Ellen meets Mari outside the room where her Logic for Spellcraft class just ended. On the way to the cafeteria they pass a group of Sophomores outside one of the language labs.

“… snake. When it finishes digesting …"

“… warn our clavemates. Get some of our seniors to …”

Ellen stops. “There is a mal in there?”

The girl who was speaking gives her an annoyed look.

“It was a serpent, a big one. It was just lying there, I think it ate someone before class.”

“Where does a snake have its heart?”

?

 “A  little back from the head but a mal might be different.”

“Apa says almost everything has its brains near its eyes.”

She opens the door, the stone in the ring on her right hand glowing like a hot coal.

“It is a big one.” She points at the serpent’s head, says a long sentence in Latin.

The serpent looks around, hisses loudly, starts towards the door, moving slowly.

She casts again.

One of its eyes goes black. Another hiss, but it keeps coming.

She points again, then looks down at her ring; the jewel is no longer glowing.

“Mana.” She starts to back up.

“Use this.”

Ellen feels the touch, looks down at her wrist and Mari’s power sharer, up at the serpent.

A longer sentence, again in Latin; the other eye goes black. 

The serpent’s tail curls around with another head on it, two more eyes. It continues moving toward the door, a little faster—it seems to be waking up—its tongue flicking out and back.

"It’s a giant amphisbaena. Two heads and fireproof skin. And it smells with its tongues."

(the textbook wasn't entirely useless)

“Bui.”

Ellen’s scarf unwraps itself from around her neck, one end around her wrist, the other to her hand. Left hand to the wallet at her side, she drops something black into the sling, throws. 

It bounces off the snake’s nose.

“Àtkozott!”

She does not sound happy.

The leading head strikes at the projectile, eats it.

“Meggyújt.”

The serpent stops advancing, burps a cloud of smoke from both ends, straightens as the two heads pull in opposite directions, both hissing frantically. The skin at the middle begins to tear, letting out jets of fire. As the girls watch, the amphisbaena comes apart. The two pieces wriggle violently, less violently, stop moving. 

Ellen steps forward, Mari puts a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s not a snake, it might not be dead. What did you feed it?”

"A lump of coal I picked up in the workshop last week; I thought I might have a use for it. I primed it Saturday morning."

Half an hour later Mari dumps what she is carrying on the Buda table, joins Ellen at the end of the line. Trays filled, but not very, they come back to the table.

"One of the Munich kids, I think it was Munich, told us a mal ate both of you. We were waiting to see if you showed up for lunch."

“It didn't. Do any of you have a use for the hide of a giant ambisbaena? Do you know anyone who might want to buy it? It's fireproof, and there is a lot of it."

 “There was part of a student inside it. I almost lost my breakfast.”

"Can any of us use two large pieces of fireproof skin from a giant amphisbaena? Do we know any upperclassmen who work with mal parts?”

On their way up to the library, after stopping at Mari's room to dump the bundles of skin, Mari turns to Ellen.

“That was a mistake.”

Ellen nods.

“Yes. Nobody was doing anything, just talking; I was afraid it would eat someone else. They didn't tell us it was an amphisbaena and they aren't usually that big, so I didn’t know fire wouldn’t work.”