Witches Abroad
Chapters - Terry Pratchett
Section: Stories
On Bear Mountain, a witches' sabbat discusses the shortage of practitioners. Meanwhile, the dying fairy godmother Desiderata Hollow makes her will, leaving her wand and a cryptic letter instructing someone to travel to the distant city of Genua to prevent a girl called Ella Saturday from marrying the prince. Desiderata is visited through her mirror by Lilith, who gloats about her imminent victory. Death arrives to collect Desiderata, who has dug her own grave and faces the end with characteristic practicality. In Genua, Lady Lilith de Tempscire stands between mirrors in her tower, drawing power from infinite reflections. She has installed the Duc as puppet ruler and is shaping the city into a fairy tale kingdom where stories are forced to come true. A voodoo woman called Mrs Gogol uses her cooking to read the future and learns that allies are coming.
On page: Death, Lilith Weatherwax
Section: The Wand
Magrat discovers the wand left to her by Desiderata Hollow and reads the letter instructing her to travel to Genua. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg arrive, ostensibly to help sort out Desiderata's possessions, and a fierce argument breaks out over who should have the wand. Magrat reveals the letter's contents - that Ella Saturday must not marry the prince - and insists on going to Genua. Granny, who takes an immediate dislike to anything involving fairy godmothering, initially refuses but then the three witches find themselves committed to the journey. They make preparations for departure: Magrat packs books and clothes methodically, Nanny Ogg says goodbye to her vast family and leaves Greebo temporarily, and Granny Weatherwax locks up her cottage. In Genua, Lilith uses her mirror magic to search the world, tracking the witches' preparations.
On page: Esmerelda Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick, Greebo, Lilith Weatherwax, Desiderata Hollow
Section: Leaving Lancre
The three witches depart Lancre on broomsticks, with Greebo stowed in Nanny Ogg's luggage despite Granny's objections. They fly over the Ramtops, bickering about direction and navigation. The journey begins with the usual difficulties of witches travelling together - arguments about who is in charge, where to stop, and what to eat. They pass through several small kingdoms and encounter the challenge of finding food and lodging while travelling incognito. Nanny Ogg proves surprisingly worldly about foreign customs while Granny Weatherwax treats every new place with deep suspicion. The witches are observed through reflections by Lilith, who recognises Granny Weatherwax and reacts with a mixture of anger and amusement.
On page: Esmerelda Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Greebo
Section: Across the Mountains
The witches continue their journey through the mountains and lowlands, encountering increasingly foreign territory. They stop at various towns, where Granny Weatherwax's rigid opinions about proper behaviour clash spectacularly with local customs. Nanny Ogg, by contrast, treats every new place like a pub she hasn't tried yet. Magrat reads Desiderata's notebooks and tries to learn about fairy godmothering. The witches encounter the power of stories firsthand - events around them keep trying to fall into familiar fairy tale patterns. A wolf follows them through the forest, and a girl in a red cloak is spotted on the path. Granny recognises the narrative pressure and fights against it, refusing to play the role of the wicked witch. They also discover that Greebo has been turning into a human when exposed to magic, a deeply disturbing transformation that produces a handsome but unsettling young man.
On page: Esmerelda Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick, Greebo
Section: Foreign Parts
The witches travel through increasingly unfamiliar territory, encountering dwarfs, trolls, and other travellers on the road. They find themselves caught up in more story patterns - Sleeping Beauty, Gingerbread House, the Three Bears - which Granny must fight off with sheer willpower. In one memorable encounter, they arrive at a cottage in the woods that is clearly setting itself up as a gingerbread house trap, and Granny's fury at being cast as the wicked witch causes the entire cottage to implode. The trio develops a rhythm: Granny leads, Nanny socialises, and Magrat reads ahead in Desiderata's notes. They learn more about Genua and about Lilith's plans to force the Cinderella story to its conclusion. Lilith continues to watch their progress through every reflective surface.
On page: Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick
Section: The Riverboat
The witches board a paddle steamer travelling down the great river towards Genua. The boat is a floating casino and hotel, full of gamblers and travellers. Nanny Ogg immediately gravitates towards the card tables, where she wins consistently until she makes the fatal mistake of trying to win big and loses all their money. The loss forces the witches into increasingly desperate measures to pay their passage. Granny discovers that she can win at cards using headology rather than magic. Meanwhile, events on the boat take on a story-like quality. Greebo is magically transformed into human form by Magrat using the wand, producing a tall, dark, handsome and deeply amoral young man who immediately charms several passengers. The Duc in Genua grows restless under Lilith's control, his nocturnal nature becoming harder to suppress.
On page: Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick, Greebo, Lilith Weatherwax
Section: Fairy Tales
The witches arrive in the outskirts of Genua and begin to see the effects of Lilith's story-magic firsthand. The entire country has been reshaped to fit fairy tale patterns: everything is clean and orderly and terrifying in its enforced happiness. Toymakers who do not whistle are arrested. Cobblers who do not make shoes for elves are punished. The witches meet Mrs Pleasant, a cook who works in Ella's household but secretly helps Mrs Gogol's resistance. Through Mrs Pleasant, they learn about Ella Saturday - a young woman kept captive by Lilith's two sinister servants, the Sisters, who are neither fully human nor fully alive. Magrat visits Ella and discovers she is no helpless princess but a sharp, wary young woman who has survived by keeping her head down. Ella calls herself 'Embers' as a joke about her kitchen duties.
On page: Magrat Garlick, Mrs Erzulie Gogol, Mrs Pleasant
Section: Genua
The witches explore Genua properly and witness its dark underbelly beneath the enforced happiness. People disappear if they upset the Duc. Everyone is polite because they are terrified. Fat Tuesday, the great carnival, approaches. The witches are led by Mrs Pleasant to Mrs Gogol's swamp cottage, where they meet the voodoo woman and her zombie companion Saturday - the reanimated corpse of the old Baron, Ella's father, whom Mrs Gogol loved and raised from the dead. Mrs Gogol explains Lilith's plan: she intends Ella to marry the Duc at a grand ball, completing the Cinderella story and legitimising the puppet regime. Granny learns that Lilith is actually her sister, Lily Weatherwax, who left Lancre decades ago. This revelation shakes Granny deeply, as she has always feared that she herself might be the 'evil' sister.
On page: Esmerelda Weatherwax, Lilith Weatherwax, Mrs Erzulie Gogol, Ella Saturday, Mrs Pleasant, The Duc
Section: Mrs Gogol
Mrs Gogol reveals the full extent of her voodoo powers and her plan to use them against Lilith. She has been building up her strength through sympathetic magic, creating a wax doll of Lilith and gathering ingredients for a grand working. The witches learn about voodoo's relationship to headology - both are about understanding and manipulating belief. Mrs Gogol wants to kill Lilith and install Ella as ruler with Saturday (the zombie Baron) restored to some semblance of life. Granny opposes this because it would mean using people as pieces in a story, which is exactly what Lilith does. The witches argue fiercely about methods. Meanwhile, Lilith prepares the Duc for the ball, dressing him in finery and reminding him of the kiss that will make everything permanent. The Duc's true nature - he is actually a frog transformed by mirror magic - becomes increasingly difficult to conceal.
On page: Lilith Weatherwax, Mrs Erzulie Gogol, Legba, Baron Saturday, Ella Saturday, Mrs Pleasant
Section: Samedi Nuit Mort
Fat Tuesday arrives and the ball begins at the palace. Lilith uses mirror magic to create a coach from a pumpkin and coachmen from mice, completing the Cinderella story's requirements. Ella is dressed and sent to the ball. The witches crash the masked ball - Nanny Ogg in a low-cut dress, Magrat transformed by the wand into a stunning figure, and Granny Weatherwax in her usual black. Casanunda, a dwarf who claims to be the world's second greatest lover, attaches himself to Nanny Ogg. Greebo, transformed into his human form, cuts a dashing figure on the dance floor. The Duc attempts to woo Ella, but at midnight the story goes wrong. Mrs Gogol launches her voodoo attack using zombies who rise from the swamp and march through the streets. The witches must fight on two fronts - against both Lilith's mirror magic and Mrs Gogol's voodoo - to prevent Ella from being used by either side.
On page: Esmerelda Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick, Greebo, Lilith Weatherwax, Mrs Erzulie Gogol, Legba, Baron Saturday, Ella Saturday, The Duc, Casanunda
Section: The Mirror
The climax sees Granny Weatherwax confront her sister Lily in the hall of mirrors atop the palace tower. Lilith draws power from her infinite reflections and appears overwhelmingly powerful. But Granny turns the mirrors against her - she has always known who she is, while Lily has lost herself among her reflections. Granny shatters the story by refusing to play her assigned role, and Ella refuses to kiss the Duc. The Duc reverts to his true form - a frog - and hops away. Lily, unable to accept defeat, steps into the mirrors and is lost among infinite reflections of herself, trapped forever between the glass. Mrs Gogol releases Saturday, allowing the zombie to finally rest in peace. Ella inherits the city on her own terms, not as part of any story. The witches prepare to return home, with Nanny Ogg's new friend Casanunda offering to escort them. Granny is deeply shaken by the confrontation with her sister but reaffirmed in her conviction that being good is a choice, not a birthright.
On page: Esmerelda Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Lilith Weatherwax, Mrs Erzulie Gogol, Legba, Baron Saturday, Ella Saturday, The Duc, Casanunda