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Steps led down into the velvet glooh it had been locked in a pyramid for a thousand years

'People don't come down here very often,' said Ysabell 'I'll lead the way'

Mort felt so ed

'I must say,' he said, 'you're a real brick'

'You mean pink, square and duirl, my boy'

'Mort,' said Mort automatically

The Stack was as dark and silent as a cave deep underground The shelves were barely far enough apart for one person to walk between theht They were particularly eerie because they were silent There were no more lives to write; the books slept But Mort felt that they slept like cats, with one eye open They were aware

'I cao far enough along the shelves the books run out and there's clay tablets and lu'

The silence was al thees Everyone who had ever lived was here soods had baked out of mud or whatever They didn't exactly resent hi about why he was here

'Did you get past Ug and Zog?' he hissed There's a lot of people would be very interested to knohat's there'

'I got frightened It's a long way and I didn't have enough candles'

'Pity'

Ysabell stopped so sharply that Mort cannoned into the back of her

This would be about the right area,' she said 'What now?'

Mort peered at the faded names on the spines

'They don't seem to be in any order!' he moaned

They looked up They wandered down a couple of side alleys They pulled a few books off the lowest shelves at rando pillows of dust

'This is silly,' said Mort at last There'shis are worse than --'

Ysabell laid her hand against his mouth

'Listen!'

Mort e He strained his ears, striving to hear anything above the heavy hiss of absolute silence

And then he found it A faint, irritable scratching High, high overhead, somewhere in the impenetrable darkness on the cliff of shelves, a life was still being written

They looked at each other, their eyes widening Then Ysabell said, 'We passed a ladder back there On wheels'

The little castors on the bottom squeaked as Mort rolled it back The top end moved too, as if it was fixed to another set of wheels soht,' he said 'Giveup, then so am I,' said Ysabell firmly 'You stop down here and ue'

'It allantly

'It erous down here,' Ysabell pointed out 'So I'll be up the ladder with the candle, thank you'

She set her foot on the botto and was soon no ht that soon began to shrink

Mort steadied the ladder and tried not to think of all the lives pressing in on him Occasionally a meteor of hot ould thu a crater in the dust Ysabell was now a faint glow far above, and he could feel every footstep as it vibrated down the ladder

She stopped It see time

Then her voice floated down, deadened by the weight of silence around the it down'

'Mort, you were right'

'Okay, thanks Now bring it down,'

'Yes, Mort, but which one?'

'Don't er'

'Mort!'

'What?'

'Mort, there's a whole shelf!'

Now it really was dawn, that cusp of the day that belonged to no-one except the seagulls in Morpork docks, the tide that rolled in up the river, and a war to the complex odour of the city

Death sat on a bollard, looking out to sea He had decided to stop being drunk It areatest pleasures, and wasn't sure that he saw the point Food he was happy with – Death liked a good meal as much as anyone else He couldn't think of any other pleasures of the flesh or, rather, he could, but they were, well, fleshy, and he couldn't see hoould be possible to go about theoing to conte therew older, so presuan to feel that he wouldn't understand people as long as he lived

The sunof that little springtih fifty feet of tiulls swooped and dived around hihth life and its last ear, eed from its lair in a heap of abandoned fish boxes, stretched, yawned, and rubbed itself against his legs The breeze, cutting through Ankh's faht a hint of spices and fresh bread

Death was bewildered He couldn't fight it He was actually feeling glad to be alive, and very reluctant to be Death

I MUST BE SICKENING FOR SOMETHING, he thought

Mort eased hiside Ysabell It was shaky, but seeht didn't bother hi beloas just blackness

So apart He reached out for one at rando the ladder treht it back and opened it somewhere in the middle

'Move the candle this way,' he said

'Can you read it?'

'Sort of --'

-- "turnered hys hand, butt was sorelie vexed that alle menne at laste comme to nort, viz Deathe, and vowed hymme to seke Ie wizzerds, 'we may take unto ourselfes the , Alberto" --

'It's written in Old,' he said 'Before they invented spelling Let's have a look at the latest one'

It was Albert all right Mort caught several references to fried bread

'Let's have a look at what he's doing now,' said Ysabell

'Do you think we should? It's a bit like spying'