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The dragon gave hi, blank stare

"In fact," said Wonse, trying to keep the tre, if so is a bad idea, they'll kill hion blinked

For the first time Wonse could remember, it seemed uncertain

"I know people, you see," said Wonse, siaze

If you are lyingit thought, eventually

"You know I can't Not to you"

And they really act like this?

"Oh, yes All the tion could read at least the upper levels of his mind They resonated in terrible harhts behind the eyes in front of hion was horrified

"I'm sorry," said Wonse weakly "That's just hoe are It's all to do with survival, I think"

There will be no ht, almost plaintively

"I don't think so"

No heroes?

"Not anypeople!

Wonse whiing around in hisHe half-saw, half-sensed the flicker of randoe of reptiles and-and here he felt the dragon's genuine astonishment-of some of the less commendable areas of human history, which were er There was practically nothing the dragon could do to people that they had not, sooner or later, tried on one another, often with enthusiasm

You have the effrontery to be squeaons We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible But this reat face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of its eyes-we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it ain, once or twice, and then dropped heavily on to the tawdry assorts Its claws scrabbled at the pile It sneered

A three-legged lizard wouldn't hoard this lot, it thought

"There will be better things," whispered Wonse, tee in direction There had better be

"Can I-" Wonse hesitated-"can I ask you a question?"

Ask

"You don't need to eat people, surely? I think that's the only problem from people's point of view, you see," he added, his voice speeding up to a gabble "The treasure and everything, that doesn't have to be a problem, but if it's just a matter of, well, protein, then perhaps it has occurred to a powerful intellect such as your own that soht-"

The dragon breathed a horizontal streak of fire that calcined the opposite wall

Need? Need? it roared, when the sound had died away You talk to me of need? Isn 't it the tradition that the finest flower of woon to ensure peace and prosperity ?

"But, you see, we have always been moderately peaceful and reasonably prosperous-"

DO YOU WANT THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS TO CONTINUE?

The force of the thought drove Wonse to his knees

"Of course," he on stretched its claws luxuriantly

Then the need is not et out of ed as it left his on slithered over the cut-price hoard, leapt up on to the ledge of one of the hall's big s, and se of a city father cascaded into the other debris below

The long neck stretched out into the early evening air, and turned like a seeking needle Lights were co alive on breathed deeply, joyfully

Then it hauled the rest of its body on to the ledge, shouldered the remains of the 's frame aside, and leapt into the sky

"What is it?" said Nobby

It was vaguely round, of a woodish texture, and when struck e of a desk

Sergeant Colon tapped it again

"I give in," he said

Carrot proudly lifted it out of the battered packaging

"It's a cake," he said, shoving both hands under the thing and raising it with soed to put it on the table without trapping his fingers

"Can you eat it?" said Nobby "It's taken o stale"

"Oh, it's to a special dwarfish recipe," said Carrot "Dwarfish cakes don't go stale"

Sergeant Colon gave it another sharp rap "I suppose not," he conceded

"It's incredibly sustaining," said Carrot "Practically ical The secret has been handed down from dwarf to dwarf for centuries One tiny piece of this and you won't want anything to eat all day"

"Get away?" said Colon