Guards! Guards!

he added bitterly.
    “I think you’re being a bit silly about all this,” she said, leading the way back to the house.
    “Silly? I was sacked in front of all those people!”
    “Yes, but it was all a misunderstanding, I’m sure.”
    “ I didn’t misunderstand it!”
    “Well, I think you’re just upset because you’re impotent.”
    Vimes’s eyes bulged. “Whee?” he said.
    “Against the dragon,” Lady Ramkin went on, quite unconcerned. “You can’t do anything about it.”
    “I reckon this damn city and the dragon just about deserve one another,” said Vimes.
    “People are frightened. You can’t expect much of people when they’re so frightened.” She touched him gingerly on his arm. It was like watching an industrial robot being expertly manipulated to grasp an egg gently.
    “Not everyone’s as brave as you,” she added, timidly.
    “Me?”
    “The other week. When you stopped them killing my dragons.”
    “Oh, that . That’s not bravery. Anyway, that was just people. People are easier. I’ll tell you one thing for nothing, I’m not looking up that dragon’s nose again. I wake up at days thinking about that.”
    “Oh.” She seemed deflated. “Well, if you’re sure…I’ve got a lot of friends, you know. If you need any help, you’ve only got to say. The Duke of Sto Helit is looking for a guard captain, I’m sure. I’ll write you a letter. You’ll like them, they’re a very nice young couple.”
    “I’m not sure what I shall do next,” said Vimes, more gruffly than he intended. “I’m considering one or two offers.”
    “Well, of course. I’m sure you know best.”
    Vimes nodded.
    Lady Ramkin twisted her handkerchief around and around in her hands.
    “Well, then,” she said.
    “Well,” said Vimes.
    “I, er, expect you’ll be wanting to be off, then.”
    “Yes, I expect I had better be going.”
    There was a pause. Then they both spoke at once.
    “It’s been very—”
    “I’d just like to say—”
    “Sorry.”
    “Sorry.”
    “No, you were speaking.”
    “No, sorry, you were saying?”
    “Oh.” Vimes hesitated. “I’ll be off, then.”
    “Oh. Yes.” Lady Ramkin gave him a washed-out smile. “Can’t keep all these offers waiting, can you,” she said.
    She thrust out a hand. Vimes shook it carefully.
    “So I’ll just be going, then,” he said.
    “Do call again,” said Lady Ramkin, more coldly. “If you are ever in this area. And so on. I’m sure Errol would like to see you.”
    “Yes. Well. Goodbye, then.”
    “Goodbye, Captain Vimes.”
    He stumbled out of the door and walked hurriedly down the dark, overgrown path. He could feel her gaze on the back of his neck as he did so or, at least, he told himself that he could. She’d be standing in the doorway, nearly blocking out the light. Just watching me. But I’m not going to look back, he thought. That would be a really silly thing to do. I mean, she’s a lovely person, she’s got a lot of common sense and an enormous personality, but really…
    I’m not going to look back, even if she stands there while I walk all the way down the street. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.
    So when he heard the door shut when he was only halfway down the drive he suddenly felt very, very angry, as if he had just been robbed.
    He stood still and clasped and unclasped his hands in the darkness. He wasn’t Captain Vimes anymore, he was Citizen Vimes, which meant that he could do things he’d once never dreamed of doing. Perhaps he could go and smash some windows.
    No, that wouldn’t be any good. He wanted more than that. To get rid of that bloody dragon, to get his job back, to get his hands on whoever was behind all this, to forget himself just once and hit someone until he was exhausted…
    He stared at nothing. Down below the city was a mass of smoke and steam. He wasn’t thinking of that, though.
    He was thinking of a running man. And, further back in the fuddled mists of his life, a boy running to keep up.
    And under his breath he said, “Any of them get out?”

    Sergeant Colon finished the proclamation and looked around at the hostile crowd.
    “Don’t blame me,” he said. “I just read the things. I don’t write ’em.”
    “That’s a human sacrifice, that is,” said someone.
    “There’s nothing wrong with human sacrifice,” said a priest.
    “Ah, per say ,” said the first speaker quickly. “For proper religious reasons. And using condemned criminals and so on. 1 But