The Lycian Prince 14

(January 291 A.D.)

It took a full month for the silent slave to restore Anthonius’ tortured body to its former glory but, although the physical wounds could be removed, the mental ones would remain with the boy for as long as he lived. Anthonius would never forget the horrors that he had faced in this terrible place. However, Anthonius’ stay ended when one morning the silent slave cleansed and perfumed him even more thoroughly than usual. He polished the silvery but cheap metal of the boy’s nipple and cock rings and dressed him in another short tight-fitting Egyptian-style white pleated skirt. It was the first clothing that the boy had worn since he had discarded the original during his first encounter with the Arab. That tryst was now to be repeated. Anthonius found himself in the same large magnificently appointed room with its superb views of the beach far below and the sea beyond. This time, Anthonius did not need drugs to encourage him to heed the Arab’s signals. The boy’s body was inspected by the man with and without his skirt cover before he advanced, cock again rigidly pointing, to give pleasure to his torturer. He sucked the Arab’s hairy smelly genitals for over a quarter of an hour before fully consuming the product of his actions. As the Arab impregnated Anthonius’ mouth with his last spurt of semen, he patted the boy on the head and said sarcastically “Now, whore, that’s what you should have done the first time we met and it would have saved you an awful lot of trouble” before sharply pushing his head away, causing the lad to tumble backwards to the floor.

The Arab called for his guards and the same two who had participated in Anthonius’ tortures entered, picked the naked boy up and led him out. They eventually emerged into a big courtyard where several ox-driven wagons were waiting. Anthonius’ hands were tied behind him and he was thrown into a large wooden cage on the back of one of the wagons, where his right leg was manacled by a short chain to one of the bars. Inside the cage with him were two young but plain-looking women, four similarly ordinary girls and five scrawny boys, the youngsters aged from about 9 to 14. All Anthonius’ fellow prisoners were, like him, naked and white-skinned. The door of the cage was locked and the guards disappeared back inside the fortress. They returned shortly afterwards, escorting the Arab and Impheli to a luxurious curtained litter on the back of another wagon. Anthonius rued that, wherever they were going, their journey was going to be much more comfortable than his own.

The caravan set off, accompanied by a number of mounted guards, and left the fortress’ gates to head south into the desolate countryside. Anthonius was initially grateful for the heavy cloth awning that had been placed over the cage to protect the occupants from the sun, relentlessly beating down from the cloudless sky, but the temperature and humidity soon made conditions within the cage very hot and stifling. As the caravan progressed sedately, the boy could see that the surroundings seemed unchanging, treeless brown scrubby plains and hills. The journey lasted five very uncomfortable days and none of the solemn fellow inmates of the cage ever spoke. They were released only to eat and drink and toilet. Their water was rationed and the food was always the same foul weak gruel, so their thirst and hunger were little assuaged. They also could not wash so they were all filthy when, at dusk on the fifth day, they finally and thankfully reached their destination, a group of low stone buildings on the outskirts of a decrepit town.

Anthonius and the others were taken to a bath-house and allowed to wash themselves, under the close supervision of the now dismounted guards, before being fed and watered and imprisoned for the night in a large communal cell, with hands and legs restricted as they were in the cage. The following morning, Anthonius saw the silent slave for the first time since they left the fortress when he appeared to attend to all the captives’ bodies and dress them in kilts, doing his best to improve their appearances. However, he lingered longest with Anthonius as the boy was the only one he could be proud of once he had finished. The guards then came to return everyone except Anthonius to the caged wagon. The boy was instead taken, hands rebound behind his back like the others, to the side of the Arab’s curtained litter. The curtain parted and Anthonius saw the Arab and Imphelii, both of whom were flushed as if they had just enjoyed sex.

“Well, whore, this is where we say goodbye. You need not know the name of the town below. It is of such little consequence that the Romans probably do not know of its existence. Certainly, they can’t be bothered with it as none have ever been known to come here. However, for you, it will be your last sight of civilisation as you know it. You see, this dingy impoverished rat-warren provides a service for me every second new year, for then the black chieftains come from their distant forested lands, across the dry plains and the great desert, to barter their young black slaves for what I consider trinkets. I make great profits from the transactions for the most that I am required to provide in return is the odd white slave. You see, the tribes of some of the chieftains like to have one such slave, woman, girl or boy, never more and never men, for their rituals, often of a sexual kind and, if that slave dies or becomes unsatisfactory and is killed, they seek a replacement. I do not even have to barter the best white flesh. The chieftains’ requirements are always modest so I reserve that for the Roman slave-markets. However, you are an exception. I cannot easily dispose of you within the Empire, especially as you are so clearly marked as Imperial property, and it would be too dangerous to keep you. It would be a shame to have to kill you after you managed to survive my tests, and my displeasure with you has been partly revenged. I would also lose profit in so doing. No, I believe that bartering you to the chieftains is the best way forward. I am sure that I shall gain many young blacks in exchange, especially as the bidding chieftains will never have seen a blonde, blue-eyed white boy before, let alone one with your looks. My revenge will also be complete for your final penance will be to spend the remainder of your days in demeaning slavery as the sole white person in the black tribe’s faraway homeland. The thought alone brings me great satisfaction. Goodbye, whore, enjoy your new, I was going to say life but existence would be the more appropriate word!” The aghast Anthonius was led to the caged wagon to rejoin the other captives, with the laughter of the Arab and his nullified boy friend resounding in his ears.

(To be continued)