The entrance into the High Temple at Methisaris was overwhelmingly grand. Pillars carved with snakes supported a roof which vaulted far overhead. The tiled walls were patterned with more of the labyrinths which so fascinated the inhabitants of the South Islands. The rasp of scales shifting and coiling over each other was unceasing, because where snakes were worn like jewelry in the rest of the city, here they roamed freely.

Hudson followed Estha carefully through the entrance ? carefully, because here the snakes had right-of-way. Twice they had to stop and retrace their path a few feet to avoid the serpentine obstacles. At the back of the great entrance chamber was a small door, flush with the wall and patterned into the tiles to look like the entrance to a maze. It was a deliberate and very effective concealment. Hudson looked curiously at Estha when the woman gestured for him to enter the door alone. She simply smiled and gestured again.

Blackness swallowed him when the door shut. The rasp and shift of coiled muscle and scale was the only sound he could hear, and that seemed to come from ahead. With no other guide, he stepped forward cautiously with one net-scarred hand on the left wall. The slick, cool feel of tiles beneath his fingers was no real surprise. The sudden brush of motion past his right leg was. In the dark he walked forward, with those occasional touches coming sometimes on his right side, sometimes on his left. There was a faint, dry sound that kept pace with him, and he could feel his heart speeding.

When he came to turns he kept to the left, never removing his hand from the wall. It felt like hours walking in the dark, but was probably less than half of one, when ahead there came a faint warm yellow glow of light. Hudson didn?t look down to see his scaled company through the maze, just kept walking forward.

In the center of the labyrinth was a chamber, lushly decorated with fabric woven and embroidered with gold thread. Tapestries hung from the walls and swags of gauze and silk draped against them. The floor was still tile, and for a moment Hudson thought it writhed. Black eyes lifted, found the clear path forward, and then fixed on the woman who sat on a gilded throne. She was old, with gray hair looped into an elaborate arrangement, and wrinkles lined her face, but she was regal. An albino python coiled around her, thick as Hudson?s leg, and stared at Hudson with the same impassive gaze as its mistress.

Walking forward into the clear path left by the snakes which covered the floor was one of the most difficult things Hudson had ever done. He halted at the foot of the dais and bowed, deeply and with respect, to both the High Priestess and her python. Without waiting for her bidding, he straightened.

?Why do you not prostrate yourself before me?? The voice of the High Priestess was quiet, barely audible over the rustle of snakes coiling and writhing, and utterly detached. Hudson?s black eyes widened a fraction at the directness of the question. In all the dealings with the people of the South Islands, not one of them had ever asked him a direct question. They phrased things as statements or made observations, but never asked questions.

?Because I willnae kneel in submission tae another Lord than my own. I offer ye respect, Priestess o? th? Snake, but I dinnae worship ye.? Hudson?s answer was as direct as her question had been, and made no apology for the truth. The High Priestess looked at him without expression, seeming to study his bearing. He met her cold gaze without looking away, and without bending his head in submission. For several minutes they remained so.

Eventually the High Priestess lifted her left arm and pointed to Hudson, then snapped her fingers once. The albino python that had remained still enough to resemble a carving bobbed its head. It uncoiled itself from the High Priestess with a motion almost like a caress, and then slithered down from throne and dais. It didn?t pause when it reached Hudson ? it rose and coiled around him.

Hudson remained utterly still while the heavy loops of scale and muscle settled around his chest. The snake?s large, angular head was reared back, inspected his face from a distance of perhaps a foot, when the High Priestess spoke again. ?Do you fear death??

Again the directness of the question widened Hudson?s eyes. He couldn?t break the hypnotic gaze of the snake, however, and so his answer was addressed to the python rather than the woman. ?Aye, I dae. But nae sae much as tae run from it, wi? my Moira waiting for me on th? other side.?

?Do you fear life?? The questions were all asked in that same drily impassive tone. There was no emotion, no significance attached to them, and therefore no clue what kind of answers were desired.

Hudson answered the only way he knew how, honestly. ?Aye, I dae. But nae sae much as nae tae grab at every moment given.? Memory was a warmth in the chilling wrap of the snake, raven-wing black and a trio of merry notes that gave him something to reach for. The strange red eyes of the albino python never moved, never broke the hypnotic gaze. Hudson spoke to the snake rather than the woman, but there was no doubt that both considered his answers.

?How stubborn you are, Hudson Fraiser, and how strange. You will need that stubbornness in the days ahead.? With no visible signal between woman and python, it unwrapped itself from around Hudson and reversed its path, once again coiling around the High Priestess. Her eyes were faded blue and the snakes were red, but there was still something kin in their gaze. ?Estha will have the contracts your people desire given to the Captain of your ship by the time you find the exit.?

It was clearly dismissal, and Hudson bowed to snake and woman once more before he turned and walked back into the blackness of the maze.