The Colour of Magic

said the troll. Its mouth opened with a little crest of foam, and shut again in exactly the same way that water closes over a stone.
    “Is it? Why?” asked Rincewind. How does he hold himself together, his mind screamed at him. Why doesn’t he spill?
    “If you will follow me to my house I will find you food and a change of clothing,” said the troll solemnly. He set off over the rocks without turning to see if they would follow him. After all, where else could they go? It was getting dark, and a chilly damp breeze was blowing over the edge of the world. Already the transient Rimbow had faded and the mists above the waterfall were beginning to thin.
    “Come on,” said Rincewind, grabbing Twoflower’s elbow. But the tourist didn’t appear to want to move.
    “Come on,” the wizard repeated.
    “When it gets really dark, do you think we’ll be able to look down and see Great A’tuin the World Turtle?” asked Twoflower, staring at the rolling clouds.
    “I hope not,” said Rincewind, “I really do. Now let’s go, shall we?”
    Twoflower followed him reluctantly into the shack. The troll had lit a couple of lamps and was sitting comfortably in a rocking chair. He got to his feet as they entered and poured two cups of a green liquid from a tall pitcher. In the dim light he appeared to phosphoresce, in the manner of warm seas on velvety summer nights. Just to add a baroque gloss to Rincewind’s dull terror he seemed to be several inches taller, too.
    Most of the furniture in the room appeared to be boxes.
    “Uh. Really great place you’ve got here,” said Rincewind. “Ethnic.”
    He reached for a cup and looked at the green pool shimmering inside it. It’d better be drinkable, he thought. Because I’m going to drink it. He swallowed.
    It was the same stuff Twoflower had given him in the rowing boat but, at the time, his mind had ignored it because there were more pressing matters. Now it had the leisure to savor the taste.
    Rincewind’s mouth twisted. He whimpered a little. One of his legs came up convulsively and caught him painfully in the chest.
    Twoflower swirled his own drink thoughtfully while he considered the flavor.
    “Ghlen Livid,” he said. “The fermented vul nut drink they freeze-distill in my home country. A certain smoky quality…Piquant. From the western plantations in, ah, Rehigreed Province, yes? Next year’s harvest, I fancy, from the color. May I ask how you came by it?”
    (Plants on the Disc, while including the categories known commonly as annuals , which were sown this year to come up later this year, biennials , sown this year to grow next year, and perennials , sown this year to grow until further notice, also included a few rare re-annuals which, because of an unusual four-dimensional twist in their genes, could be planted this year to come up last year . The vul nut vine was particularly exceptional in that it could flourish as many as eight years prior to its seed actually being sown. Vul nut wine was reputed to give certain drinkers an insight into the future which was, from the nut’s point of view, the past. Strange but true.)
    “All things drift into the Circumfence in time,” said the troll, gnomically, gently rocking in his chair. “My job is to recover the flotsam. Timber, of course, and ships. Barrels of wine. Bales of cloth. You.”
    Light dawned inside Rincewind’s head.
    “It’s a net, isn’t it? You’ve got a net right on the edge of the sea!”
    “The Circumfence,” nodded the troll. Ripples ran across his chest.
    Rincewind looked out into the phosphorescent darkness that surrounded the island, and grinned inanely.
    “Of course,” he said. “Amazing! You could sink piles and attach it to reefs and—good grief! The net would have to be very strong.”
    “It is,” said Tethis.
    “It could be extended for a couple of miles, if you found enough rocks and things,” said the wizard.
    “Ten thousands of miles. I just patrol this league.”
    “That’s a third of the way around the Disc!”
    Tethis sloshed a little as he nodded again. While the two men helped themselves to some more of the green wine, he told them about the Circumfence, the great effort that had been made to build it, and the ancient and wise Kingdom of Krull which had constructed it several centuries before, and the seven navies that patrolled it constantly to keep it in repair and bring its salvage back to Krull, and the manner in which Krull had become a land of leisure