 The Sartan can sense that the dragon-snakes are evil, "older than time itself", and show even more hatred for the Sartan than the Patryns ever did.The dragon-snakes repeatedly attacked the city, and the Sartan were defenceless, because of the effect of the seawater on their magic.The Sartan sent the mensch away to live on the seamoons, thinking, correctly, that the dragon-snakes would leave the mensch alone and just keep attacking the Sartan.