[Her first instinct is a sort of satisfied] Oh! Yes, of cours-- [And then, after a pause, slightly abashed:] My sympathies, serah. Thank the Maker you were rescued.

I've found what I was thinking of. If you'll forgive a quotation--In the next few weeks, we found ourselves besieged by a strange menace. The first two occasions on which it struck, we found few remains of our brethren--and that's a rather unpleasant description, we needn't read that bit, but when the third man is attacked, he says: The culprit was a great serpent, crowned like the Maker in all his glory on the golden throne.

Of course, Brother Lamela's writing is hardly unimpeachable, but this sounds like your snake.