...

In Duneland, a man named Falal had appointed himself the new chieftain of the Sun Brethern. Falal had long coveted the position and would have been Mohar's second choice in any case after Sirikana had disqualified himself. Falal wore the common brown robe of the desert and even looked somewhat similar to Sirikana but with a thinner moustache and longer hair.

"The sun shines upon us this day!" Falal shouted to a crowd of his fellow Dunelanders, all surrounding Mohar's former tent, "Today is the day we finish what our dear Mohar began, today we crush the snake demons!"

The crowd cheered, many of them whooping and shaking their swords in the air. Falal himself removed the sword from his sash and pointed at Sirikana and his family, who were huddled in shame next to the tent.

"I should sever your head from your neck this very instant, Sirikana, but I offer you and your family a choice!" Falal decided, "Bring me the head of the demoness that beguiled you by nightfall or be banished and accursed forever!"

"I've already made my choice." Sirikana replied.

"And Liyahara?" Falal asked, "What say you? Do you wish to dishonor your brother's memory as well?"

"My children...need their father..." Liyahara muttered.

"So be it." Falal replied, "Get out of our sight and never return. If I see any one of your cursed lot again, none will be spared."

"Traitors! Traitors! Traitors!" the crowd chanted, pelting dirt and rocks at the four cursed tribe members.

The four former members swiftly walked through the crowd, enduring smacks and jeers until they were a good distance away. Falal had not so much as allowed them a goat or a skin of water.

"We will die of thirst within days." Liyahara whispered to her husband as they trudged through the sand.

"We can follow the river." Sirikana advised, "Besides, there are some who might take us in."

"Surely, you don't mean..." Liyahara shuddered.

"Yadeen joined the Kotarians." Sirikana recalled.

"Yadeen betrayed everything that the Sun Brethern stand for." Liyahara said.

"So did we." Sirikana remarked.

"No, just you." Liyahara corrected.

Yadeen was a man who had been banished only a few years before, for falling in love with a Kotarian woman.

"I'm hungry, Mama." Madiji complained.

"We're all hungry, Madiji." Bihali groaned.

In Kotaria, Salamanca slithered at Valdez's side as he explored the city, partly because she had little choice, and partly due to her fear of his soldiers. Valdez said little to her as he assessed the artwork of the conquered natives; sculptures of jade, gold, and clay. Salamanca gasped as two of Valdez's soldiers trudged toward him, forcefully dragging a writhing and snarling serpentine behind them.

<Serotolo!!> Salamanca shouted.

Serotolo looked bloodied, bruised, and beaten.Blood spurted from the tip of his tail where it had been severed and his left eye was swollen shut, his eyelid blue and puffy. All six of his arms had been bound tightly behind his back with rope and another bound to his neck. The serpentine half-strangled himself as he struggled against his noose.

<What have you done to him?!> Salamanca demanded.

"Forgive us for the intrusion, captain." a soldier announced, "This...thing tried to attack us the moment we laid eyes on it."

"This serpentess appears distraught." Valdez said of Salamanca, "Tell me, viperess, do you know this man?"

Salamanca ignored Valdez, not that the two could understand each other. The vipress embraced her husband with all six of her arms, but then recoiled due to the pain of her earlier bullet wound.

<The fiends wounded you as well, my dear.> Serotolo noted.

<Is our daughter safe?> Salamanca wondered.

<Saphirina has Seratala.> Serotolo replied, <She is safe. I was out alone, looking for you, when these fools attacked. They snuck upon me. I could not even get a scratch in.>

<Let me untie you.> Salamanca said as she looked around for a blade.

Salamanca smiled as she saw a large clay statue that Valdez had turned to admire. It was none other than the Kotarian version of a serpentine, representing the goddess Snek, her tail coiled around a small pillar. It was only slightly larger than Salamanca herself and in it's six hands were placed six actual curveblades. Salamanca took them for herself and with a swipe of her bottom right arm, her husband's bonds were loosed. He jerked the noose from his neck with his own hands and instinctively bit the hand of the soldier nearest to him. The soldier screamed as his hand shook with venomous pain and his fellow soldier impaled Serotolo's tail with his spear.

Serotolo shrieked in agony but this only frightened the soldier enough to stab Serotolo again and again until the serpent writhed lifelessly in a puddle of his own blood. Salamanca's own eyes welled with angry tears as she wailed so loudly that all of Kotaria could hear her cries. Valdez himself backed away at the horror of the scene.

"Stand down, you fools!" he shouted, "That's an order!"

The soldiers stood down just enough for Salamanca to strike with all six of her swords and cut both men in half. They fell in four pieces, gushing even more blood onto Serotolo's corpse. Salamanca was now splattered in blood herself. Valdez fled quickly, knowing the serpentess could make short work of him in this state. Salamanca was about to embrace her husband's body when she caught a familiar face out of the corner of her eye.

<YOU!!> Salamanca raged as she saw Penyo Vasquez march by, the very man who had put a knife to her throat.

The vengeful lady slithered straight up to the man and cut him asunder before he had time to think. Salamanca slashed again and again until there was nothing left of the man but chunks of flesh. Other soldiers began to swarm near the repulsive scene but Salamanca, in a trance, cut them all down until their were four more corpses next to Penyo.

"It is the goddess Snek on earth." a Kotarian merchant noted in wonder.

"Come here!" a Kotarian woman called out to Salamanca, breaking her trance, "Quickly!!"

The woman was none other than Heti, heraldess of Neferti. A blood drenched, furious Salamanca snarled at her.

"Peace, serpentess." Heti pleaded, "I know what they did to you. We do not have time to bury your husband. We must leave the city at once."

"Why...why should I?" Salamanca growled in Dunelander.

"There will be more foreign soldiers. They will kill you. Perhaps worse." Heti said, "There is a secret passage out of the city. Your friend is waiting for us."

"What..friend?" Salamanca asked between breaths.

"None other than your own chieftess." Heti said, "Semerket has betrayed us to the invaders. They care not for our lives. We are fleeing to form an army that can fight them. Now let us make haste!"

Salamanca started to turn back for what was left of Serotolo but then dropped her swords and followed Heti down a small alley. At the far end of the alley was an almost invisible cut piece of Kotaria's wall.

"Help me push it." Heti requested.

With a total of eight arms nudging the section of wall, it moved forward until the two women saw daylight on the other side. Only a short distance away, near the bank of the Dune River, Neferti herself stood, along with four guards and Saphirina, who was clutching little Seratala in her arms.

<Seratala!!> Salamanca screamed in joy.

The serpentess sped through the sand to embrace her daughter in all six arms. Seratala sniffed her mother and licked the foreign blood from her shoulder.

<Are you hurt, Mama?> Seratala asked, <What happened? Where is Papa?>

Salamanca could only weep and cradle her daughter. Seratala's young mind soon realized that something bad had happened and she burst into tears. Saphirina put an arm on both of their shoulders and sighed.

<I assume that Serotolo is no more. I am sorry.> she consoled, <But you two must get on the boat, now.>

<What boat?> Salamanca asked, wiping her tears.

Saphirina pointed to a small wooden galley embroidered with gold and overlayed with a white canopy. It served as both Neferti's leisure boat and eventual burial ship. It could be rowed by a team of up to six and was bobbing back and forth, docked on the Dune River bay.

<It will be crowded, but it is the only way out of here.> Saphirina said.

<Why should we leave?> Salamanca asked, <This is our home.>

<It is ours no longer.> Saphirina said, <I will stay behind to parlay with the invaders. You will leave for your own safety and to find us an army.>

"For all of our sakes, we must be off." Neferti announced.

Neferti, her guards, and the two serpentines, climbed up the rope ladder onto the galley. The guards took their places at the oars as the mother and child serpents coiled into a ball to mourn.

"Stay and make peace as much as it can last." Neferti said to Heti, "I shall return."