Thud!

eyes shut, various faint colors danced across her brain. Without the stink of the damned vampire, though, she would have been able to pick up a lot more. The stench poisoned every sensation. Hold on, don’t think like that, you’re just letting your mind do the thinking for you…hang on, that’s wrong…
    There was a faint outline in the corner of the next chamber, which was quite large. It looked like…an outline. A chalk outline. A glowing chalk outline.
    “I understand this is the approved method?” said Ardent. “You will be aware of night chalk, Captain? It is made of crushed vurm. The glow persists for about a day. On the floor here you will see, or rather, you will feel the club that dealt him his deathblow. Just under your hand, Captain. There is blood on it. I regret the darkness, but we kept the vurms out. They would have feasted, you understand.”
    Angua saw Carrot, outlined in his permanent smell of soap, feel his way across the space. His hand touched another metal door.
    “Where does this go, sir?” he said, tapping it.
    “To the outer chambers.”
    “Was it open at the time the troll attacked the grag?”
    You really think a troll did? Angua wondered.
    “I believe so,” said Ardent.
    “Then I would like it open now, please.”
    “I cannot agree to that request, Captain.”
    “I did not intend it to be a request, sir. After it has been opened, I will need to know who was in the mine at the time the troll broke in. I will need to speak to them, and to whoever discovered the body. Hara’g, j’kargra.”
    For Angua, the smell of Ardent changed. Under all those layers, the dwarf was suddenly uncertain. He’d walked right into it. He hesitated for several seconds before replying.
    “I will…endeavor to meet your reque—your requirements, Smelter,” he said. “I will leave you now. Come, Helmclever.”
    “Grz dava’j?” said Carrot. “K’zakra’j? D’j h’ragna ra’d’j!”
    Ardent stepped forward, uncertainty growing, and held out both hands, palms down. For a moment, until his sleeves slipped, Angua saw a faintly glowing symbol on his right wrist. Every deep-downer had a draht as unique evidence of identity, in a world of shrouded figures. She’d heard they were made by tattooing vurm blood under the skin. It sounded painful.
    Carrot took his hands for a moment, and then let go.
    “Thank you,” he said, as if the dwarfish interlude had not taken place. The two dwarfs hurried away.
    In the thick darkness, the watchmen were left alone.
    “What was all that about?” said Angua.
    “Just reassuring him,” said Carrot cheerfully. He reached into a pocket. “Now we’ve arrived, let’s have some light in here, shall we?”
    Angua smelled his hand move vigorously across the wall once or twice, as if he was painting. There arose an aroma of…pork pie?
    “Soon be brighter,” he said.
    “Captain Carrot, this wasn’t where—” Sally began.
    “All in good time, Lance Constable,” said Carrot firmly. “For now, we just observe.”
    “But I must tell you—”
    “ Later on, lance constable,” said Carrot a little louder. Vurms were flowing around the open door they’d arrived by, and across the stone. “By the way, er, Sally…will you be all right if we view the body?”
    That’s right, Angua thought, think of her . I’ve dealt with blood every day. Walk a mile in my nostrils!
    “Old blood will not be a problem, sir,” said Sally. “There’s some in here. But there’s—”
    “I expect they’ve set up a morgue,” said Carrot quickly. “The death rites are quite complex.”
    Morgue? A home away from home for you, my dear! snarled Angua’s inner wolf.
    The vurms were spreading out now, crawling across the wall with a purpose.
    She crouched down, to bring her nose nearer to the floor. I can smell dwarfs, lots of dwarfs, Angua thought. Hard to smell trolls, especially underground. Blood on the club, like a flower. Dwarf smell on the club, but there’s dwarf smell everywhere. I can smell—hang on, that’s familiar…
    The floor mostly smelled of slime and loam. Carrot’s footprints showed up, and so did hers . There was a lot of dwarf smell, and she could still just make out the smell of their concern. This is where they found the body, then? But this patch of mud here, this was different. It had been trodden into the floor, but it smelled just like the heavy clay from up around Quarry Lane. Who lived in Quarry Lane? Most of the trolls in