Yet worse than that, to either side and mere steps beyond the statues, the ground dropped away into sheer cliffs. It was dangerously windy up here on the promontory. The sense of being one slip away from plummeting to death was palpable. That alone was enough to make it seem an invisible haunt prowled alongside, breathing down their necks, a third presence who might act on a whim to animate one of the stone guardians to push a trespasser over the edge. Such a malicious haunt might follow intruders inside the towers, might slide their shadow into an unsuspecting lad’s body to steal it for their own ends, as an escape from the ruins into the world beyond.

That was an unpleasant thought. The elder’s story was one she’d not heard before today, as if it were a shameful secret he’d not wanted anyone outside the family to know. She shivered, although maybe the sudden chill that engulfed her came from a cold gust of wind.

Kem touched her arm to reassure her, although she’d not said a word.

The last pair of stone guardians had startlingly beautiful humanlike faces, as if humans were just another type of beast—and weren’t they, after all? Still, seeing human faces on the statues was a bit comforting, right up until the eye dropped to the severed head each held in its hands. One cradled the exquisitely carved head of a sharp-snouted dragon with a knifelike crest and gemstone eyes. The other held the head of a young man, mouth wide as if he had stiffened into stone as he screamed for help that would never come.

4 THE HOLYSTONE PAVEMENT

Past the narrowed ridge path and its stone guardians, the promontory widened into a flat area about two hundred paces across, a blunt, prow-like point high above the valley. Cliffs plunged away on all sides except the narrow ridge path that connected the promontory to the main rise of the hillside.

It was on this windswept little plateau that the unknown and long-forgotten builders had constructed three towers in a triangular formation, linked by three connecting walls to create a walled compound. The towers rose about sixty ells, measuring arm to shoulder, and were impossibly slender and yet nevertheless enduringly stable. The connecting walls were about twice Elen’s height, with no crack of age or erosion on the smooth surface. Along two sides the walls rose directly from the promontory’s cliff face. The third wall faced the statues. The path Elen and Kem were walking ended at a stone staircase.