Guards! Guards!

except maybe your real real king of, like, days of yore, he would have a sword that didn’t sparkle one bit but was bloody efficient at cutting things. Just a thought.
    “I say kinging’s a good job,” Nobby repeated. “Short hours.”
    “Yeah. Yeah. But not long days,” said Colon. He gave Carrot a thoughtful look.
    “Ah. There’s that, of course.”
    “Anyway, my father says being king’s too much like hard work,” said Carrot. “All the surveying and assaying and everything.” He drained his pint. “It’s not the kind of thing for the likes of us. Us—” he looked proudly—“guards. You all right, Sergeant?”
    “Hmm? What? Oh. Yes.” Colon shrugged. What about it, anyway? Maybe things turned out for the best. He finished the beer. “Best be off,” he said. “What time was it?”
    “About twelve o’clock,” said Carrot.
    “Anything else?”
    Carrot gave it some thought. “And all’s well?” he said.
    “Right. Just testing.”
    “You know,” said Nobby, “the way you say it, lad, you could almost believe it was true.”

    Let the eye of attention pull back…
    This is the Disc, world and mirror of worlds, borne through space on the back of four giant elephants who stand on the back of Great A ’Tuin the Sky Turtle. Around the Rim of this world the ocean pours off endlessly into the night. At its Hub rises the ten-mile spike of the Cori Celesti, on whose glittering summit the gods play games with the fates of men…
    …if you know what the rules are, and who are the players.
    On the far edge of the Disc the sun was rising. The light of the morning began to flow across the patchwork of seas and continents, but it did so slowly, because light is tardy and slightly heavy in the presence of a magical field.
    On the dark crescent, where the old light of sunset had barely drained from the deepest valleys, two specks, one big, one small, flew out of the shadow, skimmed low across the swells of the Rim ocean, and struck out determinedly over the totally unfathomable, star-dotted depths of space.
    Perhaps the magic would last. Perhaps it wouldn’t. But then, what does?

    THE END

About the Author
    Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular living authors in the world. His first story was published when he was thirteen, and his first full-length book when he was twenty. He worked as a journalist to support the writing habit, but gave up the day job when the success of his books meant that it was costing him money to go to work.
    Pratchett’s acclaimed novels are bestsellers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and have sold more than twenty-seven million copies worldwide. He lives in England, where he writes all the time. (It’s his hobby, as well.)
    Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

“SUPERB POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT.”
    Washington Post Book World
    A bestselling sensation in America and around the globe, Terry Pratchett’s profoundly irreverent novels are consistent number one bestsellers in England, and have been translated into twenty-seven languages. The world laughs out loud with Terry Pratchett—isn’t it time you shared in the fun too?

UNANIMOUS PRAISE FOR TERRY PRATCHETT
    “Pratchett has now moved beyond the limits of humorous fantasy, and should be recognized as one of the more significant contemporary English language satirists.”
    Publishers Weekly
    “Consistently, inventively mad…wild and wonderful!”
    Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
    “Think J.R.R. Tolkien with a sharper, more satiric edge.”
    Houston Chronicle
    “His books are richly textured, and far more complex than they appear at first.”
    Barbara Mertz
    “Discworld takes the classic fantasy universe through its logical, and comic evolution.”
    Cleveland Plain Dealer
    “Truly original…. Discworld is more complicated and satisfactory than Oz…. Has the energy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the inventiveness of Alice in Wonderland …. Brilliant!”
    A. S. Byatt
    “Humorously entertaining…subtly thought-provoking…. Pratchett’s Discworld books are filled with humor and with magic, but they’re rooted in—of all things—real life and cold, hard reason.”
    Chicago Tribune
    “For lighthearted escape with a thoughtful center, you can’t do better than…any…Discworld novel.”
    Washington Post Book World
    “Simply the best humorous writer of the twentieth century.”
    Oxford Times
    “A brilliant storyteller