When they arrived in the shades, Vimes realized that the fire had been in the very same street, where the first dragon had showed up the first time.
Vimes shivered. Was it all going to happen again? Was it an invisible dragon this time?
But wait, the always suspicous copper in Vimes thought, We don't know it was a dragon, do we? The kid didn't see Boggis summoning one, right? He could've ended up on the floor because of a totally different reason.
The scene of the "attack" confirmed his thoughts. It all seemed surprisingly... normal. For a fire anyway.
There were no molten peaces of brick, tiles or metal you would expect after the heat of a dragon flame. By gods, even the small buggers Sybil kept at home could melt things.
Here, there were normal ash- covered reminents of walls and half- burnt pieces of wood. There were still golems around, busy putting out the last flames.
"Something smells fishy here." Vimes said, walking over the glowing ruins of the house.
"Well, I don't smell fish." Nobby sniffed the hot air. "Smells like Cat's Up- Sauce to me, sir."
"You don't mean that stuff you blew the Hogswatch-BBQ up with, do you?" Nobby nodded. "Oh, don't be daft Nobby! What you smell is probably the smoke, that's all. Besides, who would use some sauce to blow up a house if he had a loaded dragon?"
"Uhm... Sir?", came the voice of carrot from somewhere behind them.
Vimes turned around. "Yes?"
Carrot held up something that looked like a tiny, half-broken bottle. "I think Nobby was right, sir! And the sticker's still on it."
Vimes felt the rage starting to bubble.
They were being fooled.
But by what?