Pappy and his men, both spirits and corporeal, were already celebrating as if Pip had succeeded, giving no thought to the dangers that faced the boy in the palace of the dead, all the obstacles they didn’t care to imagine.
Then again, why did Eido care? Pip hadn’t listened to her warnings. He’d even conspired with his father behind her back. Eido felt a pang a guilt wondering if this was how Sycora had felt when she had defied her matron-sister to help this human.
At first, Eido thought it was her conscience whispering, “Pip” to her. Then the voice said, “Eido, is that you?” Eido turned and saw a wisp of smoke next to her. The wisp swirled and then turned into the faintest outline of a face – Pip’s mother – with a lone finger hovering in front of its mouth, motioning Eido to be quiet.
It seemed to Eido that Pappy and his gang had forgotten all about her. She edged along the face of the cliff, putting some distance between them, but – she hoped – not enough to alarm any of Pappy’s men who remembered they were supposed to keep watch over her.
Pip’s mother finally whispered, “What are you doing here? I saw you leave on the ferry.”
“Pip wanted to come back.” Eido said flatly.
“And you?” his mother asked with a hint of accusation.
“I came to help, but it turns out he didn’t want to be helped,” she shot an angry glare at Pappy, laughing and talking with his men. “Not by me, anyway.”
The spirit let out a gasp, her very form shuddering with understanding. Then it asked, “Where is my son, Eido?”
“Cows made of stars,” that’s what Pip’s father had called them.
One of Pappy’s companion had added, “They’s called the “Cattle of Demeter. Demeter be the king’s mother-in-law, and a far better gift from her than I ever got from mine!”
Pappy scowled at his companion, perhaps irked at being corrected. “It matters little how they be named. One bite of they’s flesh turns a spirit solid, and immortal to boot. Leastways, that’s the scuttlebutt amongst the dead.” Pappy pulled Fairley’s pistol and stiletto dagger from the folds of his shirt. “So, you find us on of them get your da some of that god’s meat, son.”
Pip had tied the pistol and blade to the inside of his thigh with strips off cloth, to hold them secure but also ensure that neither would get caught while he squeezed through the tunnel. Then, on the arduous climb up, he’d forgotten they were there. Only now, in front of this strange animal pen, did he remember them.
The cattle were enormous, each taller than Pip himself, with a skin so obsidian black it was difficult to tell where one animal ended and the other began. Each hide was speckled with twinkling lights like a field of stars. Pip even recognized some constellations.
There didn’t appear to be a cowherd to attend to them, or even a pen. The cattle grazed on a piece of landed bordered by the edge of the cliff face on all sides but one, where a tall stone wall kept them from wandering. Pip climbed over a stile. He was wary, but none of the creatures paid him any mind.
They were too big to kill with knife. Pip would have to shoot one with Fairley’s pistol. He tried not to look the animal in the eye as he loaded the powder and ball, but he had to, a little, as he aimed at the center of the animal’s forehead, only to look away as he pulled the trigger.
The crack of the explosion echoed off the cavern ceiling above them. Pip’s mother gasped, and for a moment her whole body was visible. It was, unfortunately, at that moment that Pappy turned as saw her and Eido together.
“Cor Blimey! Is that you Felicity? What’re you two hen clucking about?”
But before she could answer, they heard the panicked wail of animals above them. Eido looked up. It was hard to see them. Their bodies were dark, almost indistinguishable from the blackness above them, but she heard their cries, almost human, get louder as they plummeted toward them.
They landed with a series of sickening, wet crunches.
Everyone started at this incredible sight, then Pappy let out a booming laugh.
“Must’ve started a stampede, me boy did... Well, not exactly mana from heaven but it’ll serve our turn.”
“”What about Pip?” EIdo asked. “Someone surely heard that gunshot.”
But neither Pappy nor his gang were listening. They had rushed at one of the dead cattle like dogs after scraps. The spirits licked at the blood from its wounds. Pappy and his two solid accomplices tore off flesh with their bare hands and shoved the bloody meat in their mouths. The spirits licked at the blood until became solid too, and then they all gorged themselves on the carcasses.
Eido moved to stop them, but found the spirit of Pip’s mother blocking her.
“No,” she said. “Let them have their reward. I don’t know any of my husband’s new friends, but if they are anything like him. They deserve it.”
