The market in Anluere was widely known as a place where you could find all sorts of strange things. Rare books, godtouched animals, and a wide variety of novel clockwork mechanisms were all common to find, there.
Giant snakes with mirrors for faces were fairly unusual – most godtouched animals didn't have any unusual physical traits, except for the mark. For one to spontaneously appear in midair, though, was entirely unprecedented.
Despite the unexpected nature of its appearance, most of the passersby seemed to have a cached reaction; that is, they quickly ran away screaming. Airta froze, instead.
That was probably a large part of the reason the snake ate her, in retrospect.