After conversing with Talia, the snake is a willing tracker, but not a terribly fast one. Even so, itdoesn't take too long to figure out that whatever fled with Sam's arm headed diagonally up the slopingbase of the Collar towards the cliffs. Following the scent is slow and treacherous because the slope isquite steep and most of it is made of loose stones. Almost immediately, the creature you are trackingcrossed the road again where it loops back to the north to begin a difficult set of switchbacks. You presson to the south, alternately waiting on the snake to sniff around and then struggling over the rocks,clinging to dry pine trees for support.
As the sun comes over the shoulder of Mt Dain, the air warms rapidly. Elendil pauses to look up, andthen points out what he sees. The cliff above has come alive with small birds swooping, circling anddarting in and out of their nests high on the wall.
By midday, your little group has tracked the goblin scent to the top of the talus slope and the base of the true cliff. Here, too, you are back on the road, which runs south again, following the foot of the cliff. The downhill edge of the road is supported by ancient masonry which is heavily weathered, but largely intact. In places, the surface of the road is dirt and in other places the ancient paving stones can still be seen.
It isn't visible from here, but you know that just a bit farther south the road begins its final, breathtaking set of switchbacks, cut directly into a section of the cliff that isn't quite vertical. You can make out the roof of the inn from here, a few hundred feet below and a mile to the northeast. In most places the road is no more than ten feet wide, not even wide enough for two wagons to pass each other. Where you are standing, though, is a section of road about sixty feet long where the supporting masonry swings out thirty feet from the base of the cliff. Much of this broad section is occupied by a disorganized mound of boulders piled up to a height of fifteen or twenty feet against the foot of the cliff.
Looking up, Brother Landrau points out a large discolored patch on the cliff above and speculates that at some time in the past a great sheet of rock broke away from the cliff all at once and crashed down here, forming this pile of boulders.
"Back when the caravans were still profitable, merchants used to talk about clearing this pile away and repairing other bad parts of the road. Now I wonder whether that will ever happen."
The snake slithers up to the pile of boulders, which are too much for it to climb. About halfway up the pile, right at eye level, is a single, white bone, about the size of a man's upper arm. It has been picked almost clean of meat. The air is hot and still. The only sound is the buzzing of the flies crawling over the little bits of remaining flesh.
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