The Lycian Prince 59

{for Tom}

(September 291 A.D. – 6 months until Anthonius’ nullification [?])

After Lysus had finally calmed down after discovering his subjects’ disloyalty, he went to pay his respects to the commander of the Roman garrison, now fully appreciating how much his throne depended upon its presence. The new King was as nauseatingly obsequious with the Roman officer as he had been with the Roman Emperor, especially when offering his soldiers the opportunity to acquire a large amount of money for only doing what comes naturally. The commander was only too happy to accept, on behalf of his men, the chance to earn a substantial bonus, as long as they did so in off-duty hours. The first large eager contingent, led by a centurion, was arriving as Anthonius was being reluctantly escorted by his friends towards the door of the public latrine. Most of the soldiers had brought dogs, their own or borrowed, in the hope of doubling their rewards.

The six 14 years old boys, armed only with knives, were no match for the professional, heavily armed, soldiers and they quickly found themselves under arrest and being dragged to the walled citadel that formed the garrison’s headquarters. The two Lycian guards were dismissed, to be replaced by twenty Romans surrounding the public facility, and the servants were ordered to resume their work whilst Anthonius was returned to the urinal. The centurion and his men were determined not to allow the diversion of a failed rescue attempt deflect them from securing their welcome bonuses. The former Prince was to be anointed with military and canine urine remorselessly overnight and throughout most of the next day as the Roman garrison enriched itself with much Lycian gold. The boy’s half-brother was delighted to be told that two fresh chests had to be collected from the treasury in order to keep up with demand.

Anthonius did not only suffer urine falling on top of him as some soldiers, aroused by the sight before them, also masturbated. The boy’s acute shame was exacerbated when he came once himself. One Roman had deliberately directed his piss at the lad’s engorged cockhead, producing much laughter from the soldier when he saw an arc of semen gush out in response.

Meanwhile, the six young erstwhile rescuers were to be questioned about their actions. Long unused chambers deep in the bowels of the citadel were reactivated for the purpose. Much dust and many cobwebs had to be brushed away, and several large families of rats dispersed, before the boys were placed in chains in individual cells. The central torture chamber took longer to return to full working order, with a number of military craftsmen needed to restore the various equipment to functionality. The ancient rack, unused for almost a century, had to be almost completely rebuilt by carpenters. However, with typical Roman army efficiency, full interrogation facilities were ready by the time that the urine-drenched Anthonius joined his friends in the dungeons at dusk on the following day.

The soldier charged with eliciting true confessions from the pretty 14 years olds was expertly practised in the art, having seen similar service in several of the Empire’s trouble spots. The first terrified boy, identified correctly as the likely ringleader, was hauled into the torture chamber, and stripped. His anus was checked, as the torturer did not want the death of a virgin on his conscience for it displeased the gods. The man had no intention of killing the lad just yet but accidents did happen and the youngster would have to be raped if he was discovered to be virginal. However, only one of the six had not yet consummated his pedagogic relationship with his older suitor as his true beauty had blossomed late and he was still deciding whom to choose from the many candidates.

Having been found to have anally accommodated a man, the ringleader was bound firmly to the restored rack. Several turns of the wheel that activated the device soon had the boy’s naked body fully stretched. The torturer was pleased to see that his crying victim sported the usual full erection despite his obvious agony.

The soldier began his questions, centring round what precisely the plotters were hoping to achieve and who else was involved. When he was unhappy with the answers, the wheel would be turned fractionally, usually securing a loud scream, heard throughout the dungeon complex, before a hesitant verbal response. The man himself eventually heard cracks as first shoulders and then ankles were dislocated.

The boy was now literally at breaking point, for another turn of the wheel would produce the sound of skin tearing. However, the questions still came for the torturer was not yet entirely satisfied as to the fulsomeness of the information gained. Another turn of the wheel opened large bloody wounds in the lad’s ripping armpits and saw a fountain of sperm spurt from his engorged throbbing penis. The amused soldier rubbed the white fluid into the moaning 14 years old’s chest, belly, scrotum and upper legs, where the creamy substance had come to rest. His young victim managed one final answer before another turn of the wheel made him faint. The tormentor did not bother reawakening the tormented as he was finally happy that he knew all that he wanted. It was time to confirm this fact by attaching Anthonius’ five friends to the device.

Anthonius, soaked body hurting not only with shame but also with intense pain as the stiffness caused by his many hours chained in a demeaning posture was to take many more to diminish, heard his friends’ agonised shrieks throughout the night. The former Prince, hands chained behind his back, shouted through the bars of his filthy cell, begging for mercy for the boys, but his desperate entreaties went unheeded and he had to give up when his voice finally went, reducing his utterances to barely audible croaks. The smelly piss and semen covering his body had dried, forming scum marks over much of the skin, by the time dawn arrived and the awful screams finally came to an end.

Anthonius finally slept for the first time in two days when quiet descended, his only consolation for recent events being the fact that he had heard yelling from only five of his friends. He hoped that the sixth was to be spared being put to the question. He was not to know that that was not his half-brother’s intention when he had the beautiful 14 years old removed to the palace. The new King, who had come to the citadel to watch the delightful torture of his sibling’s friends, had kindly decided to give personal attention to depriving the one virgin amongst the sextet of his innocence.

Prodicus was given the task of preparing the appalled Vinius for his royal master’s bed by bathing the younger boy and greasing his virgin anus. The tearful 14 years old was shivering in fright when placed on top of the royal bed to await Lysus’ arrival, despite the best efforts of the royal page to calm him. The virgin did not have to wait too long for the eager King or for the man’s cock to invade his previously pure rectum. Tears and squeals flooded the bedchamber as the lad was readied to enjoy the pleasures of the torture chamber.

Lysus was thoroughly entertained by Vinius’ deflowerment and was looking forward to similar amusement when the boy was placed later on the rack. However, the King first needed some sleep before experiencing further delights and the debauched hurting lad, the lustrous curves of his gorgeous bottom besmirched by blood and semen, found himself trapped face-down under the obnoxious fat sweaty odorous form of the snoring monarch, softening adult cock still inside him.

Lysus woke several hours later. It was mid-morning and sun streamed through the window of the bedchamber. The King was surprised to find that the no longer virgin 14 years old was not still lying on the bed as he had not given the brat permission to leave his company. The monarch’s surprise turned to fury when he subsequently discovered that the boy seemed to have disappeared into thin air. The Roman soldiers, now charged with guarding the personage, assured him that they had not seen the lad leave the royal quarters, a careful search of which by them and Prodicus finding no-one hiding.

Vinius’ disappearance was a mystery that Lysus was never to resolve. The incensed King had to be content, one week later, with executing just five of his half-brother’s friends, a spectacle that was to be the culmination of the new monarch’s coronation in the temple of Jupiter, at which the Roman commander and Ebana were the principal foreign guests. Three wooden crosses were laid on the ground at the foot of the temple steps, with exceptionally sharp stakes, about the height of a normal man, firmly embedded into the ground on either side of the middle crucifix. Six blunt stakes were positioned further into the plaza with another solitary one in front. The whole scenario was heavily ringed by Roman soldiers.

Anthonius, still naked but body washed for the occasion by the youthful black eunuch, was first to arrive. He was chained to the front solitary stake, facing the others and the temple. His five injured nude friends followed, dragged from the citadel as their dislocated limbs made them incapable of walking. They were chained spreadeagled between the six blunt stakes, also facing the temple.

Anthonius felt physically ill when he saw the state in which his wonderful beautiful heroic friends were now presented, bodies displaying their wounds and faces their agony. The bloody scabs under their arms particularly sickened the former Prince. Roman soldiers, wearing only loincloths and holding vicious whips, took up position behind each condemned boy. The torsos of the powerful men rippled with muscles.

Various entreaties for mercy had been made to Lysus for the youngster’s lives, not least from their important noble families, but they had fallen on deaf ears. A determined attempt to rescue the boys from incarceration in the citadel led by some fathers, older brothers and lovers had been bloodily thwarted, causing the Roman governor to declare martial law. This capped unrest amongst the wider populace for now. However, no citizenry felt obligated to celebrate the coronation of their new King. When the crowned monarch emerged at midday with his few guests onto the top of the temple steps, it was to see the city’s main square empty apart from soldiers guarding and waiting to attend to Anthonius and his friends. However, Lysus’ disappointment at the Lycians’ attitude was not going to stop him from enjoying the spectacle of observing Anthonius watch his friends being put to death in front of his young eyes.

Lysus signalled to the officer supervising operations at the bottom of the temple steps and the Roman responded by issuing an order. Anthonius’ friends soon felt the agony of the whip being laid with vigour across their rears. Screams echoed round the plaza as the skin of the boys’ backs, bums and legs gradually became a bloodied pulp. The victims had to be resuscitated from faints several times whilst the flagellation proceeded.

The sobbing Anthonius constantly shouted useless pleas for pity for his friends at seeing their plight, which only added to his half-brother’s rapture. The former Prince’s begging intensified when the soldiers moved their attentions to the boys’ fronts, including their genitalia. One of the lad’s scrotums was split open and another’s cockhead was partially severed as the evil sharp leather struck them.

The flogging took almost an hour to complete, the irreparable damage terrible to behold to Anthonius.

However, even worse was to come as his half-dead friends were unbound and dragged to where they were to die. Three were laid on the crosses, the ringleader on the middle one. Several soldiers crowded round each victim to order to secure them to the wood. The relevant wrist cartilage, through which the large square headed nails had to be hammered in order to prevent the arms from tearing away from the crossbeams when the crosses were raised, were expertly located. Further awful shrieks indicated that mallets were being used to drive the spikes through the tissue. The yells reached a crescendo when larger metal spikes were hammered through the boys’ crossed ankles, overwhelming the sound of many bones being crushed. Young human attachments complete, the crosses were then raised, the vertical beams sinking into pre-prepared relevantly-sized holes dug into the ground.

Meanwhile, the other two boys were each lifted off the ground by four soldiers holding their sanguine striped legs. The lads’ sphincters were lowered onto the tips of the spiked stakes and their legs pulled downwards, causing the extremely sharp wood to make inroads into their anuses, which started to spurt blood. Heavy weights were suspended from each foot to encourage the gradual advance of the stakes into the lads’ insides.

Despite their suffering, all five boys now approached their lingering deaths exhibiting hard-ons. Anthonius was now silent, mortified at the crucifixion and impalement of his young friends, who had so loved him that they were prepared to risk their lives in his rescue. His mortification was brought to a peak when ladders were placed against each cross to enable soldiers, each holding a knife, to climb the rungs. They cut open, without ceremony, the crucified lads’ scrotums, exposing the contents before slicing the membrane retaining the testicles so that they fell onto the hard soil below. All five youngsters spurted semen as they were unmanned. The former Prince vomited when he saw the first small bloody testis land. Ladders were not required to castrate the impaled victims. No action was taken to stem any blood loss, which would eventually stop when the blood congealed.

The sight of the concluding action and Anthonius’ reaction caused Lysus’ smile to broaden before he eventually led the coronation party down the righthandside steps and back to the palace for a celebratory banquet. The new King relished the thought that this would be his last sight of his half-brother, left to watch his friends die very slowly and agonisingly. The man hoped that the delicious vision would be retained vividly in his memory for the rest of his life. He was to be granted his wish but not for personally desirable reasons.

A distraught crying Anthonius observed his friends’ breathing become shallower and shallower over many hours as their ends crept nearer. The crucified victims gradually suffocated as fluid accumulated in their lungs, whilst the bodies of the impaled duo were slowly lowered further onto the wooden stakes by the force of gravity, their anal wounds getting bigger, more terrible and finally fatal.

It would be late afternoon by the time death came mercifully to the last of the five boys. The tearful traumatised former Prince was then packed into a wagon, escorted by Roman cavalry, to return with the youthful eunuch to Patala, from where the Nubian galley would leave for Alexandria in Egypt on the following afternoon’s tide. Meanwhile, Ebana was enjoying the new Lycian King’s coronation feast. He would not leave Xanthus until the morning, after sharing Prodicus’ sexual favours with his host overnight, but took the trouble to send the eunuch on his way with a generous message for his ship’s crew. As the Nubian King would not be requiring the white boy that night, they could enjoy him in any way they wanted as long as he was not permanently damaged. The black monarch liked to keep his servants happy.

Prodicus did not learn of what had happened at the foot of the temple of Jupiter’s steps until after the event. He was duly horrified at what had occurred and also deeply saddened at hearing that Anthonius had already been despatched to Patala, denying him the chance to see his friend one final time. It was whilst he sucked Lysus’ obnoxious cock in the royal bedchamber, after agonisingly entertaining Ebana earlier in one of the palace’s guestrooms, that the 16 years old decided on his own act of retribution.

The following night, the royal page was as usual lying naked on the royal bed waiting for Lysus to enter the bedchamber after dinner. When the King finally arrived at about midnight, the nude boy, displaying an alluring smile and rigid erection, rose from the bed. He noticed that the monarch had brought some toys to play with, a spiked dildo and a riding crop. The man was obviously in a mood for sadistic sex that night. Prodicus’ penis extended to the vertical and began to ooze precum at the realisation.

Lysus grinned wickedly as his catamite approached to collect the playthings and aid his disrobing. He had little time to wonder why the boy was holding his right hand out of sight behind his delicious bare body before he saw the glint of metal and felt a blade enter his heart. The new King was dead before he hit the floor, his consecrated reign having lasted just over a day.

(To be continued in chapter 60 – ‘Alexandria’)