The Traitor's Son Chapter 97
By Zelamir, adapted by Pueros

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

* * *
Herewith are the next chapters of the saga of Marius, son of the traitor, Sejanus. The original story was by Zelamir but, with the author's permission, has been adapted and rewritten for Nialos by Pueros.

The rewrite conforms to Pueros' own style and the text has been substantially expanded, with significant additions and changes also made to subplots. For example, recent chapters, including these episodes, are all the work of the adapter. However, the main thread of Zelamir's original story has been maintained, namely what ultimately happens to young Marius.

Pueros hopes that his rewrite does Zelamir's original story justice!
* * *

Chapter XCVII

After Marius and Quintus had finished their equal shares of the stew, Sisyphus led them to the Imperial villa's slave quarters, which were actually mainly for adults. Children in Imperial service here were generally accommodated within the many ornate rooms and amenities of the Emperor's own personal facilities. However, this situation could not be regarded as a privilege, given what they had to endure there.

Sisyphus supervised the boys' bathing and grooming in the villa's slave quarters. He also organised some treatment for their injuries and brandmarks.

The Greek physician who was allocated to tending the slaves was of their status but was fortunately also very capable, as he needed to be. He had a very unenviable job, given the regular brutality inflicted on the children in Imperial service in particular in this palatial but wicked place.

The physician did as much as he could to improve the physical conditions of Marius and Quintus, mainly by gently rubbing highly efficient herbal salves onto their bruises and brandmarks. The boys were very grateful because the pain suffered because of their recent injuries was immediately greatly relieved, not least the excruciation previously felt on their bottoms.

The physician confirmed to Sisyphus that the bruises suffered by the boys through their recent severe beatings would dull and eventually disappear over the next few days, aided by him attending them daily to smear more salve. He added that the anguish caused by their branding would actually disperse even more quickly.

The physician's news allowed Sisyphus to judge when the two boys would be ready for Imperial service. The Emperor liked his catamites to be completely unblemished unless he was responsible for their wounds, either through personal action or that stimulated by his commands.

After their appointment with the baths and physician, Sisyphus subsequently led the two boys through the Imperial villa, away from the slave quarters towards those of the Emperor. They left behind them the narrow passageways and mean rooms of areas inhabited by the servile staff to pass eventually through a succession of wide sunlit marble-paved colonnaded courtyards, where fountains played and the sounds of splashing water and birdsong were everywhere.

Sisyphus did not hurry, as he and the boys approached the Emperor's palatial personal quarters, located in the innermost parts of the villa. The accommodation concerned was not only where Tiberius now lived largely in seclusion but also where he indulged in his perverse private pleasures.

Sisyphus dreaded entering the Emperor's quarters. At other times, he could block from his mind the nature of the appetites he was in his role essentially serving but here, amongst these elegant colonnades and spacious courtyards, there could be no such mental escape.

Eventually before Sisyphus and the boys rose three broad marble steps, leading to a lofty portico, beyond which the Imperial slave knew that the horrors really began. Nevertheless, he reluctantly moved forward with his two young charges.

The large courtyard the threesome now entered was sunny and as elegant as all the preceding ones but here the sound of water and birdsong mingled with other less innocent noises. From the various broad alcoves that abounded here came almost constant soft ecstatic groaning, contrasted with distressed whimpering, punctuated by the occasional loud cry of passion or pain.

These new background noises appeared to a very apprehensive Marius to represent a sort of human symphony of lust and suffering and in response he could not help but add to the sinister sounds by issuing his own frightened gasp. Quintus was obviously sharing such thoughts because he uttered a similar scared muted cry.

Sisyphus heard the two boys gasp in surprise and terror. He immediately felt great shame that he had brought them to such a sinister place but he also appreciated that there was little else that he could do. The Emperor would surely have him crucified if he did not correctly perform his function.

Sisyphus also, as customarily in this place, attempted to keep his eyes down but, as usual, his curiosity overcame his distaste and he could not keep doing so. He was instead occasionally tempted to raise his head to look at where some of the scary noises that he heard had emanated.

Glancing into one of the broad alcoves as Sisyphus and his young charges passed, he saw a strong hairy naked man in a sitting position, impaling a slim, similarly nude boy, at most twelve years old, on his swollen cock. His heavily muscled buttocks worked hard to drive his large erection into the screaming child.

On another bench further towards the back of the alcove sat three further men, all fearsomely well-endowed in various stages of sexual excitement. They were clearly awaiting their turn with the boy.

Sisyphus appreciated from previous experience that the boy was fated to be enjoyed by teams of men throughout that day, just to provide an arousing tableau to fire the desires of the Emperor, which were waning with age, if he should happen to pass. As Tiberius became less capable of enjoying sexual pleasure himself, he liked watching others doing so, especially if they satisfied themselves in cruel manners.

Sisyphus wondered what sort of condition the boy would be in by the end of the day. He perceived an almost lifeless body, with copious spilt ejaculate smearing his face and bottom, being dragged away and another young catamite thrust forward to take his place in the alcove.

In the next alcove, Sisyphus noticed that a young girl was similarly suffering, whilst in the neighbouring niche young children of both genders gambolled wantonly with rampant dogs under the forceful supervision of yet more lecherous groups of men. Each succeeding recess also housed different combinations of humans, now sometimes including some women, engaged in never-ending rounds of sexual excess.

The two boys in Sisyphus' company now ceased gasping in horrified reaction to such depraved sights, instead remaining completely quiet, having been shocked into utter silence. Even Marius, who had become accustomed to much sordid perversity in the House of Ganymede, was stunned by what he was witnessing in the Emperor's villa, whilst also wondering how such an obvious sexual monster like Tiberius could come to rule the Roman world.

This alcoved courtyard actually formed the vestibule to the Emperor's private palace of delights. Beyond, three steps led down to a wide shimmering pool of crystal clear water, in which naked boys splashed and sported, their excited playful cries ringing shrill in the still air, apparently oblivious to the obscene horrors so close at hand.

In fact, the boys concerned knew fully about such nearby horrors, not least from their own occasional forced participation. However, this very knowledge caused them to want to enjoy themselves whenever the opportunity arose because they also appreciated that their time to suffer and even perhaps die in the Emperor's perverse service might be imminent. They were therefore currently simply delighting in the pleasure of the moment in being allowed to play freely in the pool.

Even at this moment in this place, though, Sisyphus and his two young charges saw something to remind them of the cruel cause that the threesome now served, for lying on the white marble flags by the poolside was a small lightly tanned nude body. The prone boy was being attended by a loincloth-clad thickset man, from whose belt menacingly dangled a short whip.

"Is he dead?" a worried Sisyphus asked, as he approached with Marius and Quintus in tow. "Nearly," the man answered, "but thankfully I think he'll live. I've managed to expel the water from his lungs and he's breathing again."

"How….?" Sisyphus next began to enquire. "Oh, his sadly increasingly common grumpy trick," the man interrupted to reply, referring to the Emperor.

"Whilst in the pool, he summoned the boy to perform the underwater fellatio that he likes," the man continued, "but, as is now usual, he didn't cum quickly in response to the licking and sucking. He blamed the brat's ineptitude instead of his own ageing and so grumpily didn't allow him to surface for air but instead kept his head submerged."

"Thankfully," the man added, "the boy's understandable struggling caused the Emperor to tire quickly. He also probably became rapidly bored, which is another common recent trait, because he eventually released the brat and returned sulkily to his rooms, leaving me to try to clean up the sad mess he left behind."

The small lightly tanned nude body on the white marble slabs suddenly began to cough and revive, as eyelids also opened. The thickset man subsequently helped the initially groggy boy to his feet until, after ensuring that his mind was again functioning properly and he was reasonably steady, he tapped the child's cute bare bottom and told him to go and rest.

As the man watched the boy disappear to some quiet and secluded spot to rest, he commented "That was a close one!" He then turned to look at Sisyphus and, seeing the pair of newcomers in his company, asked hopefully "Two more for me?"

"No, Polephemus," Sisyphus answered, whilst revealing the man's name to the two young newcomers, "I'm afraid I've just one, namely the dark-featured boy. The other with the golden hair is a gymnast."

"Titus will have to do better than that," the thickset man responded, "as the Emperor's current mood makes him likely to begin expending his little fishes fast. Nevertheless, I suppose one for now is better than nothing!"

The thickset Polephemus, who was of course the major domo in charge of the Emperor's pool boys, nicknamed his `little fishes, now began closely to scrutinise his latest recruit, Quintus. Sisyphus simultaneously provided him with details of the boy's name, age and background. Meanwhile, having witnessed one of the dangers of his prospective new role, the subject of this transference of data rather naturally became even more worried about his future.

Being a slave himself, Polephemus, the pool major domo, rather enjoyed being allocated offspring of Patrician background and teasing them. "Looks as though," he suggested, as he closely examined the child's naked body, "that the brat's had a soft life till now. Mummy's little favourite, pandered by her, were you? However, I also presume that you weren't held in such high regard by your dad because he's given you away for the Emperor's pleasure to gain his favour." He was rewarded by the sight of the boy's pretty face blushing deeply in shame.

"Well, you'll lose any pampered softness here soon enough, boy," Polephemus subsequently menacingly advised to compound Quintus' degradation and concern. As he spoke, the pool major domo also began to fondle the child in a deliberate attempt to accustom him to the demeaning trauma of being intimately handled.

Polephemus tipped Quintus' head back and ran a finger slowly along the boy's rosy lips, which were partly opened in shock. The man's hands subsequently strayed down the young naked body before him, caressing the flesh, squeezing the nipples, stroking the flanks.

Quintus stirred uneasily under Polephemus gentle touch, especially when the man's exploring fingers brushed his stomach and lingered briefly at his cute navel before advancing inexorably further downwards towards his groin. "Be still, boy!" the pool major domo eventually felt compelled to demand, whilst finally gently playing with the child's hairless balls.

Sisyphus watched with both fascination and revulsion as the all too familiar process, whose end would be the undoubted destruction of any remaining innocence and modesty in Quintus, unrelentingly continued. The boy eventually visibly trembled, as animal excitement in reaction to Polephemus' genital fondling banished initial consternation and shame from his young mind. His small cock also grew and quivered in arousal.

Polephemus now slid his spare hand round the back of Quintus' body. For a moment, the man's palm rested on the curve of the boy's bottom, carefully avoiding the fresh brandmarks.

Sisyphus, watching Quintus' pretty face, subsequently saw his mouth and eyes open wide in shock. He knew that now Polephemus' index finger had touched the lips of the boy's virginal anus.

Quintus' breathing now came in short pants and his naked body arched in excitement, with his little hard cock jerked upright, with the pink tip pressing against his belly. The boy was clearly on the brink of shameful orgasm.

At the sight, Sisyphus sighed and averted his eyes. The scene appeared sadly to prove to him again that every boy was a natural whore. He now believed that Quintus might have been brought up a privileged and pampered free child in a rich Patrician home but his sexual nature was actually no different than that of the slave, Cycnus, who was an experienced prostitute.

That experienced prostitute, Marius, could not avert his eyes. He was too fascinated with Quintus' reaction because such response was guiltily so similar to his own in similar circumstances that he could only agree with Sisyphus' assessment about boys if he had known the man's thoughts.

Meanwhile, Polephemus had enjoyed teasingly and debasingly bringing the former Patrician boy, Quintus, to the brink of public orgasm. However, his action also had a useful practical side, as the child's response proved to him that he was mature enough to satisfy the Emperor's particular tastes. Tiberius liked his catamites to possess some sexual liveliness.

Polephemus, though, chose not to reward Quintus for the induced demonstration of his sexual maturity by allowing him to climax. The major domo instead asked of Sisyphus, whilst still gently fondling the boy's balls and anus, "Can the brat swim?"

Sisyphus was initially rather disgusted to realise that he had not himself ascertained with Glaucus Quintus' ability to swim, which was of course an essential qualification for his new role. The Imperial slave guiltily put his unusual oversight down to his strange early fascination with the boy. However, he also did not have time to contemplate his error for long.

Sisyphus' concentration was instead diverted by the sight of Quintus being hurled with a huge splash into the nearby pool by Polephemus, who simultaneously suggested "Lets see if the brat can indeed swim!" The boy, who had been on the brink of orgasm, instantly disappeared beneath the water and did not quickly resurface.

Marius, watching in horror, immediately began to panic, believing that Quintus was about to drown.

(To be continued)