ignorance, Gytha Ogg,' sniffed Granny She turned back to the ghost of the king 'Sorry about that, youroff She don't even knohere Thespia is'

'Wherever it is, I hope that they kno to school a man in the arts of war,' said Verence 'I know Fel in here like a toad in a stone'

The king looked frododoe, over the years, becohost faded

His voice hung in the air, faint as a breeze

'Re are one'

And he vanished

The e her nose

'One what?' said Nanny Ogg

'We've got to do sorat, her voice choked with e,' said Granny, quietly

'Yes, but what are you going to do?' she said

'Reflect on things,' said Granny 'Think about it all'

'You've been thinking about it for a year,' Magrat said

'One what? Are one what?' said Nanny Ogg

'It's no good just reacting,' said Granny 'You've got to--'

A cart ca the track fros careful consideration'

'You don't knohat to do, do you?' said Magrat

'Nonsense I--'

'There's a cart coed 'What you youngsters don't realise--' she began

Witches never bothered with elementary road safety Such traffic as there was on the roads of Lancre either went around them or, if this was not possible, waited until theythis for a fact; the only reason she didn't die knowing that it wasn't was that Magrat, with rather better reflexes, dragged her into the ditch

It was an interesting ditch There were jiggling corkscrew things in it which were direct descendants of things which had been in the priht that ditchwater was dull could have spent an instructive half-hour in that ditch with a powerful microscope It also had nettles in it, and now it had Granny Weatherwax

She struggled up through the weeds, incoherent with rage, and rose from the ditch like Venus Anadyomene, only older and witha shaking finger at the disappearing cart