The Last Hero

of him and ticked off one item. "Shall I drop the tarpaulin anchor, sir?"
    "Yes. Er. Yes. Do that," said Leonard. Carrot pulled a lever. Below and behind them there was the sound of a splash, and then of cable running out very fast
    "There's a reef! There's rocks!" Rincewind stood up, pointing.
    The firelight ahead glowed on something squat and immovable, surrounded by surf.
    "No turning back," said Leonard as the sinking anchor dragged the Kite ' s coverings off like an enormous canvas egg. He reached out and pulled handles and knobs like an organist in full fugue.
    "Number One Blinkers... down. Tethers... off. Gentlemen, each pull those big handles beside you when I say..."
    The rocks loomed. The white water at the lip of the endless Fall was red with fire and glowing with lightning. Jagged rocks were a few yards away, hungry as a crocodile's teeth.
    "Now! Now! Now! Mirrors... down! Good! We have flame! Now what was it... oh, yes... Everyone hold on to something !"
    Wings unfolding, dragons flaring, the Kite rose from the splintering barge and into the storm and over the Rim of the world...
    The only sound was a faint whisper of air as Rincewind and Carrot clambered off the shivering floor. Their pilot was staring out of the window.
    "Look at the birds! Oh, do look at the birds!"
    In the calm sunlit air beyond the storm they swooped and turned in their thousands around the gliding ship, as small birds will mob an eagle. And it did look like an eagle, one that had just snatched a giant salmon from the Fall...
    Leonard stood entranced, tears running down his cheeks.
    Carrot tapped him very gently on the shoulder. "Sir?"
    "It's so beautiful... so beautiful..."
    "Sir, we need you to fly this thing, sir! Remember? Stage Two?"
    "Hmm?" Then the artist shuddered, and part of him returned to his body. "Oh, yes, very well, very well..." He sat down heavily in his seat. "Yes... to be sure... yes. We shall, er, we shall test the controls. Yes."
    He laid a trembling hand on the levers in front of him, and placed his feet on the pedals. The Kite lurched sideways on the air.
    "Oops... ah, now I think I have it... sorry... yes... oh, sorry, dear me... ah, now I think..."
    Rincewind, flung against the window by another judder, looked down the face of the Rimfall.
    Here and there, all the way down, mountain-sized islands projected from the wall of white water, glowing in the evening light. Little white clouds scudded between them. And everywhere there were birds, wheeling, nesting, gliding —
    "There's forests on those rocks! They're like little countries... there's people ! I can see houses !"
    He was thrown back again as the Kite banked into some cloud.
    "There's people living over the Edge!" he said.
    "Old shipwrecks, I suppose," said Carrot.
    "I, er, I think I have the hang of it now," said Leonard, staring fixedly ahead. "Rincewind, please be so good as to pull that lever there, will you?"
    Rincewind did so. There was a clunk behind them, and the ship shook slightly as the first-stage cage was dropped.
    As it tumbled slowly apart in the air, small dragons spread their wings and flapped hopefully back towards the Disc.
    "I thought there would be more than that," said Rincewind.
    "Oh, those are just the ones we used to help us get clear of the Rim," said Leonard, as the Kite turned lazily in the air. "Most of the others we'll use to go down."
    "Down?" said Rincewind.
    "Oh, yes. We need to go down, as quickly as we can. No time to waste."
    "Down? This is not the time to talk about down ! You kept on talking about around . Around is fine! Not down !"
    "Ah, but you see, in order to go around we need to go down . Fast." Leonard looked reproachful. "I did put it in my notes —"
    " Down is not a direction with which I am happy!"
    "Hello? Hello?" came a voice, out of the air.
    "Captain Carrot," said Leonard, as Rincewind sulked in his seat, "oblige me by opening the cabinet there, will you?"
    This revealed a fragment of smashed omniscope and the face of Ponder Stibbons.
    "It works!" His shout sounded muffled and somehow small, like the squeaking of an ant. "You're alive?"
    "We have separated the first dragons and everything is going well, sir," said Carrot.
    "No, it's not!" Rincewind shouted. "They want to go dow— !"
    Without turning his head, Carrot reached around behind Leonard and pulled Rincewind's hat down over his face.
    "The second-stage dragons will be about ready to burn now," said Leonard. "We had better get on, Mr