Sourcery

white and started to steam. He whimpered a little as the cold struck his hand — a burning, stabbing cold, a cold that crept up his arm and made a determined assault on his mind. He forced his numb fingers into action and, with great effort, nudged the edge of the lid with the tip of the blade.

The glow faded. The snow became sleet, then melted into drizzle.

Conina nudged him aside and pulled the box out of the frozen arms.

'I wish there was something we could do for him. It seems wrong just to leave him here.'

'He won't mind,' said Rincewind, with conviction.

'Yes, but we could at least lean him against the wall. Or something.'

Rincewind nodded, and grabbed the frozen thief by his icicle arm. The man slipped out of his grasp and hit the cobbles.

Where he shattered.

Conina looked at the pieces.

'Urg,' she said.

There was a disturbance further up the alley, coming from the back door of the Troll's Head. Rincewind felt the knife snatched from his hand and then go past his ear in a flat trajectory that ended in the doorpost twenty yards away. A head that had been sticking out withdrew hurriedly.

'We'd better go,' said Conina, hurrying along the alley. 'Is there somewhere we can hide? Your place?'

'I generally sleep at the University,' said Rincewind, hopping along behind her.

You must not return to the University, growled the hat from the depths of its box. Rincewind nodded distractedly. The idea certainly didn't seem attractive.

'Anyway, they don't allow women inside after dark,' he said.

'And before dark?'

'Not then, either.'

Conina sighed. 'That's silly. What have you wizards got against women, then?'

Rincewind's brow wrinkled. 'We're not supposed to put anything against women,' he said. 'That's the whole point.'

Sinister grey mists rolled through the docks of Morpork, dripping from the rigging, coiling around the drunken rooftops, lurking in alleys. The docks at night were thought by some to be even more dangerous than the Shades. Two muggers, a sneak thief and someone who had merely tapped Conina on the shoulder to ask her the time had already found this out.

'Do you mind if I ask you a question?' said Rincewind, stepping over the luckless pedestrian who lay coiled around his private pain.

Well?'

'I mean, I wouldn't like to cause offence.'

Well?'

'It's just that I can't help noticing-’

'Hmmm?'

'You have this certain way with strangers.' Rincewind ducked, but nothing happened.

What are you doing down there?' said Conina, testily.