'What's that to you?'

'Killing old men is against the law,' said Angua. 'Of course, a lot of things are against the law, so we're very busy in the Watch. We like to be busy about important things. Otherwise we have to be busy about unimportant things. Are you hearing me?'

The shadow considered this. 'Go and take a seat,' it said. 'I'll bring your drinks.'

Angua led the way to a table in an alcove. The clientele lost interest in them. A buzz of conversation resumed.

'What is this place?' Cheery whispered.

'It's ... a place where people can be themselves,' said Angua slowly. 'People who... have to be a little careful at other times. You know?'

'No.'

Angua sighed. 'Vampires, zombies, bogeymen, ghouls, oh my. The und—' She corrected herself. 'The differently alive,' she said. 'People who have to spend most of their time being very careful, not frightening people, fitting in. That's how it works here. Fit in, get a job, don't worry people, and you probably won't find a crowd outside with pitchforks and flaming torches. But sometimes it's good to go where everybody knows your shape.'

Now that Cheery's eyes had grown accustomed to the low light she could make out the variety of shapes on the benches. Some of them were a lot bigger than human. Some had pointy ears and long muzzles.

'Who's that girl?' she said. 'She looks... normal.'

'That's Violet. She's a tooth fairy. And next to her is Schleppel the bogeyman.'

In the far corner something sat huddled in a huge overcoat under a high, broad-brimmed pointed hat.

'And him?'

'That's old Man Trouble,' said Angua. 'If you know what's good for you, you don't mind him.'

'Er... any werewolves here?'

'One or two,' said Angua.

'I hate werewolves.'

'Oh?'

The oddest customer was sitting by herself, at a small round table. She appeared to be a very old lady, in a shawl and a straw hat with flowers in it. She was staring in front of her with an expression of good-natured aimlessness, and in context looked more frightening than any of the shadowy figures.

'What is she?' Cheery hissed.

'Her? Oh, that's Mrs Gammage.'

'And what does she do?'

'Do? Well, she comes in here most days for a drink and some company. Sometimes we ... they have a singsong. Old songs, that she remembers. She's practically blind. If you mean, is she an undead ... no, she isn't. Not a vampire, a werewolf, a zombie or a bogeyman. Just an old lady.'

A huge shambling hairy thing paused at Mrs Gammage's table and put a glass in front of her.

'Port and lemon. There you goes, Mrs Gammage,' it rumbled.

'Cheers, Charlie!' the old lady cackled. 'How's the plumbing business?'

'Doing fine, love,' said the bogeyman, and vanished into the gloom.

' That was a plumber? said Cheery.

'Of course not. I don't know who Charlie was. He probably died years ago. But she thinks the bogeyman is him, and who's going to tell her different?'

'You mean she doesn't know this place is—'

'Look, she's been coming here ever since the old days when it was the Crown and Axe,' said Angua. 'No one wants to spoil things. Everyone likes Mrs Gammage. They... watch out for her. Help her out in little ways.'

'How?'

'Well, I heard that last month someone broke into her hovel and stole some of her stuff...'

' That doesn't sound helpful.'

'... and it was all returned next day and a couple of thieves were found in the Shades with not a drop of blood left in their bodies.' Angua smiled, and her voice took on a mocking edge. 'You know, you get told a lot of bad things about the undead, but you never hear about the marvellous work they do in the community.'

Igor the barman appeared. He looked more or less human, apart from the hair on the back of his hands and the single unbifurcated eyebrow across his forehead. He tossed a couple of mats on the table and put their drinks down.

'You're probably wishing this was a dwarf bar,' said Angua. She lifted her beermat carefully and glanced at the underside.

Cheery looked around again. By now, if it had been a dwarf bar, the floor would be sticky with beer, the air would be full of flying quaff, and people would be singing. They'd probably be singing the latest dwarf tune, Gold, Gold, Gold, or one of the old favourites, like Gold, Gold, Gold, or the all-time biggie, Gold, Gold, Gold. In a few minutes, the first axe would have been thrown.

'No,' she said, 'it could never be that bad.'

'Drink up,' said Angua. 'We've got to go and see... something.'

A large hairy hand grabbed Angua's wrist. She looked up into a terrifying face, all eyes and mouth and hair.

'Hello, Shlitzen,' she said calmly.

'Hah, I'm hearing where there's a baron who's really unhappy about you,' said Shlitzen, alcohol crystallizing on his breath.

'That's my business, Shlitzen,' said Angua. 'Why don't you just go back behind your door like the good bogeyman that you are?'

'Hah, he's sayin' where you're disgracin' the Old Country—'

'Let go, please,' said Angua. Her skin was white where Shlitzen was gripping her.

Cheery looked from the wrist to the bogeyman's shoulder. Rangy though the creature was, muscles were strung along the arm like beads on a wire.

'Hah, you wearin' a badge,' it sneered. 'What's a good we—?'

Angua moved so fast she was a blur. Her free hand pulled something from her belt and nipped it up and on to Shlitzen's head. He stopped, and stood swaying back and forth gently, making faint moaning sounds. On his head, flopping down around his ears like the knotted hanky of a style-impaired seaside sunbather, was a small square of heavy material.

Angua pushed back her chair and grabbed the beermat. The shadowy figures around the walls were muttering.

'Let's get out of here,' she said. 'Igor, give us half a minute and then you can take the blanket off him. Come on.'

They hurried out. The fog had already turned the sun into a mere suggestion, but it was vivid daylight compared to the gloom in Biers.

'What happened to him?' said Cheery, running to keep up with Angua's stride.

'Existential uncertainty,' Angua said. 'He doesn't know whether he exists or not. It's cruel, I know, but it's the only thing we've found that works against bogeymen. Blue fluffy blanket, for preference. ' She noted Cheery's blank expression. 'Look, bogeymen go away if you put your head under the blankets. Everyone knows that, don't they? So if you put their head under a blanket...'

'Oh, I see. Ooo, that's nasty.'

'He'll feel all right in ten minutes.' Angua skimmed the beermat across the alley.

'What was he saying about a baron?'

'I wasn't really listening,' said Angua carefully.

Cheery shivered in the fog, but not just from the cold. 'He sounded like he came from Uberwald, like us. There was a baron who lived near us and he hated people to leave.'

'Yes

'The whole family were werewolves. One of them ate my second cousin.'

Angua's memory spun in a hurry. Old meals came back to haunt her from the time before she'd said, no, this is not the way to live. A dwarf, a dwarf... No, she was pretty sure she'd never... The family had always made fun of her eating habits...

'That's why I can't stand them,' said Cheery. 'Oh, people say they can be tamed but I say, once a wolf, always a wolf. You can't trust them. They're basically evil, aren't they? They could go back to the wild at any moment, I say.'

'Yes. You may be right.'

'And the worst thing is, most of the time they walk around looking just like real people.'

Angua blinked, glad of the twin disguises of the fog and Cheery's unquestioning confidence. 'Come on. We're nearly there.'

'Where?'

'We're going to see someone who's either our murderer or who knows who the murderer is.'