“God?” Lilith said. “No. God sits perfectly well with me.”
Eppstadt was clearly about to make some boorish reply to this but Lilith ignored him.
She let out a rhythmical whistle, and up from the dark throat of the earth came two women, bald and bare-breasted. At the sight of either faces or breasts, perhaps both, the goat-boy in the crate started to get voluble again, wailing and chattering.
“This is the end, then.” Lilith said to the Duke. “I’m taking him. Do you have any final words?”
The Duke shook his head, and raised his sword — jabbing it in Eppstadt’s direction in order to persuade him to stay out of these proceedings. Eppstadt stood his ground, until the point of the Duke’s sword pierced his mud-caked shirt. Then he yelped and duly stepped back to prevent worse coming his way.
“Hurt, did it?” Jerry said.
“Shut the fuck up,” Eppstadt snapped.
He made no further attempt to agent the exchange between Lilith and the Duke, however. The crate was unbolted, and Lilith reached in, grabbing her one-handed offspring by his dick and balls.
“Take him, ladies,” she said to the women, and in a most unmotherly fashion she threw him into the arms of her maidservants, who seized him between them and carried him off down the slope and into the darkness.
“So it finishes,” Lilith said to the Duke.
She turned on her heel, catching hold of her insanely embroidered garment, and lifting it up to clear her step. Then she glanced back. “Did you have children?” she asked the Duke.
He shook his head.
“Then you’ll lie with those who went before you but not with any that came after. That’s good. It would be mournful to meet your children in the grave tonight.” She inclined her head. “Farewell then, my lord. It seems to me; you’ve earned your rest.”
She had said all she intended to say, and again made to depart, but Eppstadt wasn’t quite done.
“You’re good,” he said. “I mean, real gravitas. I don’t see that a lot. And you’re beautiful. You know, it’s usually one or the other. Tits or brains. But you’ve got both. I almost wish I wasn’t dreaming.”
Lilith gave him a stare which would have sent wiser men running. But Eppstadt, still believing himself the master of his own dream, was not going to be cowed by any of its cast.
“Have I met you somewhere before?” he said. “I have, haven’t I? I’m conjuring you up from a memory.”
“Oh don’t do this,” Todd murmured.
“Don’t what?” Eppstadt snapped.
“Play.” Not here. Not now.”
“It’s my sand-box. I’ll play if I want to. But the rest of you can get the fuck out! That means you, faggot, and her — ” He pointed at Tammy. “And you, Pickett. Out! Go on! I want you out!”
For some reason, Todd looked to Lilith for permission to depart. She nodded, first at Todd, then at Tammy, finally at Jerry.
“Are you sure you don’t want to make a graceful exit?” Todd said to Eppstadt.
“Fuck you.”
Jerry had already turned his back on the Hell’s Mouth, and was heading back towards the threshold. Tammy had also turned, but had halted, caught by the sight of the Duke and his two men, who were lying on the ground at the edge of the trees. How they had got there — what instinct had driven them to lie down like this — she didn’t know.
Their bodies were already in advanced states of corruption, even though they were still alive and they were gazing up at the slowly-changing sky, their faces cleansed of any expression of resentment or need or pain. They seemed perfectly resigned to their decease, as though after all these years trapped in a circle they could not break, they were simply grateful to be leaving it. So there they lay, maggots at their nostrils, beetles at their ears, their sight drowning in pools of rot.
She didn’t watch to the end. She wasn’t that brave. Instead she turned away and followed Jerry to the door.
As she came to his side he said: “Look.”
“I saw.”
“No, not there,” Jerry said. “That’s too sad for words. Look up. It’s almost over.”