The Lycian Prince 43

Anthonius was wakened at the 6th hour of the afternoon by a prod to his sore backside from a 6 years old boy prostitute sent by Prodicus. The catamite had a plate half full of stew, the customary ration for this time of day, in his hands. He placed it on the floor besides Anthonius before giggling to the naked 14 years old “I’ve been told to tell you that you’re to eat it like a dog would if you don’t want it taken away.” Anthonius looked back towards the bunks and saw that all of the sixty or so boy prostitutes of the night shift, led by Prodicus, were staring at him. All were smirking except his friend. The starving lad blushed but still knelt over the dish and greedily licked it clean to loud laughter from behind. He remained very hungry when he had finished but was due to receive no more food for at least another eighteen or more hours. There would first be the one-hour preparation for the fourteen-hour shift, followed by two hours turning the water wheel before suffering the urine shower and whatever further unpleasantries Prodicus had in mind for him.

After Anthonius had finished what, for him, was breakfast even though it was early evening, he stood up to face the chortling crowd of boys. He was immediately reprimanded by Prodicus when he was asked “Who told you to stand and why no thanks for your meal?” The 16 years old commanded “Back on all fours like the dog you are, mongrel slut, and let me hear your appreciation for bothering to feed you!” Anthonius assumed the required position and said, to re-energised chuckling from the others, “Thank you, sir, for the food.” “Good,” replied Prodicus, “you may now trot like the mutt you are to the bath where two of us will help you prepare for your clients. Though, why anyone would want a cur like you, I’ll never know!” Anthonius shuffled on all fours across the floor towards the bath to accompanying laughter. He was met at his destination by the 6 years old and a 7 years old. The younger ordered “Stand up, dog, we’re required to help you prepare your disgusting body.” Anthonius obeyed and the threesome stepped into the bath. The 14 years old was ashamed to note that his cock was rigid.

The next hour, and similar periods on ensuing days, would be the one part of Anthonius’ waking day that he could guarantee not to be tormented by others, other than the sexual torment of being helped to cleanse himself intimately by two very pretty youngsters. Everyone was now too busy with their own preparations for the long night ahead to bother with him and, anyway, it was important that he was presented correctly to his first client in less than one hour, although Anthonius wondered whether his two enemas were necessary as he had eaten so very little recently.

Anthonius soon found himself in one of the private entertainment rooms. It was on the opposite side of the passageway from the one in which he had spent the previous night but had the same layout and facilities apart from different wall frescos. Here they were actually even more obscene than the ones with which he had last been surrounded. Anthonius was standing in the required manner before the bed, waiting for the first client of his second shift. His face had again been gaudily made up, his nipples gilded and his body oiled. Just after the 7th hour of the afternoon, the door opened and his customer entered.

At the same time, Sebastian was readying himself and his men to leave Neapolis for Salernum the following morning. Neapolis was a large prosperous city, with a number of magnificent public buildings and temples and its own amphitheatre, with the south-eastern skyline dominated by Mount Vesuvius. Having satisfied himself that he and his detachment of Praetorians were ready for an early start, Sebastian set off for the house of a friend who lived locally. The man, a rich trader who shared Sebastian’s beliefs, had invited the captain for dinner. They talked quietly over their luxuriant food about events in Rome for the trader’s excellent contacts had advised him that many Christians, secret practitioners of their faith, had been arrested over recent days, presumably betrayed to the authorities by some of their kind. “More Judases!” the trader sardonically remarked.

Sebastian had not heard the news and declared that he must somehow return to the capital for he considered all fellow Christians to be friends, not least the family who had adopted Sura. Under Diocletian, the usual fate for arrested Christians, who did not submit to paganism, was death, often in the Coliseum, and Sebastian believed that he had to try to save at least some from this end. He therefore thanked the trader for his hospitality and wished him safety before leaving, with his meal only half-eaten.

Meanwhile, Anthonius’ first client of the night had just finished with the boy. This man, a burly hirsute 40 years old, used the bath, for he seemed to like watersports, but only after ordering Anthonius to dance before him, unaccompanied by music, in thong and then nude. The customer filled the bath with warm water and joined the standing Anthonius in its shallow depth to wash away the boy’s make-up and body oil before kneeling to suck the lad’s hard cock dry. The client then had the boy kneel as well and bend over the edge of the bath for anal penetration. After the sodomy, Anthonius was required to attempt to encourage the customer’s now softened penis back to erection with his mouth but it took longer than usual because the man now lay in the bath with his groin under water. Anthonius eventually managed to perform the task and the man’s cockhead just emerged above the water’s surface. However, the boy almost drowned when the client climaxed for his head was held firmly in place on the erupting prick, with the lad’s mouth and nose both surrounded by the warm liquid. He desperately and gratefully sucked air into his lungs when he was finally released and had swallowed the product of his patron’s passion. As the man departed, Anthonius wondered if the servant would really be pleased to see that some of the warm water had been used.

Sebastian rode back on his horse to the local barracks, where he had suborned accommodation for his group of Praetorians, and informed the most senior of his detachment that he had to return to Rome on urgent business, without elaborating what it was. He told the soldier how the search for the missing Imperial boy companion should be undertaken in Salernum, but avoided meeting the Prefect to inform him about his intentions. Sebastian then left to ride rapidly through the night back towards the capital along the Via Appia.

Anthonius’ next customer, a man in his mid-twenties, brought a leather cockstrap with him, which included a tight wrapping with internal spikes for the penis. He made sure that the boy’s cock was soft before attaching the cruel strapping, knowing full well that, if the lad became hard during their subsequent sexual adventures, the encased prick would become very painful. This client also made Anthonius dance without music, but in the leather genital attire, which flopped around, causing some of the spikes to bite even before the boy experienced the attempted beginnings of his usual erection. The customer then settled down to enjoy the lad’s anus and mouth twice servicing his own large member. He could tell by the whore’s frequent grimaces and tears that the spikes were having the anticipated affect. In fact, when the leather was later removed, the indentations caused by the spikes could be seen all over Anthonius’ penis, although no bleeding had resulted.

Anthonius’ third session, which commenced at midnight, was with another duo, two slim young men about 20 years of age. They were intent on only one thing and that was double sodomy. For this, they tied the boy spreadeagled and face down on the bed, with two pillows under his groin, and each positioned themselves astride one of the lad’s legs. They manoeuvred their bodies and erections into place above Anthonius’ sphincter and attacked the entrance simultaneously. Once the invasion of his insides started, the boy was grateful that the young men’s penises were not as thick as some he had endured and that he had already been penetrated three times that night. The latter had relaxed his anus and this helped to reduce the level of pain he now faced. Nevertheless, he still screamed, much to the delight of his customers, who later noted that the boy had also cum.

Having achieved their main aim by climaxing in harmony, the young men dismounted the crying Anthonius. After untying the boy and have him lick up his own mess, they were now happy enough not to punish the lad for his own impertinent orgasm but have him instead perform fellatio on them separately. Anthonius, after his experiences of the previous night, was greatly relieved for both mercies. The young men finished off by sodomising the boy again, but individually, and they left merrily, ambitions for this part of the night realised and looking forward to making gentle love to each other later.

Anthonius now wondered whether all clients were as unconventional in their tastes and requirements as those he had encountered so far but was happy to find that the remaining three customers of this particular night just expected to be served as if they were the Emperor. One was sufficiently pleased by the new whore’s services that, like the duo, he chose to overlook the boy’s third climax of the night. The servant was not so forgiving for, after the fourteen hours shift, he returned the boy, as promised, to the waterwheel and he was to do so on most subsequent days. Prodicus was also compelled to continue his bullying role and had lined up a few boys to continue Anthonius’ initiation, which would proceed over many mornings until all 100 or so catamites had enjoyed the newcomer either anally or orally. Prodicus then would then restart the process with the catamites enjoying what they had missed previously, even those as young as 5 for they could still orgasm even if they could not provide white creamy product. The showering in urine was also to take place every day as was the requirement to eat and traverse the boy companion quarters like a dog. The only compensation for Anthonius was that he was now permitted his end-of-shift meal as his tormentors did not want him starving to death, for there was too much other fun with which to subject him. Lysus was delighted to hear about the indignities that had befallen his poor half-brother, and was so spared the trouble of emasculating Prodicus, at least for now.

Sebastian arrived in Rome, after a strenuous but swift overnight ride, just as Anthonius was falling into the exhausted five hours sleep that was all he was to be allowed, on the floor in his corner, on that day and most others whilst in the brothel. The Praetorian captain immediately headed for the houses of his various friends. He found that all those who had frequented a particular secret Christian chapel had been rounded up by soldiers from the garrison of Rome, except one who had suddenly acquired a lot of money. However, Sebastian’s beliefs meant that he had to forgive the traitor rather than run him through with his sword. He had to content himself instead with the thought that God would see justice done in the end.

Sebastian was particularly dismayed to find that Sura and his adoptive family were amongst those taken, their home looted and wrecked. The Praetorian captain scoured Rome only to discover that all the new Christian captives had been summarily judged on the Emperor’s orders and sent to the Coliseum where a major spectacle, in which some freshly imported lions were to be amongst the star performers, was imminent. Sebastian therefore went to the huge amphitheatre where many thousands had died during its 219 years of existence. No-one dared challenge a Praetorian officer’s right to inspect the latest entertainment fodder and there was a lot of it to check for the event was to be the biggest in Diocletian’s reign so far. As well as Christians, the assemblage awaiting their cruel ends included other traitors and criminals and recaptured runaway slaves, plus some Imperial prisoners left unsold at the slave markets, and all had been segregated by sex and age. It therefore took over an hour for Sebastian to locate, amongst the confined throngs, the man who headed Sura’s adoptive family.

Sebastian and the man spoke through the bars of the prisoner’s large communal cell, shared with about fifty other captives. The man begged the captain to try to save his wife and children, including the young eunuch, whom he now loved as if he were his real son. Sebastian recognised that the only realistic way to do so would be to bribe the guards and he now wished that he had not been quite so charitable in giving practically all his money away to the poor. There was no-one within the remaining Christian community in Rome who could help because anyone rich enough had fled the city to safer climes. He therefore concluded that he had to return to Salernum to revisit the wealthy trader in order to acquire the funds required, but he should have time to visit someone on the way.

The villa where Queen Irene and Princess Anthonia of Lycia were held was located on the outskirts of Rome, near the commencement of the Via Appia, the road to the south. The villa had been confiscated from a disgraced and executed senator. Sebastian and the Praetorian officer assigned to supervise the guests’ house arrest did not like each other much. The former considered the latter unnecessarily rude and cruel whilst the latter felt that the former was too soft and had only gained his position through favour. Nevertheless, Sebastian believed it essential to make an early attempt to rescue Anthonius’ close relatives so that he could save the boy himself from whatever horrible fate the Emperor had in mind for him. Whilst he considered this, it suddenly dawned on him that he was rapidly becoming many people’s only hope for survival and concluded that God had predestined it so. He prayed that God had also foreordained his success.

Sebastian had changed horses in Rome and the fresh steed made rapid progress to the well-guarded luxurious villa, set in large formal gardens. He was known by the soldiers and escorted by one to see the other officer. “I have come on the orders of His Imperial Highness,” lied Sebastian, “to return the Queen and Princess to the palace.”

“I don’t think you have,” was the reply but not from the Praetorian. Sebastian turned to his right to see Casperius entering through a side door.

(To be continued in Chapter 44 – ‘Lions’)