'No, Commander, the word means What is that in the table? ,' said the Patrician sharply.
Vimes looked into the room. There was no one there. The long mahogany table was bare.
Except for the axe. It had embedded itself in the wood very deeply, almost splitting the table along its entire length. Someone had walked up to the table and brought an axe down right in the centre as hard as they could and then left it there, its handle pointing towards the ceiling.
'That's an axe,' said Vimes.
'Astonishing,' said Lord Vetinari. 'And you've barely had time to study it. Why is it there?'
'I really couldn't say, sir.'
'According to the servants, Sir Samuel, you came into the palace at six o'clock this morning...'
'Oh, yes, sir. To check that the bastard was safely in a cell, sir. And to see that everything was all right, of course.'
'You didn't come into this room?'
Vimes kept his gaze fixed somewhere on the horizon. 'Why should I have done that, sir?'
The Patrician tapped the axe handle. It vibrated with a faint thumping noise. 'I believe some of the City Council met in here this morning. Or came in here, at least. I'm told they hurried out very quickly. Looking rather disturbed, I'm told.'
'Maybe it was one of them that did it, sir.'
'That is, of course, a possibility,' said Lord Vetinari. 'I suppose you won't be able to find one of your famous Clues on the thing?'
'Shouldn't think so, sir. Not with all these fingerprints on it.'
'It would be a terrible thing, would it not, if people thought they could take the law into their own hands...'
'Oh, no fear of that, sir. I'm holding on tightly to it.'
Lord Vetinari plunked the axe again. 'Tell me, Sir Samuel, do you know the phrase Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? ?'
It was an expression Carrot had occasionally used, but Vimes was not in the mood to admit anything. 'Can't say that I do, sir,' he said. 'Something about trifle, is it?'
'It means Who guards the guards themselves? , Sir Samuel.'
'Ah.'
'Well?'
'Sir?'
'Who watches the Watch? I wonder?'
'Oh, that's easy, sir. We watch one another.'
'Really? An intriguing point...'
Lord Vetinari walked out of the room and back into the main hall, with Vimes trailing behind. 'However,' he said, 'in order to keep the peace, the golem will have to be destroyed.'
'No, sir.'
'Allow me to repeat my instruction.'
'No, sir.'
'I'm sure I just gave you an order, Commander. I distinctly felt my lips move.'