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sun's right, you get some wonderful rainbows.'
There were lots of birds. Insects bred like mad in the wide, shallow pools and dams
that littered the floor of the valley in late spring. Most of them would be dry by the late
summer, but for now Koom Valley was a smorgasbord of things that went 'bzz!'. And
the birds had come up from the plains to feast on all of it. Vimes wasn't good at birds,
but they mostly looked like swallows, millions of them. There were nests on the
nearest cliff, a good half-mile away, and Vimes could hear the chattering from here.
And where trees and rocks had piled up in a dam, saplings and green plants had
sprouted.
Below the narrow track the party had taken, waters gushed from half a dozen caves
and joined together for one wild waterfall into the plain.
'It's all so so alive,' said Angua. 'I thought it would be just barren rock.'
'Dat's what it is like up at der battle place,' said Detritus, spray glistening on his skin.
'My dad took me up dere when we were comin' to der city. He showed me dis kind o'
rocky place, hit me on der head, and said, "Remember".'
'Remember what?' said Sally.
'He didn't say. So I just, you know, gen'rally remembered.'
I didn't expect this, Vimes thought. It's so chaotic. Oh, well, let's get clear of the cliff
wall, at least. All these bloody great boulders must have got here from somewhere.
'I can smell smoke,' Angua announced after a while, as they made their way
unsteadily across the debris-strewn track.
'Camp fires from up the valley,' said Cheery. 'Early arrivals, I expect.'
'You mean people queue up for a place in the battle?' said Vimes. 'Watch this
boulder, it's slippery.'
'Oh, yes. The fighting doesn't start until Koom Valley Day. That's tomorrow.'
'Damn, I lost track. Will it affect us down here?'
Bashfullsson coughed politely. 'I don't think so, commander. This area is too
dangerous to fight in.'
'Well, yes, I can see it would be terrible if anyone got hurt,' said Vimes, climbing over
a long heap of rotting timber. 'That would spoil the day for everyone.'
Historical Re-creation, he thought glumly, as they picked their way across, under,
over or through the boulders and insectbuzzing heaps of splintered timber, with
streamlets running everywhere. Only we do it with people dressing up and running
around with blunt weapons, and people selling hot dogs, and the girls all miserable
because they can only dress up as wenches, wenching being the only job available
to women in the olden days.
But the dwarfs and the trolls they fight it again for real. Like, perhaps, if they fight it
enough times they'll get it right?
Now there was a hole in the track in front of him, half blocked with the winter's debris,
but still managing to swallow a whole streamlet. It poured, foaming, into the depths.
There was a booming noise, far below. When he knelt down and touched the water, it
was so cold it stung.
'Yes, watch out for sinkholes, commander,' said Bashfullsson. 'This is limestone.
Water wears it away quite quickly. We'll probably see some much bigger ones. Often
they're hidden by rotting debris. Watch where you tread.'
'Don't they get blocked up?'
'Oh, yes, sir. You've seen the size of the rocks that roll down here.'
'It must be like a giant game of billiards!'
'Something like that, I expect,' said Bashfullsson carefully.
After ten minutes, Vimes sat down on a log, pulled off his helmet, took out a big red
handkerchief and wiped his forehead.
'It's getting hotter,' he said. 'And everywhere in this bloody place looks the same-
Ow!' He slapped at his wrist.
'The midges can be a bit extreme, sir,' Cheery volunteered. 'It's said that when they
bite extra hard, there's a storm coming.
They both looked up at the mountains. There was a yellow haze at the far end of the
valley, and clouds between the peaks.
'Oh, good,' said Vimes. 'Because it feels like that bite went to the bone.'
'I wouldn't worry too much, commander,' said Cheery. 'The big Koom Valley storm
was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.'
'It certainly is a lifetime if you were caught in it,' said Vimes. 'This damn place is
getting to me, I don't mind admitting it.'
By now the rest of the squad had caught up. Sally and Detritus were visibly suffering
from the heat. The vampire sat down in the shade of a big rock without saying
anything. Brick lay down by the icy stream and stuck his head in it.
'I'm afraid I'm not much help here, sir,' said Angua. 'I can smell dwarf, but that's about
it. There's just too much damn water everywhere!'
'Maybe we won't need your nose,' said Vimes. He unslung the tube that contained
Sybil's sketch, unrolled the drawing and pinned the ends together.
'Give me a hand with this, will you, Cheery?' he said. 'Everyone else, get some rest.
And don't laugh.'
He lowered the circlet of mountains over his head. There was a cough from Angua,
which he pretended to ignore.
'Okay,' said Vimes, turning the stiff paper to get the mountains lined up just above
their pencilled outlines. 'That's Copperhead over there and Cori Celesti over there
and they line up pretty well against the drawing. We're practically on top of it already!'
'Not really, commander,' said Bashfullsson, behind him. 'They're both almost four
hundred miles away. They'd look pretty much the same from anywhere in this part of
the valley. You need to look at the nearer peaks.'
Vimes turned. 'Okay. What's that one that looks really sheer on the left-hand side?'
'That is The King, sir,' said Cheery. 'He's about ten miles away.'
'Really? He looks closer & '
Vimes found the mountain on the drawing. 'And that small one over there?' he said.
'The one with two peaks?'
'I don't know the name, sir, but I can see the one you mean.'
'They're too small and too close together' Vimes muttered.
'Then walk towards them, sir. Mind where you're putting your feet. Only tread on bare
rock. Keep off any pile of debris. The grag is right. It could be over an old sinkhole
and you might drop right through.'
'O-kay. About halfway between them is that funny-shaped little outcrop. I'll head
directly for it. You watch where I'm putting my feet too, will you?'
Trying to keep the paper level, stumbling on rocks and splashing through icy rivulets,
Vimes walked the lonesome valley 'Damn and blast!'
'Sir?'
Vimes peered over the top of his ring of paper. 'I've lost The King. That damn great
ridge of boulders is in the way. Hold on I can see that mountain with the chunk taken
out of it ..
It looked so simple. It would have been simple if Koom Valley had been flat and not
littered with rubbish like the ten-pin bowling alley of the gods. In some places they
had to backtrack because a rampart of tangled, stinking, gnat-infested timber blocked
the way. Or the barrier was a wall of rocks the length of a street. Or a wide, mist-
filled, thundering cauldron of white water that elsewhere would have a name like The
Devil's Cauldron but here was nameless because this was Koom Valley and for
Koom Valley there just weren't enough devils and they didn't have enough cauldrons.
And the flies stung and the sun shone and the rotting wood and damp air and lack of
wind created a sticky, swamp-like miasma that seemed to weaken the muscles. No
wonder they fought at the other end of the valley, Vimes thought. There was air and
wind up there. At least you'd be comfortable. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]