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until she reached the one known as the Piper.
    She removed a hatpin from among the many that riveted her pointy hat to her hair and held it about six inches from the stone. Then she let it go, and watched what happened.
    She went back to Nanny.
    “There’s still power there,” she said. “Not much, but the ring is holding.”
    “But who’d be daft enough to come up here and dance around the stones?” said Nanny Ogg, and then, as a treacherous thought drifted across her mind, she added, “Magrat’s been away with us the whole time.”
    “We shall have to find out,” said Granny, setting her face in a grim smile. “Now help me up with the poor man.”
    Nanny Ogg bent to the task.
    “Coo, he’s heavy. We could’ve done with young Magrat up here.”
    “No. Flighty,” said Granny Weatherwax. “Head easily turned.”
    “Nice girl, though.”
    “But soppy. She thinks you can lead your life as if fairy stories work and folk songs are really true. Not that I don’t wish her every happiness.”
    “Hope she does all right as queen,” said Nanny.
    “We taught her everything she knows,” said Granny Weatherwax.
    “Yeah,” said Nanny Ogg, as they disappeared into the bracken. “D’you think…maybe…?”
    “What?”
    “D’you think maybe we ought to have taught her everything we know?”
    “It’d take too long.”
    “Yeah, right.”

    It took a while for letters to get as far as the Archchancellor. The post tended to be picked up from the University gates by anyone who happened to be passing, and then left lying on a shelf somewhere or used as a pipe lighter or a bookmark or, in the case of the Librarian, as bedding.
    This one had only taken two days, and was quite intact apart from a couple of cup rings and a bananary fingerprint. It arrived on the table along with the other post while the faculty were at breakfast. The Dean opened it with a spoon.
    “Anyone here know where Lancre is?” he said.
    “Why?” said Ridcully, looking up sharply.
    “Some king’s getting married and wants us to come.”
    “Oh dear, oh dear,” said the Lecturer in Recent Runes. “Some tinpot king gets wed and he wants us to come?”
    “It’s up in the mountains,” said the Archchancellor, quietly. “Good trout fishin’ in those parts, as I recall. My word. Lancre. Good grief. Hadn’t thought about the place in years. You know, there’s glacier lakes up there where the fish’ve never seen a rod. Lancre. Yes.”
    “And it’s far too far,” said the Lecturer in Recent Runes.
    Ridcully wasn’t listening. “And there’s deer. Thousands of head of deer. And elk. Wolves all over the place. Mountain lions too, I shouldn’t wonder. I heard that Ice Eagles have been seen up there again, too.”
    His eyes gleamed.
    “There’s only half a dozen of ’em left,” he said.
    Mustrum Ridcully did a lot for rare species. For one thing, he kept them rare.
    “It’s the back of beyond,” said the Dean. “Right off the edge of the map.”
    “Used to stay with my uncle up there, in the holidays,” said Ridcully, his eyes misty with distance. “Great days I had up there. Great days. The summers up there…and the sky’s a deeper blue than anywhere else, it’s very…and the grass…and…”
    He returned abruptly from the landscapes of memory.
    “Got to go, then,” he said. “Duty calls. Head of state gettin’ married. Important occasion. Got to have a few wizards there. Look of the thing. Nobblyess obligay.”
    “Well, I’m not going,” said the Dean. “It’s not natural, the countryside. Far too many trees. Never could stand it.”
    “The Bursar could do with an outing,” said Ridcully. “Seems a bit jumpy just lately, can’t imagine why.” He leaned forward to look along the High Table. “Bursaaar!”
    The Bursar dropped his spoon into his oatmeal.
    “See what I mean?” said Ridcully. “Bundle o’ nerves the whole time. I WAS SAYING YOU COULD DO WITH SOME FRESH AIR, BURSAR.” He nudged the Dean