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Errol balanced on his fla

Then he nonchalantly kicked his back legs out as though hovering on your own stoons had mastered over millions of years, somersaulted, and fled For a moment he was visible as a silver streak, and then he was out over the city walls and gone

A groan followed him It came from ten thousand throats

Viuv," said Nobby quickly "He's-he's probably gone to, to have a drink Or so"

"I ," said Colon uncertainly "He wouldn't just run away after eating a kettle Stands to reason Anyone who could eat a kettle wouldn't run away fro "

"And my armour polish," said Carrot "It was nearly a whole dollar for the tin"

"There you are then," said Colon "It's like I said"

"Look," said Vion, I liked him as much as you, a very nice little chap, but he's just done the sensible thing, for gods' sake, he's not going to get burned to bits just to save us Life just doesn't work like that You on strutted through the air and flamed a nearby tower It had won

"I've never seen that before," said Lady Raht to the death"

"At last they've bred one who's sensible," said Vion the size of Errol beating so are a million-to-one"

There was one of those silences you get after one clear bright note has been struck and the world pauses

The rank looked at one another

"Million-to-one?" asked Carrot nonchalantly

"Definitely," said Vimes "Million-to-one"

The rank looked at one another again

"Million-to-one," said Colon

"Million-to-one," agreed Nobby

"That's right," said Carrot "Million-to-one"

There was another high-toned silence Theto be the first to say it

Sergeant Colon took a deep breath

"But itabout?" snapped Viently in the ribs and pointed out across the plains

There was a colu ahead of the s fast, was a silvery bullet

The great dragon had seen it too It fla the air with its enors

Now Errol's flame was visible, so hot as to be almost blue The landscape rolled away underneath hi

Ahead of hi

Errol's going to hit it, Viht Gods help us all, it'll be a fireball

So out in the fields A little way behind Errol the ground appeared to be ploughing itself up, throwing cabbage stalks into the air A hedgerow erupted in a shower of sawdust

Errol passed silently over the city walls, nose up, wings folded down to tiny flaps, his body honed to a mere cone with a flaue of fire; Vi stub, roll easily out of its path And then he was gone, speeding out towards the sea in the saan

The air ruptured An endless thunderclap of noise dragged across the city, s was picked up, flattened out and spun like a top in the sonic wash Vimes, his hands over his own ears, saw the creature flame desperately as it turned and becaic crackled along its wings It screa its head dazedly, it began to glide in a wide circle

Vi that tore masonry apart What did you have to do to beat it? You can't fight it, he thought You can't burn it, you can't s you can do to it

The dragon landed It wasn't a perfect landing A perfect landing wouldn't have deo on for a long tis flapping aihed on through a debris of bea the trail of destruction

Finally it came to rest at the end of the furrow, almost invisible under a heap of former architecture

The silence that it left was broken only by the shouts of soanise yet another bucket chain from the river to douse the fires

Then people started to move

From the air Ankh-Morpork must have looked like a disturbed anthill, with streaon

Most of them had some kind of weapon

Many of them had spears

Some of them had swords

All of them had one aim in mind

"You knohat?" said Vi to be the world's first deon One ot to stop them You can't let them kill it!" said Lady Ramkin

Vimes blinked at her

"Pardon?" he said

"It's wounded!"

"Lady, that was the intention, wasn't it? Anyway, it's only stunned," said Vimes

"I mean you can't let them kill it like this," said Lady Ra!"

"What do you want to do, then?" de dose of tar oil and a nice comfy basket in front of the stove?"

"It's butchery!"