part eight, page twenty-eight

Well….

I guess Dalakhra won’t be coming back again (and again)then.

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Lurker, you were pretty close.

Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you’re going to die. So they’ll talk. They’ll gloat. They’ll watch you squirm. They’ll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.

So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.

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Murc: A very good point.

A short answer: The Undying Wizard-King is scary enough to make someone as competent, efficient and ruthless as Dalakhra decide that being a mere Satrap under his rule was worth betraying his country and assassinating his Caliph.

And he clearly planned ahead for the aftermath of these actions.

Of course, bad luck at the wrong moment will ruin even the best laid plans.

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