Guards Guards - Mind Reading

“I know people, you see,” said Wonse, simply.

The dragon continued to pin him with its gaze.

If you are lying ... it thought, eventually.

“You know I can't. Not to you.”

And they really act like this?

“Oh, yes. All the time. It's a basic human trait.”

Wonse knew the dragon could read at least the upper levels of his mind. They resonated in terrible harmony. And he could see the mighty thoughts behind the eyes in front of him.

The dragon was horrified.

“I'm sorry,” said Wonse weakly. “That's just how we are. It's all to do with survival, I think.”

There will be no mighty warriors sent to kill me? it thought, almost plaintively.

“I don't think so.”

No heroes?

“Not any more. They cost too much.”

But I will be eating people!

Wonse whimpered.

He felt the sensation of the dragon rummaging around in his mind, trying to find a clue to understanding. He half-saw, half-sensed the flicker of random images, of dragons, of the mythical age of reptiles and-and here he felt the dragon's genuine astonishment-of some of the less commendable areas of human history, which were most of it. And after the astonishment came the baffled anger. There was practically nothing the dragon could do to people that they had not, sooner or later, tried on one another, often with enthusiasm.

***

Guards Guards - p262-263