The maker of useful beasts

My Advisers accepted the idea of not killing humans with as much enthusiasm as I expected, but even they had to admit that it would be much less risky with a telepath.

What we all agreed on is that B568-114 had to make the dragons fly again as fast as possible. Without at least one of them, it will take weeks to reach the human village.

So I had to bring B568-114 to Scourge again. This time, we were accompanied by Invincible-13.

"Scourge is lazy. They are all lazy, sister," Invincible-13 said with the experience of an old dragon rider. "I even tried scratches, but they refused to go anywhere—and scratching these beasts is hard!"

"Oh, scratches? Like with dogs?" I asked curiously. "Why is it hard?"

"The hands get tired quickly when you hold the scratching stick." Invincible-13 pointed at her back with a thumb. "They like being scratched between the wings, or around the head, but they won't even feel it if you do it with bare hands."