The Traitor's Son Chapter 23
By Zelamir, adapted by Pueros

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

Chapter XXIII

Marius' relative comfort in Scyrax's lap was not, of course, in anyway related to any liking for or trust of the fat man and nor was his weariness the main cause. The boy was instead simply becoming more inured to his humiliating situation, which included his continued shameful nudity and the regular intimate manhandling of his most private parts.

Marius' slumber was eventually interrupted when Scyrax decided that he could not delay his usual midday meeting with his secretary for long. In Roman society, the holder of such a position was always masculine and often a slave. The fat man's household was not an exception and, in fact, possessed no feminine staff at all.

Scyrax disliked females. His only liking was for young and pretty males, in respect of whom, as well as enjoying sexually, he also derived immense pleasure from occasionally hurting, either emotionally or physically.

There was one notable exception to Scyrax's love/hate relationship with young and pretty males. There was a highly attractive homosexual youth of patrician background, whom he adored and was infatuated with. The fat man would never want to harm a hair on the boy's lovely head and, in fact, would instead do virtually anything to make him happy.

Unfortunately, the youth's highly attractive looks were not matched by his character. He was a hateful sadist, who especially relished in seeing other boys suffer, particularly if he was the cause of their pain.

The youth did not even like Scyrax. However, he kept this emotion well hidden because the fat man, in return for his company and occasional sex, which the boy deliberately teasingly rationed to help boost his obese paramour's clear obsession, provided him with money and entertainment.

The youth needed the money because his family, despite being of patrician status, had fallen on hard times as a result of unwise investments. His sadistic homosexual tastes were also well served by Scyrax's trade in buying and selling particularly beautiful slaveboys.

Most of this boy merchandise was only in Scyrax's ownership briefly. However, the youth rather liked such a turnover, as there were always fresh gorgeous young bodies to play with, humiliate and hurt, although he did not just restrict himself to the fat man's newest purchases, as Dictys had regularly discovered to his cost.

The youth visited Scyrax's home virtually daily, usually to dine in the evening, when he would pick up his pocket-money and be entertained by some of the fat man's boys. Unfortunately for Marius, the young patrician was to adopt a particularly sadistic affection for the merchant's latest exceptionally beautiful purchase.

Perhaps fortunately for Marius' current damaged emotions, the boy remained unaware of the youth's existence and nature when he was now awoken, still in Scyrax's lap, after the fat merchant began to address his secretary, whom he had finally summoned. The assistant was a plump young man named Felix, whose soft chubby face and high voice betrayed his emasculated condition.

The bulk of Scyrax's adult staff were eunuchs, who would, by virtue of having no balls, be no sexual danger to the beautiful boys in whom he traded. The fat man wanted to restrict any molestation of their gorgeous forms whilst present in his home to himself and his beloved young patrician, and even they generally allowed the rare virgins to retain their purity because of the substantially increased auction value such an unusual but prized attribute earned.

The secretary made his report. He subsequently took notes of his master's instructions and introduced visitors, who had been waiting patiently in the atrium for an audience with their wealthy patron. The clients included military officers and government bureaucrats on their way to accept or return to positions in the provinces. Once there, they would seek to boost their state income by lucratively trading in human flesh.

Also seeking an audience with Scyrax was a particularly disreputable ship's captain. He often resorted to piracy and kidnap in order to secure required goods.

Marius, still sitting naked in Scyrax's lap, was witness to all of these audiences and was amazed at the extent of the fat man's contacts and his consequent reach in terms of the territories from which he secured boys. Meanwhile, as the intrigued 11 year-old watched and listened quietly, he was ogled by the visitors, all of whose expressions appeared to indicate that they liked what they were viewing.

Marius now made no effort to cover his cute genitals from the sight of the visitors, as he did not want his knuckles rapped again. However, avoidance of the rather natural instinct to hide his shame was not helped when his little cock perversely reacted to the ogling by becoming hard and maintaining its humiliating rigidity until after the last client had gone, helped to do so by occasional resumed fondling by Scyrax.

When the final visitor had left after several hours of meetings and the penultimate secretarial report had been considered, Scyrax turned his attention to domestic matters. However, even here, private and business interests overlapped, as his own household served as a training ground for his choice merchandise before they were sent to take their turn on the auction block.

In reaction to an instruction from Scyrax, the secretary consulted a fresh clay tablet, whilst an eager smirk formed on his plump face, as what was imminent was the part of the daily routine that he most enjoyed. Being a eunuch, he envied and hated the beautiful boys that formed the bulk of his master's household, especially their still whole genitalia. He, like most of the other adult gelded servants, therefore enjoyed seeing them suffer and hoped that most were eventually castrated after finally being auctioned.

"You seem to have a full list, Felix," Scyrax remarked. He did not sound as if he was displeased with the fact.

"A very full list, Sir," affirmed Felix in his high effeminate voice. The secretary subsequently giggled excitedly.

As Scyrax and Felix spoke, the four adult servants, who were all eunuchs and had earlier brought and subsequently taken away the bath, reappeared, this time carrying buckets of fine sand, which they began to spread evenly over the marble paving stones of the courtyard. After they had finished and departed, a great gong sounded deep in the house, followed by the noise of many lightly scampering bare feet.

Boys of varying ages subsequently began to file into the large courtyard. The youngest were attired only in minuscule thongs, whilst those in the middle age range sported tiny loincloths and the oldest were covered by the briefest of tunics. All of the garments were white and tight, and all of wearers were exceptionally beautiful.

As each boy entered the courtyard, they knelt briefly before Scyrax and pressed their lips to a small round golden plaque imbedded in the marble paving stone immediately in front of his couch, from where the bath had earlier been removed whilst Marius dozed. An erect phallus was engraved into the precious metal.

The boys subsequently scuttled off to take their place in the swelling ranks of their fellows, sitting cross-legged at a respectful distance from where their master sat on his couch. The fat man happily observed the scene, with a grin playing on his lips, whilst the smirking Felix stood beside him, with his eyes glinting in excited anticipation. However, there were no smiles on the faces of the gathering young males, who, as their owner had advised Crastus earlier, amounted to about forty in number.

The adult servants again reappeared and on this occasion pulled forward a low wooden bench and set it on the sanded floor before stepping aside to watch the fun from the edges of the courtyard. Dictys, who had been allowed to redress and leave whilst Marius was dozing, also arrived, carrying a great pot in which about a dozen canes were sinisterly soaking in brine.

Dictys placed the pot at one side of the bench. The youth subsequently knelt and kissed the ground in front of Scyrax too before taking up position adjacent to the container that he had brought.

The gigantic black African servant, who was also a eunuch, albeit one who, unlike the others in the household, did not exhibit any effeminacy but rather the opposite, next strode in, with a heavy whip clasped in his right hand. As he bowed to Scyrax, a susurration of in-drawn breath, representing an involuntary murmur of terror, rose from the huddled crowd of boys.

Scyrax waited momentarily until complete silence, apart from the tinkling waters of the fountains in the courtyard, had finally descended before speaking. "First," the fat man then announced, "we have a new addition to our family!"

Scyrax spoke hardly above a whisper. However, the acoustics of the courtyard were good and his every word could be clearly heard by all.

"He is called Mariullus," Scyrax advised, whilst picking the boy in his lap up and standing him on the floor. "He will live in this house," the fat man added, "and serve here until he is ready to be sold."

Marius immediately blushed but not because of what Scyrax had just said. The boy was instead very embarrassed to be the only person present who was completely naked. However, recalling the fat man's earlier instructions and the painful rap of the rod on his knuckles, he made no effort to hide his exposed genitals, to where tingling sensations now returned. The 11 year-old associated this phenomenon with the fact that many of the spectators of all ages were clearly ogling his nude body with apparent interest and even admiration.

"Dictys, take Mariullus and show him where to sit amongst his fellows," Scyrax subsequently commanded. The youth obediently stepped forward and, taking the naked child gently by the hand, led him over to the front rank of boys.

Marius, still weary, stumbled after him. The boys in the front rank then shuffled sideways and made just enough room for him to sit cross-legged amongst them.

Scyrax waited until Marius was settled and Dictys had returned to his post before he spoke again. The fat man subsequently addressed his young audience with continued quietness. However, there was now a more menacing tone to his voice.

"I speak of us as a family," Scyrax declared in his usual preamble to this daily ritual, which everyone present except Marius had heard before, "and you as my children because that is what we are. While you live here, I am your father, for you have no other in this world."

"As your father," Scyrax continued, "I look after you and part of the care that I afford you sadly has to be to chastise you whenever you are bad. Disobeying a parent's instructions and rules is naughty and, in respect of me, is doubly so because I am your master too."

"I, out of the goodness of my heart have bought you at great expense," Scyrax preached on, "and taken you into my household to serve me and prepare you for resale but too often my kindness is met with insolent ingratitude. Instead of working hard to please me, you are often lazy and disobedient. However, as is the way with a good father, I do not disown you at once for such attitudes but attempt instead to correct your faults and teach you the error of your ways."

"I can see that Felix has a tablet full of names of boys," Scyrax informed, "who have failed me since this time yesterday. This situation greatly saddens me because all of you are fortunate. You are lucky to be in the ownership of so kind a master as I. Those of you destined for the slave market should be especially grateful to be trained in my household for you will realise a good price at auction and therefore be valued by your purchasers. However, some of you are still lazy or disobedient. Such brats should remember that my patience is not unlimited. If I find any one of you so sunk in indolence and mischief that you will never profit from my efforts to improve him, then he will be sent away to be sold but not to decent people."

"Such idle and unruly brats," Scyrax rambled on, "don't deserve good homes. I shall instead ensure that they are sold to labour in fields, quarries or mines, and so be condemned to a living death of constant hard toil!"

Scyrax paused again to allow the full ominous weight of the threatening words of his usual sermon to be felt. The fat man was happy to observe that all of the normally extremely beautiful faces in his young audience bore suitably miserable expressions.

Some of the youngest boys were already quietly snivelling in anticipation of what they knew was now to come. Scyrax initiated these proceedings by again heaving himself up from his couch.

Knowing that every movement of his was watched with dread by his youthful audience, Scyrax subsequently walked slowly across to where Dictys had placed the pot containing the canes beside the punishment bench. The fat man then selected one of the sinister implements and lifted it out of the container.

Scyrax deliberately weighed the cane in his hand and menacingly swung it experimentally, making the supple rod sing in the air. A shudder ran through the rows of boys.

"Felix, who is the first offender?" Scyrax next asked in the mildest and quietest of voices. "Sulis, Sir," the secretary joyously answered.

"Sulis, come here," Scyrax therefore growled. A nicely round-bottomed 10 year-old boy, wearing only a minuscule white thong, immediately rose from the front rank of young slaves and stumbled reluctantly forward.

Sulis moved stiffly. His arms and legs, indeed his whole body, appeared to have lost co-ordination.

Sulis' normally very pretty face was also twisted in such a grotesque expression of misery and terror that Scyrax almost laughed out loud, whilst a flash of white crossed the black African's dark face as he revealed his teeth in a broad grin. The boy eventually respectfully dropped to his knees before his master and dutifully pressed his lips to the golden plaque, simultaneously elevating his curvaceous bare bottom invitingly in the air

"Felix, tell me what has this brat been up to," Scyrax next enquired, whilst looking down at the boy at his feet and with his voice shaking with hardly suppressed amusement. "He showed a lack of respect to the household gods," the secretary announced, "and the images of the Divine Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, Sir, by not bowing to their effigies when he passed their sanctuary."

"Failed to make obeisance to the household gods and our beloved divine Emperors," Scyrax squeaked in feigned disgust, "but that's both impiety and treachery. Does the profane brat not know that our mutual prosperity depends on a proper respectful observance of all rites?"

"He must know Sir," Felix replied. "However," he cruelly falsely added, "it would seem that he does not care!"

"Well," Scyrax responded, "we'll have to make him care. However, I am a fair man and before I flog a boy I always give him an opportunity to tell his version of events. Well, Sulis, what therefore have to say for yourself? Speak up you miserable little profane brat!"

Sulis raised his now tearstained face from the sand-covered marble paving. His rosy lips then tremulously moved but no sound emerged, as utter terror had robbed him of speech.

In annoyed reaction, because he disliked cowardice almost as much as he hated displays of courage, Scyrax lashed his cane diagonally across Sulis' bare chest. A deep red bead of blood began to form where the tip of the supple rod, which had curled round the boy's ribcage, had nicked his skin.

Sulis immediately howled and clasped his hands to his tortured flesh. "Don't you know better than to raise your arms when I'm thrashing you, brat?" Scyrax was therefore compelled to ask rhetorically whilst now in a sudden cold fury.

"Put your arms down by your sides and keep them there," Scyrax also commanded, whilst again ominously raising his cane above his left shoulder. The fat man then momentarily stood with the rod poised to strike, whilst he looked down at the almost naked boy, cowering tearfully at his feet, reluctantly obey his order.

Sulis' anguish and terror at perhaps imminently being beaten for the first time ever in his young life caused him to lose control of his bladder. Amber fluid began to soil his thong before spilling from the edges and running down the insides of his legs to create a dark patch of dampness on the newly spread sand below. "Filthy little animal," Scyrax remarked in reaction to the sight.

Scyrax also reacted by again slashing his cane viciously across Sulis' chest. On this occasion, the tip of the rod agonisingly caught the boy across the edge of his right nipple, splitting the flesh.

Sulis' mouth again first opened silently, this time because his excruciation had temporarily driven the breath from his body. The boy then screamed shrilly but somehow also managed to keep his arms at his sides.

"That's better," a calming Scyrax suggested softly on observing Sulis' continued obedience, "and obviously represents one lesson that you've learnt. Now, since you seem to have regained the use of your voice, I'll again give you the opportunity to explain why I should not have your bottom sliced into ribbons for your recent profane behaviour."

"Master," Sulis' restored voice, rendered shrill and uncertain by terror, begged "please don't hit me again. Felix sent me on an errand to the kitchen and he said he would flog me if I wasn't quick. I was therefore running and I forgot about the sanctuary. I didn't mean to and I won't do it again. I promise!"

"You mightn't forget again," Scyrax replied, whilst clearly enjoying himself, "but boy's memories can be very short unless assisted. We must be absolutely sure that you never again act in a profane manner and so I believe that you must be provided with such help."

"It also seems to me," Scyrax added, "that you are currently more concerned to avoid a sore bottom than to show a proper respect for the gods and Emperors. I must therefore take action to make certain that you achieve a better understanding of the relative values of a slave brat's buttocks and the dignity of the divinities!"

Turning to his secretary, Scryax asked "If Sulis had been slow in performing his errand, Felix, how many times would you have flogged him?" "Well, Sir," the eunuch answered, "he's small, young and new and hasn't caused too much trouble so far. I would have considered three cuts to be enough for a first offence!"

"Then six should be sufficient to make him realise that respecting the gods and Emperors is more important than avoiding a sore backside," Scyrax happily declared. Sulis, who had been kneeling and looking up into his master's face with damp imploring eyes, let his head drop forward in despair on hearing his sentence. His narrow shoulders also began to shake as he again sobbed.

By now Sulis fully appreciated by witnessing relevant events how much hurt and harm that even a single stroke of the cane could cause to a young boy's flesh if vigorously applied. He was only a small 10 year-old, who had never been beaten previously, and was not a sturdy youth, whose bottom was well seasoned to the rod.

"Take your soiled thong off, filthy brat," Scyrax next commanded of Sulis, "and lay across the bench. Don't delay because the exceptionally long list that Felix has prepared means that I've got a lot of boys to thrash this evening!"

Sulis attempted to be compliant and tried to rise to his feet. However, the boy's trepidation was such that his legs failed him and he collapsed back onto his knees.

"Come on, brat, get into position before I lose my patience and double your punishment," Scyrax therefore threatened. However, despite the warning, Sulis still experienced difficulty in rising. The brave and kind-hearted Dictys consequently decided to intervene.

Dictys scuttled forward and, with a fearful glance at Scyrax, hauled Sulis to his feet. The older youth then carefully pulled the younger boy's currently damp and soiled thong down and off, subsequently casting the shed garment aside.

Sulis' immature but nicely proportioned genitals were now exposed to view. However, the boy's petrified mind did not become focused on his shameful nudity but instead continued to contemplate in dread what was about to happen to him.

With Dictys supporting him, Sulis was now encouraged by the older youth to make his way on shaking legs towards the low wooden bench where so many young slaves had previously suffered. However, on reaching the furniture, the boy again appeared to freeze with terror.

Sulis stood trembling before the flogging bench, with his eyes glazed and rolling like a calf taken to slaughter. Dictys therefore slipped his arm about the younger boy's shoulders and whispered words in his ear, encouraging him to be brave, whilst also easing him down across the wooden surface, which was noticeably stained with the dried blood of some of the previous young victims chastised here.

"Dictys, I am most grateful for your assistance," Scyrax now finally commented, "although I don't remember requesting it!" Despite the fact that these words were mild in context, they were delivered with such an ominous tone of irritation that the youth's lovely face immediately turned pale.

Dictys had appreciated that he was taking a risk in helping Sulis without Scyrax's agreement, for he did not know how his master would react to his intervention. The fat man might welcome the youth's action or he might be annoyed.

Scyrax's verbal tone suggested that he was displeased. Such an attitude did not bode well for Dictys' immediate future, although his master thankfully now turned his attention on Sulis, who was now finally lying facedown over the wooden flogging bench.

Scyrax slipped his left hand between Sulis' thighs and, pushing forwards and upwards, lifted the boy's buttocks so that the delicious smooth curves were appropriately raised in readiness to be hit by the cane. Satisfied that his next young victim was correctly positioned, the fat man subsequently ran his hand gently over the child's tight little bottom.

Meanwhile, the other boys sat silently, watching in fearful anticipation. They appreciated that any one of them could be called on to follow Sulis onto the flogging bench at the whim of their master or his adult servants, especially the hated and feared Felix.

Although some of the boys already knew that they were to be chastised, and so were tremulously waiting to be called forward, the rest recognised that advance notice was not always granted. They might have been espied allegedly performing some minor misdemeanour, which might not be revealed to them until Felix went through his long list of supposed miscreants. Excuses for punishment were also frequently petty, with the young slaves often not even realising that they had apparently committed an offence.

Marius was as fearful as his new companions, with whom he was sitting, cross-legged on the ground. The boy appreciated that from now on he too would be subject to the appalling disciplinary regime that he was witnessing.

Scyrax suddenly delivered a sharp open-handed slap onto Sulis' pert bottom. The sound of the fat man's chubby hand striking the boy's tautly drawn flesh rang out loudly in the silence pervading the courtyard, which was also disturbed by a surprised yelp from his young victim.

Scyrax subsequently placed his cane across the upper curves of Sulis' bottom in order to gauge the initial target that he wanted to hit. The terrified boy tensed under the cruel implement's touch, deepening the cute dimples on either side of each of his curvaceous buttocks in the process.

Scyrax then lifted the cane high over his shoulder and paused, looking down at Sulis' lovely slim body, stretched naked and defenceless before him. To some of the more philosophic witnesses of the scene, the fat man's massive bulk towering over the boy's little form appeared to serve as a symbol of the despotic power that nature has given the strong and brutal over the meek and mild. They could see, as the 10 year-old in his terrified heart also knew, that resistance was useless and escape impossible.

Scyrax waited a moment, savouring his power and enjoying through the suspense increasing the misery of his now whimpering young victim. The fat man then finally slashed the cane downwards with all his strength and weight behind the stroke. The rod hissed through the air with a deep terrifying whistle and struck Sulis' bare bottom exactly on target with a sharp crack, which echoed round the silent courtyard.

Sulis immediately jerked convulsively but was initially momentarily silent, as the pain had again temporarily driven the breath from his body. However, the quietude was only brief and the boy soon uttered a shrill scream, whilst his feet rapidly beat the ground repetitively as a result of the unprecedented agony reverberating through him.

Scyrax therefore decided to wait until Sulis had recovered his composure and was still again before delivering the next blow. The fat man was in no hurry, and anyway he wanted the boy to have plenty of time to feel to the full excruciation of every cut inflicted on him.

Whilst Scyrax waited patiently, with his cane again raised ominously high into the air, he noticed that the white streak that the cane had at first left across Sulis' flesh was quickly reddening and darkening. Areas of deep purple and blue bruising were beginning to develop at the edges. Having gained plenty of experience of beating boys, the fat man knew the best wounds would add green and yellow to the colours decorating his young victim's bottom but such hues would probably not emerge until after the thrashing had been completed.

The sobbing Sulis, still somehow remaining compliantly in place, eventually stilled and so Scyrax launched his second blow, which was aimed and delivered to a point just below the first. After hearing the associated whoosh, the boy actually screamed before the cane struck him, whilst his bare feet again beat a tattoo on the sand-covered marble paving. His young and pretty body then arched and writhed when the hit landed and agony once more coursed through him, devastating his nerve ends and destroying every sensation within his form except that of the all-consuming pain.

The cane rose and fell another two times and the sound of wood striking naked boy flesh blended with that of Sulis' screams and the thumping of his feet, as he shrieked and convulsed with each impact. Whilst he suffered in this way, Scyrax, with all the skill that came with many years of practice at flogging boys, laid the strokes on methodically and neatly, each one at a similar distance and parallel below the last.

Scyrax deliberately delivered the fourth blow exactly along the crease where the back of Sulis' thighs met the curves of his bottom. The fat man knew that the hit would burn the hottest and longest. However, he was resolved to ensure that the boy would also not easily going to forget the last two strikes.

Slightly shifting his ground, Scyrax delivered the fifth and sixth strokes diagonally across Sulis' already well-beaten bottom. Each of these hits intersected with the earlier wheals and dark droplets of blood began to form there.

"Get up, brat!" Scyrax then commanded, reinforcing his order with a harsh slap across the bruised and bleeding bottom of the sobbing 10 year-old. Sulis immediately scrambled to his feet in compliance and instinctively began on rubbery legs to make his uncertain way back to his place among the ranks of the other boys.

"No, don't go there," Scyrax instructed, "but go instead to wait by my couch. I haven't finished with you yet!" Sulis obediently changed direction, whilst worrying about what his cruel master still had in store for him.

"Now, Felix, what have you next for me?" Scyrax then asked of his secretary, who again consulted his clay tablet. "Lysias, Sir," the eunuch later began to announce, "for gross impertinence in that he…….."

Over the next two hours, boy after terrified boy was summoned from among their sitting comrades to take their places stretched over the flogging bench, whilst the courtyard was filled with the sounds of the crack of wood on tender flesh and the shrill screams of youngsters under correction. During this time, the watching Marius became aware of the purpose of the pot, as the inevitably drying cane being used was regularly changed for one made suppler by the brine in the container.

After he had personally thrashed five young victims, Scyrax complained of cramp in his right arm and surrendered his cane to his enthusiastic black African servant. As this man was bigger and more powerful than his master, he inflicted the relevant later beatings with even greater vigour.

As his black servant began his, for him, very enjoyable duties, Scyrax walked back to his couch, at whose foot the panting Sulis had dropped. The fat man lifted his hand and the dark curly-haired boy, who had been attending him, darted forward with a goblet full of expensive wine. He subsequently produced a bowl of cold water and a cloth, which he used to mop his master's heated brow.

Suitably refreshed, Scyrax reached out and lifted Sulis onto his knees and began to fondle him. The boy initially whimpered again, as his master's tunic pressed against his sore bottom. However, the fat man took no notice of this reaction and instead gathered the 10 year-old's tiny balls between the fingers of one hand and gently played with them, whilst he stroked the child's pretty but tearstained face with the other.

Despite his pain and misery, Sulis' little cock began to harden in response to Scyrax's manhandling. Having achieved this happy result, the fat man next dropped his hand downwards from the boy's face to his chest.

Scyrax now took Sulis' right nipple, which had earlier been nicked by the cane, between his finger and thumb. The fat man then cruelly pinched the rosy tit hard, causing blood to well again from the cut that he had consequently reopened. The fat man subsequently bent his head and licked the sanguine flow away, whilst his young victim groaned in anguish.

Scyrax eventually returned his attention to his black servant, who was happily flogging boys, all of whom were required to divest themselves of their pristinely white attire in readiness for their beatings. This practice was customarily followed not only to ensure that no protection was afforded to the target flesh but also to avoid staining the garments with blood, urine expelled by frightened bladders and semen. The latter substance was amazingly not uncommonly produced by older victims, although not on this occasion.

Comparative silence later finally fell on the courtyard. There was now no sound apart from the tinkling of the fountains and the suppressed sobbing of the boys who had had their bottoms beaten. The last young victim had stumbled unsteadily away from the flogging bench, holding his burning rear in one hand and his shed loincloth in the other. Felix appeared to have reached the end of his list of defaulters.

"Is that all, Felix," Scyrax therefore asked, whilst displaying some disappointment, "don't you have any more boys for correction?" "I am afraid that I do, Sir," the secretary answered, although he appeared pleased rather than upset.

"I discovered two brats in one of the storerooms, Sir," Felix continued, "and they were having sex together." This revelation instantly induced a shocked murmur amongst the listening boys, who appreciated that chastisement for such action, which was expressly forbidden by Scyrax unless he gave permission, would be extreme.

"This is so serious an offence," the secretary added, "that I had the brats confined in the cellar in case they tried to run away to avoid their due punishment!" "Quite right and well done, Felix," a clearly angry Scyrax commented before enquiring "Who are these wicked whores?" "Nisus and Giton, Sir," the smirking eunuch reported.

"Have them brought here immediately," Scyrax next ominously commanded, "to enable me to make an example of them both. I will not tolerate such disgraceful disobedient behaviour amongst my boys and so their punishment will be very severe indeed!"

(To be continued)