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.It needed thinking about.On the ground.For the first time in her life Granny wondered whether there might be some-thing important in all these books people were setting such store by these days,although she was opposed to books on strict moral grounds, since she had heardthat many of them were written by dead people and therefore it stood to reasonreading them would be as bad as necromancy.Among the many things in theinfinitely varied universe with which Granny did not hold was talking to deadpeople, who by all accounts had enough troubles of their own.But not, she was inclined to feel, as many as her.She looked down bemusedlyat the dark ground and wondered vaguely why the stars were below her.For a cardiac moment she wondered if they had indeed flown over the edge,and then she realised that the thousands of little pinpoints below her were too91 yellow, and flickered.Besides, whoever heard of stars arranged in such a neatpattern? It s very pretty, said Esk. Is it a city? Granny scanned the ground wildly.If it was a city, then it was too big.Butnow she had time to think about it, it certainly smelled like a lot of people.The air around them reeked of incense and grain and spices and beer, butmainly of the sort of smell that was caused by a high water table, thousands ofpeople, and a robust approach to drainage.She mentally shook herself.The day was hard on their heels.She looked foran area where the torches were dim and widely spaced, reasoning that this wouldmean a poor district and poor people did not object to witches, and gently pointedthe broom handle downwards.She managed to get within five feet of the ground before dawn arrived for thesecond time.The gates were indeed big and black and looked as if they were made out ofsolid darkness.Granny and Esk stood among the crowds that thronged the square outside theUniversity and stared up at them.Finally Esk said: I can t see how people getin. Magic, I expect, said Granny sourly. That s wizards for you.Anyone elsewould have bought a doorknocker. She waved her broomstick in the direction of the tall doors. You ve got to say some hocuspocus word to get in, I shouldn t wonder, sheadded.They had been in Ankh-Morpork for three days and Granny was beginning toenjoy herself, much to her surprise.She had found them lodgings in The Shades,an ancient part of the city whose inhabitants were largely nocturnal and neverenquired about one another s business because curiosity not only killed the cat butthrew it in the river with weights tied to its feet.The lodgings were on the topfloor next to the well-guarded premises of a respectable dealer in stolen propertybecause, as Granny had heard, good fences make good neighbors.The Shades, in brief, were an abode of discredited gods and unlicensed thieves,ladies of the night and peddlers in exotic goods, alchemists of the mind andstrolling mummers; in short, all the grease on civilization s axle.And yet, despite the fact that these people tend to appreciate the soft magics,there was a remarkable shortage of witches.Within hours the news of Granny sarrival had seeped through the quarter and a stream of people crept, sidled or92 strutted towards her door, seeking potions and charms and news of the future andvarious personal and specialised services that witches traditionally provide forthose whose lives are a little clouded or full of stormy weather.She was at first annoyed, and then embarrassed, and then flattered; her clientshad money, which was useful, but they also paid in respect, and that was a rock-hard currency.In short, Granny was even wondering about the possibility of acquiringslightly larger premises with a bit of garden and sending for her goats.The smellmight be a problem, but the goats would just have to put up with it.They had visited the sights of Ankh-Morpork, its crowded docks, its manybridges, its souks, its casbahs, its streets lined with nothing but temples.Grannyhad counted the temples with a thoughtful look in her eyes; gods were alwaysdemanding that their followers acted other than according to their true natures,and the human fallout this caused made plenty of work for witches.The terrors of civilisation had so far failed to materialise, although a cutpursehad tried to make off with Granny s handbag.To the amazement of passers-byGranny called him back, and back he came, fighting his feet which had totallyceased to obey him
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