“Please give me the bomb, sir,” said the man with the metallic thing. “Carefully, please.”
“This thing?” said Rincewind.
“You have it-“
“I don’t want it!”
The man took it very carefully and put it on the floor. The seated men relaxed, and one of them started speaking urgently to the wall. The wizard watched him in amazement.
“Don’t move.” snapped the man with the metal-an amulet, Rincewind decided, it must be an amulet. The swarthy man backed into the corner.
“That was a very brave thing you did,” said Amulet-holder to Rincewind. “You know that?
“What?”
“What’s the matter with your friend?”
“Friend?”
Rincewind looked down at Twoflower, who was still slumbering peacefully. That was no surprise. What was really surprising was that Twoflower was wearing new clothes. Strange clothes. His britches now ended just above his knees. Above that he wore some sort of vest of brightly-striped material. On his head was a ridiculous little straw hat. With a feather in it.
An awkward feeling around the leg regions made Rincewind look down. His clothes had changed too. Instead of the comfortable old robe, so marvellously well-adapted for speed into action in all possible contingencies, his legs were encased in cloth tubes. He was wearing a jacket of the same grey material…
Until now he’d never heard the language the man with the amulet was using. It was uncouth and vaguely Hublandish - so why could he understand every word?
Let’s see, they’d suddenly appeared in this dragon after, they’d materialised in this drag, they’d sudd, they’d, they’d - they had struck up a conversation in the airport so naturally they had chosen to sit together on the plane, and he’d promised to show Jack Zweiblumen around when they got back to the States. Yes, that was it. And then Jack had been taken ill and he’d panicked and come through here and surprised this hijacker. Of course. What on earth was “Hublandish”? Dr Rjinswand rubbed his forehead. What he could do with was a drink.
ower grabbed him quickly.
“Steady on,” he said cheerfully. “We’re nearly there.”
“I wish I was back in the city,” moaned Rincewind. “I wish I was back on the ground.”
“I wonder if dragons can fly all the way to the stars?” mused Twoflower. “Now that would be something…”
“You’re mad,” said Rincewind flatly. There was no reply from the tourist, and when the wizard craned around he was horrified to see Twoflower looking up at the paling stars with an odd smile on his face.
“Don’t” you even think about it,” added Rincewind, menacingly.
The man you seek is talking to the dragon-woman said the dragon.
“Hmm?” said Twoflower, still looking at the paling stars.
“What?” said Rincewind urgently.
“Oh yes. Hrun,” said Twoflower. “I hope we’re in time. Dive now. Go low.”
Rincewind opened his eyes as the wind increased to a whistling gale. Perhaps they were blown open - the wind certainly made them impossible to shut.
The flat summit of the Wyrmberg rose up at them, lurched alarmingly, then somersaulted into a green blur that flashed by on either side. Tiny woods and fields blurred into a rushing patchwork. A brief silvery flash in the landscape may have been the little river that overflowed into the air at the plateau’s rim. Rincewind tried to force the memory out of his mind , but it was rather enjoying itself there, terrorizing the other occupants and kicking over the furniture.
“I think not,” said Liessa.
Hrun took the wine cup, slowly. He grinned like a pumpkin.
Around the arena the dragons started to bay. Their riders looked up. And something like a green blur flashed across the arena, and Hrun had gone. The winecup hung momentarily in the air, then crashed down on the steps. Only then did a single drop spill.
This was because, in the instant of enfolding Hrun gently in his claws, Ninereeds the dragon had momentarily synchronized their bodily rhythms. Since the dimension of the imagination is much more complex than those of time and space, which are very junior dimensions indeed, the effect of this was to instantly transform a stationary and priapic Hrun into a Hrun moving sideways at eighty miles an hour with no ill-effects whatsoever, except for a few wasted mouthfuls of wine. Another effect was to cause Liessa to scream with rage and summon her dragon. As the gold beast materialised in front of her she leapt astride it, still naked, and snatched a crossbow from one of the guards. Then she was airborne, while the other dragonriders swarmed towards their own beasts.