The Traitor's Son Chapters 33-34
By Zelamir, adapted by Pueros

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

Chapter XXXIII

In response to Scyrax's command, the naked Dictys had taken the still quietly sobbing and similarly nude Marius by the hand and led him from the dining hall. Neither therefore subsequently heard their master's next order to fetch Nisus so that the man could castrate the young slave as a main element of his birthday party's entertainment.

Neither also had any inkling about Scyrax's wicked plan. Consequently, Dictys would not learn about Nisus' fate until he returned to the dining hall, which he could only do after he had washed himself. His very handsome body was still besmirched from the sweat and urine that had despoiled his form whilst he held Marius in place so the younger boy could be caned by the sadistic Maccius. His master only liked to be served by pristine slaves.

As Dictys and Marius left the dining hall, Sulis had stepped forward from where he had been lurking in the shadows. He had dangerously taken an unauthorised break from his kitchen dishwashing duties to spy on events at the party.

"Shouldn't you be washing dishes?" Dictys asked of Sulis, who had been appalled to observe his new friend, Marius, being beaten. In answer to the question, the boy now simply blushed silently.

"I thought so," Dictys responded, without needing a verbal reply, "and you'd better not let Scyrax or Felix see you shirking or it'll be the cane for you again!" Sulis' blush immediately disappeared in fright, as the youth reminded him of the possible consequences of temporarily abandoning his dishwashing. The boy's pretty face instead became ashen in hue and, still without saying a word, he turned, intending to run back to the kitchen to resume his duties there. However, he was prevented from doing so by a shout of "Wait!"

Fortunately for Sulis, the shout emanated from Dictys' rosy lips. "Instead of washing dishes," the youth went on to suggest, "you can help me by washing Marius here. I also need to bathe but quickly, as Scyrax will want me to return rapidly in a clean state to attend to him and Maccius. Your aid will help speed the process."

"Poor Marius lost control of his bladder whilst I held him for his caning," Dictys advised, "and so both of us need to bathe. Afterwards, fetch a cloth soaked in cold water and lay it on his bottom to help take the bruising out. Also, don't come back here again. If you're spotted, you could be severely punished yourself and I don't want to find myself attending to your bum again!"

After handing Marius over to Sulis, Dictys rushed off to the slave's bathing amenity, knowing that if he accompanied the younger boys, one of whom could barely walk because of his recent caning, he would take much longer to reach his objective. The youth wanted to wash himself as quickly as possible and hurry back into the noise and glare of the dining hall. Scyrax was not a man who liked to be kept waiting for service.

Now guided by Sulis' hand, Marius stumbled slowly along the ever narrower and darker passageways that eventually led to the slaveboys' dormitory. As he did so, he was conscious of little beyond the burning pain, which emanated from the rather raw bleeding flesh of his bottom but somehow appeared to sear his whole body.

As the two boys advanced, Sulis was for once silent. He had been thoroughly shocked by the sight of his new friend's lacerated bottom, which was in a far worse state than his own had been after his recent caning.

Before Sulis eventually managed to guide Marius to the slaveboys' baths, they discovered Dictys rushing along a corridor from the other direction towards them, having successfully accomplished the rapid re-cleansing of his body in order to return to the dining hall. The still naked youth did not dally on seeing the youngsters but instead rushed past them in his hurry to resume his duties, although he did give the pair a comforting smile as he proceeded.

Little did Marius and Sulis know that the occasion would prove to be the last time that they would ever see Dictys' handsome smiling face in the house of Scyrax.
 

Chapter XXXIV

The subsequent night was a long one for Marius. The cold water-soaked rag placed gently on his damaged bottom by Sulis had brought only momentary relief from the burning agony suffered by his flagellated buttocks. He therefore spent the night lying face down on his dormitory mattress, slumbering fitfully and whenever awake trying to suppress his pained whimpering so as not to disturb the other boys sleeping around him.

Sulis woke at dawn. The boy discovered that Marius' tearful blue eyes were already open and looking at him.

Sulis could not then resist the temptation to rise and check whether the cold rag had helped to draw some of the bruising from Marius' bottom. He therefore subsequently gently lifted the cloth from his new friend's ravaged rear.

Marius, who remained lying quietly and compliantly as Sulis proceeded, next heard his new friend draw his breath in sharply. "That bastard, Maccius, really did beat you badly, Mariullus," the slightly younger boy then commented in awed tones.

"Remain still, while I bathe, dress and then go try to find some ointment," Sulis added, rather needlessly as Marius had no wish to embark on any movement that would worsen his distress. There was then a general bustle in the long dormitory, as Scyrax's other slaveboys roused themselves to prepare for another day in the service of their master.

A number of the slaveboys paused to inspect Marius' ravaged bottom on their way to the adjacent baths. Some even knelt beside him, speaking in low voices as their fingers lightly touched in curiosity the livid welts that ribbed his flesh. However, their sympathy for the young victim of the previous night's caning was mixed equally with grudging fearful respect for the youth, the sadistic Maccius, who had inflicted such a vigorous and severe thrashing.

Eventually, the dormitory became empty and silent, after the other slaveboys had washed, groomed, dressed and gone for breakfast. The quiet and his own personal exhaustion now finally brought some more relief to Marius because he fell asleep, only to be roused by a loud wailing.

The wailing was unmistakably a cry of distress but not of a sort that Marius could recognise. He did realise that the shrieking was certainly not the blubbering of a freshly caned boy, a sound common enough in the house of Scyrax to be one with which he was therefore now very familiar.

Marius did not immediately know but the wailing was actually not a cry of physical pain at all but of spiritual distress. The shrieking was that of creature bereft, raging against the cruelty and injustice of life.

Marius somehow heaved himself painfully to his knees and stared about him. At that same moment, Sulis, attired in just the usual tiny thong, appeared, moving in a strange stumbling run, his knuckles pressed to his weeping eyes. The boy was bawling his misery to the world with all the strength and volume that his young lungs could muster.

Marius, forgetful of his own injuries in his concern for the misery of Sulis, scrambled to his feet and stumbled towards him. Soon afterwards, his arms were full of howling boy.

Marius stood looking down at the top of the slightly smaller boy's head, feeling his face, wet with tears, pressed against his own bare chest. He had never seen Sulis in such a state before and wondered what the cause could be.

Sulis, of course, cried when he was beaten, as what child did not? However, like boys in general, he was a resilient little youngster and when his bottom was not freshly striped he was generally cheerful and lively.

Marius glanced further down Sulis' rear. He soon confirmed that his new friend displayed no signs of a fresh beating.

Marius naturally wanted to ask Sulis what was wrong. However, he somehow sensed that the slightly younger boy was not yet ready to answer.

The pair therefore just stood as they were, although Marius tightened his hugging of Sulis in an attempted act of comfort. He subsequently allowed his younger friend to continue his weeping and howling of his misery to the world, with his tearful head still pressing against the older boy's bare chest.

Even at this caring and rather solemn moment, though, Marius' body both betrayed and shamed him. The feel of the younger boy's cool and silky skin pressing against his own somehow excited him and his cock jumped to attention.

Sulis, however, appeared oblivious or uncaring of this development and instead gradually calmed to allow the reason for his acute distress to emerge slowly from his stuttering rosy lips, frequently interrupted by renewed bouts of sobbing. On hearing the news, Marius was equally shocked and unhappy but, being slightly more mature and less closely attached to the youth concerned, managed to avoid degenerating into tearful wailing too.

Sulis advised that he appreciated that he should have gone to Felix to ask for the ointment he wanted for Marius' bottom but the eunuch secretary was a very cruel man, renowned for taking delight in hurting boys. Consequently, he had instead looked for Dictys.

Sulis suggested in explanation that he considered Dictys to be good, kind and brave, and someone who would do anything he could to help him. However, Marius also astutely perceived that there were other reasons for his new friend's affection for the youth and why he regularly sought him out in such circumstances.

Dictys had clearly demonstrated in the past, before the advent of Marius into the house of Scyrax, that he was the only person in the whole of the world who really cared for Sulis. As a result, the younger boy had developed a loving crush for the youth, who to him was not only a paternal figure but also a hero.

The perceptive Marius was additionally sure that Dictys was attracted both to the personality and body of Sulis too. However, in the house of Scyrax, such emotions had to remain passive and go unrequited.

Sulis broke down again at this point but eventually recovered and went on with his tearful story. He had looked everywhere about the house for Dictys and in the end he had gone to the dining hall to see if the youth was helping to clean the place up after the party.

Being one of the senior slaveboys, Dictys' normal duties did not normally involve such menial work. However, the dining hall was often in a terrible mess after one of Scyrax's parties and it would be characteristic of the considerate youth to turn up to help.

Here the narrative was interrupted again by another bout of voluminous crying, as Sulis stuttered his remembrances of the many virtues and kindnesses of his hero. However, with a couple of loud sniffles, he eventually again continued with the main storyline.

The dining hall had been in a particularly awful mess, with broken plates, spilt food and wine and vomit on the floor. A team of slaveboys was employed in cleaning up the comprehensive disarray but Dictys was nowhere to be seen.

Sulis therefore asked one of the other slaveboys where Dictys was and the answer he obtained had initiated his current distress. However, Marius had to wait awhile to hear details because his new friend dissolved into more tears before his voice became able to relate the reply that he had received.

The full horror of Sulis' story then finally emerged. On the previous night, the still naked but washed Dictys had returned to the dining hall to discover Nisus being dragged into the room by some of Scyrax's adult slaves. The men were all eunuchs and were very pleased that the very handsome 15 year-old was about to become one of their own kind.

For his role at the party, Nisus had been dressed in a clean brief tight-fitting white tunic, extending to just below his groin, with matching minuscule loincloth underwear. Scyrax had wanted to present his imminent young victim initially to his guests in his normal attire, as if castrating one of his slaveboys for party entertainment was commonplace.

The adult slaves had already placed a sturdy low wooden table in the middle of the dining hall, to which they anticipated tying a naked Nisus face-up and spreadeagled to await the loss of his balls to Scyrax's knife. The first part of this process now went relatively smoothly, as the eunuchs managed to remove first the boy's tunic and then his loincloth, despite his desperate struggles and to the delight of most spectators.

Despite the serious danger of his position, Nisus' revealed cock proved to be erect, again much to the delight of most spectators. Such penile hardness was actually a symptom more of the recent denial of sexual relief afforded to his raging young hormones, which had caused him to be in his current desperate predicament in the first place, than any perverse excitement over his situation.

Whilst the newly returned and appalled Dictys watched, the eunuchs subsequently made moves to bind the still fruitlessly struggling Nisus to the waiting table. Their efforts were accompanied by laughter from Scyrax and his guests, especially Maccius, who were amused at the boy's useless attempts to avoid his fate.

Dictys, however, was not amused, just horrified at what was about to be inflicted before him on Nisus, which was obvious from the sentence passed on the boy weeks earlier and the current arrangements, including the knife in Scyrax's hand. The brave youth therefore suddenly decided that he could not watch idly but instead had to attempt to stop his master's clear intent.

Despite the clear danger to himself in taking such action, Dictys rushed to Scyrax and fell to his knees before the surprised man, being unafraid and instead rather accustomed to debasing himself in such a manner. "Please, Master," the youth then begged, "please don't castrate Nisus. Punish him in some other way, like whipping him again, but don't destroy his masculinity!"

The guests in the dining hall, who were perversely looking forward to seeing a pretty boy lose his balls, were naturally displeased about Dictys' action in case Scyrax decided to respect the entreaty and cancel the proposed entertainment. The eunuchs present were also unhappy at the possible prospect of the 15 year-old not becoming one of their number after all. All worried that the fat host might have deliberately orchestrated the youth's action because in cruel jest he never really had any intention of gelding one of his valuable young slaves.

Scyrax, however, quickly demonstrated how unfounded such worries were because, apart perhaps from Maccius, his outrage at Dictys' unprecedented act of insubordination was the greatest in the dining hall. The fat man revealed his attitude when his face turned purple in fury and he lashed a hand violently at the youth's face.

The violent smack caused Dictys to fall to his side on the floor, where Scyrax subsequently began to kick him harshly. At the same time, the fat man angrily shouted "How dare you be so impertinent to question my decisions by begging for the salvation of Nisus' miscreant balls!"

Maccius simultaneously stood up from the couch, which he had been sharing with Scyrax, and yelled encouragement to his obese paramour by suggesting "Kick the brat's own balls to pulp!" "I think I will!" the still enraged fat man replied. However, Dictys decided not to give him the opportunity.

Grabbing Scyrax's kicking leg, Dictys pulled and brought the fat man tumbling to the floor next to him in a loud crash. Jumping nimbly to his feet after grasping his master's spilt knife, the youth then approached the eunuchs restraining Nisus and, using the blade as a threat, ordered them to release their grip on the boy, which they immediately did.

"Come with me," Dictys subsequently suggested to Nisus, who did not hesitate to obey. The two naked young slaves then ran rapidly from the dining hall.

Dictys' rebellious action had been so surprising and quick that no one else in the dining hall had the calmness or speed of mind to prevent him and Nisus escaping from the room. The facts that no guest or servant was armed like the youth or, most being inherently cowardly, desired anyway to confront such an obviously dangerous young slave aided the lack of resistance to what had happened.

Such passive attitudes were also boosted by a realisation that surely two naked young slaves, armed only with a knife, could not remain at liberty for long, even if they managed to escape the house of Scyrax, which was walled on the perimeter like a mini-fortress. There was additionally some quiet sadistic pleasure at the thought that, once recaptured, the punishments for the pair would be extreme.

Regardless of market value because examples needed to be made to deter others, recaptured escaped slaves were generally beaten and tortured and inevitably later executed, either by crucifixion or being fed to wild beasts in the amphitheatre. Such a gruesome fate surely now awaited both Dictys and Nisus.

The shocked Maccius had eventually rushed forward to try to help the equally stunned and now moaning Scyrax to regain his feet. However, four eunuchs slaves were also eventually needed to achieve the feat of raising the fat man.

As the eunuch slaves subsequently brushed and straightened with their hands their master's dishevelled robes, Scyrax loudly ordered his adult servants to conduct a search for the young escapees. He also confirmed to his guests his intent of what he proposed to do with Dictys and Nisus once they were recaptured. "As part of their penance," he declared, "I'll have their whole genitals cut off before having them publicly crucified!"

"Oooh," a calming Maccius then asked, realising that the situation promised happy times for him, "can I help torture them?" "I rather fancy seriously hurting and slicing off the genitals of two such pretty but naughty boys," he added, "and I promise, my dear Scyrax, that I'll be especially nice to you in return!"

Scyrax, also now calming, could not resist such a promise. "Of course you can help, my sweet Maccius," he answered, "and, in fact, you can take the lead in torturing the bastards. I rather look forward to watching you!"

The thought of what Maccius might do to the similarly aged Dictys caused Sulis to dissolve into tears again, once more interrupting his recounting to Marius of what had happened on the previous night. The slightly older boy therefore just continued patiently to stand and hold his younger friend close until the child calmed, whilst his cock remained shamelessly stiff.

Marius was naturally eager to discover whether Dictys and Nisus had been recaptured. He could not believe that they could possibly escape the house of Scyrax or, if they did, spend long in their naked state in the adjacent streets of Rome without being quickly apprehended.

Marius too was now near to tears but he realised, with all the maturity and responsibility that an 11 year-old could feel for a friend twelve months younger than himself, that he must not give way to his own unhappiness at what had happened. His current job was to comfort Sulis and he could not do that if he too was crying.

"What is this abominable noise? Why are you two sluts idling your time away here? Why aren't you now both working?" These three consecutive questions were suddenly uttered from the dormitory doorway. Neither Marius nor Sulis had to look to see who was making the enquiries, as the rather effeminate vocal tones in which they were related easily revealed the identity of the person concerned.

Nevertheless, both boys looked towards the dormitory doorway to confirm that the dreaded Felix was standing there. The eunuch had entered the room unheard and was now thoroughly enjoying discovering two supposedly idling boys.

Felix's enjoyment stemmed from the fact that he gained immense pleasure in identifying and persecuting for painful chastisement boys of Scyrax's household. Being a eunuch, the thrill he gained from his successes was not sexual but instead entirely due to pure undiluted sadism.

"I'm sorry, Sir," Marius answered in panic, whilst he released his tender grip on new friend and his cock quickly returned in fright to flaccidity, "but Sulis is upset about what happened last night and I was just trying to comfort him." However, as soon as he had spoken these words, the boy recognised that he had made a mistake.

Scyrax next asked a quick question directed at Sulis. "For whom are you upset, brat?" the eunuch secretary enquired.

Marius recognised the trap inherent in the question but was too late to prevent Sulis blurting out "Dictys, Sir." Felix was delighted by the answer but feigned anger.

Felix approached and grabbed Sulis by the arm and spun him round. Swinging the thick leather strap, which he always carried to the constant fear of all the young slaves in the household, the eunuch then began to flog the boy.

"You're an ungrateful brat," Felix simultaneously screamed shrilly, "as you choose to ignore your duty to Scyrax, who out of the goodness of his heart feeds and houses you, to spend time instead crying about a wicked rebellious slave. For your lack of concern for your Master, whom Dictys attacked last night, I'll give you something to really weep about!"

The sound of hard leather painfully and pitilessly hitting young tender flesh, accompanied by an anguished yelp from the victim of the flogging, was followed by the announcement from Felix "I'll teach you and make you squeal!" The eunuch subsequently fulfilled his promise.

Whilst a helpless Marius looked on, leather continued to crack harshly against young flesh. Sulis squealed, as he twisted and leapt in Felix's firm grasp whilst vainly attempting to evade the cuts that the eunuch mercilessly rained upon his bare back and bottom.

Blow after blow slashed down across Sulis' tender rear until Felix eventually became short of breath and stopped. Panting, the eunuch now released the thoroughly thrashed boy, who collapsed sobbing to his knees on the floor, his fears for his hero, Dictys, temporally forgotten amidst his own physical agony.

The horrified watching Marius felt very cowardly at not intervening. However, he realised that there was really nothing that he could do to help Sulis.

Any attempted intervention would undoubtedly incur Felix's wrath and his own beating. However, more importantly in the naturally brave boy's mind was the thought that any such action might also induce the eunuch to thrash Sulis even harder.

Marius' mental processes could also not forget the undoubted terrible fate awaiting Dictys. He had also intervened to aid a fellow slave, and now he faced torture, nullification and crucifixion, along with the boy he had attempted to help.

"Off with you," Felix later shouted, whilst planting a kick on Sulis' bare bottom, "and do something to earn your keep. There's still plenty of cleaning to do after the party last night. I'll also be reporting you to Scyrax, who'll undoubtedly want you caned later for being more concerned about the welfare of the wicked Dictys than that of your kind master!"

"And you go too," Felix, turning towards the white-faced Marius, commanded, "because you can't spend your day lazing around just because you received your own thrashing from Maccius last night. Move, or you'll have a taste of my strap too!" However, despite the eunuch's threat, the boy initially briefly hesitated to comply.

Such disobedient delay again caused Felix to raise his strap menacingly. However, Marius had hesitated because he had not performed his normal morning ablutions. He had also not redressed in his usual loincloth. Consequently, before the eunuch could strike, he therefore quickly asked "Do you want me to bathe, groom and attire myself first, Sir?"

Felix was actually rather surprised to learn that Marius had not yet bathed and groomed himself because, despite his recent tears and harrowing night and apart from his comprehensively beaten rear, his appearance looked pristine. The eunuch also momentarily sadistically considered rewarding the boy for his delay in performing his morning ablutions with a few blows from his strap. However, two considerations stayed his hand and caused him to lower his leather implement.

First, after the type of serious beating that Marius' bottom had endured on the previous night, Felix appreciated that Scyrax customarily and, rather out of normal character, generously excused his young slaves from at least the following morning's duties. Consequently, the boy could be expected to remain in his dormitory and not to indulge in his ablutions until later.

Second, Felix remembered that Marius was scheduled to be sold at the slave market within the week. Consequently, Scyrax might not appreciate further injury being inflicted on the boy's undoubtedly very valuable but already damaged virginal form.

Nevertheless, Felix's sadism had encouraged him on this occasion not to allow Marius to be excused work on this morning. The eunuch also wickedly conceived a reason not to allow the boy the modicum of modesty, provided by Scyrax's choice of sparse clothing for his young slaves, whilst he performed his menial chores.

"No," Felix said in reply to Marius' question about bathing, grooming and dressing, "as you've already wasted enough time. I also want you to remain naked, as a rear loincloth flap might exacerbate the hurt to your bottom and interfere with healing. So, proceed to your duties as you are, immediately without further ado!"

Marius disliked this answer, although not in respect of his ablutions, as Sulis had, after all, supervised his post- party cleansing just before they went to bed in their dormitory on the previous night. The boy was instead unhappy at the notion of having to perform his chores whilst humiliatingly naked when all of the other young slaves would be attired in some way, even if only in minuscule thongs.

Nevertheless, Marius appreciated that he dared not disobey Felix. Consequently, with his hands attempting to cover and thereby defensively protect his still hurting bottom from the eunuch's strap, he scuttled past the secretary as fast as he could, given his hurt, to follow the already departed sobbing Sulis.

As Marius did so, he recognised a truism about himself. He was reduced once more to a frightened, naked little slave brat, with his role as the comforter of Sulis lost, at least for now.

Marius also sorrowfully wondered what was currently happening to poor Dictys and Nisus, as surely both would have been recaptured by now, probably very shortly after attempting escape from the house of Scyrax. The boy shivered at the terrible thoughts that subsequently invaded his mind about the types of tortures that the young slaves might now be suffering at the very cruel hands of Maccius.

Marius, who, despite his previous recent experiences of being in such a humiliating state, was still rather conscious and ashamed of his nudity, subsequently found himself sent to the dining hall, where he joined Sulis and the team of young slaves scrubbing the floor. For a time, he and his new friend worked side-by-side on their hands and knees in a silence broken only by the occasional loud sniffle from the younger boy. The 10 year-old's mental pain, emanating from his deep concern for Dictys, had been exacerbated by the thought of being caned later, as well as by the physical anguish induced recently by Felix's strap.

Marius was eager to ask Sulis for the latest news about Dictys and Nisus. However, Felix had followed them to the dining hall and he dared not talk whilst that particular eunuch was around for fear of being beaten by his strap for slacking.

In the event, though, Marius did not have to ask Sulis for news of Dictys and Nisus. Scyrax instead appraised the boy about the current situation regarding the young escapees.

Scyrax did so when passing through the dining hall with Maccius. The obnoxious youth had obviously stayed the night with the fat man to pay his price for the pleasure of caning Marius.

"The bastards are definitely not in the house," Marius overheard Scyrax inform Maccius, "as everywhere has been comprehensively searched, including the basement, roof and gardens." "But how could they escape from your residence," the obnoxious youth asked in incredulity, "as your perimeter walls are so high and your gate is always guarded?"

"It appears," Scyrax answered angrily, "that my walls aren't high enough." "But then surely two naked slaves should have been easy to find amidst the local streets," Maccius commented.

"You forget," Scyrax replied, with anger still evident in his voice, "that it was night and the streets were dark. The bastards appear to have disappeared into the shadows, from where they've not yet emerged in daylight."

"Nevertheless," Scyrax continued, "I'm sure that the bastards will be caught eventually. My adult servants, even my cook, are scouring the streets for them, asking questions of the locals and offering rewards for their recapture."

"I also know the tribune of the local vigiles," Scyrax added, referring to the organisation that was the strange combination of being Rome's firemen and police, "and I've offered him a substantial reward if any of his cohort recapture the bastards. Surely two naked brats can't remain at liberty for long in such circumstances!"

Scyrax and Maccius then left the dining room but Marius had gained the news that he wanted. He immediately wondered how Dictys and Nisus had achieved the remarkable feats of not only escaping from Scyrax's house but also subsequently disappearing amidst Rome's crowded streets whilst naked and despite the bounty on their heads. Surely their nudity alone would make them stand out.

Marius also wondered whether Scyrax's belief in the inevitable recapture of Dictys and Nisus was realistic. The pair obviously possessed guile to evade their pursuers so far.

Marius therefore next prayed to the gods that the guile of Dictys and Nisus eventually proved Scyrax's belief to be unfounded. The notion that the deities might actually grant his wish even caused him to smile.

Meanwhile, the sniffles from Sulis, who was still scrubbing the floor next to Marius, disappeared in apparent shared optimism.

(To be continued)