This is the ninth instalment of a story which includes 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's home was a single large room on the fifth floor of the tenement. It was reached by a rickety wooden staircase, which Marius toiled up wearily, and opened directly onto the common landing. It was a gloomy place, it's floor bare boards and it's only furniture a truckle bed and a couple of stools. The single unglazed window looked out directly at the tenement looming over it on the opposite side of the narrow street.
Crastus settled himself on the edge of the bed and his men settled themselves either on one of the stools or on the floor. Pulchellus was despatched to fetch some wine. Marius hesitated on the landing and was told roughly by Crastus to get inside and to hand him the sack full of silver goblets. The boy obeyed and then sidled off to huddle up against Pannychis who was trying to make herself inconspicuous in the corner of the room.
"Well lads," Crastus said cheerfully once Pulchellus had returned with the wine, "another mission completed for our Emperor."
"I hope it pays better than some have done in the past," Varro remarked gloomily.
"I don't see why it shouldn't," Crastus replied. "Apart from our fee we've got the boy and the girl to sell. But the best to my mind is silver goblets. They should fetch more than all the rest put together."
"There's two boys and the girl," Crinium said with a hint of belligerence in his voice.
"One boy," Crastus replied evenly. "I'm keeping Pulchellus. Apart from being a good _f_u_c_k_ he's a handy sort of boy and I reckon he'll be of use to me in my business."
A sullen silence greeted this announcement and after a minute or two Crastus continued.
"All right then so there's no ill feeling I'll put him in the pot at five sesterces and buy him off you lot. Is that all right."
There was a mutter of agreement and Pulchellus turned and grinned triumphantly at Marius.
"But the problem is how best to turn them all into cash?" Varro, who seemed intent on taking the gloomy view, grumbled.
"I'll take the silver to Balbinus in the Emporium in the morning. He'll shift them for us. I'll take the boy too. He's not in Balbinus's usual line but he's a classy bit of goods and he'll tell me the best way to turn him into cash."
"The brat doesn't look all that classy to me," Crinium interjected with a laugh. "Look at him filthy dirty and his legs all grazed from where he's stumbled on the march."
"He'll sell well once he's cleaned up and rested," Crastus said confidently. "Take my word for it there's quality there."
"If he's so good why don't you just put him up for auction and cut out the middle man?" asked Varro.
"Same reason as why we sell the goblets through that crook Balbinus. So he can't be traced back to us. The Emperor has spies everywhere and it wouldn't take him long to put two and two together if he found out I was selling a good quality boy in the slave market after he's sent me to kill one."
"As for the girl," Crastus continued, "she's nothing in particular. We'll sell her for what we can get to some pimp."
"I'll look after that," Crinium said downing his wine and scrambling to his feet. "I know a brothel owner near the forum who'll pay three or four sesterces for the tart. I'll take her now. I've had enough of boozing."
He began to walk across the floor to where Pannychis and Marius cowered. The girl shrank away from him. Marius instinctively put his arm around her in a pathetic attempt to comfort and protect her although she was much older and bigger then him.
"Come on tart," Crinium said reaching out and grabbing her roughly by her arm.
Pannychis allowed herself to be hauled to her feet. Marius, desperate at the thought of being parted from the one remaining person in the world who had shown she cared for him, threw his arms about her waist.
"Let go boy," Crinium growled cuffing him on the side of the head.
"No, no please don't take her ... Please..." Marius pleaded keeping his arms tightly clasped about the girl though his ears were ringing from the blow.
"Let go I said," Crinium reinforced his order this time with a heavy blow of his fist on the side of Marius's head that knocked the boy to the floor.
"What a fuss," he remarked to the room in general, "about a slave bitch."
Pannychis made a movement to go to Marius's aid but was halted by a sharp order from Crinium. With a final glance over her shoulder at the Marius's small naked body, thin shoulders heaving in uncontrolled sobbing, sprawled on the bare planks she followed Crinium from the room. She was after all only a slave and had no choice but to obey her betters.
Crastus produced a length of cord and threw it at Pulchellus.
"Tie the brat up," he ordered, "now we've got rid of the girl there's nothing to hold him here."
Wrenching Marius's arms behind his back Pulchellus obeyed this command enthusiastically.
"You've got to learn to be good and obedient," he said unctuously as he tied his wrists ad ankles together. "I've been a good boy and I'm all right."
This advice did nothing to stem Marius's weeping and he was carried out of the room to spend the night in the darkness of the landing. He lay there in the cold knowing that he was utterly alone and friendless in a cruel uncaring world. Pulchellus on the other hand enjoyed the warmth of Crastus's bed thus illustrating the truth of his own advice.
Marius woke cramped and shivering, the cord cutting into the flesh of his wrists and ankles. He desperately wanted to pee. Through the door of Crastus's room he could hear the bed creaking and the moans and whimpers as the man enjoyed his favourite slave's young body. He dared not cry out. Pain racked him as the pressure on his bladder increased. He could no longer contain himself. A lukewarm pool of pungent amber fluid formed on the floor where he lay. Alone cold and dirty his misery was complete.
Eventually Pulchellus appeared at the door way of the room.
"Mariullus has peed himself Master all over the floor," he called gleefully over his shoulder.
"There's no need to bother about him. We'll be rid of him today. Leave the dirty little animal to lie in his own filth and fetch my breakfast as I told you to," Crastus shouted back.
Grinning broadly Pulchellus kicked Marius in his ribs as hard as he could. He had always in the past envied and resented Marius, the free boy, the son of his master's employer, and he felt no pity for him now. On the contrary he enjoyed his utter humiliation and took pleasure in adding to his sufferings.
Crastus took his time over his breakfast. There was no hurry. Balbinus would not be at his premises in the vast complex of stalls and passageways that formed the Emporium until well on into the morning. He ate slowly and methodically. When his own hunger was satisfied he passed his plate to Pulchellus so that he could finish off the scraps.
He wandered out onto the landing and stood looking down at Marius his nose wrinkled in distaste.
"Smelly little tyke aren't you," he remarked kneeling to undo the cords that bound the boy's ankles.
He pulled the Marius to his feet. The boys legs were numb after his night pinioned on the cold floor. He stumbled and Crastus grabbed him by the arm to stop him falling.
"Stay on your feet can't you, you stupid slut," Crastus growled coughing him on the side of his head with his free hand. Marius with his wrists still tied behind his back cowered away from him.
Crastus hustled Marius down the rickety staircase of the tenement and out onto the street. They set off back down the Aventine hill followed by Pulchellus, the sack of silver slung over his shoulder. He amused himself by taking occasional kicks at Marius's ankles.
Balbinus was a small wizened man who sat in his stall observing the world through beady eyes that were never still. His shop was not a large one and it's shelves were almost totally bare. Some old rusty cooking pots and a broken statue of a water nymph seemed to be the total amount of stock on hand. It was difficult to see how trading in such goods could yield sufficient profit to maintain even so desiccated and meagre a bodies as his.
The silver tankards were produced and examined. Balbinus mentioned a sum equal to what both he and Crastus knew was a quarter of their open market value. Crastus protested loudly and in the end after some half an hours haggling they arrived at a price about double that which Balbinus had originally offered. Both men had known that that would be the eventual outcome of their negotiations but the niceties of business etiquette have to be observed.
"You interested in making me an offer for that?" Crastus asked sweeping up the small pile of silver coins that Balbinus had reluctantly counted out. He nodded at Marius who was squatting on the floor just inside the door watched by Pulchellus.
"A boy," Balbinus said in a tone of disgust. "I don't deal in such goods, nasty, smelly, dirty things. You buy one and he dies on you or runs away or something. No profit in it."
" I wouldn't be surprised that one's got lice," he continued looking more closely at Marius, "or fleas or worms; probably all three."
"And what's worse than all that he's got a tongue and tongues can tell tales. Take my advice Crastus slit his throat now before he can get you in trouble. Yes that's my advice to you, you're a young man I think highly of and whose custom I value, slit his throat. _f_u_c_k_ him first if that's what you like but be sure to kill him afterwards."
"That one won't be telling any tales," Crastus said confidently. "He's got too much to loose himself."
"Loose! Loose!," Balbinus almost shouted. "What's a thing like that got to loose."
"His life," Crastus replied confidently. "He won't talk."
"His life, what's that worth to him or anyone else for that matter. Take my advice and stick to gold and silver. Good valuable stuff which can't talk and get you into trouble. Still if you have to risk your life for the sake of a few measly sesterces take him to Scythax. His house is in the eleventh district near the Circus Maximus, he'll give you a fair price for the brat."
"Fair like the price you gave me for the silver," Crastus sneered nastily.
"Fair for something you daren't sell on the open market," Balbinus replied coldly.
Scythax's house presented a blank wall broken only by a massive metal studded wooden door to the world. Crastus marched up to the door but there was no latch or handle to open it. He pushed at it but it was unyielding. There was a heavy door knocker and he plied that vigorously. He pausing he looked at it and laughed. The knocker was shaped like an enormous penis. He was about to use it again when a small panel set high up in the centre of the door swung open.
"Who is it and what do you want?" A deep voice enquired.
"My name is Crastus and I wish to see Scyrax. I have a boy he might like to buy"
Hr squinted upwards trying to a sight of the person who addressed him. However the spy hole was so small and so high that he could only see an eye and a small area of almost coal clack skin.
"My Lord Scyrax does not deal with casual pedlars of boy's flesh" the voice announced contemptuously and the panel began to close.
"Balbinus sent me," Crastus said desperately.
"Wait." The voice commanded and the panel was slammed shut.
Crastus waited impatiently as the busy life of the street flowed past him. Marius too tired and dispirited to notice or to care about his surroundings stood beside him drooping in his grasp. Eventually the door swung open. A vast Negro stood just inside it, his oiled and hairless chest and massive arms glistening darkly like polished ebony.
"Enter," he growled. Crastus holding Marius firmly in his grasp stepped through the door way. Pulchellus moved to follow them but the Negro put one large hand on the boy's chest and pushed. Pulchellus staggered backwards and loosing his balance sat down in the street. With out a further word the Negro swung the door closed.
Crastus saw that he was standing in a large pillared hall. An intricate and rich mosaic decorated with scenes from the arena stretched ahead of him. Immediately ahead of him two naked boy gladiators fought to the death, one the retiarius had entangled his opponent a swordsman with his net and was on the point of plunging his barbed trident into his opponent's body. Further on more boys fought with each other or with wild animals in a confusion of bare limbs and bleeding bodies. The walls were covered by expertly executed frescoes. On the one side a forest in which again pretty boys played and sported among the trees. On the other the Goddess Diana bare breasted and wild haired was pictured with her hounds in full cry, great black beasts with glowing eyes and sharp white teeth. These themes were carried forward and repeated on the surface of the pillars that formed a double row down the centre of the hall.
While Crastus's eyes and brain were still struggling to take in the plethora of decoration presented to their view, a real boy, quite as beautiful and just as naked as any portrayed in the murals, materialised out of the shadows at his side. The boy said nothing but bowing deeply turned and led the way further into the hall, tiny bells on a thin silver chain about one slim ankle tinkling as he walked. Crastus saw that three angry red welts marred the smooth curve of the lad's bottom. The child had been recently marked by the cane - marzipan marred by cochineal.
As they passed down the hall Crastus saw that the wall paintings changed. Men then satyrs, half men half beasts, appeared in the forest joining the boys in their games and those games at first innocent became more gross until at the far end of the hall men and satyrs both with monstrous pricks were shown penetrating the tender bottoms of their young victims. Mingled in this scene of cruel debauchery were the hounds of Diana who had caught and pulled down their prey, the beautiful stripling Acteon.
The boy ushered them into the central courtyard. A wide marble colonnade surrounded a spacious garden where fountains played and the sun glinted on ponds in whose depths exotic fish cruised lazily. Lounging on a couch in a shady vine covered pergola was an enormously fat man. Beside him knelt a dark curly haired boy, his only clothes a tiny scrap of white cloth between his legs, holding ready for his master a heavily chased silver bowl. As Crastus watched the fat man reached out and took from the bowl a fig dipped in honey. He lifted it to his mouth and chewed, honey dribbling down his chin. The man caught sight of Crastus. He licked his fingers and then wiped them clean on the little slave's black curls.
"Crastus sent by my friend Balbinus," he said rising ponderously to his feet. "In what way can the humble Scyrax assist you?" The man's voice was soft and full of breath like a breeze gently ruffling dead leaves in a winter wood.
"I have a boy to sell," Crastus replied.
"A boy," the fat man's little pig like eyes rested on Marius. He saw a grubby, exhausted, half starved brat, whose knees and shins were grazed and cut. He saw more as well. He saw a under the filth a well proportioned boy with firm well rounded limbs, a delicate ribcage, the neatest little nipples, a pert dimpled rump, reddish golden hair and a face that if the dirt that encrusted it was washed away could make a man's heart melt. He had seen enough and his eyes flicked away. He saw these things but he was a business man, a trader in high class boy's flesh, buying cheap and selling dear.
"Why should I be bothered with a low quality slut like that?" he sneered.
"Clean him up and feed him a bit, get some of the bloom back on him, he'll make a first class tart. He's a virgin but I can tell you he's a hot little bitch.," Crastus expostulated.
"Of course he's a virgin," Scyrax scoffed who'd want to _f_u_c_k_ him?"
"I tell you..."
"All right," Scyrax interrupted Crastus wearily, "since I've let you bring the brat into the house I might as well take a look at him. I only hope I don't catch a disease of some sort. Come here boy."
Crastus released his grip on Marius's arm and quickly untied the cord that bound his wrists behind his back. The naked boy stumbled forward to stand in front of the fat man. Scyrax took the boys chin in one hand and tipped his head back. Marius stared up into the man's face. He could feel Scyrax's breath, it's staleness not quite masked by the sweet smell of the honey he had been eating. The man's fat fingers strayed over his head, parting his hair, pulling up his eyelids, twisting back his ears. Scyrax reached his right hand behind him and dipped his index finger in the bowl of honey and figs. He pressed it's tip against the boy's lips. Marius took it into his mouth, eagerly sucking at the sweetness. Scyrax felt the tip of the boy's tongue working against his finger. He moved his left hand from the boy's chin sliding it down the child's naked body. A smile fleetingly lifted his heavy jowls when his fingers closed round Marius's tiny boy's prick and found it stiff and throbbing. Scyrax pushed his finger deeper into the boy's reaching right back into his throat. Marius gagged and seemed for a moment in danger of choking but still he sucked, gazing up into the man's face, his cheeks sunken as he drew on Scyrax's honey coated finger.
Scyrax withdrew his finger from the boy's mouth. Now his hands worked their way methodically down the front of the boy's body, pinching his hard little nipples, squeezing and prodding his ribcage. Now they reached the boy's crutch. Wordlessly he flicked the iron ring locked about the base of Marius's scrotum. Crastus stepped forward and released it, letting the short length of chain hang loose from the base of the wooden plug still lodged in the lad's bottom. Scyrax rolled the boy's two tiny hairless balls, hardly larger than pair of olives, between his fat fingers. He pulled back Marius's foreskin. His face wrinkled in disgust. Then he was on his knees his fingers needing the boy's thighs. Marius whimpered as the man prodded the broken flesh on his knees and shins.
"Turn round." These were the first words that Scyrax had spoken directly to the boy.
The man pulled at Marius's ankles forcing him to raise each foot in turn. As the boy wobbled precariously on one leg Scyrax examined his feet, so small and fragile in appearance, now torn and bruised from his long march. Then the man ran his hands up the back of the boy's legs.
Scyrax scrambled laboriously to his feet, grunting as he heaved his bulk upright.
"Lean forward and part your legs boy," he commanded in his soft breathless voice.
He pulled the plug from Marius's bottom, forcing a yelp of pain from the boy. His fingers pried at the lips of the child's anus and Marius cried out again. Pulchinus who had been left to deal with the plugging and unplugging of the other boy had not been over gentle in the performance of his duties and the plug had chafed the entry to the boy's hole raw.
Scyrax grunted and moved his hands upwards straying over Marius's back and narrow shoulders, kneading the back of his neck.
"Well," he sighed his examination of the boy completed, "I still don't know why you brought him here. You would need to pay me to take him into my house."