The Carpet People

the Carpet. The soldiers who hadn’t been quick enough to follow orders were picked up and bowled over and over in the dust.
    And then there was the thump.
    Afterwards, there was that long, crowded pause in which everyone decides that although they are very shaken, and possibly upside down, they are, to their surprise, still alive.
    Careus crawled around until he found his helmet under a bush and then, still not standing up, shuffled over to Snibril.
    ‘You felt it coming,’ he said. ‘Even before the animals!’
    ‘The mouls can, too,’ said Snibril. ‘And they’re better at it than me! They don’t summon Fray!They can sense when it’s going to happen! And then they attack afterwards, when everyone’s shaken—’
    He and Careus looked around at the hairs.
    ‘To arms, everyone!’ the sergeant yelled.
    A Deftmene raised his hand. ‘What does that mean?’ he said. ‘We’ve all got two arms.’
    ‘Means you’ve got to fight!’
    ‘Oh, right.’
    It was only seconds later that the mouls attacked. But seconds were enough. A hundred of them galloped into what should have been a camp of bewildered, wounded and unprepared victims. They found instead bewildered, wounded and extremely well-prepared and moreover enraged fighters.
    They were surprised. But their surprise didn’t last long. It was, very accurately, the surprise of their life.
    The moul attack changed things. Deftmenes and Dumii had always fought, but never on the same side. It’s hard to feel so bad about someone when last night he was stopping other people hitting you with axes and things.
    The little army swung down the road to Ware, singing. Admittedly there were three different marching songs, all to different tunes, but the general effect was quite harmonious if you didn’tmind not being able to make out any of the words.
    ‘The lads sing one about me sometimes,’ said the sergeant. ‘It’s got seven verses. Some of them are very rude, and one of them is actually impossible. I have to pretend not to hear it. Have you noticed the wights ran away in the night?’
    ‘Not ran away,’ said Snibril. ‘I don’t think they’ve run away. That doesn’t sound like them. I think . . . they’ve decided to do something else.’
    ‘They went into a huddle after the fight,’ said the sergeant.
    ‘Perhaps they’ve got a plan—’ Snibril began.
    He stopped.
    They had been passing through the area that had been right under Fray. Hairs were bent and twisted. And over the road was an arch. Had been an arch.
    There were some dead soldiers nearby, and one dead moul.
    The legion spread out in silence, watching the hairs. A squad was sent off to bury the dead.
    ‘That could have been us, without you,’ said Careus. ‘How much warning do you get?’
    ‘A minute or two, that’s all,’ said Snibril. ‘Perhaps a bit longer if it’s quiet.’
    ‘What does it feel like?’
    ‘Like someone’s treading on my head! What is this place?’
    ‘One of the gates to the Ware lands. The city’s further on.’
    ‘I’ve always wondered what it looked like,’ said Snibril.
    ‘Me too,’ said the sergeant.
    ‘You mean you’ve never seen it?’ said Snibril.
    ‘No. Born in a garrison town, see. Done all my soldiering around and about. Never been to Ware. Heard it’s very impressive, though. A nice place to visit,’ said Careus. ‘We should be there in a few hours.’
    ‘Ware!’ said Snibril.

Chapter 18
    Ware had been built between and round five giant hairs. There were really three cities, ringed one inside the other. Inside the thick outer walls was Imperial Ware, a city of wide avenues paved with wood and salt, lined with statues, a city of impressive vistas and magnificent buildings, and at every turn monuments to old battles and glorious victories and even one or two defeats of the more glorious sort.
    Few people actually lived in Imperial Ware, except a few caretakers and gardeners and dozens of sculptors. It was a city for looking at, not living in.
    Outside it, separated by a wall of sharpened hair stakes, was Merchants’ Ware, the city most people thought of as the real city. Normally its narrow streets were crowded with stalls, and people fromall over the Carpet. They’d all be trying to cheat one another in that open-and-above-board way known as ‘doing business’. All sorts of languages could be heard, often very loudly. Ware was where people came to trade.
    The Dumii had built their Empire with swords, but they kept it