The dark side of the sun - By Terry Pratchett Page 0,6

two things. Like, for example, why haven’t you ever told me about probability math? And what happened to – how did my father die? I’ve heard fishermen say it was out there on Old Creaky.’

In the silence that followed the ig awoke and began scratching itself violently.

‘Come on,’ said Dom, ‘you’re my tutor.’

‘I will tell you after the ceremony tomorrow, it iss late now. Then all will be explained.’

Dom stood up. ‘Will I ever trust you again, though? Chel, Hrsh, it’s important. And you’re still acting.’

‘Oh, yess? And what emotion am I trying to conceal?’

Dom stared at him. ‘Uh … terror, I think. And – uh – pity. Yes. Pity. And you’re terrified.’

The curtain swung to behind him. Hrsh-Hgn waited until his footsteps had died away, and reached out to the communicator. Korodore answered.

‘Well?’

‘He hass been to ssee me. I almosst told him! My lord, he wass reading me! How can we let thiss thing happen?’

‘We don’t. We will try and prevent it, of course. With all our power. But it will happen, or seventy years of probability math go down the hole.’

Hrsh-Hgn said, ‘Someone hass been telling him about probability math, and he assked me about his father. If he assks again, I warn you, for pity’s ssake I will tell him.’

‘Will you?’

The phnobe looked down and fell silent.

Out to sea the dagon rose by the score, in response to their ancient instincts. The catch was unusually large, which the fishermen decided was an omen, if only they could decide which way fate’s finger pointed. They found, too – when the last ripple had died away towards dawn – a small reed island, empty, half swamped, drifting aimlessly over the deeps.

2

Korodore strolled silently along the empty corridor, which was lit faintly by the first glow of dawn.

He was thickset and, as a sly gesture, heredity had given him a round cheerful face so that he looked like an amiable pork-butcher. But there were advantages to that, and no butcher – certainly not of pork – walked by instinct from shadow to shadow.

A door opened soundlessly and he turned along a short side corridor and into a large round room.

A peat fire was collapsing soundlessly into a pile of white ash in the central hearth. The rest of the room was sparsely furnished: a narrow bed, a table and chair made of sections of dagon shell, a wardrobe and a Sadhimist logo on sheet copper on one curving wall comprised its main geographical points.

There were one or two signs of Directorship, a large rolled map of the equatorial regions, an open filing cabinet, and a Galactic Standard clock on top of it.

But it was the trappings of probability math that clashed heavily with the strict simplicity of the room. Korodore’s eye followed a trail of Reformed Tarot cards across the room to where the bulk of the pack, crystal faces now bland, lay against the wall where it had been thrown. A vaguely disturbing visual array on a portable computer glowed on another wall. Charcoal glowed faintly in a tiny brazier on the shell table, and the air was acrid with the fumes of – Korodore sniffed the curious Sinistral incense. So Joan had taken refuge in being a cool-head …

Joan I looked up from the table, where a large black book lay open.

‘Couldn’t you sleep either?’ she said.

Korodore rubbed his nose diffidently.

‘As you know, madam, security officers never sleep.’

‘Yes … I know.’ She shook her head. ‘It was a figure of speech, is all. There’s some coffee by the fire.’

He poured her a cup, and slowly began to pick up the cards. She eyed him carefully as he moved soundlessly across the room.

‘I’ve been looking at the equations again,’ she said. ‘There’s no change. My son’s calculation was correct. Of course, I knew. They’ve been checked enough times. Even Sub-Lunar looked at them. Dom will be killed today, at noon. They won’t let him live.’

She waited. ‘Well?’ she said.

‘You mean, how do I feel as the security officer in charge? You mean, what are my reactions to the knowledge that whatever precautions I may take my charge will still be murdered? I have none, madam. I will still work as though I was in ignorance. Besides,’ he added, dropping the pack on the table, ‘I cannot believe it. Not quite. You could say my reaction is hope.’

‘It’ll happen.’

‘I can’t pretend to understand probability math. But if the universe is so ordered, so – immutable – that the future can