All kinds, from little tiny ones that whisper in your ear to great slavering monsters of things. Here, get this into you.” She put a steaming bowl of soup in front of me, with a wedge of coarse bread beside it. Monsters or no monsters, I set to with enthusiasm as my hostess went on.“Whistling Tor, that’s fair enough.The wind does make an eerie sound in the trees on the hill. But Whispering Tor would be closer to the mark. Go too far up there and you’ll start to hear their little voices, and what they tell you won’t be pleasant.”

It was hard to know what question to ask. “How did they get there, these . . . presences?”

“They were called forth in the time of my great-grandmother, and they’ve been here ever since, them and the curse that came with them. It’s hung over us like a shadow for close on four generations.”

“So the barrier around this settlement, and the guards, are not to protect you against Norman attacks?”

“Folk say those poxy iron-shirts won’t come so far west.”Tomas took a mouthful of his ale, watching me as I ate. “Myself, I’m not so sure. I’ve heard that some of the chieftains are calling their men to arms, and one or two have brought in fighters from the isles, big brutes of gallóglaigh with heavy axes. If the Normans come to Whistling Tor, we’re done for.There’s nobody to protect us; no leader, no fighters, no funds to pay for help.”

“What about the high king? And don’t you have a chieftain of your own? Can’t he protect you?”

“Huh!” There was profound scorn in Tomas’s voice.“Ruaridh Uí Conchubhair isn’t interested in the likes of us. As for a chieftain, the one we’ve got makes a mockery of the title. He’s worse than useless. Stays holed up in his big fortress, on top of the Tor there,” he waved in the general direction of the woodland path I had taken to reach the settlement, “surrounded by his malevolent creatures. Sends his man down for supplies, pays a few measly coppers now and then to get a bit of work done, but take action? Make an effort to defend his people? Not likely.Takes his tributes in good grain and livestock, gives back nothing at all. Hasn’t set foot beyond the hill since I can remember, and that’s a good while.”