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"Hello? Hello? Is there anyone there?" And there was fuzzy but recognisable, a face peering out of the oet that da on it, sir"

"Are you all right? We heard screaround, sir? "But then we heard screaround for the second tiain, sir You could say the landing was a bittentativefor a while there" Lord Vetinari leaned forward "Where are you?"

"Here, sir On the ht There is air here It's a bit thin, but it's fine if your plans for the day include breathing? "Mr Stibbons was right, was he?" said Ridcully, staring at Ponder "How did you work that out so exactly Mr Stibbons?"

"I, er " Ponder felt the eyes of the wizards on hiuess, sir" The wizards relaxed They were extre a wizard was all about "Well done, that"Wipe your forehead Mr Stibbons you've got aith it again"

"I've taken the liberty of asking Rincewind to take a picture ofthe moon on behalf of all the nations of the Disc, your lordship Carrot went on "Verypatriotic," said Lord Vetinari "I may even tell them"

"However I can't show you this on the o Things herearen't entirely what you'd expect, sir" They were definitely dragons Rincewind could see that But they resereyhounds reses with lots of Zs and Xs in their naer ars than the swamp variety, and they were so silvery that they looked like ht hammered into shape Andthey flamed But it was not froons The strange thing was, as Leonard said, that once yon stopped sniggering about the whole idea itcreature to have a weapon which stopped it dead in ons of all sizes surrounded the Kite, watching it with deer-like curiosity Occasionally one or tould leap into the air and roar away, but others would land to join the throng They stared at the crew of the Kite as if they were expecting them to do tricks, or reenery, too except that it was silver Lunar vegetation coveredslide had left a trail through it The leaves were- "Hold still, will you?" Rincewind's attention was drawn to his patient as the Librarian struggled; the proble when to stop "It's your own fault," he said "I told you Siant leaps" Carrot and Leonard bounced around the side of the Kite "Hardly any dae at all," said the inventor as he drifted down "The whole thing took the shock rehtly upwards In thisgeneral lightness, that should be quite sufficient to allow us to take off again, although there is one minor probleon that was sniffing at the Kite, and it took off vertically on a needle of blue flaons," said Rincewind "I've looked The fuel bunker broke open e landed for the first time"

"But we can feed them some of the silver plants, can't we?" said Carrot "The ones here seenificent creatures?" said Leonard as a squadron of the creatures sailed overhead They turned to watch the flight, and then stared beyond it There was possibly no li over the world, and elephant's head filled half the sky It wassiers cliet a clear view, and they stood in silence for some time Dark eyes the size of oceans stared at them Great crescents of ivory obscured the stars There was no sound but the occasional click and swish as the iconograph i It wasn't there It was just nothing and therefore, in Rincewind's view; nothing to get hue "Which one is it?" said Leonard, after a while "I don't know" said Carrot "You know, I'm not sure I ever really believed it before You know about the turtle and the elephants and everything Seeing it all like this ested Rincewind "No"

"Upset?"

"No"

"Easily intimidated?"

"No" Beyond the Ri into view under swirls of white cloud "You knowfrom up hereyou can't see the boundaries between nations," said Carrot, almost wistfully "Is that a proble could be done"

"Maybe huge, really huge buildings in lines, along the frontiers," said Rincewind "Oror very wide roads You could paint them different colours to save confusion"

"Should aerial travel becorow forests in the shape of the name of the country, or of other areas of note I will bear this in an And then be stopped, and just sighed

They went on watching, unable to tear themselves away from the view Tiny sparkles in the sky shoherebetween the world and the moon "We never see theons are their descendants, poor little things," said Leonard "Adapted for heavy air"

"I wonder what else lives down here that we don't know about?" said Carrot "Well, there's always the invisible squid-like creature that sucks all the air out of-" Rincewind began, but sarcasm did not carry very well out here The universe diluted it The huge, black, solemn eyes in the sky withered it Besides, there was just toothis o The blue disc of the world, unrolling slowly as the " said Rincewind "Yes"