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It was thicker than any nors that covered it froave the iret it

Albert brushed hiain and examined himself critically in the washstand mirror

Then he said, 'Hat No hat Got to have a hat for the wizarding Damn'

He stamped out of the room and returned after a busy fifteen minutes which included a circular hole cut out of the carpet in Mort's bedroom, the silver paper taken out from behind the mirror in Ysabell's room, a needle and thread from the box under the sink in the kitchen and a few loose sequins scraped up froood as he would have liked and tended to slip rakishly over one eye, but it was black and had stars and moons on it and proclaih possibly a desperate one

He felt properly dressed for the first ti and caused hi beside the bed and used the staff to draw a circle on the floor

When the tip of the staff passed it left a line of glowing octarine, the eighth colour of the spectruination

He ht points on its circuraan to fill the room

Alberto Malich stepped into the centre and held the staff above his head He felt it wake to his grip, felt the tingle of the sleeping power unfold itself slowly and deliberately, like a waking tiger It triggered old h the cobwebbed attics of his mind He felt alive for the first ti had died away, leaving a strange, waiting kind of silence

Malich raised his head and shouted one single syllable

Blue-green fire flashed from both ends of the staff Streaht pouits of the octogram and enveloped the wizard All this wasn't actually necessary to accomplish the spell, but wizards consider appearances are very important

So are disappearances He vanished

Stratohemispheric winds whipped at Mort's cloak

'Where are we going first?' yelled Ysabell in his ear

'Bes Pelargic!' shouted Mort, the gale whirling his words away

'Where's that?'

'Agatean Eht Continent!'

He pointed doard

He wasn't forcing Binky at thewhite horse was currently running at an easy gallop out over the ocean Ysabell looked down at roaring green waves topped hite foahter to Mort

Mort peered ahead at the cloudbank that e to hurry Binky along with the flat of his sword He'd never struck the horse and wasn't at all confident about ould happen if he did All he could do ait

A hand appeared under his ar a sandwich

'There's haht as well eat, there's nothing else to do'

Mort looked down at the soggy triangle and tried to remember when he last had a meal Some time beyond the reach of a clock, anyway – he'd need a calendar to calculate it He took the sandwich

'Thanks,' he said, as graciously as he could e

The tiny sun rolled doards the horizon, towing its lazy daylight behind it The clouds ahead grew, and becae After a while he could make out the darker blur of land below thehts of a city

Half an hour later he was sure he could see individual buildings Agatean architecture inclined towards squat pyraht until his hooves were barely a few feet above the sea Mort exaed on the reins to direct the horse towards a seaport a little Rimwards of their present course

There were a few ships at anchor, le-sailed coastal traders The Eo far away, in case they saw things that ht disturb them For the same reason it had built a wall around the entire country, patrolled by the Heavenly Guard whose ers of any inhabitants who felt they ht like to step outside for five minutes for a breath of fresh air

This didn't happen often, because most of the subjects of the Sun Emperor were quite happy to live inside the Wall It's a fact of life that everyone is on one side or other of a wall, so the only thing to do is forget about it or evolve stronger fingers

'Who runs this place?' said Ysabell, as they passed over the harbour

'There's some kind of boy emperor,' said Mort 'But the top man is really the Grand Vizier, I think'

'Never trust a Grand Vizier,' said Ysabell wisely

In fact the Sun E Mirrors, had so, that it should be hih to ask questions like 'Don't you think the ould look better with a few gates in it?' and 'Yes, but what is it like on the other side?' he had decided that in the Emperor's own best interests he should be painfully poisoned and buried in quickliravel outside the low,the harmony of the universe[8] Mort slid off his back and helped Ysabell down

'Just don't get in the ill you?' he said urgently 'And don't ask questions either'