Ivy stared at the dwarf, who was at least three centuries older than her and never a good climber, and sighed. "No, I will go down. I will get Wiggles. I will bring her back. You will all stay here and do nothing foolish, like come after me."

She did not hear a chorus of agreement.

"That was an order," she said.

There was still silence.

"I am an officer of Procampur-" Sanval began.

Ivy interrupted him. "Which means that small white dogs are not your responsibility. Protecting my friends, however…"

"They will be safe. I will protect them," he stated in his quiet manner. Ivy believed him. It had to be, she decided later, the way that he just gleamed in the torchlight. Shiny armor. It just made a man look like a hero, Ivy thought. Something about the way that he stood too. Absolutely straight. Sword drawn and clasped in both hands, point down. She had tried that stance a couple of times when she was younger. It had never worked for her. But Sanval, he made it look natural-like one of those guardian statues in the better class of temple. Although most guardian statues did not have a huge scorch mark running across one shiny boot and a worried frown wrinkling a normally smooth forehead.

"It will be all right," she said, just to make that line disappear. It certainly did not suit Sanval's usual noble and serene demeanor. Ivy handed her torch to Kid, who just stood there looking at her with an eerily similar crease in the middle of his forehead that made the outer edges of his eyebrows tip up even more dramatically. "Don't worry. Whatever went down there is long gone. Just look after my friends."

"Ivy, I got a rope off that dead bugbear," said Zuzzara, uncoiling it from around her waist.

"See why we loot the dead when we can?" Ivy said to Sanval. He made no reply.

Ivy pulled her gloves off her belt and put them on to protect her hands from the rope. She shifted her sword on her back again, making sure the ties were tight

"Now, remember, everyone is going to stay right here," she said. Zuzzara found a protruding rock and tied off the rope, dropping it down into the black hole. Ivy grabbed the line and slowly descended into the darkness below.

A torch dropped past her. It lit the bottom of the hole with a faint pool of light. Ivy glanced down. She could not see Wiggles, but she could hear the dog whining below her.

She hit the sandy bottom of the hole and began to call the dog. "Come on, Wiggles, come here," she cajoled. "Come on, darling."

A sharp bark sounded ahead of her. Ivy picked up the torch and advanced farther into the hole. She spotted the shine of white fur. Wiggles was backed into a crack in the wall, tail between her legs, ears flat back against her head.

"Come on, Wiggles," said Ivy, "you know me. Nothing to be worried about. Come out, there's a good girl."

The dog remained motionless, her eyes staring at Ivy, and she gave a soft whine.

Intent on the dog cowering away from her, Ivy tripped over the giant black snake slithering across the floor. The creature reared up with a hiss, its mouth open and its fangs gleaming. Its head swung slowly, dipped to the floor of the pit, and led the curve of its body in a circle around her feet. She grabbed for her sword, trying to pull it one-handed out of the scabbard tied on her back while keeping the torch between her and the serpents bobbing head. The creature lashed out with unbelievable speed, uncoiling its length and circling upward around and around, over her ankles, around her knees, and up her thighs. Ivy lost her grip on the torch, which bounced harmlessly off the snake's back and rolled away.

The serpent twisted up Ivy's body faster and faster, like lighting striking up from the ground. It pinned her arms in place; her right hand was twisted awkwardly up by her shoulder, still fumbling for her sword hilt. But her armor protected her arm, and, as painful as her pinned arm was, the position also kept the snake off of her throat.

Ivy screamed-outraged at the suddenness of the attack, furious at the pain of her twisted arm-and tried to lunge out of the snake's coils. She could not move! The creature's body lapped around her, pressing against her ribs, and little stars danced in front of her eyes as the breath was slowly squeezed out of her. Her pulse beat frantically in her throat, and she knew that soon her heart would be crushed to a stop. The serpent's terrible head brushed against her face. She twisted her face clear, drawing shallow breaths against the overwhelming pressure, desperately trying to think of a way to escape from the crushing grip.

Fangs, fangs, the thing had enormous fangs. She remembered the ivory flash in the torch light. Poisonous? Did crushing serpents need poison? Something snagged at the edge of her thick blonde braid and pulled it forward around her neck so that it hung over the front of her shoulder. For a terrible moment, her own hair felt almost like a second serpent around her throat. She could not draw a deep enough breath to scream again, but in her mind she was shrieking.

When Ivy screamed, Sanval raced past Mumchance. He leaped straight out and, as gravity grabbed him, disappeared straight down.

"Sanval, stop! That is the most unbelievably stupid," the dwarf yelled as Sanval's brilliantly shined helmet disappeared below the lip of the hole, "and brave… Zuzzara, follow him! Ivy is in trouble!"

The Siegebreakers rushed to the edge of the hole. Zuzzara grabbed the rope and swung after the Procampur officer.

Wiggles barked hysterically.

Landing on the sandy floor with a thud, Sanval scooped Ivy's still burning torch from the floor. He thrust it toward the serpents eyes, less than a hand's width from Ivy's face, momentarily blinding the beast. The heat of the torch flared against Ivy's cheek, but the serpent's grip was so tight that she could not even wince. The giant snake hissed and wavered, obviously confused as to whether to bite Sanval or crush Ivy. Sanval ground the torch into one of the serpent's eyes. It popped and sizzled with a sickening smell right under Ivy's offended nose. She gagged. The giant snake tried to twist around and face this new threat with its one remaining eye.

With a prolonged hiss, the creature struck at Sanval. Its ivory fangs gleamed more brightly than the Procampur captain's sword.

Faster than one of Ivy's thundering heartbeats, Sanval thrust up with his blade, skewering the serpent through the jaw and piercing straight into its brain. The creature collapsed, its coils tightening in one last spasm of cruel strength, then going slack around Ivy's body.

Ivy could clearly see her open-mouthed expression in the polished gloss of Sanval's breastplate as he tried to catch her with his free hand. She slid down in front of him until she was kneeling on the floor.

"That was… That was…" She could not think what to say. She remained on her knees, gasping for breath.

A worried Zuzzara dropped from the rope, arriving on the pit's floor with an audible thump of haste. Her shovel was held high, ready to brain any attacker. "Ivy? Sanval? Are you all right?"

Wiggles crept out of the hole where she was hiding and rushed to Ivy, collapsing by her side with a doggy sigh of relief.

Ivy swallowed and tried to speak again. She could feel her ribs creaking when she took a deep breath, but nothing felt broken. She shook herself free of the coils of the dead serpent, as Sanval pulled the weight of it away from her.

Sanval caught her elbows and helped her to her feet. Ivy nearly swatted his hands away. After all, she wasn't some weak court lady who needed a hand up every time she tripped over her silk shoes or a giant snake. Then she took a deep breath to clear her mind as well as her lungs, and decided that Sanval would reach down to anyone who needed help, not because that person was weak but just because that was what you did when you lived by the rigid rules of Procampur courtesy. Why not let him be polite for once-it would make the man happy-especially when her knees were wobbling and she was still seeing little stars dancing in front of her eyes.