This is the seventh instalment of a story which will include descriptions of men abusing boys both physically and _s_e_x_ually. If you do not enjoy such stories or are under eighteen please do not read it.
I write because I enjoy doing so. You are at perfectly at liberty to copy or post this story. If you do so I would be glad however if you would acknowledge my authorship.
I would be glad to receive any comments (pleasant if possible) or suggestions you care to make. Please send them to zelamir@hotmail. com. I will reply to any messages I receive other than those complaining that this story include descriptions of young boys being physically and _s_e_x_ually abused. That is what it is about. You have been warned.
Crastus thought deeply.
"Tell me," he said to Pulchellus, "this Pannychis that Marius is babbling about. Do I remember rightly that Echios told me that she was the slave girl he caught taking food to Marius."
"Yes Master," Pulchellus replied eagerly, "I spotted her at it. I was sure something was going on so I hid in the yard opposite the cellar door and I saw her take food down there. I told my old Master straight away."
Marius wriggled in Lucillus's grasp desperate to get at the other boy's throat and choke the life out of him. The man held him firm his thumbs digging into his thin arms just above his elbows.
"Do you know what's happened to her?"
"Yes Master. Echios had her whipped and then sent her to work in the fields."
"It's just dawn," remarked Crastus, "so the field gangs will be just being marched out for their days labour." . Indeed faintly through the open windows could be heard the sound of shouting and the occasional crack of a whip from the direction of the slave barracks as the human cattle who worked the estate were roused for another days toil.
"Varro you go with Pulchellus and find the bitch and bring her back to me. I'll be down in the courtyard by the whipping post with our young runaway. And get the heaviest whip you can find from the bailiff's office I am sure the boy will know where it is kept."
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The whipping post was a stout wooden pole set in the ground near the centre of the courtyard. Once Marius had seen a slave whipped there. The man, stripped naked for the lash, his arms pulled taught above his head, had been secured to it by his wrists. The first stroke of the whip had drawn blood. At first he had screamed a lot but by the end he was almost silent his moans dominated by the crack of the lash as it ripped the skin from his shoulders. Marius had watched the flogging to its end but then he had crept off by himself to be sick and after that he had avoided the yard when a whipping was in progress.
This time however he did not have that option. Lucillus had transferred his grip to his ear twisting it painfully between his finger and thumb as the naked boy waited sick with fear by the post. Marius saw Varro walking towards them dragging by her arm a slave girl dressed in a brief ragged smock that reached only half way down her thighs. For a moment he did not recognise in the shaven haired filthy drab the brisk neat serving girl Pannychis with her long dark hair and spotless gown. The whip and hard labour in the fields had not taken long to reduce her to utter wretchedness. The knowledge that he was the cause of her misery filled him with guilt.
"Master," he said desperately fighting back his tears, "please I didn't try to run away really Master and I promise I won't ever try. I'll do what ever you want Master but don't do anything to Pannychis."
"I'm not a fool," Crastus grated. "You tried to run away boy it's no point your lying. I should flog you till your back is in shreds but you're too valuable for that so your Pannychis will pay the price for your folly and you can watch her suffer."
"Come on," he ordered Varro, "get her over here and tether her to the post. We haven't all day."
"Master..." Marius wailed.
"Shut up brat" Crastus snapped, "the more you argue the worse it'll be for the bitch."
Marius began to sob wildly.
Pannychis was hauled over to the whipping post the iron fetters about her ankles clanking as she moved. She was secured to it, her arms drawn high above her head, her toes barely touching the ground, her body taught and ready for the lash.
Crastus stepped forward and with one savage jerk tore the ragged shift that was her only clothing from her body. Marius saw that her shoulders and rump were ribbed and scarred with the marks of her earlier whipping. Crastus held out his hand and Pulchellus ran forward eagerly to hand him the whip, a long heavy length of plaited leather that curled darkly on the ground and writhed with the vicious deadliness of a monstrous snake.
"What's this?" Crastus said running his left hand down the girls naked back. "Here below her arm. That's not caused by the lash."
"No Master," Pulchellus said, "that's where Echios used the hot iron on her. He wanted her to say who helped her feed Marius. You should have heard her scream Master an she frothed at the mouth and bit through her lip but she wouldn't talk. I wanted him to go on with it and make her howl some more but he said there was no point. He had written to the Emperor saying Marius was here and someone would come and get rid of him soon enough. So he whipped her as a warning to all the others and sent her to work on the fields."
Through his tears Marius shot a glance of pure hate at the other boy. Pulchellus saw it and smiling sweetly he surreptitiously gestured his contempt with a quick movement of his index finger. Marius choked back his rage knowing that anything he said or did would only increase the sufferings of Pannychis. In his heart though he was laying up a heavy count against Pulchellus.
Crastus oblivious of the bye play between the two boys stepped back from the whipping post. Carefully measuring the distance between himself and the tethered naked body of the girl he brought the whip back over his right shoulder. Then he brought the lash whistling through the air cutting down across the girls bare shoulders with all the strength and weight of his powerful body behind it. The girls body was convulsed as plaited leather cracked against bare flesh. There was a split seconds silence and then Pannychis screamed loudly. For a moment a white line appeared across the girls shoulders where the lash had landed then it deepened in colour to an angry red and blood began to well from the spot where it's tip had ripped her skin.
"Get the brat close up to her," he ordered, "I want him to see the whip shred the bitch's back. It's his misbehaviour that has made me do this to her."
Lucillus forced the sobbing boy closer to the post so that the Marius's face was only a couple of feet away from the girl's body. The girl writhed and screamed as Crastus ripped into her with the whip. Marius felt the warm dampness on his face and chest as the lash raised a fine red mist each time it's tip struck home. The force of the blows made the girl loose her footing and her body swung and twisted under the impact of the whip. It curled round her raising angry red weals on her flanks and breasts and sending fresh rivulets of blood trickling down her body. The volume of the girl's screams diminished until the only sound she made was a low grunt as each stroke thudded into her. Otherwise the only sounds were the rich hiss of the lash as it sung through the air, the sharp crack of leather on bare flesh, the panting of Crastus as he laboured at his task and Marius's near hysterical screaming.
At last Crastus stopped. Lucillus released his grip on Marius's ear and the boy flung himself forward landing in his knees at Pannychis's feet wrapping his arms about the girls legs and resting her head against one bare thigh.
"You'll get away from there boy and get on with your work if you don't want to get the slut another cut or two of the whip." Crastus snapped. "We want our breakfasts now. Go to the kitchen and fetch it up to our room quickly."
Marius scrambled quickly to his feet and set off at the run to the kitchen.
"He seems to have got the idea," he remarked to the other men and they all laughed.
"Lucillus you go with him and see they send us up a good meal. Wheaten bread mind you not black. And tell them to get this whore cleaned up so she's fit to travel. We'll tie her on the mule so that should be no problem."
"Pulchellus come with me. I need you, using the whip allways makes me hard," turning away with his hand resting on Pulchellus's round rump Crastus called over his shoulder "Lucillus tell them to sort out a decent tunic for the boy here. He's been a good lad and he deserves a reward."
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Marius when he stumbled into the kitchen was met with a sullen silence. Many of the slaves there had known what Pannychis was up to and a few had helped her. They knew that if she had spoken when Echios had used the hot iron on her they too would have been flogged and sent to labour in the fields. They knew they should have come to her aid and they knew they could have. There were after all only three men with Crastus and if they had all armed themselves with pitchforks and stones they could have got the better of them. But they knew that afterwards there would have been an awful price to pay. They would have been hunted down like animals. The lucky ones would have been flogged and sold to work in the silver mines never to see day light again. The unlucky ones would have been fed to the wild animals in the circus or crucified. Knowing this they had feared to act and they were ashamed. Being ashamed they searched for someone else to blame and the person they found was Marius. Pannychis was being flogged because she had helped him. He was the cause of her being flogged and therefore he was to blame.
Lucillus followed Marius into the kitchen and seeking out Daedalus he issued his orders, breakfast for himself and the other men, a tunic for Pulchellus and Pannychis to be taken down from the whipping post and her back dressed. As Marius stood in the corner of the kitchen waiting for the food to be made ready Pannychis was carried in and lain on her face on a blanket by the fire. Selia hurried over carrying a bowl of steaming water and some rags. Kneeling beside the semiconscious girl she began to wash the blood from her back. Marius sidled over and stood looking down in horror at the mess the whip had made of the girl's shoulders. Selia glanced up and caught the look on his face.
"You may well look like that brat," she muttered bad temperdly, "it's you that got the poor girl whipped. Don't we slaves have a hard enough life without the like of your father involving us in your quarrels?"
A murmur of agreement ran round the room and Marius slunk away back to his corner. Not only was he a slut and a tart, he knew that by the way his body thrilled to the touch of even that murderer of his family Crastus, but he was also the cause of poor Pannychis's agony. He began to cry quietly and hopelessly. Standing in the corner of he crowded busy room he felt utterly alone and deserted.
Daedalus told off a couple of other boys to help Marius carry the breakfast. Jugs of steaming cows milk, jars of the sweetest honey, loaves of wheaten bread, plates piled high with slices of ham, a large goats cheese and jars of various pickles there was much too much for a single boy to carry.
Pulchellus was nestling half asleep on Crastus's lap his head resting against the man's left shoulder. He stirred slightly when the food was brought into the room and made to slip from his master's knees but Crastus caught him by the waist and drew him back. Crastus dismissed the other boys and Marius found that it was his turn to serve the men. Their hands roamed over his naked body as he moved between them. He tried to ignore their fingers as they probed and teased him but it was no use. His prick small though it was seemed to have a life of it's own and even as he told himself he hated the feel of their hands on his body it contradicted him standing to attention, wobbling as he moved, a blatant and unmistakable acknowledgement of his excitement that caused a good deal of laughter and comment among the men.
"I don't know what the chances of us getting him to the slave market still a virgin," Varro said with a laugh patting Marius's bottom as he refilled his mug with warm milk. "He's a pretty boy and you can see he's ready for a man's _c_o_c_k_. I wouldn't trust him with anybody and we've got a two day journey ahead of us."
"I don't trust myself with him," Crastus replied grinning. "He's a tasty piece of boys flesh sure enough." " Master if you want to fix it so his bottom's safe Echios had something he used on new boys that he wanted to keep for the Lord Sejanus or any of his friends to enjoy," Pulchellus said eagerly. "I know where it is. I could get it for you if you want."
He was not too pleased with the attention being paid to Marius and resented the comments about the boys good looks. He was sure he was far prettier than Marius. Without waiting for a reply he slipped off Crastus's knee and ran from the room.
He returned within a few minutes carrying a jar in one hand and in the other a short length of light chain fastened at one end to a well polished wooden peg about the length and thickness of a man's index finger. The other end of the chain formed the hinge joining together the ends of two small semicircular pieces of metal.
Marius's heart sank within him. He had seen boys about the farm wearing the thing. Little frightened tykes, often straight from the market, terrified of what awaited them but knowing for them there was no choice no chance of escape. Sometimes he would see them a few days later, the metal ring clamped round their hairless testicles removed, walking strangely and the butt for all sorts of comments and jokes from the other slaves. Sometimes they would simply disappear. Now he was going to be forced to wear it.
"You put the wooden peg in his bum," Pulchellus said handing the object over to Crastus, "then you snap the bits of metal round his balls and fasten them, you see there are a number of holes bored through the free ends. You can adjust the fitting so it's really tight and then you adjust the chain so its tight as well. The plugs not big enough to tear him or make him loose or anything but the only way he or anybody else can get it out of his bum without unlocking the ring is to tear his balls off." The boy sounded a if he did not think that that would be a bad idea.
"I know well enough how one of these things work thank you," Crastus said sharply taking the cruel object.
"And I've got some grease for his hole," Pulchellus continued quickly.
"You think of everything," Crastus said. "Marius come over here and lie down over my knee with your bum in the air."
Marius stepped forward obediently and lay face down across the man's knees. Crastus rested the palm of one hand on the curve of the boy's rump. Marius's throat was tight with fear but he felt at the same time strangely at peace. It was the peace that came with total surrender. Deep inside himself he experienced a feeling of release and rightness. Instinctively the boy knew that lying there his bottom raised he was signalling his submission to the man as surely and as clearly as a dog does when he exposes his throat to a rival.
Crastus patted the boy lightly on his upturned rump.
"Spread your legs slut," he commanded.
Crastus ran his hand up the inside of the boy's thigh noting the goose pimples that had formed on the child's otherwise smooth skin. Excited by the feel of the man's hand Marius wriggled and pushed his bottom upwards. Reaching the junction of the boy's legs the man's hand ceased for a moment it's upward journey while he teased the boy's perineum with his thumb nail. Marius's breath quickened as his excitement mounted. Crastus dipped the tip his index finger in the jar of grease. Marius gasped at the sudden shock as he felt the cold lubricant being applied to the lips of his anus. There was a pause as Crastus's finger was withdrawn and then it was back, with a further supply of the cool grease, this time pressing firmly into Marius's body. Surprised by the intrusion the boy's sphincter tightened but it's resistance was soon overcome by the remorseless pressure of the man's finger as it probed ever deeper. Waves of pain combined with the most excruciating pleasure consumed Marius's senses. The muscles of his bottom began to contract as he tried to draw the man's finger deeper into him. For a few seconds the only thing he was aware of was the single point of pulsating lust within his body.
Then suddenly it was over as Crastus brutally jerked his finger out of the boy. Marius moaned and whimpered in disappointment. Crastus laughed as he looked down at the boy's rump quivering in frustrated need. He took the wooden plug attached to it's length of chain and pushed it's full length in one single thrust into the boy. Quickly he tipped Marius back onto his feet. The boy seemed hardly conscious of what was being done to him. His eyes were glazed, his breath came with rasping pants and his little _c_o_c_k_ rock hard shuddered as the blood boiled within it. Crastus reached between Marius's legs taking hold of the short length of chain attached to the peg now buried in the boy's bottom. He pulled it forward and clamped the two hinged half circles of iron around the base of Marius's _c_o_c_k_ and scrotum squeezing them together so that they cut off the flow of blood to the boy's rigid _c_o_c_k_.