Liya saw, for a split second, a strap emblazoned with glowing lines drop neatly in front of her face before it snapped tightly around her neck--her hand had flown to her face and was now trapped there by the strap--her wrist kept the strap from crushing her throat, but made her hand completely immovable--

She was yanked backwards and landed hard on her spine; the other end of the strap swung round in the darkness, and then something massive had grabbed her leg, hauling her upwards.

Something fell out of her jacket pocket. Yoshi's construct, Liya saw it only briefly illuminated in the swarms of red lights--it landed on the flagstones with a surprisingly solid 'clonk.'

She shut her eyes for just an instant, and when she opened them again the courtyard was far, far below, buzzing with red lights and growing ever smaller and farther away. The fog of her breath streamed past her, away into the night; they were high up and moving fast. It was cold; she was upside-down, and the blood rushed straight to her head. Gasping angrily, she twisted around to look above her.

"Look, don't choke yerself there, girly," a voice said at that same moment. Liya's foot was trapped in the talons of an enormous monster with huge, translucent wings through which the light of the double moons blazed. A long, snakelike neck ended in a wedge-shaped head that she could see nothing of but one venomous yellow eye. The head tilted down at her slightly. "A healer ain't worth nothin' dead."