Stonehenge 5 (Penultimate Chapter)

By Pueros

Chapter 5 – Betrayal

(Stonehenge, May 1850 B.C.)

The petrified Bladud could hear the solemn chanting from afar, long before he and the ceremonial party reached the sacred altar, within the inner circle of the great temple’s bluestones, themselves inside the imposing horseshoe of five great sarsen trilithons. The incantations, unaccompanied by musical instruments, emerged from a small choir of eunuch priests and whole priestlings standing inside the bluestone circle, whilst the many expectant spectators stood outside, with a muted drone of irreverent gossip also perceptively audible.

Bladud, although well toileted previously, almost wet himself when he saw what awaited him before the sacred altar. There was a large sturdy grill of metal, although not of iron as that substance had not yet been discovered, suspended on legs about a pace above a large expanse of glowing coals. The latter had just been lit and so the heat had not yet transferred up the supports to the grill. This would, in fact, take a while to achieve, as the alloy was not a proficient conductor. Nevertheless, once the feat was accomplished, the metallic surface would be red-hot.

On the ground, adjacent to the grill, several switches made from thin but strong ash branches had been placed next to a few vicious clamps from which long slim chains dangled. However, the most sinister sight was the wooden-handled poker already embedded and roasting nicely within the coals.

Bladud was well used to ritual within the great temple and so knew what was initially required of the ceremonial subject once he had attained the requisite position before the altar. Standing just a pace away from the grill platform, he tremulously knelt and kissed the ground. As he did so, further irreverent noise emanated from the watching laity. It was in the form of giggles, mainly from the children in the throng who had noticed that the rear of the boy’s short red tunic had ridden up his body as he performed homage to reveal part of his bare bottom.

Such embarrassment only added to Bladud’s humiliation at already sporting a prominent bulge at the front of his sole garment, the consequence of an undisciplined and strangely, given the circumstances, excited cock. However, the boy knew that his shame would soon be compounded when he was required to remove his only attire.

Two of the ceremonial party who had accompanied Bladud to the great temple stepped forward and positioned themselves either side of the grill. One was the high priest and the other the ecclesiastic who had participated in the boy’s recapture.

“Shed your sacred tunic,” the high priest commanded with a smirk, during a pause in the chanting, “and prostrate yourself face-down upon the grill.” Bladud knew that the instruction was partly a test of his bravery. Everyone wanted to see if he had the courage to obey compliantly or whether he would resist and struggle and scream fruitlessly as he was forcibly manhandled into place. As the incantations restarted, the 13 years old therefore divested himself of his garb, causing more chortles to erupt as his beautiful but demeaningly sexually excited naked frame came into view, before lying on the perforated metal surface, each square aperture about the size of a man’s hand.

Although the metal on which Bladud now lay was still cool, the heat that rose from the coals beneath immediately hit his bare body, taking his breath temporarily away and creating an instant glistening on the front of his delicious nude form as sweat was expelled all over. The temperature was very discomforting and would become worse as the grill began to be increasingly affected by conduction from below. Further initial distress also came from the pressure of the harsh metal ribbing pressing into the boy’s young vulnerable flesh.

Bladud, whose excited genitals now neatly fitted through one of the apertures, dangling downwards towards the coals, felt his slender arms being stretched to the two top corners of the grill, to be fixed immovably in place by sturdy bronze chains with hooks. His lithe legs were similarly fastened to the other end of the metal surface but adjacent and with his feet free of metallic support.

“Now, Bladud,” the high priest advised above the sound of the continuing chanting so that just the terrified boy could hear, “you will suffer your penance for your escape before we question you about your accomplices.” The elderly ecclesiastical leader then nodded at his younger eunuch companion located on the other side of the grill. The latter picked up one of the longer switches and practised a few swings with it before finally rubbing it along the 13 years old’s exposed back and buttocks.

Murmurs of eager anticipation emitted from the many spectators as the priest then raised the implement high into the air. “So suffer all who profane our gods,” the eunuch shouted before bringing the switch viciously downwards to crash against young tender skin.

Bladud had hoped to avoid screams of anguish as his flagellation proceeded but the pain that now seeped through his gorgeous body, from a line across the middle of his back, could not be denied vocal accompaniment. The shriek of anguish was both loud and lingering, causing much comment and merriment amongst the spectators. The sound of tears sizzling on coals could also be perceived. This was followed by even greater noise as more fluid evaporated with the expert application of the next stroke, to a location just above the first. The boy’s bladder had emptied its contents through his hard cock onto the waiting glowing embers.

The priest took his time to decorate Bladud’s back, buttocks and rear legs with many vivid stripes, which usually discoloured his light pink flesh to an intense white, as blood was temporarily expelled from the point of contact, until nasty weals of a much darker hue eventually formed. The boy writhed within his chains as blow after blow reached their carefully aimed targets and his screams would have been heart rendering to anyone with even a modicum of compassion. However, the latter was noticeable for its absence in the great temple on that day.

Bladud’s cock miraculously grew and grew as his awful chastisement continued, becoming engorged when the priest turned the attention of the switch to the exposed soles of the boy's feet, one of the most tender parts of the human anatomy, where each hit would induce unparalleled excruciation.

“You will not be able to walk for a while let alone consider flight again,” the high priest commented privately to the screaming sobbing Bladud, as yet another agonising strike was laid across his already damaged feet. The boy’s torment was now compounded when, above his own shrieking and the continuing incantations, he heard loud laughter at the same time that more coals sizzled. He looked downwards through his tears and the metal grilling and shamefully saw copious amounts of thick white cum spurting onto the embers from his rigid vibrating cock, currently displaying a size he had not previously known.

The swathes of excruciation flowing through Bladud’s form, its sublime beauty now desecrated by many vivid red, purple and brown stripes, several bloody where intersections had been created, seemed to take his mind into another dimension, one where the only true reality was the attempted endurance of intense pain. Nothing else apparently mattered in existence. This mental torment was enhanced by appreciation of the fact that the grilling upon which his body lay was becoming increasingly intolerably warmer. However, it was truly rammed home when the priest finally put the switch to one side and retrieved the red-hot poker from the coals. Fortunately, the boy lapsed into unconsciousness as the round orb that formed the tip of the implement was applied to the tenderised sanguine sole of his left foot.

Bladud felt cold water splashing his face to bring him back into consciousness and heard further sizzling as the extraneous liquid evaporated beneath him. However, such sensory perceptions were quickly overwhelmed by the agony incited by the newly formed brand on his sole and that soon induced nearby when a companion mark was created on his other foot. This time, the boy somehow remained awake throughout the terrible ordeal but he did not notice that blood was now spilling from his mouth, his tongue having been severely bitten by his own teeth.

“As I said earlier,” the high priest once more remarked privately to Bladud, whose body had become more quiescent, seemingly now quietly resigned to the infliction of terrible torture, “you will not be able to walk for a while let alone consider flight again. However, your penance for your original escape is now complete. You will therefore tell me who helped you and where they can be found. If you do not, or do not convince me of the veracity of what you say, your torment will continue remorselessly until you do provide the required information. It will be best for your own sake to provide details about your collaborators immediately to prevent unnecessary suffering as, I assure you, you will eventually supply the truth. No-one will be able to tolerate what is to come!” However, to the ecclesiastical leader’s annoyance, the boy remained silent, apart from the odd low whimper and occasional sizzle as a tear fell onto a very hot surface.

“You are being uselessly obstructive, Bladud,” the high priest now suggested, “and your body will therefore suffer unnecessarily as you try not to prevent but only delay the inevitable confession.” The elderly eunuch then nodded again at his younger colleague, who had returned the poker to the coals to regain heat. As the man waited for the implement to attain the necessary temperature, he picked up one of the cruel clamps and attached it painfully to the boy’s left nipple, inducing a yelp from the 13 years old. He allowed the associated chain to dangle into the coals before applying similar agonising ornaments to the youngster’s other nipple and his pair of testes.

The priest then retrieved the poker and aimed the red-hot orb at the centre of the Bladud’s left buttock. The boy could feel the intense heat as the glowing disc was brought towards his striped flesh.

“Tell me,” the high priest commanded but Bladud remained resolutely and bravely silent, at least until the poker was applied to his skin. The resultant scream was blood curdling but only incited more laughter amongst the watching throng. However, the boy was impervious to such external happenings as he now smelt burning flesh whilst his bumcheek was branded with a black circle.

Bladud’s resistance lasted through the application of another matching brand to his other buttock but began to waver when the temperature of both the clamps attached painfully to his nipples and balls and the grill on which he lay began to become distinctly distressing. It caved in completely when two other ecclesiastics were invited forward to prise apart the boy’s caned and burnt bumcheeks to expose his anal entrance, recently deflowered by Aethel.

It was the obvious encroach of the reheated poker towards Bladud’s rectum that finally caused the boy to shout out loud “They’re called Boudda and Aethel and they live in the great bog.” “Where precisely?” the high priest asked contentedly, happy that the determined will of the 13 years old had broken at last.

“On an island,” Bladud informed. “Where precisely?” the high priest repeated. “It’s difficult for me say as the great bog is so confusing,” the boy managed to answer truthfully between clenched teeth, as the pain from the heat now attacking his flesh became more acute, “but I’m sure that I can lead you there!” Fortunately, his elderly inquisitor, knowing the difficulties of the marshy terrain, believed the 13 years old, whose torments were therefore brought to an end, to the disappointment of some of the more sadistic spectators who had wanted to see the glowing poker inserted into the youngster's insides.

“If you say false or cannot take us to where your evil collaborators can be found,” the high priest advised as Bladud was released from the grill, “be sure that you will be returned here for more appalling suffering.” The agonised boy, whose front was now marked with a matrix of red squares, created by the pressure and heat of the metal on which he had lain, contrasting with the stripes decorating his rear, had no reason to disbelieve the ecclesiastical leader’s grim warning. The naked 13 years old’s only consolation, as he was carried out of the great temple because of his inability to walk, to much laughter and comment from the watching laity, was the fact that his betrayal of his friends would not take place for at least a couple of weeks. It would take that long for his anguished body to recover sufficiently for him to perpetrate the ignoble deed.

(Stonehenge, June 1850 B.C.)

Bladud was returned to the roundhouse usually reserved for ceremonial preparation to recuperate, thoughts of further escape being expelled from his mind by close supervision and continuous bondage when left alone. Here, the supervising priest carefully and expertly tended the boy’s many wounds. Luckily, the only ones that left permanent marks were the circular brands on his buttocks and the soles of his feet, young flesh eventually expunging the other unsightly man-made blemishes from the youngster’s wondrous form.

Within a fortnight, Bladud, whose 14th birthday now passed, was deemed sufficiently recovered to direct a hunting expedition into the great bog. The boy’s sense that he was dishonourably betraying his friends was acute as, just past noon, he guided the adult party of ten into the mire.

The men, led by the priest who had helped recapture Bladud earlier, had dismounted from their horses at the edge of the great bog and advanced on foot towards where the boy thought Boudda and Aethel secretly lived. The now 14 years old, attired in a priestling’s red robe, had hoped that an opportunity to flee from the men might arise as they progressed through the mire. However, this wish was denied when the priest kept the youngster’s hands bound behind him and his young neck connected by leash to his own firm adult grasp.

Bladud became disorientated on several occasions amidst the dangerous landscape of tall reeds, interspersed with outcrops of birch and ash trees, and had to backtrack sometimes. However, the boy eventually managed to bring the party to the start of a hidden flooded causeway.

“That’s where they live,” Bladud treacherously announced, as he pointed towards the distant small tree-lined island in the middle of a lake, “and this is where the access causeway begins, just under water. If you keep to a straight line between here and the widest bush on the island, you will reach their secret abode safely.”

The priest looked across the expanse of water, glistening under bright sunlight on a warm summer’s day, and saw some smoke emerge upwards into the sky from the island foliage, apparently confirming Bladud’s testimony that the place hid a dwelling. “Well, boy,” the eunuch ordered, “you can lead the way. If you fall into trouble, we’ll know that you’ve been lying to us.” The 14 years old, taking in a deep breath to try to expel the treacherous guilt that seemed to pervade his mind and body, obediently stepped into the lake and began advancing towards the isolated destination.

The water lapped against Bladud’s knees but otherwise the route seemed safe and so the priest and the hunters followed. Two pairs of astonished young eyes watched the approach from concealment amongst distant greenery.

“What will happen to Boudda and Aethel after you’ve captured them?” the shamed Bladud eventually enquired of the priest, who ignored the boy’s effrontery in speaking, as he was happy to disturb the priestling by providing the answer. “They will be sacrificed at the great temple on midsummer’s day,” the eunuch announced, as the party reached the midpoint of the causeway, “whilst lying naked and face-up on heated grills similar to the one on which you suffered. Their bodies will be roasted until, just after you are gelded whilst bound to the sacred altar, their hearts are extracted.”

This reply stirred Bladud’s determination and he continued to lead the men unwaveringly straight towards the island. However, several of the hunters’ dogs became impatient as their nostrils sensed young human prey in front of them and began to run ahead. Their handlers quickly followed, thereby thwarting their young guide’s attempt at suicide in preference to treachery, whilst taking to their mutual doom as many of the adults with him as possible.

Bladud knew, from the earlier guidance provided by Boudda and Aethel, that the path he was on was a false causeway, which terminated suddenly two-thirds of the way towards the island. The veracity of this fact was soon evident when the new vanguard of dogs and hunters started flailing around desperately as they began to sink rapidly into all-enveloping ooze just below the water’s surface. Other men ran to attempt rescue but soon found themselves also in mortal peril. The boy tried to follow, preferring death here to that he would now undoubtedly suffer at the great temple for his betrayal, but was restrained by the priest, who held the 14 years old’s leash firmly.

The whole terrible scene was mercifully over speedily, as desperately screaming and struggling men and howling dogs disappeared into the murderous mire, leaving behind a helpless priest, his bound young charge and only two surviving hunters. The sounds of birds singing and the occasional rustle of water were now the only remaining noises, contrasting somewhat incongruously with what had briefly been heard previously.

The priest broke the quiet by yelling at Bladud “You have betrayed us, you wilful cur!” He then tugged harshly at the boy’s leash, causing the 14 years old to topple over into the water. However, the youngster was safe from the ooze, as he was still on the causeway, but not from the kicks that now rained on his body from the infuriated eunuch.

Fortunately for Bladud, the priest’s frenzied attack was short-lived because cold vengeful calculation eventually replaced hot vicious fury in the man’s mind, as he realised that the boy must not be let off so lightly by being killed here. Instead, the evil –doer must suffer again in the great temple, this time without end until his spirit departed this earth. Additionally, the 14 years old could still be of one further service that would at least contribute towards some redemption of his sins.

The priest ordered the remaining hunters to pick up Bladud, bruised and semi-conscious as a result of the assault, and drag him back to the shore. Before he too left the scene, the ecclesiastic shouted a message at the island, thoroughly and correctly convinced that events were being observed from there.

“Boudda and Aethel, I know you’re there,” the priest announced, “and I command you to surrender yourselves to me. You are wanted at the great temple for assisting the attempted escape of a priestling, who is with me now. If you do not obey my order quickly, I shall start cutting off pieces of the boy’s body, starting with his testicles!” The eunuch, satisfied with the anticipated efficacy of his declaration of intent, then turned to stride back purposefully to the shore, where Bladud was already tied naked to a tree.

The priest and pair of hunters, heavily armed with bows and arrows, swords and knives, positioned themselves carefully to avoid being attacked by surprise whilst they waited. The former spent the time fruitfully sharpening the blade of his knife on that of his sword, just in case he had to begin to carry out his threat.

Time passed and the priest became impatient. He therefore cautiously approached the now fully conscious and aware Bladud and, grasping the boy harshly in one hand by the balls, whilst holding his knife in the other, shouted loudly “It seems that the non-appearance of your friends means that I’m to geld you here and now!” The 14 years old responded with the loud acclamation “No, don’t do it!” However, he bravely was not addressing the eunuch, who was proposing to make him one of his own emasculated kind, but the pair of beautiful twins who were emerging from concealment amongst nearby reeds.

Bladud’s desperate entreaty was curtailed by a savage blow to the jaw, which rendered him temporarily senseless. This enabled the priest to order Boudda and Aethel without interruption to disarm before allowing the hunters, who were pointing bows readied with arrows at them, to bind their hands.

Meanwhile, the priest, still grasping Bladud’s scrotum, momentarily considered completing the the boy’s gelding but then thought better of it. After all, he realised, the 14 years old’s body would give up the testes on midsummer’s day, as a nice prelude to a long, lingering and awful demise.

Shortly afterwards, Bladud, Boudda and Aethel, all now nude and with their hands bound behind them and their necks linked by twine, were being led in triumph by the three men back to the great temple, although the victory was somewhat pyrrhic given the earlier adult and canine casualties.

Until that afternoon, Boudda and Aethel had believed that Bladud had made good his escape. They now knew otherwise and midsummer, on which the three young prisoners would meet terrible ends, was just 16 days away.

(To be concluded in chapter 6 – ‘Midsummer’)