Guards Guards - 20

“And I did a bit of working out, too. I'll tell you this: it's a very odd beast. It shouldn't be able to get airborne.”

“You're right there.”

“If it's built like swamp dragons, it should weigh about twenty tons. Twenty tons! It's impossible. It's all down to weight and wingspan ratios, you see.”

“I saw it drop off the tower like a swallow.”

' 'I know. It should have torn its wings off and left a bloody great hole in the ground,“ said Lady Ramkin firmly. ”You can't muck about with aerodynamics. You can't just scale up from small to big and leave it at that, you see. It's all a matter of muscle power and lifting surfaces."

“I knew there was something wrong,” said Vimes, brightening up. “And the flame, too. Nothing goes around with that kind of heat inside it. How do swamp dragons manage it?”

“Oh, that's just chemicals,” said Lady Ramkin dismissively. “They just distill something flammable from whatever they’ve eaten and ignite the flame just as it comes out of the ducts. They never actually have fire inside them, unless they get a case of blowback.” “What happens then?”

“You're scraping dragon off the scenery,” said Lady Ramkin cheerfully. “I'm afraid they're not very well-designed creatures, dragons.” Vimes listened.

***

Guards Guards - p152