Read A Thousand Fiendish Angels: Stories Inspired By Dante's Inferno for Free Online

guard, so Ari was relying on her Corps training to find suitable arms within.  
    "That's hideous," Sibyl said, her rough hands stuffed deep in her pockets. "And I hate you doing this alone."
    "The only guaranteed way into Dis is as breeding stock," Ari said, untying her hair from its scarf and letting the dark curls hang loose. "I know how it works in there and I need them to take me to him immediately."  
      Ari pulled her dog-tags, inscribed with the symbol of the Corps, from around her neck and held them out.
    "I've got enough of these from sisters lost, Ari." Sibyl took the dog-tags with reluctance, her face darkening. "Please don't go. It's not safe. What if you don't come out again?"
    Ari pulled Sibyl into an embrace, overwhelmed with what she wanted to tell her friend, but these feelings were not to be spoken aloud, not now. After a few moments, they broke apart and Ari knew she must act now or she would give into her fears and leave this place behind forever.  
    "I'm coming back," she said, "and I'll be bringing Elyse with me, so I need you outside to cover our retreat and help me get away. I need you, Sibyl, and inside you'll be a liability because they'll split us up. I'm sorry."
    Ari adjusted the top of the dress to show more cleavage. Sibyl shook her head and whistled.  
    "They're going to want to take you to that bastard right away."
    "They'd better, because time's getting on." Ari took Sibyl's hands again, her eyes serious. "Promise me you'll move to a tree near the gate after dark, and stay there? If I'm not out by first light, I'm not coming out at all, so you'll need to get away from here. Get back to the Corps. Promise me."  
    "Alright, alright." Sibyl brushed away tears, pushing her friend away. "Enough of the emotion, just get in and get out again."  
    Limping out of the building, Ari feigned weakness as she neared the forbidding doors of Dis. They were fortified from the ruins of conquered enclaves, and now the ornate, triumphal arch had become a portal to the Minotaur's Hell, where the violent prospered and the weak could only do his will.  
    Ari recalled the expression of fear on the murdered bodies and painted her own face with it as she approached. The guardsmen came out eagerly, making lewd comments as they surrounded her. One held a ferocious dog on a short leash, its powerful jaws slavering, ready to charge and tear flesh on command. Ari tried to block out their obscenities as they pawed at her body while she pleaded for sanctuary. She was just a woman trying to stay alive and this was her last chance for refuge. It was how so many came and did not emerge to the sun again.  
    Suddenly, they pushed her forwards and she was on the inside. The great doors closed again behind her and Ari felt a wave of panic as they slammed shut. Claustrophobia overwhelmed her as she was hemmed in away from the sight of the sky, out of reach of the Goddess, but it was too late to go back now.  
    "Take her to him quickly," said the rough voice of a guardsman. "He'll be with the young one tonight so he'll likely send her back to us quick smart." His leer transformed his face into the mugshot of a demon, for the corruption of the city had devoured the heart of any who stayed within it. "But don't worry, princess, we'll take good care of you, won't we, boys?"  
    With their raucous laughter echoing behind her, Ari was pulled between two guards into the stronghold of Dis, her footsteps treading ground that she had sworn never to walk again. Entropy ruled here, decay and decline evident in the stink of the overcrowded population, kept wretched by the fear of what was outside the walls.  
    Ari glanced up to the walkways that stretched into the four great towers at the corners of the city. People were crowded onto them, walking slowly about their labor, too exhausted to even look down at her, too burned out to be curious. The Minotaur used narcotics to keep the population subdued, over-riding human will with a dull