“Yes. It runs along the edge of the world,” said the unseen troll. Above the roar of the waterfall Rincewind thought he could make out the splash of oars. He hoped they were oars.
“Ah. You mean the circumference,” said Rincewind. “The circumference makes the edge of things.”
“So does the Circumfence,” said the troll.
“He means this,” said Twoflower, pointing down Rincewind’s eyes followed the finger, dreading what they might see…
Hubwards of the boat was a rope suspended a few feet above the surface of the white water. The boat was attached to it, moored yet mobile, by a complicated arrangement of pulleys and little wooden wheels. They ran along the rope as the unseen rower propelled the craft along the very lip of the Rimfall. That explained one mystery but what supported the rope?
Rincewind peered along its length and saw a stout wooden post sticking up out of the water a few yards ahead. As he watched the boat neared it and then passed it, the little wheels clacking neatly around it in a groove obviously cut for the purpose. Rincewind also noticed that smaller ropes hung down from the main rope at intervals of a yard or so.
He turned back to Twoflower.
“I can see what it is,” he said, “But what is it?”
Twoflower shrugged. Behind Rincewind the sea troll said, “Up ahead is my house. We will talk more when we are there. Now I must row.”
ost powerful spell on the disc. He had
-there was definitely less horizon than there ought to be.
“Hmm” Said Rincewind.
“I said nothing’s worse than slavery,” said Twoflower. His mouth opened as the wizard flung his bucket far out to sea and sat down heavily on the waterlogged deck, his face a grey mask.
“Look, I’m sorry I steered us into the reef, but this boat doesn’t seem to want to sink and we’re bound to strike land sooner or later,” said Twoflower comfortingly. “This current must go somewhere.”
“Look at the horizon,” Said Rincewind, in a monotone.
Twoflower squinted.
“It looks all right,” he said after a while.
“Admittedly, there seems to be less than there usually is, but-“
“That’s because of the Rimfall,” said Rincewind.
“We’re being carried over the edge of the world.”
There was a long silence, broken only by the lapping of the waves as the foundering ship spun slowly in the current. It was already quite strong.
“That’s probably why we hit that reef,” Rincewind added. “we got pulled off course during the night.”
“Would you like something to eat?” asked Twoflower. He began to rummage through the bundle that he had tied to the rail, out of the damp.
“Don’t you understand?” snarled Rincewind. “We are going over the Edge, godsdammit!”
“Can’t we do anything about it?”
“No!”
“Then I can’t see the sense in panicking,” said Twoflower calmly.
“I knew we shouldn’t have come this far Edgewise,” complained Rincewind to the skye “I wish-“
“I wish I had my picture-box,” said Twoflower, “but it’s back on that slaver ship with the rest of the Luggage and-“
“You won’t need luggage where we’re going,” said Rincewind. He sagged, and stared moodily at a distant whale that had carelessly strayed into the rimward current and was now struggling against it.