Book Beginnings #16, & Friday 56 #17: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (reread)

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The weekly post goes up every Thursday and bloggers can add their links all week. 

This is the 8th book in the Discworld series and the first book in the City Watch series. (There are several different series that branch off from each other  in Discworld.) This is one of my favorite Pratchett books. Here is the description: 

Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis ("noble dragon" for those who don't understand italics) has appeared in Discworld's greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in rather short order it is crowned King (it is a noble dragon, after all...) 
Meanwhile, back at Unseen University, an ancient and long forgotten volume -- The Summoning of Dragons -- is missing from the Library's shelves. To the rescue come Captain Vimes, Constable Carrot and the rest of the City Watch who, along with other brave citizens, risk everything, including a good roasting, to dethrone the flying monarch and restore order to Ankh-Morpork (before it's burned to a crisp). (from back cover)

The dedication: 
They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the Patrol. Whatever the name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they wanted to.
This book is dedicated to those fine men.

The beginning:

This is where the dragons went. 
They lie... not dead, not asleep. Not waiting, because waiting implies expectation. Possibly the word we're looking for here is... dormant. 
And although the space they occupy isn't quite like normal space, nevertheless they are packed in tightly. Not a cubic inch there but is filled by a claw, a talon, a scale, the tip of a tail, so the effect is like one of those trick drawings and your eyeballs eventually realize the space between each dragon is, in fact, another dragon.
They could put you in mind of a can of sardines, if you thought sardines were large and scaly and proud and arrogant.

And presumably, somewhere, there's the key.

This post is also for this week's Friday 56.

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

Here is a bit from page 56: 

"Back in the mountains," said Carrot, "if a thief was caught, he was hung up by the --"

He paused, idly rattling a doorknob. 

Nobby froze.

"By the what?" he said in horrified fascination.

"Cant remember now," said Carrot. "My mother said it was too good for them, anyway. Stealing is Wrong."

Nobby had survived any number of famous massacres by not being there. He let go of the doorknob, and gave it a friendly pat. 

"Got it!" said Carrot.

Nobby jumped.

"Got what?" he shouted. 

"I remember what we hang them up by," said Carrot.

"Oh," said Nobby weakly. "Where?"

"We hang them up by the town hall," said Carrot. "Sometimes for days..."