Maskerade. Part 50

"This is just me askin', you understand, in a kind neighborly way, takin' an interest sort of thing, wouldn't be human if I didn't-"

Agnes sighed. "Yes?"

"...you got much to do with your evenin's these days?"

There was just enough rebellion left in Agnes to put a sarcastic edge on her voice. "Oh? Are you offering to teach me something?"

"Teach? No," said Granny. "Ain't got the patience for teaching. But I might let you learn."

"When shall we three meet again?"

"We haven't met once once, yet."

"O' course we have. I've person'ly known you for at least-"

"I mean we Three Three haven't haven't Met Met. You know...officially..."

"All right...When shall we three meet?"

"We're already here."

"All right. When shall-?"

"Just shut up and get out the marshmallows. Agnes, give Nanny the marshmallows."

"Yes, Granny."

"And mind you don't burn mine."

Granny sat back. It was a clear night, although clouds mounting toward the hub promised snow soon. A few sparks flew up toward the stars. She looked around proudly.

"Isn't this nice nice," she said.

About the Author.

Terry Pratchett's novels have sold more than thirty million (give or take a few million) copies worldwide. He lives in England. novels have sold more than thirty million (give or take a few million) copies worldwide. He lives in England.

www.terrypratchettbooks.com Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Praise for TERRY PRATCHETT's for TERRY PRATCHETT's DISCWORLD.

"Smart and funny."

Denver Post "Discworld is more complicated and satisfactory than Oz.... It has the energy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the inventiveness of and the inventiveness of Alice in Wonderland Alice in Wonderland. It also has an intelligent wit and a truly original grim and comic grasp of the nature of things."

A.S. Byatt "Humorously entertaining (and subtly thought-provoking) fantasy...Pratchett's Discworld books are filled with humor and with magic, but they're rooted in, of all things, real life and cold, hard reason."

Contra Costa Times "Pratchett has created an alternate universe full of trolls, dwarfs, wizards, and other fantasy elements, and he uses that universe to reflect on our own culture with entertaining and gloriously funny results. It's an accomplishment nothing short of magical."

Chicago Tribune "Discworld takes the cla.s.sic fantasy universe through its logical, and comic, evolution."

Cleveland Plain Dealer "In [Pratchett's] range of invented characters, his adroit storytelling, and his clear-eyed acceptance of humankind's foibles, he reminds me of no one in English literature as much as Geoffrey Chaucer. No kidding."

Was.h.i.+ngton Post Book World "What makes Terry Pratchett's fantasies so entertaining is that their humor depends on the characters first, on the plot second, rather than the other way around. The story isn't there simply to lead from one slapstick pratfall to another pun. Its humor is genuine and unforced."

Ottawa Citizen "Terry Pratchett seems const.i.tutionally unable to write a page without at least a twitch of the grin muscles....[But] the notions Pratchett plays with are nae so narrow or nae so silly as your ordinary British farce. Seriously."

San Diego Union-Tribune "Pratchett, for those not yet lucky enough to have discovered him, is one of England's most highly regarded satirists. Nothing-not religion, not politics, not anything-is safe from him."

South Bend Tribune "Think J.R.R. Tolkien with a sharper, more satiric edge."

Houston Chronicle "The Discworld novels are a phenomenon."

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel "Consistently, inventively mad...wild and wonderful."

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine "He is head and shoulders above the best of the rest. He is screamingly funny. He is wise. He has style."

Daily Telegraph (London) (London) "Pratchett has now moved beyond the limits of humorous fantasy and should be recognized as one of the more significant contemporary English language satirists."

Publishers Weekly "Pratchett's humor is international, satirical, devious, knowing, irreverent, unsparing, and, above all, funny."

Kirkus Reviews "Pratchett demonstrates just how great the distance is between one-or two-joke writers and the comic masters whose work will be read into the next century."

Locus "If Terry Pratchett is not yet an inst.i.tution, he should be."

Fantasy & Science Fiction

OTHER B BOOKS BY T TERRY P PRATCHETT.

The Carpet People The Dark Side of the Sun Strata * Truckers Diggers * Wings Only You Can Save Mankind Johnny and the Dead * Johnny and the Bomb The Unadulterated Cat (with Gray Jollife) Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman) THE D DISCWORLD SERIES:.

Going Postal * Monstrous Regiment * Night Watch The Last Hero * The Truth * Thief of Time The Fifth Elephant * Carpe Jugulum The Last Continent * Jingo Hogfather * Feet of Clay * Maskerade Interesting Times * Soul Music * Men at Arms Lords and Ladies * Small G.o.ds Witches Abroad * Reaper Man Moving Pictures * Eric (with Josh Kirby) Guards! Guards! * Pyramids Wyrd Sisters * Sourcery * Mort * Equal Rites The Light Fantastic * The Color of Magic The Art of Discworld (with Paul Kidby) Mort: A Discworld Big Comic (with Graham Higgins) The Streets of Ankh-Morpork (with Stephen Briggs) The Discworld Companion (with Stephen Briggs) The Discworld Mapp (with Stephen Briggs) The Pratchett Portfolio (with Paul Kidby)