"They are hostile to anyone other than Lord Wernh'An." Commander Evar kept his voice low, "Music from only this violin can intoxicate them. The more they enjoy music, blinder they become."

"And the mask?" Saer whispered.

"In the state of hypnosis, they mistake this mask as Lord Wernh'An's real face. Our Lord had raised these snakes decades ago for making medicines. So these snakes are peaceful to him. Just him."

"Bring the porter here." A sorcerer signaled Saer.

For all the time he had been wondering what the voice of those Short Cloaks would sound like. Saer got to listen to it in the most unpleasant situation ever. He would rather choose thousand feet of those scary stairs over a tree filled with sedated reptiles.

Man in the mask revolved around the tree to make himself come in sight range of every snake in the tree.

The biggest snake, which had its head up, followed the revolving man. So did the snakes which were attached to it.

"Be careful." The violinist said to a sorcerer getting dangerously close to the hissing creatures.

Lid of the pot he had humped over his back was in Commander Evar's hand. The fearless man caressed the small snake's body.

Touch of a human triggered instant reflex within it. It twitched and stretched its body to dig its fang on stranger's arm. Violinist noticed it and reaped the music louder.

The reptile's fang bent back to its mouth. Then the sorcerer ploughed the snake out. Its eyes lost its color along with its entire body as soon as it was separated. By the time the man bought it to Saer, the snake had turned into wood.

Inside his pot, it wasn’t more dangerous than a lifeless banyan vine.

Seeing the sorcerer plucking out more snakes with no effort was enough for Saer to come closer to the tree. Yet he didn’t dare to go handy with those creatures and nobody asked him to as well.

"How many do we need?" Saer asked the violinist.

He denied answering. His face alone showed how exhausted he had become.

"Look at it!" a soldier pointed at a snake with its mouth wide open.

Something was shining in it.

"Pearl." Commander Evar grinned.

"Commander, this is a good omen indicating Wutke's arrival."

Soldier scraped snow from ground and rose with handful of marble sized pearls, "Snakes of this side are making pearls."

"Wutke will rise." Commander Evar said, holding the pearl between his thumb and index finger, "Sooner than you can imagine."

"Snakes have brought wealth to Hilcastle. Our service to Wutke's force is giving us rewards." He said by looking at over twenty snakes which had pearls in their mouths.

"Pick them up." Commander Evar said while the soldier was putting the handful of pearls in Saer's pocket.

Musician's was being affected by exhaustion and cold. The music he was playing right now was much different than what he had been playing about ten minutes ago. But the soldiers had found new source of energy within them.

"Don’t make me play for more." His voice trembled in breeze, "I can't do this for long."

Apart from Saer, nobody gave any significance to what he was begging for.

One of them had discovered the biggest pearl in the entire tree. The gem was in was in reach of his hand but rested in mouth of a snake way over his head. The guard stood on his toes to pluck the shining rock.

He tripped and fell straight into the bunch of crawlers.

One by one, white eyes of those snakes started to take their original tints.

"Run!" Saer screamed, making the musician flinch.

The moment he stopped, tamed snakes got unleashed to their true nature. People who were behind the tree became the first victims. Pythons let themselves loose from the trunk and caught them in their vice.

"Get going!" Commander Evar shoved Saer, realizing he was in possession of Wernh'An's possible cure.

Surviving soldiers followed Saer, screaming at him to run quicker. But the ice laminated trail and a narrow turning slowed them down. Saer could afford compromising with his pace than compromising with his breath.

"Play the music!" Commander Evar turned towards tree from end of the cue.

There he saw the violin on the ground and the musician being swallowed by the trunk snake. Musician’s upper body was inside the snake’s mouth and the poor man was throwing his feet, trying to escape.