Garion não está realmente em perigo nessa situação, nem ninguém mais, embora eles não tenham percebido isso no momento.
Salmissra certainly wanted to get their attention, but the purpose of the mud-men and the snakes inside them was to deliver a message, not to actually threaten Garion or any of the others. Nobody, the reader included, realises that until everything's over and done with, but nothing in what the snake says to Polgara implies that it or its companions were supposed to actually hurt anyone.
Na maioria das outras vezes, quando Barak não muda, é semelhante: ou Garion está realmente em posição de fazer algo sobre as coisas, ou está protegido - por exemplo ...
...when Silk is fighting Brill on the parapet of Rak Cthol, Garion is initially seemingly in danger, but in practise, he really isn't. Silk is right there, and the contest between Light and Dark is between Silk and Brill. Garion is just a spectator.