The Traitor's Son Chapters 35-36
By Zelamir, adapted by Pueros

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

Chapter XXXV

Scyrax had concluded his normal sermon to his young slaves at the daily evening assembly in the central courtyard of his house and had selected a cane from the wide choice on offer in the pot full of water that kept them nicely supple for thrashing a boy's soft bottom. As usual, he next asked of his even more sadistic eunuch secretary, in the mildest and quietest of voices that belied his character and intent, "Felix, who is the first offender?"

As Felix had once joyously done before, the secretary answered "Sulis, Sir!" In response, and as Scyrax had also once equally happily done previously, the fat man commanded the relevant boy to him.

Sulis, however, did not act as he had once done before, on the first occasion that he had been caned at the evening assembly, namely like a terrified panicky rabbit caught in a snare. The boy, who was as usual just wearing his minuscule white thong, did not stand and approach Scyrax with slow stiffness, whilst utter terror pervaded his pretty face. Although as equally reluctant as previously to obey the fat man's summons because he fully appreciated what the painful result would be, he complied with speed and a look of brave acceptance of his imminent destiny.

Sulis' remarkable change in attitude towards his forthcoming penance, which was particularly praiseworthy because the kind-hearted Dictys was no longer present to help him face his fate, did not result from any complacency about being beaten because he had become accustomed to such punishment. In fact, his previous acute suffering only confirmed to him how awfully agonising his imminent caning would be.

Sulis' bravery instead resulted from the fact that he secretly wanted to honour Dictys somehow and he believed that facing his imminent caning courageously would have made his missing friend proud of him. In doing so, the boy was subliminally almost treating the young runway slave as already dead, which was perhaps appropriate because he considered his recapture with Nisus and subsequent execution by terrible means to be inevitable.

As was customary, Sulis was soon respectfully dropping to his knees before his master and dutifully pressing his lips to the golden plaque embedded in the floor, at the same time elevating his curvaceous bare bottom invitingly in the air. Scyrax simultaneously asked, whilst looking down at the boy at his feet, "Felix, tell me what has this brat been up to?"

"He exhibited a disgraceful lack of respect for you, Sir," Felix announced, "by showing, through being upset and shedding tears, more concern for the welfare of the wicked Dictys than for that of his kind master!" "Disgraceful!" Scyrax raged in response in clear sudden anger.

"I'm normally a fair man," Scyrax thundered, "who before I flog a boy always give him an opportunity to tell his version of events. However, this offence is too heinous to be defended."

"Sulis," Scyrax continued, now addressing the boy still on his knees at his feet but now looking up at him, "lie across the caning bench in the usual manner. I'll teach you to lose your compassion for wicked runaway slaves and instead instil a sense of duty and gratitude towards your kind master!"

Sulis realised that he was now going to receive a severe beating, undoubtedly much worse than the six strokes inflicted on his nicely rotund bottom on the previous occasion that he had lain over the caning bench. Nevertheless, the boy obeyed Scyrax's enraged command rapidly, as he was still determined to act bravely and so honour Dictys, who would definitely have been honoured by and proud of his subsequent display of courage.

The angered Scyrax now furiously attacked the vulnerable prone Sulis with his cane with all his might, and not just whilst targeting the boy's bottom. The whole of the child's rear, from his neck down to his ankles was savagely hit.

Scyrax had in his rage apparently not set a number of strokes to inflict. The fat man also did not follow his other normal practice of delivering the thrashing with slow deliberation so that his young victim could fully appreciate the excruciation of each blow.

Meanwhile, amidst this venomous attack on his prone form, Sulis just lay relatively still, enduring the intense agony of his suffering with immensely brave restraint. The boy did, of course, rather naturally cry and shed tears, whilst the vicious blows rained down remorselessly on his rear and Scyrax added many more nasty stripes to those already present as a result of Felix's earlier informal beating. However, the sobbing was commendably muted and the lachrymation courageously discreet.

Marius, helplessly looking on in horror from the rows of other slaveboys, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of Scyrax, could not help but greatly admire Sulis' newly found fortitude.

Chapter XXXVI

Three days after Sulis had been so appallingly caned at an evening assembly, Scyrax called out Marius' name at a similar daily meeting after the routine business had been discharged and another handful of boys had been thrashed for the usual minor misdemeanours. However, the latest child summoned to the master appreciated that thankfully he was not to be beaten too, although he was unsure whether such punishment might be preferable to what he realised would now be his fate.

Marius obediently stood up from his place among the rows of cross-legged slaveboys. As he rose to his feet, he touched Sulis lightly on the head.

Sulis' normally pretty form was currently besmirched by a rear displaying deep brown bruises virtually from neck to ankle. His comprehensive beating by Scyrax of three days earlier had only come to an end when the fat man had eventually wearied, by which time there was almost no part of the boy's back, bottom and behind his legs that had not been struck viciously by the cane.

Three days later, Sulis was still unable to move without his rear hurting badly somewhere. However, he had gained further admiration from his fellow slaveboys by continuing to display brave fortitude, despite some understandable but muted wincing in reaction to the pain, and somehow performing his allocated chores around Scyrax's house with sufficient efficiency to avoid more punishment.

Sulis responded to Marius' touch with a quick squeeze of his friend's shin. Both boys realised that these discreet furtive acts were the only farewells that would be allowed them, as they had also perceptively recognised that the summons to approach Scyrax at this point during the assembly meant that a certain young slave's resale at market must be imminent.

Marius arrived in front of Scyrax and reverently performed the required homage to the golden plaque, whilst feeling his master's eyes fixed on his lithe and highly alluring young body. As a consequence of this appreciation that the fat man was currently carefully scanning him, and despite his best efforts to prevent such a shameful reaction, the boy's cock instinctively hardened, producing a noticeable bulge in the small front flap of his sparse white loincloth.

On noticing the bulge and thereby perceiving his blushing young slave's sudden arousal after giving him permission to stand again, Scyrax happily chuckled. The fat man then announced "You're a sweet and lively boy, Mariullus. I believe you'll sell well."

"Now, remove your loincloth so that I can confirm how sweet and lively you are," Scyrax added to Marius' increased shame. Nevertheless, despite his intense embarrassment, the boy appreciated that he had no option but to comply with his master's command.

Consequently, Marius' loincloth was soon around his ankles, whilst his revealed erection pointed proudly towards Scyrax, who again happily chuckled at the sight before commenting "You really are lively today!" On hearing this humiliating remark, the boy's facial redness intensified.

"Now turn round, Mariullus," Scyrax next ordered, "so that I can judge whether you look as nice from behind as you do from in front." The boy again obeyed and the fat man smacked his lips appreciatively on now carefully viewing his young slave's rear.

Marius possessed a particularly delicious bottom, which was alluringly firm and curvaceous. The deep dimples at the sides added to the considerable attractions.

Marius shivered when he next felt Scyrax run his hand up the back of his thighs. The wheals left by Maccius' cane had largely healed and only a light bruising remained to mar slightly the boy's exceptional beauty.

Scyrax eventually carefully ran a podgy finger along one of the fading lines scored by Maccius' cane across the smooth curves of Marius' bottom. The boy simultaneously felt his master's warm breath against his back.

Marius' shameful thrill at being visually and manually examined in this delicate intimate manner was evident by a visible quivering of his erection. The boy also could not repress audible proof because he whimpered in excitement, causing Scyrax to chuckle once more.

"I believe that you're really ready for it, Mariullus," Scyrax subsequently commented, "and I'm also sure that you now won't have long to wait for it!" What the boy's master was referring to by use of the word 'it' was, of course, fully appreciated by the young slave and all other listeners to the fat man's remarks. A certain exposed erection provided ample evidence of the child's apparently eager readiness to be the sexual plaything of a new owner.

"However," Scyrax continued, "we don't want any accidents overnight before you go to the slave market in the morning, do we, Mariullus? We want you to be really hot tomorrow so that you'll display yourself in your full aroused glory to the gentlemen and ladies who might contemplate buying you!"

"So, turn round again and face me, Mariullus," Scyrax commanded, whilst picking up a narrow leather cord from the small table beside his couch. After the boy had obeyed the order, his master momentarily once more admired his smoothly hairless and pleasantly excited genitals.

As Scyrax did so, he contemplated what a shame it would be if Marius soon lost his balls because his next master wanted a young eunuch. The fat man believed that castration would spoil the genital scenery, with the boy's sweet scrotum definitely deserving a better fate.

Despite Scyrax's outward appearance as a rather gross effeminate character, he was an expert in his profession, which was that of identifying and buying cheaply attractive slaveboys, who could be groomed for much more lucrative resale. He therefore fully appreciated that young pretty eunuchs were becoming increasingly popular in rich Roman households, being attractive servile ornaments who were no sexual threat to the females and children present.

Scyrax also knew that castration was generally confined to pre-pubescent boys, whose genitals could be more safely gelded than the more mature sexual organs of older male slaves. Marius was therefore of the right age to be chosen to become a eunuch and the fat man calculated his chances of losing his balls, as a result of his imminent resale and in current market conditions, at about three to one against.

Marius was therefore more likely to keep his balls than lose them. However, if the boy knew the odds, he would probably worry that he might become an unlucky one in four who was converted into a eunuch.

Having briefly contemplated Marius' lovely genitals and their prospects, Scyrax eventually leant forward to grab them gently. The fat man subsequently slipped his leather cord behind the boy's smooth scrotum.

Marius instinctively reacted by attempting to move backwards. However, Felix, who had crept up unnoticed behind him, caught his shoulders to prevent his retreat and instead hold him firmly in place. The eunuch secretary also growled at the boy, commanding him to be still.

Scyrax subsequently twisted the two ends of his leather cord together and drew them firmly around Marius' relatively small cock and balls before knotting the narrow strap tightly in place. The boy's penis, now deprived of the normal blood-flow, reacted by immediately drooping to sad flaccidity.

"The brat's genitals are so little that such precaution hardly seems worth the bother, Sir," sneered Felix, who always looking for an opportunity to humiliate his master's slaveboys, whose sexual wholeness he secretly envied. "Better to have small balls than none at all," Scyrax answered back to his eunuch secretary with careless cruelty.

Felix flushed and, not daring to challenge his master's cruelty, bit his lips in silent anger. He instead sadistically focused his verbal vengeance on Marius by commenting, whilst actually hoping that the scenario happened, "Perhaps, Sir, the brat mightn't keep his small balls for much longer!"

Marius, of course, did not welcome this cruel reminder that castration as a result of his imminent resale at market was a possibility, and clear concern immediately invaded his face, which made Felix happy. However, Scyrax was also displeased with his eunuch secretary's remark and reprimanded him, albeit mildly.

"Now, Felix," suggested Scyrax, whose eyes were currently completely focused on Marius' cute genitals, which were actually perfectly proportioned for an 11 year-old on the brink of puberty, "you know that I don't like my boys to be frightened about being resold at market. If they appear on the auction block in a distressed and petrified state, their charms might not be so obvious and so the price that I obtain for them might be reduced."

"I'm sorry, Sir," apologised Felix, although he actually was not, having secured what he wanted to do, namely scare Marius. The evidence for his success was still evident on the boy's obviously worried face.

"Now for the seal," Scyrax changed subject by next suggesting. Consequently, Felix produced a stick of wax and another adult slave stepped forward with a lighted lamp.

Marius subsequently felt the heat of the lamp's flame close to his belly, whilst Felix dropped some molten wax onto the knot of the leather cord. A globule also fell on the delicate bare skin of the boy's scrotum and he briefly cried out in pain.

Felix had deliberately provoked the 'accidental' droplet. The eunuch commonly found sadistic ways of taking out his resentment at his emasculated condition on the boys subject to his attentions.

"Don't make such a fuss, Mariullus," Scyrax chided, whilst pressing the signet of his ring into the soft wax. "Now, I want to see that seal unbroken in the morning," the fat man ominously added, "because, if it isn't still correctly in place then, I assure you that I'll reduce you to the same genital state as Felix!"

"Now take the brat away and secure him for the night," Scyrax then commanded, whilst turning the still naked Marius around and dismissing him from his presence with an open handed slap on his curvaceous bare bottom. The adult slave, who had supplied the oil lamp, complied and took the boy by the hand and led him out of the courtyard.

Marius was acutely ashamed that the last sight most of the other slaveboys of Scyrax's household would have of him would be seeing him naked and with his genitals humiliatingly encased tightly by leather cord, with a seal dangling under his scrotum. The very notion caused his facial blush to reappear fiercely as he passed them.

Nevertheless, Marius still had the presence of mind to give Sulis a brief farewell smile. He did so despite the fact that his heart actually secretly sank at the reality of both the loss of such a friend and the knowledge that the boy had been chosen by his master to remain in this unpleasant household.

Marius was taken to a small cell at the back of Scyrax's large house, which was rather isolated and well away from much of the domestic activity. Inside, the boy's ankle was attached by a long chain to a ring set in the floor.

This was the first time that Marius had been chained since he had arrived in Scyrax's house. The fat man, being very experienced in the handling of slaveboys, appreciated that many might panic and some might even stupidly attempt to run away when facing alone the unknown fate represented by imminent resale at auction.

Scyrax never took any chances. Boys due for resale always spent their last night in his house chained in this small cell with the door locked.

The small cell was illuminated only by light coming in from lamps in the outside corridor through the only window, which was barred and formed part of the door. The place was also completely devoid of furniture apart from a single straw mattress, upon which the still naked Marius initially sat, with his back against a wall, after the adult slave, who had brought him there, had left.

Marius' only consolation for being left nude in such sparse isolation was a bowl of steaming pork and bean stew and a chunk of black bread, with which the adult slave later returned. Scyrax's young slaves were rarely given meat in their diets but boys on the eve of their resale were always well fed in preparation for the next day's venture to market.

Scyrax hoped that the cell's quiet isolation from the rest of the house would also aid rest in readiness for the big day ahead. However, the young inmates were often too concerned about their destinies to gain much sleep, which was why the fat man ensured that the pork and bean stew additionally contained a secret ingredient.

After eagerly consuming the stew, Marius was soon sound asleep, now stretched out on his straw mattress, with his surrender to slumber considerably aided by the secret potion contained in his last meal in Scyrax's household.

(To be continued)