That, he said, is the mayonnaisey. Made it myself. Out of a book, he added prudly.

Yeah, I expect you did, said the man, prodding it. Clearly oil, eggs and vinegar were not ivnolved, right?

Specialty de lar mayson, said Fruntkin.

Right, right, said the man. Only it's attacking my lettuce.

Fruntkin graped his ladle angrily.

Look-- he began.

No, it's all right, said the prospective diner. The slugs have formed a defensive ring.

The thing is, the duck says, said Gospode, that all this is part of the same thing. Humans and trolls and everything comming here. Animals suddenly talking. The duck says he thinks it's caused by something here.

How does a duck know that? said Victor.

Look, friend, said the rabbit, when you can fly all the way across the sea and even end up finding the same bloody continent, you can start badmouthing ducks.

It might not mean a man, he said. Pictographic writing doesn't work like that. It's all down to context, you see. He racked his brains to think of some of the books he'd seen. For example, in Agatean language the signs for woman and slave written down together actually mean wife.

Will you come to my room tonight? hissed Ginger. Please? You can wake me up if I start sleepwalking again.

Well, er, yes, but your landlady might not like it--- Victor began.

Oh, Mrs Cosmopolite is very broadminded, said Ginger.

She is?

She'll just think we're having sex, said Ginger.

Ah, said Victor hollowly. That's all right, then.

She's really very nice. She told me yesterday that she had had four husbands, said Ginger.

What did she do with the bones? said Victor.

Victor drew himself up to his full height. There are some Things, he said, that a man has to do by himself.

She gave him a look of irritated incomprehension.

What? What? Do you want to go to the lavatory or something?

He gripped the pike in one hand, the rope in the other, and leapt

The most graphic way of describing the Librarian's swing across buildings of Unseen University is to simply transcribe the noises made during the flight.

First: AaaAAAaaaAAAaaa. This is self-explanatory, and refers to the early part of the swing, when everything looked as if it was going well.

Then: Aaarghhhh. This was the noise made as as he missed the lurching Thing by several metres and was realizing that, if you have tied a rope to the top of a very high and extremly solid stone tower and are now swinging towards it, failing to hit something on the way is an error which you would regret for the rest of your truncated life.

The rope completed its swing. There was a noise exactly like a rubber sack full of butter hitting a stone slab and this was followed, after a moment or two, by very quiet oook.