And what have we got now? Perdita chimed in. The knowing but technically inexperienced young woman, the harassed young mother and the silver-haired golden alter... doesn't exactly sound mythic, does it? But Magrat just bundled up her little baby as soon as she heard Granny was in trouble and she didn't even stop to worry about her husband...
'Wait a moment... listen,' said Agnes.
'What for?'
'Just listen... the sound echoes in these caves...'
Nanny Ogg sat down on the sand and wriggled slightly to settle in firmly. She took out her pipe.
'So,' she said to the recumbent figure, 'apart from all that, how are you feeling?'
There was no reply.
'Saw Mrs Patternoster this morning,' Nanny went on chattily. 'Her from over in Slice. Just passed the time of day. Mrs ivy is bearing up well, she says.'
She blew out a cloud of smoke.
'I put her right about a few things,' she said.
There was still silence from the shadowy figure.
'The Naming went off all right. The priest's as wet as a snow omelette, though.'
'I can't beat 'em, Gytha,' said Granny. 'I can't beat 'em, and that's a fact.'
One of Nanny Ogg's hidden talents was knowing when to say nothing. It left a hole in the conversation that the other person felt obliged to fill.
'They've got minds like steel. I can't touch 'em. I've been tryin' everything. Every trick I've got! They've been searching for me but they can't focus right when I'm in here. The best one nearly got to me at the cottage. My cottage!'
Nanny Ogg understood the horror. A witch's cottage was her fortress.
'I've never felt anything like it, Gytha. He's had hundreds of years to get good. You noticed the magpies? He's using 'em as eyes. And he's clever, too. He's not going to fall to a garlic sandwich, that one. I can pick up that much. These vampires has learned. That's what they've never done before. I can't find a way into 'em anywhere. They're more powerful, stronger, they think quick... I tell you, going mind to mind with him's like spittin' at a thunderstorm.'
'So what're you going to do?'
'Nothing! There's nothing I can do! Can't you understand what I've been tellin' you? Don't you know I've been lying here all day tryin' to think of something? They know all about magic, Borrowing's second nature to them, they're fast, they think we're like cattle that can talk... I never expected anything like this, Gytha. I've thought about it round and round and there's not a thing I can see to do.'
'There's always a way,' said Nanny.
'I can't see it,' said Granny. 'This is it, Gytha. I might as well lie here until the water drips on me and I go into stone like the ol' witch at the door.'
'You'll find a way,' said Nanny. 'Weatherwaxes don't let 'emselves get beaten. It's something in the blood, like I've always said.'
'I am beaten, Gytha. Even before I start. Maybe someone else has a way, but I haven't. I'm up against a mind that's better'n mine. I just about keep it away from me but I can't get in. I can't fight back.'
The chilly feeling crept over Nanny Ogg that Granny Weatherwax meant it.
'I never thought I'd hear you say that,' she muttered.
'Off you go. No sense in keepin' the baby out in the cold.'
'And what are you going to do?'
'Maybe I shall move on. Maybe I'll just stop here.'
'Can't stop here for ever, Esme.'
'Ask her that is by the door.'