
Soon, Beka realizes that the Shadow Snake, or whomever is posing as the snake, is not the only crook working on a large scale lately. Notably, one such hopeful, Rosto the Piper, and his two female friends, become friends with Beka. Kayfer Deerborn, the current king of the Rogue, is old and frail, and young hopefuls flock into town.

Meanwhile, things are unstable in the court of the Rogue, a league of criminals. Beka, however, does not believe this and sets out to learn what's really happening. Supposedly, the villain behind these kidnappings is the Shadow Snake, a being from a legend used to scare young children into behaving. If not, the child is killed, and they have a new week to pay. If the child's parents pay the ransom, usually a valuable item in the parents' possession (such as a lily necklace, a ruby pendant, fire opals, curses, etc.), their child is returned to them. This leads them to the realization that many children have been kidnapped and held for ransom in the last three years. Soon, they begin investigating the murder of three-year-old Rolond Lofts, son of Beka's friend Tansy Lofts and great-grandson of Ammon "Crookshank" Lofts, a rich criminal. Danish cover for the first part of Terrierīeka Cooper is placed with Senior Dogs Matthias Tunstall and Clara Goodwin, two dogs famous for their work in the Lower City.
