done.
He heard the dragon lady say, 'One tries to breed for a good flame, depth of scale, correct colour and so on. One just has to put up with the occasional total whittle.'
The little dragon turned on Vimes a gaze that would be guaranteed to win it the award for Dragon the Judges would Most Like to Take Home and Use as A Portable Gas Lighter.
Total whittle, Vimes thought. He wasn't sure of the precise meaning of the word, but he could hazard a shrewd guess. It sounded like whatever it was you had left when you had extracted everything of any value whatsoever. Like the Watch, he thought. Total whittles, every one of them. And just like him. It was the saga of his life.
'That's Nature for you,' said her ladyship. 'Of course I wouldn't dream of breeding from him, but he wouldn't be able to anyway.''
'Why not?' said Vimes.
'Because dragons have to mate in the air and he'll never be able to fly with those wings, I'm afraid. I'll be sorry to lose the bloodline, naturally. His sire was Brenda Rodley's Treebite Brightscale. Do you know Brenda?'
'Er, no,' said Vimes. Lady Ramkin was one of those people who assumed that everyone else knew everyone one knew.
'Charming gel. Anyway, his brothers and sisters are shaping up very well.'
Poor little bastard, thought Vimes. That's Nature for you in a nutshell. Always dealing off the bottom of the pack.
No wonder they call her a mother . . .
'You said you had something to show me,' Lady Ramkin prompted.
Vimes wordlessly handed her the parcel. She slipped off her heavy mittens and unwrapped it.
'Plaster cast of a footprint,' she said, baldly. 'Well?'
'Does it remind you of anything?' said Vimes.
'Could be a wading bird.'
'Oh.' Vimes was crestfallen.
Lady Ramkin laughed. 'Or a really big dragon. Got it out of a museum, did you?'
'No. I got it off the street this morning.'
'Ha? Someone's been playing tricks on you, old chap.'
'Er. There was, er, circumstantial evidence.'
He told her. She stared at him.
'Draco nobilis,' she said hoarsely.
'Pardon?' said Vimes.
'Draco nobilis. The Noble dragon. As opposed to these fellows…' she waved a hand in the direction of the massed ranks of whistling lizards…'Draco vul-garis, the lot of them. But the big ones are all gone, you know. This really is a nonsense. No two ways about it. All gone. Beautiful things, they were. Weighed tons. Biggest things ever to fly. No one knows how they did it.'
And then they realized.
It was suddenly very quiet.
All along the rows of kennels, the dragons were silent, bright-eyed and watchful. They were staring at the roof.
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