Meeting the Devil's Workforce — Divine Comedy

Authority that cannot name its permission from above has no authority at all. In the fifth ditch pitch boils like the Venice arsenal in winter, dark, glutinous, alive with swell. A single black demon sprints up the rock with a sinner draped over his shoulder, drops him in the pitch, and turns back: 'Here's one of Santa Zita's elders from Lucca; everyone there barters except Bonturo.' The demons beneath the bridge spot Dante and rush with hooks. Virgil steps forward alone and calls one out: Malacoda. He does not negotiate. He cites divine will and destiny: no one gets this far without Heaven's leave. Malacoda drops his torture hook and tells the squad they have no power to strike. Virgil calls Dante out from behind the rock. Malacoda explains the sixth arch is broken, shattered at Christ's death, 1,266 years ago, and names an alternate route. He assembles ten escorts by name: Barbariccia leads, with Alichino, Calcabrina, Cagnazzo, and six others. They will guide the travelers to the next intact bridge. As the escort forms up, a demon asks to touch Dante on the hip; Malacoda stops him. Dante tells Virgil he fears the pact will snap, like watching the enemy at Caprona, close and hemming them in. Virgil says let them gnarl; it is spite against the damned, not a threat to them. Knowing the difference between a real threat and performed menace is what made it possible to walk on. The squad turns left, each tongue pressed between teeth, waiting for the leader's signal, which Malacoda gives with a sound obscene.