Page 47 (1/2)

Ow

"Listen, friend I've got no tiods of Ephebe and Tsort?"

lo, clutching at his nose, waved vaguely towards the center of the hall

"You nidn't naf to ndo dat!" he said reproachfully

Om strode across the hall

In the center of the room hat at first looked like a round table, and then looked like a model of the Discworld, Turtle, elephants and all, and then in some undefinable way looked like the real Discworld, seen fro subtly wrong about the distances, a feeling of vast space curled up small But possibly the real Discworld wasn't covered with a network of glowing lines, hovering just above the surface Or perhaps miles above the surface?

Om hadn't seen this before, but he knehat it was Both a wave and a particle; both adome on top of the tiny Cori Celesti, he would undoubtedly see hi down on an even smaller modeland so on, down to the point where the universe coiled up like the tail of an ao and never believed in any gods at all

The gods clustered around it, watching intently

Om elbowed aside ajust above the world, and acounters You didn't need to be even slightly o on

"He hid by nose!"

Oet a face, friend Just take yours away, right? While you still have soame

"S'cuse e newt

"Yes?"

"You not supposed do that here No Set your huht his hu, od?"

"Definite"

"Yeah? How ot?"

"Fifty-one!"

The newt looked at him hopefully, and added, "Is that lots? Can't count"

It pointed at a rather crudely ot a stake!"

Oure of the little fisherman

"When he dies, you'll have fifty worshippers," he said

"That more or less than fifty-one?"

"A lot less"

"Definite?"

"Yes"

"No one tellthe beach Ooddess with the badly carved owl Yes

O It seeot that it wasn't a gaot chopped off We're like eagles up here, he thought Sometio

He said, to the occult world in general, "There's people going to die down there"

A Tsortean God of the Sun did not even bother to look round

"That's what they're for," he said In his hand he was holding a dice box that looked very much like a human skull with rubies in the eye-sockets

"Ah, yes," said Oot that, for a moment" He looked at the skull, and then turned to the little Goddess of Plenty

"What's this, love? A cornucopia? Can I have a look? Thanks"

Oed the Newt God

"If I was you, friend, I'd find so and hefty," he said

"Is one less than fifty-one?" said P'Tang-P'Tang

"It's the same," said Om, firmly He eyed the back of the Tsortean God's head

"But you have thousands," said the Newt God "You fight for thousands"

Oht I can't stop thinking at ground level

"I think," he said, "I think, if you want thousands, you have to fight for one" He tapped the Solar God on the shoulder "Hey, sunshine?"

When the God looked around, Om broke the cornucopia over his head

It wasn't a normal thunderclap It stuttered like the shyness of supernovas, great ripping billows of sound that tore up the sky Sand fountained up and whirled across the recu stabbed down, and sympathetic fire leapt from spear-tip and sword-point

Si darkness

"What the hell's happening?" He nudged the body next to hiavisti They stared at one another

More thunder smashed across the sky Waves climbed up one another to rip into the fleet Hull drifted with awful grace into hull, giving the bass line of the thunder a counterpoint of groaning wood

A broken spar thudded into the sand by Simony's head

"We're dead if we stay here," he said "Coh the spray and sand, aainst so hard, half-covered

They crawled into the calm under the Turtle

Other people had already had the saures sat or sprawled in the darkness Urn sat dejectedly on his toolbox There was a hint of gutted fish

"The gods are angry," said Borvorius

"Bloody furious," said Argavisti

"I'm not that happy myself," said Simony "Gods? Huh!"

"This is no time for impiety," said Rharapes outside

"Can't think of a better one," said Simony

A piece of cornucopia shrapnel bounced off the roof of the Turtle, which rocked on its spiked wheels