Pueros

Tamerlane's Boys

Chapters 11-16

Chapter 11
Jealousies

Tamerlane learns one of life's lessons - never displease your wives!

(Samarkand, Transoxonia, November 1391)

Tamerlane had always previously been very discreet about his sexual preferences when resident in one of his many palaces. However, the conqueror's desire to have Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai constantly with him and to share his bed with his boys rather than his jealous wives was not sensible, a fact that he would learn the hard way.

It was mid-afternoon, almost three weeks after the return to Samarkand, and as usual at this time, Tamerlane was in council with his advisers. Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai had attended on their master and his guests, providing them with drinks and snacks but no longer tasting the fare. Other servants were present to perform that function as, after the experience of Isfahan, where Arman had been poisoned, the conqueror considered such a chore too dangerous for his boys. The latter were now considerately lounging in an adjacent room to permit the conqueror to conduct his affairs without distraction, although they were proficiently ready to be of further service when required. All knew from experience that the close proximity of his beautiful catamites often caused the Great Lord's attention to wander from the subjects being debated.

Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were in turn served refreshments by palace servants and one of these brought them a tray of delicious-looking sweet delicacies. As with all boys of all eras when presented with such treats, they could not resist and began to eat.

Tamerlane was currently discussing his plans for the further development of his capital city with a large group of administrators and builders, including the poor stonemason, now very rich senior construction engineer, who had saved Vissarion and Arman in Isfahan, when several ear-splitting screams reverberated around the palatial room. It did not take long for the shocked and deeply concerned conqueror to appreciate that the seemingly agonised noises were emanating from the chamber next door, where his boys were located.

Tamerlane rushed into the adjacent room to see that Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were all writhing on the floor, their mouths foaming and apparently in great pain. Each of the boys was being attended by a servant but without any success in alleviating their distressed conditions. The conqueror shoved to the side one of the attendants, who was trying fruitlessly to assist the young Georgian and who was deeply apprehensive, not only for the boy's welfare but also his own if any permanent harm befell the 14 years old.

Tamerlane instantly recognised the signs of poison and noticed the tray of sweet delicacies on the table around which Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai had been sitting cross-legged. "Fetch my doctors," the conqueror commanded the servants before ordering the officials with whom he had been in discussion, now gathered at the doorway between the two council chambers, to help him carry his boys to their sumptuous quarters. The expression on the former stonemason's face was as crestfallen as that of his master as they quickly complied.

Tamerlane's face displayed tears, something that shocked his officials even more than what had inflicted the boys, as the men struggled to carry the young trio to their own rooms. Their burdens were not helped by the constant agonised bodily convulsions being endured by the still-foaming speechless white-faced young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite.

A quintet of Tamerlane's doctors quickly arrived but it soon became evident that there was little that they good do. They placed fingers down the boys' throats to make them vomit the contents of their stomachs but to little avail. It appeared that the poison was too well engrained in their systems to stop it fulfilling its undoubted fatal work.

Many people in Tamerlane's position, observing the three people dearest to his heart slowly die in excruciation before his eyes, would have panicked as a result of the resultant dreadful emotion. However, the conqueror had not attained his status in life by succumbing easily to such a feeling. He instead remembered the tray of sweet delicacies and, more importantly and perceptively, the look of disgust on his Eldest Queen's face whenever she saw his boys.

Tamerlane immediately rushed back to the council chambers to collect the tray and then, with equal speed, went to his Bibi Khanum's quarters. There he found the Queen seated on a throne, attended by two handmaidens and dressed in an all-enveloping formal robe, as if she had being expecting her husband's visit.

Tamerlane unceremoniously went straight up to Shadi Mulk Aka and thrust the tray of sweet delicacies into her face before firmly commanding "Have one!" However, the Queen, who came from an ancient noble family boasting many warrior ancestors, was not easily cowed. She just smirked and answered "No thank you, I've just eaten." This infuriated her husband even more, his face as a consequence turning bright red before his mouth ordered, this time in a loud shrieking tone, "I insist, have one!"

Shadi Mulk Aka was apparently still not perturbed, despite the damage that Tamerlane's atrocious temper had reeked on others in the past. She maintained her smile and replied "No thank, I need to watch my weight!" Her husband then threw the tray onto the marble floor and raised his right hand to smack the wilful woman's face, which was, apart from her hands, the only part of her anatomy visible. However, in response, the Queen did not try to shelter her endangered visage but instead defiantly presented it to receive the man's anguished angry admonishment.

The sight of Shadi Mulk Aka's brave defiance instantly assuaged some of Tamerlane's fury and he lowered his hand before declaring "You know what's happened because you're responsible. If my boys die, so will you!" However, the Queen's retort was not as anticipated. "I would sooner die," she announced with clear bitterness, "than suffer the shame of you disporting yourself with and enjoying the bodies of your male whores in my own home, whilst totally disregarding your consorts!" This statement immediately caused her husband to realise the error of his ways, the conqueror always being willing to recognise personal mistakes, if only to eradicate such fallibility in future. A profound but, as usual, calculating calmness therefore suddenly descended upon him.

"Well then," Tamerlane advised, now with quiet authority, "as soon as the boys are well again, they shall be removed permanently from the palace to permit me to conduct myself as I should. I apologise for my behaviour and I shall, of course, hereon perform the proper duties in respect of my Queens. However, that will only happen once my young servants have recovered and I'm sure that you'll find a way for that to happen. Otherwise, I'll be seeking new consorts, the previous incumbents having been walled-up in their rooms!" The conqueror then turned on his heel and departed Shadi Mulk Aka's presence.

Tamerlane was taking a gamble, hoping that the Bibi Khanum would be aware of an antidote to the poison currently killing his boys. However, his threat against his Queens was not idle, as Shadi Mulk Aka fully appreciated. The conqueror would have been prepared to risk the probable rebellions from the women's powerful families, which would have resulted from their lingering executions in awful revenge for the deaths of his beloved young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite. It was why she did indeed have knowledge of a cure to the deliberately slow-acting poison contained in the sweet delicacies, now strewn round the floor of her quarters.

Shadi Mulk Aka sent for her own doctor and gave him a little jar containing a colourless liquid. She suggested to the physician that her husband's young servants, currently in some distress, might benefit from an infusion of the substance. After the man had gone, the Queen's smirk returned as she relished her win in the battle to secure greater respect and attention from Tamerlane. However, it was later to prove a pyrrhic victory, one that did not win the war.

The antidote proved effective immediately and soon the sedated Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were sleeping soundly, Tamerlane personally watching over them in the company of the doctors before, finally content that his boys were safe, he went to pay his overdue respects to his various Queens. The conqueror was a man of his word, which was one reason why he frequently inflicted terrible vengeance on those who were not.

Tamerlane extended his duty to one particular young Queen by spending the night with her. It had been a very long time since the man had experienced the body of a woman and he enjoyed the experience sufficiently to perform his function adequately. However, the conqueror still preferred young male forms, especially those belonging to a young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite, even though he now regretted that two of this trio had been gelded.

Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were still somewhat queasy next morning but were sufficiently well to be moved out of the palace for their own safety. Their new accommodation was a splendid riverside house amidst large gardens, hastily vacated by one of Tamerlane's ministers when the conqueror decided to requisition the residence for his quickly recovered boys to spend the winter in, carefully watched over by a new set of bodyguards and many servants.

Vissarion and Arman, in particular, had persuaded Tamerlane to release the previous bodyguards from service. They had been part of the conqueror's army for many years and had recently served his boys well and loyally, but all now wanted to retire to live with their families, spread around various parts of Transoxonia.

The soldiers platonically loved their young and gregariously pleasant energetic charges and were still immensely grateful for the fact that the young Georgian and Armenian had saved them on two occasions from Tamerlane's fury. However, they were all now feeling their mortality and wanted to settle down with their own loved ones before it was too late. The retiring warriors were therefore sent on their way with many mutually tearful hugs and expressions of future happiness from the youngsters, as well as much gold from the conqueror in recognition for good service for his boys. This largesse, and the importance of their previous roles, would enable the men and their families to become very wealthy and important members of their communities.

There was eager competition to become the new bodyguards amongst the remaining army, now being replenished with many fresh recruits eager to seek their own fortunes with the conqueror. The keenness for the role stemmed not only from the boys' popularity but also from appreciation, from what the retiring soldiers had just received, that the rewards for good service could be great.

Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai now experienced their own jealousies as Tamerlane kept his word to Shadi Mulk Aka and spent most of the winter in his palace, dutifully giving some of his time and passion to his wives. The conqueror did manage to escape for an occasional night from the female clutches but these were rare. His boys therefore had to content themselves with play in each other's not unpleasant company, both within the house and gardens, as well as in bed, where by necessity Arman had to take the lead for his two gelded friends. The young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite also enjoyed riding around the local vicinity on their magnificent horses with their bodyguards, although they found the profound respect that they were paid by the people they came across, all of whom seemed to know who they were, rather embarrassing.

The main aspect of the winter months of 1391-1392 that Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai least liked was a product of their master's love for them. Tamerlane had been concerned that his boys' education was being neglected and so he sent them some of the best scholars and tutors in Samarkand to remedy the situation, being considerately careful to avoid too much Islamic influence in the studies, given that the two young eunuchs were Christians. The young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite might not have welcomed the distraction from more fun pastimes but appreciated the conqueror's motives and decided to apply their best efforts to absorb the instruction. It was something that all three proved adept at, thereby considerably assisting their future lives and welfare.

Tamerlane did not seek awful revenge on Shadi Mulk Aka for poisoning Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai. This was not only because he did not want to start an internecine civil war that could tear his Empire asunder but also because the bold resourceful woman, whom he could not help but admire, perhaps because she seemed so like himself, had taught him a valuable lesson, albeit by unorthodox and, for his boys, temporarily very distressing means. However, milder vengeance was extracted the following spring, by which time the conqueror had become very bored with life in Samarkand, not least because of his separation from his young catamites.

Persia had never been completely subdued and so Tamerlane set off at the head of his rested, replenished and reinvigorated army to rectify the situation, leaving his Queens without the man in their lives again. In fact, the conqueror would now rarely return to Samarkand and then only briefly. Shadi Mulk Aka had to occupy her time instead with supervising her husband's command to build a great mosque in the capital.

Tamerlane wanted the mosque to be the biggest in his empire, if not the world. The conqueror also, gallingly for the Eldest Queen, wanted the construction of the building to be recognised as being in deep gratitude to Allah for the miraculous salvation of his young servants from mysterious illness over six months earlier.

The Bibi Khanum now knew that Tamerlane's boys had won after all as she watched her husband ride off, at the beginning of May 1392, on another campaign, with three happy excited youngsters at his side.

Chapter 12
Persians

Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai undertake an unfortunate excursion.

(Kashan, Persia, June 1352)

A few minor battles were fought, successfully blooding Tamerlane's latest military recruits for, by no means, the last time, but they were mere diversions on the road to Persia's quick renewed subjugation. Some small recalcitrant communities suffered, leading citizens beheaded, the rest of the population enslaved and the townships plundered and razed, as an example to others, but otherwise the campaign was nothing much to be excited about in the context of the conqueror's overall career. Nevertheless, for Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai, the short war was truly thrilling, after the relative boredom of winter in Samarkand, especially for the latter, still unused to such marvellous adventure.

Despite the potential dangers, Tamerlane always now kept his beloved boys close to him on campaign, having learnt, from the experience of Rus, that it was probably safer on balance to do so. Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were therefore constantly in the thick of the action, much to their delight. They were of course, like the conqueror, non-combatants but accompanied him around, as he guided his forces to victory after victory.

Vissarion and Arman were now both 15 years old and Nicolai 12. The young Armenian had grown significantly over the past few years as his body passed through puberty. As with most male adolescents, he had become lankier, as different parts of his frame grew at different rates. Some spots had also occasionally despoiled his face, although an effective herbal salve, prescribed by one of Tamerlane's doctors, helped to minimise the problem. The boy also felt compelled to have his body shaven frequently, particularly under the arms and just above his genitals, where embryonic hirsute growths were beginning to form. It was a task undertaken, usually by one of his amused young friends, because he knew that his master would prefer him free from such signs of developing manhood, which additionally showed itself in other ways, not least in the expansion of his sexual organs. His full smooth scrotum was now impressively large and low-hung, dangling nicely under an equally magnificent cock, substantial in size even when flaccid.

In Tamerlane's eyes, Arman was maturing nicely, like a fine wine, which the man drunk occasionally despite Islamic prohibition against such imbibition. The boy was not only maintaining superb bodily beauty but also a matching character. The conqueror knew that the physical phase would be ephemeral, as manhood would now soon overwhelm the delightful vision, but he proposed to use what precious time there was left to enjoy the delectable form as fully as possible.

The gorgous Vissarion's development had, however, been different. He remained diminutive, for all intents and purposes physically, although certainly not mentally, more like Nicolai's age, with Arman now towering above him. However, between the two, it was still obvious that the young Georgian was the slightly more dominant personality, although always in a pleasant considerate manner.

No-one could say how much of Vissarion's lack of growth was due to his gelding or was, for his body, natural. However, the boy seemed unconcerned about the issue, especially as Tamerlane continued regularly to enjoy thoroughly the many delectations his current form offered.

Tamerlane had rested the bulk of the army, not engaged in mopping up operations, in the environs of Kashan, situated between Qom and Isfahan, the latter devastated almost five years earlier. The town was located at a high oasis, where wheat, melons and figs were grown, and was famous for the manufacture of copperware, carpets and cotton and silk goods. The conqueror had, during his first subjection of the area, killed the local ruler, taking possession of his palace and, for reasons of state, his wife.

Having learnt the lesson that his Shadi Mulk Aka had given him in Samarkand, Tamerlane paid a lengthy nuptial courtesy call on the woman, another of his many Queens spread around his empire, keeping his beloved boys well away from the palace to avoid literally poisonous jealousies. For the conqueror, the few days spent performing this chore were not unpleasant because the female was still young and beautiful. However, for Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai, they were to have tragic consequences.

To help alleviate their invariable boredom whenever their master was not around, the boys went riding with their new bodyguards and local guides to explore the surrounding bleak countryside. They were especially interested in visiting some ancient ruins, a place Alexander the Great was once supposed to have captured during his own conquest of Persia. He had reputedly lingered there in his tent for a few days with his latest acquisition, a royal eunuch by the name of Bagoas, who formerly belonged to his opponent, King Darius. Vissarion and Nicolai felt a particular empathy with the young gelding, something that their friend Arman could fully understand.

The trip would entail an overnight stop at the ruins but the boys did not mind, although their bodyguards were more apprehensive. All rebels were said to have left the area long before but there was always the worry that such reports were inaccurate and so it proved on this occasion, as the small camp, noticeable from its fires, was successfully attacked and overrun in the middle of the moonless night.

The assault out of the darkness had taken the pair of bodyguards on night watch by complete surprise. They were quickly killed and the remainder of their slumbering colleagues rapidly rounded up, along with Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai. However, the rebel leader was initially appalled to discover who his prizes were.

Reza was a warlord from south-west Persia, where his remote domains bordered Arab lands. He had been trapped in the opposite side of the country by Tamerlane's fast advance and was trying his lead his 500-strong band of warrior retainers furtively back to home territory before the conqueror learnt about his participation in the uprising. He appreciated that such discovery would mean the end of him and his family, at least as rich tyrannical regional rulers. Escape into Arabia would be the only option to preserve their heads.

Reza and his men, in their headlong flight across inhospitable terrain, were running short of rations, hence the need to attack any caravans or travellers they came across. However, this particular assault had produced delicious fare that they at first considered unpalatable, as it could lead to fatal indigestion. Everyone had by now heard what Tamerlane had perpetrated on the Mongol tribes of the Forests of Rus for having the foolish audacity to kidnap and threaten his boys. The warlord therefore did not welcome the news that he was now the possessor of the young threesome.

Reza spent the remainder of the night considering his dilemma, whilst the cause and their remaining bodyguards and guides were bound and kept sitting in a small group, closely watched by the warlord's men.

It seemed to Reza that he had two options. First, he could return the boys with apologies to Tamerlane. However, this course of action had two major drawbacks. One, he would be highlighted as a rebel. Two, apologies for capturing the catamites and killing two of their bodyguards might not be enough to assuage the dreaded conqueror's displeasure, even if the youngsters had been returned unharmed and they gave a pledge of no vengeance, which might be overruled by their master. Second, he could simply quietly dispose of the evidence, hoping that no-one ever learnt what had happened to the boys and their escorts.

As Reza considered these two options, he increasingly realised that the second was the only feasible one. The boys and their guards had to be killed and their bodies buried where no-one would ever find them. The warlord had in fact determined on these murders when dawn arrived.

Chapter 13
Bloodshed

Tamerlane and his boys face the consequences of enforced separation.

(Persia, June 1352)

The vision caused Reza to reappraise and then slightly amend his plans. The warlord ordered Tamerlane's boys to be separated from their bodyguards and guides before issuing his originally intended command in respect of the adult captives only.

Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai uttered aghast shrieks as they observed their surviving older companions' jugulars quickly slit, with blood pouring out of the resultant appalling fatal wounds. Their initial instinctive reaction was to run to the dying men but they were prevented from doing so by the rebel soldiers holding them. The boys therefore issued a series of loud brave profoundly insulting denunciations of the warlord who had given the dreadful command. However, the latter, although understanding the Turkish dialect in which the youngsters hurled their profane slurs, ignored the affront for now.

Reza instead gave instructions for the secret disposal of the bodies, in a manner designed to prevent later discovery, and the cleaning up of all evidence of the slaughter, along with recent human presence at the scene. Shortly afterwards, Tamerlane's boys found themselves draped across horses, hands tied to their feet under the animals' bellies. It was a demeaning position Vissarion and Arman knew well, from previous experiences in Georgia and Rus, although it was new to Nicolai.

Reza, having fully appreciated the allures of Tamerlane's boys for the first time, had decided to take a calculated risk. He had encouraged himself to believe that the youngsters could disappear with him to his remote citadel with equal proficiency when compared to consigning them to unmarked graves, particularly as he now considered the premature deaths of such male splendours to be a waste. The warlord was, of course, unaware of a similar previous mistake made by a certain Arab trader in the Black Sea.

Reza's reasoning was reinforced by his conviction that, if secret possession of Tamerlane's boys eventually became too dangerous, he could then quietly dispose of them, either by murder or sale to neighbouring Arabs. The warlord, in fact, thought that the latter idea had much to commend it, being additionally the likely future option for disposal once he had tired of his new catamites. He would not only undoubtedly secure large prices for such goods but also the reassurance that they would disappear forever into the vast largely unknown swathes of desert that formed Arabia.

It was mid-morning by the time that Reza's men had completed their tidying up and the mounted rebels departed the scene, with the last horses dragging effective wicker mats to hide their trail. It would take a numbers of days' hard riding through inhospitable terrain to reach their distant secluded destination in the remote regions of south-west Persia. Tamerlane's boys, in particular, did not enjoy the journey, not only because of their acute discomfort but also as a result of distress at what had happened to their bodyguards and worries about what was about to befall themselves.

Reza's abode was a large tall but grim ancient stone citadel, atop a rocky crag that dominated the area. At the foot of the rock lay a small village. Tamerlane's frightened boys were initially accommodated in a gloomy cell deep in the bowels of the foreboding fortress.

Meanwhile, in Kashan, Tamerlane himself was almost apoplectic at learning that his boys and their bodyguards and guides had disappeared, apparently without trace. The ruins for which they had departed were deserted, with no evidence of recent visitors, although the party had been observed en-route there. Patrols had scoured the surrounding bleak countryside for signs but without success, with the sparse local, mainly nomadic, population professing ignorance of any strangers in the area.

Tamerlane later led his own desperate expedition in search of his beloved boys but with equal futility. He eventually found himself alone in his magnificent tent, surrounded by many items belonging to Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai, and finally broke down, as he had done previously when the young Georgian and Armenian had been taken in Azof and Rus. With luck, they had then been safely rescued but somehow the conqueror instinctively knew that this time the result would be different, and his intuition never let him down.

Tamerlane's sobbing increased as he bewailed his boys' loss and berated himself for letting it happen again.

At that moment, Tamerlane's boys were proving obstinately uncooperative. The most that they had done to comply with their captors' instructions was to eat, wash and dress in fresh clothes, as they appreciated that such activities were good for their health. However, they resolutely refused to obey any other commands, a defiant stance that they knew might be less pleasant for their ultimate wellbeing. This concern, in fact, proved well founded.

Reza had at first chosen to adopt gentle tactics with his new acquisitions, expecting them to succumb to subservient service with little hostility. After all, they had the terrible example of their murdered bodyguards and guides to appreciate what the consequences of disobedience could be. He was therefore disappointed at their reaction. This transcended into anger when the boys' blatant defiance dragged on for much longer than the initial token period he had first assumed would have to be endured.

Reza's tactics therefore went from one extreme to the other, although he was now to make the inaugural mistake of applying them to all three boys at the same.

Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai found themselves suspended naked by chains from the ceiling of a dank chamber, normally reserved to entertain those whom Reza wanted to question very closely, being full of evil implements designed to gain satisfactory answers. However, their first visitor was not the warlord but his wife.

The woman granted her husband great latitude in all aspects of life, including his bed companions, in return for similar consideration from him. Their marriage had been one of convenience to unite two previously warring clans and the pair never really liked each other, a situation worsened by the man's homosexual preferences and his wife's lesbian tendencies. Accordingly, after performing their duty by producing a son and heir, they very much left each other alone, although the warlord always took time to appraise his spouse of political affairs, needing the support of her family and supporters.

On this occasion, Reza had informed his wife fully and truthfully about the capture of Tamerlane's boys and his plans for them. She expressed happiness at the careful precautions her husband had taken to disguise the youngsters' fate and did not mind her spouse taking the catamites to his bed. However, she did advise him to send the brats to an Arab market sooner than later. This was not out of fear of the conqueror but instead out of need for money, coffers at present being rather empty. The replenishment of the latter had been one of the reasons for their clans' involvement in the recent rebellion but, in the event, this participation had actually exacerbated matters.

The woman had decided that she wanted to view Tamerlane's infamous boys, primarily to see what all the fuss was about, before her husband did them harm, as she disliked the sight of bloodshed. She was accompanied by one of her young female servants, a regular bedmate.

The naked Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were painfully lined for feminine perusal, chains already biting into their wrists and ankles and made worse by the heaviness of the shackles separating their feet. The middle of the latter consisted of weighty metal rods, forcing the boys' suspended legs to be wide apart.

Both Reza's wife and her servant laughed aloud at the first sight of the three distressed young nude males, all of whom she recognised instantly from descriptions, despite never having seen them previously. The females' amusement increased when they approached Nicolai to examine his gelded genitalia.

"Nice boy," Reza's wife advised her companion, as she held the young Muscovite's small forever flaccid cock upright in her hands for a better view of his empty scrotum, "but he seems to be missing something." Mutual feminine giggling intensified before similar attention to and comments about Vissarion's genitals were made. However, there was then greater serenity when Arman was viewed.

On the part of Tamerlane's appalled boys, such intimate scrutiny of their naked male forms by two unknown females was an unprecedented humiliation. Such events were just never supposed to happen, particularly in the Islamic world.

"Hmm," Reza's wife announced with a smile, as she fondled Arman's rapidly expanding and substantial cock in her hands, "this one could almost make me like males. However, there still seems to be something missing but I can't work out what." However, realisation soon dawned. "Ah, of course," she continued, "the stubble gives me the clue. He should have more pubic hair. Shave it off for your master, do you?"

Arman did not want to answer this embarrassing question, which he understood because all three of Tamerlane's boys were proficient in the Persian language, having spent considerable time in the country, especially the young Armenian and his Georgian friend. However, he was encouraged by a foretaste of the pain to come when the woman squeezed his balls viciously to solicit a reply, an action she could not, for obvious reasons, perpetrate on the two eunuchs present.

"I do!" yelped the anguished Arman, as the first of many tears to be shed that day developed in his sensuous eyes. However, the torment of his balls literally pressed on. "You show a lack of respect, boy," his female genital torturer suggested, "for I am your new master's wife. You will therefore term me your 'mistress' or I shall emasculate you as surely as your two friends have been, regardless of the fact that you're a fellow Moslem!" The excruciation experienced by his scrotum caused the young Armenian to bow to her wishes. "I'm sorry, mistress," he managed to say between heavy intakes of breath. The woman then relented and released her vice-like grip, inducing the 15 years old to issue a loud grateful sigh.

Unfortunately, Arman forgot his thanks and the agonising hold on his testes quickly returned. He also had to be advised of his mistake so that he could rectify the matter in order to eradicate the testicular pain, at least for now. "I'm sorry again, mistress, for forgetting my manners," the young Armenian heard himself uttering before longer-lasting relief came to his aggrieved ball sac, above which, despite his genital suffering, his cock had remained shamefully hard.

Vissarion and Arman observed Arman's distress with great unease, realising that his swift capitulation to the torturer's demands might be repeated by them all when the undoubted further infliction of pain was soon undertaken, presumably by the husband as opposed to the wife. Their earlier resistance to his demands would then prove not only to have been futile but also foolhardy.

Reza's wife and her servant stood back to appraise the young nudes from further away and began debating the boys' physical merits amongst themselves. "I have to confess," the former stated, "that I can see Tamerlane's attraction to them as, for males, they do possess great beauty, even if two have had their supposed prize assets adjusted. I think that I'll ask my husband to let the pair of eunuchs serve me whenever he doesn't need them. As for the other, judging from his still rampant member, it might be difficult to curb his sexual urges if he were to share such duties."

Reza's wife then deeply shocked Arman and his friends by adding rhetorically, blasphemously and insultingly "Do you really think Allah would mind if such a whorish slut was gelded? I think that I'll discuss the matter with my husband, especially as three eunuchs would be more valuable in the Arab slave markets than two." However, the boys' insight into the woman's thoughts about their more distant future was now terminated when she and her servant departed, but not before suggesting the youngsters' imminent prospects.

"Goodbye boys," Reza's wife announced with a chortle, "my husband will be here soon to punish you severely for recent effronteries and break you to our will. Do enjoy the hours ahead and try not to spoil the chamber floor with too much bloodshed!"

Meanwhile, in Kashan, Tamerlane was reluctantly beginning to accept that he had lost his beautiful beloved boys forever. No news whatsoever about them had materialised from any source, despite the offer of huge unprecedented rewards. To occupy his deeply distraught mind, he therefore began to plan the next phase of his Persian campaign with his advisors. However, the latter and others were now fearful for their own safety, for the conqueror's acute depression had caused much moroseness and the return of his terrible temper, which everyone knew could be dreadfully fatal for those on the receiving end.

Plots against Tamerlane's life were not uncommon but had always previously been betrayed by carelessness or the efficacy of his spies, or both, and easily crushed, invariably with great ruthlessness. However, plans for a coup now materialised that would not be so readily dismissed, as the conspirators were amongst the conqueror's closest and most able associates.

It now appeared that both Tamerlane and his boys would suffer greatly for their unwanted separation.

Chapter 14
Traitors

Tamerlane's boys are poised to suffer at the hands of the Persian warlord, Reza, for resisting submission to his authority. Meanwhile, traitors plot!

(Persia, June 1392)

Reza was accompanied by a pretty boy, aged 10, and two girls, aged 15. It was obvious from their demeanour and dress that the young male was of some importance whilst the females were probably servants. Their status was soon clarified.

The girls tried to stifle giggles at the sight of the young suspended nudes awaiting punishment and torture. However, their attempt not to displease their master by showing outward hilarity was overcome when he announced proudly to the young male, whose bland expression actually hid intense emotion, "Rezan, my son, these are Tamerlane's famous boys, come into my possession. You have asked to see them before I encourage them to submit to my will. You may therefore have your fill of the sight, as may your servants, whilst I attend to other matters. I shall return shortly to perform my work, with which you may assist if you want."

As Reza turned to leave, the girls could not effectively stifle their titters anymore, especially as they had come close to the dangling naked threesome and noticed that two were without balls. However, their master only smiled and did not admonish them for their effrontery as he left the chamber. He wanted the recalcitrant trio's spirit crushed as quickly as possible and so the more humiliation heaped upon them the better. It was the reason behind allowing his wife and son, accompanied by their female attendants, to visit the young prisoners in their shameful and painful circumstances. He would therefore not have appreciated his heir's reaction to his servants' chortling but was out of hearing range when it was delivered.

"Stop that now," Rezan commanded the girls with stern authority, "or I'll see you chained up naked alongside Tamerlane's boys, ready to receive the same chastisement." The amused expressions displayed on his female servants' faces immediately disappeared, along with the sounds of their giggling.

"That's better," Rezan observed before ordering, "now go and stand by the door while I look our guests over." The girls reluctantly complied, foiled at fulfilling their desire to fondle and verbally abuse the famous and very pretty boys of Tamerlane.

Once the girls had assumed the requested position, Reza's nearly eponymous son walked slowly round Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai. He examined their beautiful forms carefully with his eyes, as if they were works of art, which, in fact, they were, although manmade only in terms of the acts of loving procreation and rearing. When Rezan had eventually returned to the dangling nudes' fronts, he whispered to the hurting and scared threesome, apparently confident that his servants could not overhear.

"I regret that your capture by my father has resulted in this," Rezan announced with seeming maturity that belied his tender years, "and I also regret to advise you that I have failed to dissuade my parent from pursuing the action he is intent on. Nevertheless, I'm happy to have another attempt if you're prepared to tell me now that you'll submit to his will." However, despite this offer, Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai remained resolutely and probably foolishly silent, none of them wanting to appear a coward in the eyes of their friends.

"Pity," Rezan continued, "but, believe me, I understand your position and have great admiration for your brave stance. However, there's no shame in submitting now. You've made your point and stand but you must realise that the objects in this room will make you reverse your position eventually. It's inevitable, so please, for my sake and your own, take the sensible step now. Let me tell my father that you apologise and will accept his authority." However, after the boy had spoken, the silence in the sinister cool chamber returned, apart from the occasional rattling of chains as those suspended from the ceiling tried to make the distress to their wrists and ankles less disagreeable.

"So be it," Rezan therefore finally declared, "and I'm sorry. However, I promise you that I'll ensure that you receive the best care after my father is done. I believe that he intends to see to that anyway, wanting you to recover without permanent damage from what you're about to endure, if only to maintain your market price, but some of our servants are lazy and incompetent. Their idleness and mistakes could cost your bodies dear, but I'll make sure that that doesn't happen. Meanwhile, all that I can suggest is to maintain your courage, as I'm positive that the future holds much better for you." The pretty brown eyed and haired 10 years old, richly garbed in colourful silk turban, shirt and trousers and wearing exotic slippers, did not elaborate what he meant by his optimistic last statement. Instead, after taking in the full sight of Tamerlane's boys once last time, he turned reluctantly and sadly to begin to leave the scene.

As Rezan walked away from Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai towards his female servants at the doorway, he heard a voice behind him quietly utter "Thank you!" He stopped and turned to see who might have said the words but was unable to identify the young prisoner who had acknowledged his attempt to help. However, the diversion from his intended path allowed all three of Tamerlane's boys to notice that their would-be saviour's eyes were now clearly damp.

Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were soon alone once more but the tremulous threesome was not so for long. Reza returned, with his son and female servants again in tow.

Rezan had sought his father out to beg once more for mercy for Tamerlane's boys. Reza had been displeased with his son's entreaties and apparent concern for the welfare of the three defiant young prisoners and had dismissed the approach out of hand. He did not understand his offspring's compassionate attitude, or the motives behind it, as it was totally out of character for his traditionally self-seeking, aggressive and ruthless family.

Reza regarded his son's proposal that Tamerlane's boys be treated not only with leniency but also as valued visitors, who should be returned to their master, as ridiculous. The reasons his heir had given included "because Allah decrees that guests should be honoured not maltreated" and "the conqueror will reek terrible vengeance on all of us in retaliation", which the warlord considered to be respectively religious drivel and cowardly pretension. He worried for the future welfare of his clans if they eventually came under the rule of such a gentle and timid person.

Reza was therefore determined to toughen his son and heir up for his eventual succession. His offspring had to learn to be selfish and ruthless to be a successful warlord and he would begin by helping his father bring Tamerlane's boys into line.

Rezan knew from bitter experience not to go too far in his entreaties or they might rebound not only on himself but also on the subject of his pleas. The boy had never forgotten or forgiven his father throwing his puppy out of a high window of the tall hill fortress in which they lived. The pet had nipped the warlord's ankle when the man had struck his son in retaliation for an accidentally curt remark, taken the wrong way by the recipient. The then 9 years old's subsequent desperate begging for the dog's life had resulted not only in the animal's death but also in a severe beating for the owner. The resultant bruises had taken weeks to clear up. The mental scars from that cruel incident, and others alike, had never healed.

Aware of Reza's latent and easily invigorated brutality, even to his closest family, Rezan had also learnt not to disobey his father. The adult's harsh order to return to the torture chamber to participate in the delivery of the torments being applied to Tamerlane's boys could therefore simply not be ignored. However, the son and heir's young female servants took the command rather differently, looking forward not only to watching the young prisoners suffer but also to assisting the process, as the warlord had advised them that they could actively help too.

(Persia, July 1392)

"Good," Rezan declared, "but I hope you won't mind us checking again." Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai did not. They had become accustomed to the regular daily scrutiny and recuperative ministrations applied to their bodies by the 10 years old and his competent adult assistant since the terrible day in the torture chamber. Affront at having some of the most private parts of their bodies intimately inspected and tended had never been present from the beginning, such was their desperate desire for remedial treatment to heal their many wounds, all agonisingly but skilfully created to avoid permanent harm. Reza had tolerated his son's desire to supervise the recovery of the young prisoners because he had plans for their restored bodies and knew that his heir, given his attitude, would supervise the restitution process well.

Rezan and the servant proceeded to help Tamerlane's boys undress, from the simple clean tunics they had been granted as soon as their sore bodies could bear the touch of a cloth covering. As the former did so, he realised that he could not delay his father from summoning them to service for much longer. It was obvious that Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were almost fully healed and he reluctantly felt obliged to tell them so.

After some initial guilty dithering, Rezan himself had been compelled to apply the vicious clamps to the boys' nipples, gradually adding the weights that had so distorted their tits. He had also been forced to fix similar attachments to the cocks of Vissarion and Nicolai and to the still fully intact genital array sported by Arman. The latter's balls had suffered tremendously.

Rezan's early hesitation had been overcome not only by a threat of a beating from his father, which the boy's young female servants would have enjoyed watching, but also by a whisper from the first intended victim. "Go ahead," Vissarion had requested, "as I don't want you to suffer for our sake," in a voice that the 10 years old recognised as being the same as the one that had thanked him earlier for his compassion. However, Reza had overheard the young Georgian's plea and rewarded him with several harsh smacks from his substantial right palm across the 15 years old's lustrous buttocks, now reddened by the assault. "Don't you dare give orders to my son," the warlord shouted as he proceeded with the nasty spanking.

The manual attack caused Vissarion's chains to rattle again and, as a consequence, some blood began to trickle from his raw wrists. Rezan saw that his well-intentioned hesitation to comply with his father's instructions was only making matters worse. He therefore reluctantly stepped on the stool, drawn up for the purpose, and applied the severe clamps to the young Georgian's nipples, immediately inducing an agonised facial contortion and anguished groan from the young victim.

Unlike their young master, who took no delight whatsoever in what he was doing, the young female servants gained great pleasure not only from close up views of the boys' suffering naked privates but also from beating their nude rears with paddles and switches under the careful supervision of Reza. Despite being only 15 years of age, the same as Vissarion and Arman and three years older than Nicolai, the girls had entered into their tasks so enthusiastically that the backs of their victims were soon covered from neck to ankle in a myriad of dark red stripes. This time, in his father's presence, Rezan had been unable to prevent their loud gleeful feminine tittering, as they enthusiastically proceeded to beat the young prisoners with their wooden implements.

Throughout all this, Reza had frequently reminded Tamerlane's tearful boys that they only had to announce their submission to his complete authority for him to consider the termination of proceedings. However, the only utterances emerging from the mouths of the still bravely defiant young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite remained regular sobs and yelps, as their agonising torments proceeded.

It was Reza himself who picked up the enormously long whip, the implement being considered too heavy for his 10 years old son and 15 years old female servants to employ effectively. The idea was to whip all three of Tamerlane's boys at the same time but it worked too well, simultaneously breaking the skin to form bloody lines across the squealing young victims' already battered backs and buttocks. The warlord, still intent on maintaining the young prisoners' market value by causing no permanent damage, therefore desisted after six vicious blows, but with reluctance as the recipients of the wicked lashes remained remarkably obdurate.

Reza could not help but admire Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai for this, particularly as he had seen grown warriors of formidable reputation broken far more easily in this very chamber. However, his determination to destroy the boys' resistance to his will remained and he pondered how best this could now be achieved.

Reza's solution was one that he should have used at the beginning. One of the reasons for the boys' courageous resolution was their unity in anguish, each determined not to be the one to be the traitor to their defiant cause. Thus, when the warlord began to threaten them individually in order to blackmail the others, their resistance was finally quickly overcome.

Reza now simply remembered his wife's suggestion, made for reasons of trade not torture but effective nonetheless. "I now propose to castrate the young Armenian here," the warlord announced to Vissarion and Nicolai, as he removed the clamps wickedly squeezing Arman's testicles and stretching his penis, which, once free, amazingly rose vertically to full erection, "unless you surrender unquestioningly to my service. I'm happy to do so as the procedure will also make him more valuable for future resale."

As Reza secured a knife to rest the sharp blade against the upper rear of Arman's ball sac, he did not add that he intended to geld the young Armenian eventually anyway for the very reason given. This would happen despite the boy's Moslem faith, for the warlord had to admit that his spouse did come up with the occasional good idea. As the man applied the threatening steel, he ignored his imminent victim's rampant cock, dribbling precum. However, the admiring female observers could not reciprocate this act, being unable to divert their gaze from their fellow 15 years old's estimable throbbing penis, hopefully soon to be rendered forever soft.

It was Vissarion who broke the stalemate. "Please don't do that," he begged between sobs, "as I submit." His statement was quickly followed by a similar one from Nicolai, despite Arman's game pleas for his friends not to succumb to the blackmail. Reza smirked as he withdrew the blade from the young Armenian's full scrotum but the smile was wiped from the watching girls' faces. They had eagerly been looking forward to seeing a real castration take place, particularly as the potential young victim was so attractive.

"Do you submit too," Reza asked of Arman, "or do I have to cut the cocks of your companions off to persuade you?" "I submit as well," replied the defeated, dejected, shamed, pained and crying young Armenian, whilst still displaying a rabid hard-on.

Four weeks later, Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were finally fully recovered and, freshly bathed, groomed and attired in new short black tunics, presented to Reza. However, the warlord was not alone for twelve rich Arabs were with him, splendidly attired in the largely white head-dresses and flowing robes of their people.

Reza had told only his wife of his change of plans, so his son was ignorant of the reasons for the visitors' arrival.

In fact, the Arabs' presence had been stimulated by reports that some squadrons of Tamerlane's army were heading into south-west Persia. Reza was not particularly alarmed, as he was very confident that the conqueror was unaware that he held his boys. However, he had decided to take his wife's advice and, as a precaution, dispose of the young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite as soon as they were in a fit enough state to be sold.

It had meant that Reza had no time to enjoy the bodies of Tamerlane's boys or to castrate the young Armenian to increase his value. However, he considered such sacrifices to be wise in the circumstances, especially as the price he would receive for such young trophies was expected to be considerable. The warlord had also organised a private auction, with only the most trusted and discreet of rich Arabs with particular tastes invited. He did not anticipate any great loss in competition for the goods as a result of the switch from public sale, given that the men present would probably have been at the forefront of the bidding wherever it took place.

Reza and his guests were arrayed in comfortable chairs in the fortress' largest and most resplendent chamber, reserved for entertaining. They sat around three small low round platforms with mirrored surfaces, located a couple of paces apart and specially made for the occasion, on credit, at the warlord's command. The previously spendthrift but now necessarily parsimonious man did not propose to retain the furniture after use but to return it as unsuitable to avoid payment.

An adult male servant holding a small but threatening crop, obviously designed to ensure that Tamerlane's boys remained true to their commitment to submit to Reza's authority, led each young prisoner into the chamber and to a platform apiece. Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai had not been informed of their imminent destiny but, from the setting, it was apparent to all three what was now to take place. They did not want to be meekly sold and taken into possible separate Arab ownership, presumably south into the harsh deserts of Arabia, largely unknown to outsiders and where surely even the great conqueror would not follow. However, all three had been brought up to honour their word, an admirable custom reinforced here by the nearby leather punishment implements and the undoubted prospect of a return to the torture chamber for any relapse. They therefore quietly resigned themselves to obedience and their fate.

"Strip!" Reza loudly commanded of Tamerlane's boys, who reluctantly felt obliged to comply. Soon, their only cover, their new tunics, was in those hands of their attendant servants not occupied by the crops.

All three boys tried instinctively to hide their privates with their own hands but this attempt to retain some modesty was quickly quashed by another instruction from Reza. "Place your hands on your heads and stand with your legs wide apart," he ordered. Soon three young sets of genitalia came into the view of those sitting in front of the platforms, with the one sported by the uncastrated Arman beginning to display an unruly and, for the young Armenian, thoroughly humiliating erection. His young beautiful face therefore reddened even more than those of his companions.

Reza then addressed his universally bearded Arab guests, who were all sipping goblets of wine despite Moslem prescription against the consumption of alcohol. "Friends," he announced, "these are Tamerlane's boys, now available for your comprehensive examination before the auction. Please take as long as you want to survey the goods on offer."

Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai had all suffered some very embarrassing experiences but, at this moment in time, none of them felt that any had been worse than this, as the dozen Arabs rose to their feet and began to peruse the items for sale very closely. The men split up to stroll slowly round each platform, gaining visual perspectives of the boys from all angles, either directly or via the mirrors below each of them. The prospective purchasers also prodded and probed the young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite very intimately, with young mouths, genitalia, buttocks and anuses receiving much special attention.

In the middle of all this degrading scrutiny, Vissarion and Nicolai jumped suddenly when they heard the unmistakable loud crash of stinging leather hit young flesh, followed by an equally robust yelp and three more repetitions of the sequence. They turned their heads to see Arman's bottom being flogged whilst Reza had rushed to one of the Arabs standing immediately in front of the young Armenian. The latter, despite the flagellation of his rear, was somehow managing to maintain his demeaning stance. His friends admired his fortitude but it had actually been stimulated by fear of further agonising retribution if he adopted a more defensive pose.

The reason for the whole scenario soon became clear to Vissarion and Nicolai when they noticed white fluid dribbling from their friend's still rampant cockhead whilst similar substance was being wiped off an aggrieved Arab's robes by the host. Apparently, Arman's genitals had only been able to take so much manual examination of their very pleasant form before expelling the stored contents. It was one of the few times that the young Georgian and Muscovite were glad to be eunuchs.

The time eventually came for the bidding phase of the auction. It was launched by comments from Reza that he was "sure that ownership of such magnificent prizes will attract much interest, which will be reflected in the final valuation, for the goods on offer are not only of rare splendour but also of unparalleled rarity. After all, how often do Tamerlane's own boys come onto the market?" The warlord was obviously playing not only on the prospective purchasers' attraction to the lovely forms of Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai but also their desire to own, and boast to their own kind about, their possession of the conqueror's famous catamites.

It was quickly clear that Reza's salesmanship had worked, with bids of enormous scale rapidly being attained, even for the supposedly less valuable uncastrated Arman. The latter did not know it but his balls were undoubtedly doomed whoever bought him, as they would unquestionably try through gelding to retain his current looks for as long as possible by slowing his advance into manhood. It was also swiftly evident that the young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite were all destined for different ownership, the appreciation of such imminent separation upsetting them more than anything else. As a result, tears formed in the eyes of all three of Tamerlane's boys.

Reza licked his lips when the auction finally concluded for he was a very rich man once more.

Unfortunately for the warlord, pleasure at securing re-found wealth was disappointingly short lived. His breathless wife now suddenly rushed into the chamber, hysterically screaming "We're all doomed!" Her husband had to slap her hard across the face to calm his spouse sufficiently to gain some appreciation of what she meant.

A short while later, the terrified Reza strode onto the battlements of his fortress to see that the whole crag on which it was built was circled by a vast host of mounted heavily armed and exotically uniformed troops, displaying many resplendent banners. A number of these soldiers had also infested the village below. They had seemingly emerged from over the nearby hilltops with sudden menace and quickly invaded the citadel surrounds. However, it was none of these sights or facts than induced complete unprecedented terror within the warlord, making him wet his trousers, but the vision of someone amidst the vast military throng.

There, clearly apparent from his entourage, many bearing the most splendid of the flags on show, was the unmistakable terrible form of Tamerlane.

"I have been betrayed," Reza shrieked, as his mind tried to figure out whom the traitor could be who had brought the dreaded vengeful conqueror to his door.

Meanwhile, in all of the confusion, that traitor had managed to secure the persons of the still naked Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai and was guiding them down the secret steep-stepped cave passageway used for furtive escape in times of peril and leading to the bottom rear of the crag. However, the exit was currently useless for the fortress' defenders because the conqueror's vast host surrounded the whole rocky edifice.

At the same time, in Kashan, the rotting heads of a number of Tamerlane's closest generals and advisors were still displayed on stakes, a terrible sign to all of the consequences of unsuccessfully trying to launch a coup to topple and assassinate the conqueror. These traitors had themselves been betrayed by a now very rich traitor, but one to their own cause and not to that of their master.

"This way," 10 years old Rezan advised, as he advanced down the stone stairs holding a torch, escorting Tamerlane's chilled but thrilled boys to safety.

Chapter 15
Manhood

Tamerlane sadly loses one of his boys.

(Persia, July 1392)

Sibur quickly issued orders and several of his cavalrymen climbed down from their horses and rushed up the steep sloping narrow stony pathway that the boys were descending. The mounted archers had sheathed their arrows and placed their bows around their shoulders to run rapidly up the incline to greet the escaping foursome. They had withdrawn their short curved sabres from scabbards in readiness to use that weaponry instead to defend the quartet, whilst they held readied spare cloaks in their other hands. Soon, the naked Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai were draped in these garments and were, with Rezan, safely at the bottom of the crag.

Sibur had already proficiently dispatched a messenger to advise Tamerlane of his boys' surprise sudden appearance and now greeted Vissarion, Arman, Nicolai and their younger unknown friend with welcoming humour as they approached. "Do you know how much trouble your little holiday has caused?" he shouted rhetorically with a broad smile at the safe rescue of the young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite. However, the young Persian in their company, not knowing the Turkish dialect spoken, could not share the joke.

Tamerlane's boys, immensely grateful and happy at their sudden happy change in fortunes, reciprocated with sweet smiles of their own. Sibur's cock, safely hidden under his uniform, twitched at the sight, especially that of Arman's gladdened face. The young officer, previously a regular in the conqueror's own bodyguard, had been a distant admirer of the young Armenian in particular for a long time. It was something that the 15 years old had for quite a while recognised from frequently snatching sight of the 24 years old's supposedly furtive glances.

It was not unusual for Arman to receive admiring looks but the length and frequency of those of Sibur indicated infatuation. The boy was flattered by the interest and attention coming from such a handsome young warrior, noted for his audacity and bravery, and, in different circumstances, would have responded. However, both knew that it was too dangerous a passion to follow-up, even if either felt like undermining Tamerlane's position regarding the young Armenian, which neither did out of loyalty and love for the dreaded conqueror.

Sibur was as devoted as Arman to the man because he too had been one of Tamerlane's boys, a relationship sadly ended eight years earlier, amidst many tears, as the uncastrated Moslem had progressed into manhood and soldiery. The young officer's current sexual tastes related more to young men than boys and his infatuation with the young Armenian actually stemmed as much, if not more, from what the 15 years old was rapidly developing into as his present magnificent shape.

Arman noted again Sibur's unmistakably clear regard for him, as the young officer's eyes did not seem capable of straying long from the boy's delectable form as he approached, now covered by the military cloak. The young Armenian could somehow tell that the young man was trying to visualise what he was hiding under the mantle and, perhaps stimulated by euphoria at his rescue, couldn't help himself.

As Arman and the others were led close to the mounted Sibur by their protective escorts, the young Armenian, who was holding his cover in place by applying one hand to his throat and another to his midriff, suddenly let go. This was despite the many soldiers surrounding the scene and his usual natural strong aversion to personal public nudity. The garment succumbed to gravity and, although the apparently accidentally shed item was quickly picked up and re-wrapped around the boy again by his concerned guard, many had secured a good close-up view of the 15 years old's marvellous naked form.

Arman happily recognised that Sibur had enjoyed the shock display because the young officer's face had become bright scarlet and his eyes were full of undisguised lust. On his part, the young man, who had never seen the young Armenian nude before, apart from a little earlier at a great distance, tried his best to hide his unpreventable reaction. However, he was severely hampered by appreciation that what he had just seen was the most gorgeous vision of his life so far.

Sibur's liking for the brief close sight of Arman's magnificent bare body was intensified by observation that the boy's completely smooth genitalia, freshly shaved for the earlier auction, sported a fulsome erection. His pleasure at the delectable, but all too short, scene had also been reinforced by entry into uncontrollable orgasm, with mush sperm despoiling his undergarments. However, the young Armenian's teasing of the young officer came to an end when approaching horses, galloping at great speed, could be heard and Tamerlane himself came into view.

Tamerlane leapt off his steed, a feat remarkable for someone in his mid fifties, and ran to his boys. Nothing was said as he gathered all three together and hugged them tightly for a prolonged period, amongst simultaneous profuse weeping. The tears of happiness spread to Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai and, in the end, there were few dry eyes amongst the surrounding surprised crowd of hardened warriors, as the moving reunion proceeded. However, Rezan, standing nearby, remained apparently emotionally untouched.

Tamerlane, suddenly remembering where he was and the fact that his boys were publicly unclothed apart from the cloaks, eventually forced himself to terminate the lingering mutual embrace, at least for now. He instead moved aside to allow one of his own bodyguards to step forward with spare clothing for Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai. Sibur had had the proficient foresight to instruct the messenger, whom he had dispatched to the conqueror with the good news about the rescue of the young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite, additionally to convey advice that the young trio needed garments.

Other bodyguards held the boys' covering cloaks in place, to shield their bodies from view, and cast their eyes aside, as the grateful threesome dressed in the proffered attire. Because of their earlier careful bathing and grooming for the auction, the young trio eventually emerged from behind their mantles resplendently dressed and looking as dazzling as ever, although it was noticeable to those who knew him well that Arman had grown significantly again since they had last seen him. It was a fact not lost on Tamerlane, whose tears were rekindled by the sight that he had despaired of ever viewing again.

Previously, as his boys were dressing, Tamerlane had noticed the very pretty 10 years old Rezan standing close by, closely guarded by a couple of soldiers because no-one knew the boy's identity and he wearing local garb.

Tamerlane had approached the young Persian and asked courteously in the local language "Are you Rezan?" and received a positive answer. "I thank you for saving my boys," he responded before also now giving the 10 years old a hug, although one that was formally light and short, as befitted a greeting to a welcome acquaintance.

Rezan's military escorts immediately diplomatically withdrew to a more discreet distance, as it was now obvious from Tamerlane's actions that the boy was an honoured guest, someone to be carefully protected as an important friend as opposed to enemy.

Soon afterwards, four spare horses were produced and Tamerlane's redressed boys, along with Rezan, were being escorted by the deliriously re-content conqueror and his bodyguards to the huge encampment quickly being established whilst the siege of Reza's fortress commenced. During the short journey, Arman, without actually noticing, somehow felt the intense glare of the handsome dark eyes of Sibur, riding just behind, focusing on his divine slim frame. The 15 years old's body excitedly began to tingle and his already hard cock started to throb again at the realisation.

Tamerlane, Vissarion, Arman, Nicolai and Rezan eventually found themselves alone in the conqueror's large richly adorned tent. The young Armenian's passion had calmed as a consequence of being out of Sibur's sight.

"Tell me everything," Tamerlane asked of his boys in Persian, having elicited that the younger guest was not proficient in their normal tongue, "that has happened to you since I last saw you." As usual, it was Vissarion for spoke for all three.

A short while later, Tamerlane, unconvinced by the full detail of Vissarion's report, knowing instinctively when his young beloved was trying to hide something from him, turned to Rezan and enquired "Is that all your father did? Did he really just hold my boys, his unexpected captives, unmolested, whilst considering his options and before finally proposing to return them to me, even before I showed up?"

Rezan, feelings behind his lovely young visage impenetrable, being well used to disguising his true emotions from Reza for reasons of personal safety, answered diplomatically but truthfully "I'm afraid not, great lord. I believe that Vissarion is kindly trying to shield my father from the full implications of his actions for my sake, for which I thank him from the bottom of my heart. However, his compassionate consideration is misplaced." The 10 years old then proceeded to advise Tamerlane in detail of what actually happened in the warlord's fortress.

Tamerlane had understood and completely forgiven Vissarion's attempt to hide the truth but it was evident Reza would not enjoy similar escape from the man's dreaded wrath. The conqueror's face became redder and redder, and his body, particularly his hands, more agitated as the revelations progressed. However, the warlord's young son was not deflected from his informative discourse.

After Rezan had concluded, Tamerlane, somehow temporarily repressing his intense fury out of consideration for his young Persian guest, asked "What was your motive for sending a messenger with news of my boys' whereabouts and for revealing these horrors to me now?" "Because, great lord," the boy unhesitatingly replied, with the usual remarkable maturity that belied his tender age, "I hate my father, and my mother too. Neither like me nor have any real interest in me as an individual. I am the product of their loins, yes, but unloved, regularly abused and produced for only one purpose, to keep our lineage going in their own selfish, despotic and cruel manner. Both my people and I would be much better without them!"

It was not just Tamerlane who was speechless with this answer, but also his boys. However, the ensuing silence was ended by Rezan, who added "The messenger I sent was the only person I could trust to do so. He has been one of those who have looked after me since I was a baby but the only one to show me any real affection. To the others, I was apparently just a chore but, for some reason, this servant has given me much time and kind attention, even to the extent of trying to protect me from my father's easily riled violent temper at the expense of being severely beaten himself. This once, during my very earliest years, resulted in a violent kicking that rendered him impotent. I sometimes wonder whether the experience actually brought us closer because, as a result, I suspect he subsequently considered me a surrogate son, in need of protection from a wicked overlord."

"I managed to disguise his disappearance," Rezan continued to his intrigued audience, "as a visit home to a sick mother, authorised by me, for which unilateral action I naturally received a severe thrashing from my father, from which my bottom still bears the scars. I strongly recommend the presentation of the reward, which, I'm sure, great lord, you have offered for your boys' safe return, to this man!" The young Persian's servant, currently under guard elsewhere in the encampment whilst the veracity of his message was confirmed, immediately became enormously wealthy.

"Do you know what sort of vengeance I'll reek on your father," Tamerlane now asked the young Persian," having sufficiently contained his temper produced by the recent revelations to be able to do so, "for kidnapping, torturing and attempting to sell my boys into slavery, to say nothing about the murder of their bodyguards and guides?" "I can guess, great lord," Rezan replied, "but, in respect of this particular matter, I must seek my own reward for saving Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai."

(Persia, August 1392)

Nevertheless, Tamerlane's concession was not granted with any sense of annoyance towards Rezan himself, whose remarkable character only added to the splendid allures of his gorgeous appearance as far as the man was concerned. The conqueror was just disappointed with the fact that he thought the 10 years old's parents and their cohorts were escaping too lightly for their crimes against his boys.

The siege of the fortress had not taken too long to conclude. Tamerlane, ever careful about the welfare of his soldiers, did not waste men by trying to assault the bastion, even via the revealed secret escape cave passageway, which was vulnerable to the pouring of boulders or boiling oil or water down its many steep steps. Instead, the conqueror simply starved the citadel into quick submission, aware from Rezan, that the food stores were very low because of his family's recent impecuniosity and how the well, supplying his former home's water supply, could be located and poisoned.

Naturally, Reza and his wife longed to be able to hold out, hoping against hope that Tamerlane would eventually become bored and, content with the safe recovery of his boys, depart. However, deep down they knew, from the dreaded conqueror's history and reputation, that such an outcome was most unlikely, even if, as it appeared, their own son had been the traitor who had not only brought terrible vengeance to their gates but also facilitated the escape of their only bargaining chip. Both parents now remembered and regretted their maltreatment of their offspring, but only for their own miserable sakes and not his.

Nevertheless, like many in such desperate situations, Reza and his wife remained inappropriately optimistic to the end, such self-deception reinforced by much consummation of wine, the existence of which, along with secreted food, was initially carefully hidden from the other defenders. However, the eventual detection of their secret supply, as their recurring drunkenness finally caused them to become careless, led to their downfall.

The discovery of the hoard of provisions by the other starving defenders, clan warriors and members of the household, provoked mutiny and soon Reza and his wife were prisoners of their own people, as the fortress gates were opened to Tamerlane's forces. However, neither experienced the expected and dreaded audience with the vengeful conqueror.

"Hello, father," said Rezan, as he advanced into what was formerly his own chamber within the tall fortress, shortly after access to the citadel had been gained. The bound Reza was sitting huddled on the floor, his clothing filthy from having not changed in many days and made worse by having recently urinated and defecated into his trousers, terrified at what Tamerlane would now have in mind for him. The warlord expected to take days, if not weeks, to die horribly, something the conqueror had indeed intended until someone intervened.

"My son, my beloved son," Reza fawningly shouted, hope for continued life reinvigorated by Rezan's unexpected appearance, even though the boy was accompanied by two of Tamerlane's most merciless-looking soldiers, their appearance actually a true reflection of their inherent ruthlessness.

Reza tried to stand up but was told not to bother by his son, who then sat cross-legged next to his father whilst managing to hide his disgust at the localised smell. "I know what you've done," the warlord whispered to Rezan, "but I forgive you. Can you forgive me as well for some of the things I've done to you. They were all perpetrated at your mother's insistence, you know. I didn't want to do any of it but she insisted, wanting to toughen you up to lead our people. She was also behind the treatment to Tamerlane's boys. I really meant them no harm. I didn't want to keep them, torture them or sell them. I wanted to follow your advice and treat them well before returning them. Please believe me, my beloved son, and go tell the conqueror. It was your mother behind the evil all the time. She's the one who should suffer. Secure my release and, without that witch, we'll live together as a father and son should. Please, my beloved son, save me!"

Copious tears now flowed from Reza's eyes but his son, having patiently and knowingly listened to his father's lies, detected many crocodiles within each lachrymose droplet. He therefore had no hesitation in quickly disillusioning his parent about salvation.

"I'm afraid that you are to die," Rezan announced authoritatively and apparently impassively, "and the best that I can do for you is to make it quick." His father's tears cleared up immediately and his quick temper surfaced instead. "You treacherous brat," he declared, whilst trying to lunge at his son, despite the fact that his hands were tied firmly behind him. However, his clumsy attempt to head-butt his young offspring was efficiently thwarted by the boy's two guards, who not only restrained the squatting man but also rendered him quiescent through a kick in the groin.

Afterwards, as the guards waited for their victim to recover from his genital agony, one of them withdrew a sharp curved knife from his scabbard and held it at the man's throat, advising "Listen to Master Rezan here or I'll cut your jugular now!" The petrified and genitally anguished Reza, now subdued, complied reluctantly, his deep-seated anger towards his son now intensified by hearing him termed 'Master' by Tamerlane's men. His viper of an offspring had obviously quickly acquired honoured status in the enemy camp.

"Father," Rezan commanded, seemingly unconcerned by his parent's fury and attack, something he had seen many times previously, "look at that window over there. Do you remember hurling my puppy out of it?" Reza's earlier puzzlement as to why he had been brought to this particular chamber began to clear, as he fearfully obeyed his son's instruction. "Well," the 10 years old informed, "that is your route to avoid Tamerlane's full wrath and I suggest you take it. Now!"

Reza looked back at his son. "Please no," he begged, with genuine tears now flowing, "I can't. Please no. Please save me, my beloved son." He then completely dissolved into rambling incoherent entreaties, amidst much cowardly sobbing and whilst pressing his forehead on the ground in a demeaningly submissive gesture.

Rezan stood up, disgusted at the way in which his father had so rapidly degenerated into a cowardly wreck. However, he was not surprised. He had always thought that bullies were cowards at heart, only picking on those over whom they had some physical or positional ascendancy. His attitude towards this particular specimen was reinforced by the rumours that he had overheard over the years from servants. These had suggested that the misnamed warlord, although nominally leading his clan's warriors, was always careful never to be at the forefront in any skirmish and was ever eager to order retreat in the event of the slightest reverse in battle.

Rezan took one last look at the disgraceful excuse for a man, loudly quivering at his young feet, and then nodded to the two muscle-bound soldiers. They immediately picked up the loathsome heap of humanity and dragged their shrieking load remorselessly towards the open window, which looked down to sharp rocks far below. "Noooooooooooooooooo…." Reza shouted as his fetid form was lifted off the floor.

"Goodbye, father," Rezan said, as he turned to leave the chamber, never to return.

Rezan felt that he had performed his duty towards his father, having secured him a quick rather than lengthy and agonising death, as Tamerlane's gratitude towards the boy did not extend to allowing the warlord to live. As it was, the conqueror thought that Reza was being granted too much leniency but had been persuaded to grant the young Persian his request by a young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite, whose entreaties invariably led to the defeat of the bewitched man's original intent.

Tamerlane and his boys were at the foot of the crag, waiting for the deed to be done before themselves advancing up to the fortress. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh," was heard loudly, as a body fell from a window high above before only the usual noises of standing cavalry returned to the quartet's ears.

"Let's go," Tamerlane commanded, "it is done and Rezan might need some comfort." The large mounted troop comprising the conqueror, his boys and his bodyguard then climbed the winding vertiginous path leading to the main gates of the citadel, where their leader appeared to be proved wrong in his assumption about the young Persian's probable distress. The 10 years old displayed no emotion at all at his father's recent demise or his mother's dispatch, along with that of her closest female servant, to a completely illegal and sacrilegious but well-known brothel in Kashan.

Rezan, wise beyond his years, had correctly believed that the shame of entering the profession of prostitution, allied to their strong lesbianism and dislike of males, would make the women's future existence there a most suitable punishment. It was also an idea that the young Persian was comfortable with, being unconcerned about the shame that it would bring to his lineage, because it would save the females from the swords that Tamerlane originally proposed to behead them with. However, the boy, having fulfilled a duty to his mother by at least securing her life, chose not to try to thwart the conqueror's desire to decapitate those of his father's warriors who had participated in the shameful murders of the bodyguards and guides of Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai.

That left only two more miscreants to deal with, Rezan having successfully pleaded for the rest of his people, suggesting that they had been badly guided and would become Tamerlane's loyal subjects if properly led. The boy declined the position himself, even when it was offered with a wise council to advise him through his minority, citing other objectives in life. He instead suggested his now very rich former servant, who proved to be a most suitable choice for the clans were indeed subsequently amongst the conqueror's most reliable subjects.

Rezan led Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai into the grim torture chamber that all now knew so well. However, it was not Tamerlane's boys who were currently painfully suspended naked from the ceiling but the young Persian's terrified former female servants.

The four boys could not help but smile as they slowly walked round the attractive but petrified nude 15 years old girls, both displaying small but pleasant partially grown breasts and tiny tufts of vaginal hair, before picking up various items of chastisement. They started playing with the implements teasingly before the young females' petrified eyes, prior to rubbing wooden canes and leather crops gently up and down the vulnerable feminine bottoms.

During the whole time since the young male quartet's arrival, apparently eager for revenge, the girls begged incessantly for mercy. "Why should Tamerlane's boys oblige you," their former young master eventually asked, "why shouldn't they enjoy beating you as much as you did caning them?" The pair of young females was momentarily silenced, unable to produce a reasonable answer. However, they soon resumed their entreaties with simple pleas designed to play on hoped-for generosity towards the feminine gender from the masculine foursome. They knew that offers of compliant sex in return for compassion might not be welcome, given that two of their vengeful tormentors were eunuchs.

The girls' tactic initially went unrewarded when a particularly keen Nicolai struck one female bottom and then another harshly, despite his diminutive size, with one of the crops. Loud feminine yelps resounded round the chamber as the blows were successfully applied, leaving vivid red stripes on the respective posteriors. Meanwhile, this time, it was male giggles that accompanied the anguished noises.

Arman, cock rigid within his trousers, gathered the stool on which Rezan had reluctantly stood two months previously to apply cruel clamps to each of the nipples possessed by Tamerlane's boys. He carried a pair of the same devices and now presented them simultaneously to both rosy tits, upright from chill and fright, of one of the girls. "Please don't," she sobbed, as tears flowed down her pleasant cheeks. "But I remember how keen you were to see me castrated," the young Armenian retorted.

This remark just caused the girl to break down completely into uncontrollable sobs, incapable of begging for pity anymore.

"I think that'll do," Vissarion commented and Arman, agreeing, stepped off the stool, unattached clamps still in his hands.

The intent of the four boys from the start had never been to hurt the girls seriously but to scare them sufficiently so that they would not be inclined to repeat their sadistic behaviour again. They had previously successfully dissuaded their master from executing the young females, having cited misguided youth as the main reason for the earlier errant feminine ways.

The boys' compassionate strategy worked for the girls, having been let off so lightly, given that they feared for their very lives, were not only never tempted to treat others so harshly again but also emerged shaking from the chamber, with just one red stripe apiece across their buttocks, changed people.

The girls had been so terrified of the circumstances to which their previous conduct had brought them that they successfully determined that consideration for and not cruelty towards others was the best attitude in future. Within weeks, now redundant from their previous posts and with no family to return to, they had been married to some of Tamerlane's worthier young soldiers, introduced via Arman, with the help of the boy's secret admirer, Sibur.

The girls were to become good mothers to large broods, as well as excellent nurses when required for wounded warriors, within the substantial community of camp followers that loyally pursued all contemporary armies. They and Tamerlane's boys often exchanged smiles and indulged in brief conversations whenever they came across each other in the years ahead.

Tamerlane and his boys, along with Rezan, eventually left the fortress to return to the army encampment. Here, once alone together in the conqueror's tent, all sat on couches surrounding a low table, bedecked with goblets of fresh juice and bowls of the finest fruit.

Tamerlane now enquired of Rezan what he now wanted to do. He received a similar reply to the one Nicolai had given when the young Muscovite was asked the same question 15 months before, albeit for different reasons.

Rezan stated that he would like to travel with Tamerlane to learn at first hand the skills of a great general and statesman. He did not add that this would also enable him to remain close to Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai, whom he now considered friends, such relationships with young peers being denied him previously. However, the perceptive conqueror suspected the additional motive.

Rezan gave no indication of knowledge of, or willingness to participate in, the sexual activities of Tamerlane and his boys. The conqueror therefore presumed that the 10 years old was thinking of a close platonic association, entered into to learn about the wider world and military and political affairs, perhaps with a view to returning someday to rule his own people. However, it was not because of the possible lack of sex in the relationship that the man tried to dissuade the young Persian from the notion.

This was evidenced by Tamerlane's verbal response, which he addressed as much to the startled Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai as to Rezan. "I'd like to accommodate you," the conqueror advised, "but I don't propose to have any boys close around me in future. I've decided that women are preferable!" The young quartet was at first rendered speechless at this sudden, totally unexpected, change in attitude, which the young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite found hard to believe was genuine, knowing their master much better than the young Persian.

It was the perceptive Vissarion who broke the silence and he did so with such brave honesty that he shocked his young companions. "Great lord," he started politely before continuing with bluntness, "you're lying!" Tamerlane had never lost his temper with any of his boys but none had ever accused him of untruthfulness in this manner previously and so none, including the young Georgian, knew how he would react, given the well-known volatility of the man's temper. However, the conqueror, looking at the beautiful courageous and obviously knowing face of the 15 years old, simply asked "Tell me, my wise young friend, why do you suggest that?"

"Because," Vissarion advised, boldness encouraged by Tamerlane's continued calmness, "I know, I just know, that you love Arman, Nicolai and me above everyone and everything else. You're just trying to get us out of harm's way, believing that our current status and proximity to you is too dangerous for us. After all, we've now been kidnapped three times, twice specifically because we were your boys."

"Well it simply won't do," the young Georgian continued more loudly and forcefully, this time startling his master, as well as his friends, by thumping his right fist into his left palm to reinforce the earnestness of his point, "I'm not going to leave you. If you try to make me, I'll keep coming back." Suddenly the 15 years old's emotion at Tamerlane's whole terrible suggestion, which had frightened him more than anything before in his life, barring nothing and he had suffered much, caused him to burst into tears.

Tamerlane had appreciated that he would probably upset his boys but Vissarion's honest and ardent reaction, completely correct in its accusation, was not at all anticipated. The conqueror was instantly profoundly saddened and guilty about the distress he had obviously caused, not only to the young Georgian but also to the young Armenian and Muscovite. The formerly immaculate faces of the latter now displayed only deep misery and intent to erupt imminently into tears, just as their friend's had done.

Tamerlane, utterly defeated in his noble aim, therefore approached Vissarion and hugged the crying young Georgian once more, whilst beginning to sob in unison. "I'm sorry," the conqueror announced, "and yes I was lying. I only wanted my boys to be safe. I won't send any of you away, I promise, unless we all agree that it's for the best. Manhood isn't far away for any of you, you know, and you'll then want to be doing other things and be with other people, rather than be confined to my boring company."

"Never," exclaimed Vissarion vigorously, whilst returning Tamerlane's tight hold, as he slowly recovered from his emotional outburst, restitution helped by securing victory. However, the watching Arman was not so sure that his friend was correct, despite being as equally loving and loyal and initially upset at the conqueror's proposal as the young Georgian.

Arman, balls still in situ, knew that he was growing fast and would soon not have the physical form to please his master, with the onset of true manhood possibly being delayed for the similarly aged but gelded Vissarion but not much longer for himself. He also now realised, from Sibur's reciprocated interest in him and his own growing new attraction to girls, that there were pleasing alternatives for him. The young Armenian had finally recognised that eventual separation, at least for him, although undoubtedly profoundly sad, was not only inevitable, and probably imminent, but also might be for the best for all concerned. The 15 years old additionally comprehended that Tamerlane appreciated all this as much as anyone and he experienced both sadness and excitement at the prospect of soon leaving his master's tent for another existence.

Meanwhile, the silent unemotional Rezan sat expressionless and seemingly unaffected by the devoted antics of Tamerlane and his boys. However, deep inside, he was intensely moved for he had just seen true love openly exposed for the first time in his previously closeted, lonely and unhappy life.

After making his tearful apologies to all his boys, Tamerlane eventually managed to dry his eyes, compose himself and return to the subject of what Rezan now wanted to do. The young Persian's answer was the same.

Tamerlane responded by asking Rezan "But am I not more loathsome than your late father, as many would suggest that I am? If you did not welcome the upbringing that he gave you, why do you think that you'll experience better with me?" However, the young Persian answered as if he had been anticipating such a question, whilst also taking Vissarion's example and being unafraid to do so with honest blunt conviction.

"I believe, great lord, that your acts of apparent barbarity in war are actually no such thing," Rezan declared, " as they're perpetrated only on those who wilfully defy or betray you and to prevent, by terrible example, similar recurrences elsewhere. Also, I know from your boys, and from what I've experienced and observed since I met you, great lord, that your private demeanour does not match your public façade. I wish to learn from you, for one day I wish to be a great leader too, although, I have to confess now, that that doesn't necessarily mean that I'll copy your ways. Nevertheless, please, great lord, grant me my request."

Tamerlane mulled Rezan's wish over in his mind, unable to prevent himself from smiling as he did so in appreciation of the young Persian's astounding maturity, which was allied to a lack of doubt that the youngster would ultimately attain his aim in life. However, the 10 years old still seemed ignorant of the sexual nature of the conqueror's relationship with his boys. This was the reason why, in the tent they shared, there was only one, albeit huge, bed, still covered in cold weather by a splendid bearskin secured by Vissarion and Arman in the Caucasus.

Tamerlane, immensely grateful to Rezan for his boys' salvation, did not want to force the young Persian, despite his obvious attractions, into his bed or make him feel obliged to do so. However, if he shared the conqueror's tent, which he probably wanted to do to be close to his newly acquired friends, the man wondered what other option there would be. A different canopy or incongruously separate sleeping arrangements for the newcomer might make him feel left out.

Tamerlane did not want to make a mistake with his eventual solution to the quandary, as his misjudgement of Nicolai in similar circumstances had caused the young Muscovite to seek castration. The conqueror did not believe that Rezan would follow that same extreme action to show his determination to be part of the man's most intimate entourage but he might be stimulated into some other harmful course if he felt unhappy with the final decision. However, he was at a loss as to what to do. Not uncommonly, it was Vissarion who perceived his master's dilemma and provided the answer.

"Great lord," the young Georgian suggested with his usual sweet and completely disarming smile, "it's about time you ordered a larger tent!"

The order for the manufacture of a massive new canopy, with separate diplomatic compartments for each of the now five occupants, although those intended for use by the young Georgian, Armenian and Muscovite were to be mainly for show and storage of personal effects, was soon dispatched to Kashan. Meanwhile, Rezan was awarded a temporarily separate luxuriant tent just for now, which he was happy to accept, given that he would soon join the others. However, Tamerlane and his boys then disappeared into their own and did not reappear for a day and a half. This situation provided cause for the young Persian to investigate and consider his position further.

(Persia, November 1392)

"Have me castrated," Arman selflessly offered at one time during the debate but Tamerlane, although appreciating his beloved's preparedness to sacrifice his testicles to prolong his direct service for his master, instantly dismissed the proposal. However, the conqueror rewarded the young Armenian with a long lingering hug of thanks for making the suggestion before restarting the discussion.

As with Sibur eight years earlier, Arman later terminated his occupancy of Tamerlane's tent amidst many tears. These were liberally shed by not only the conqueror and the 15 years old himself but also Vissarion and Nicolai, with the young Georgian, who had known the young Armenian longest and considered him his best friend, particularly sorrowful and lachrymose. However, the young Persian, as usual, exhibited no emotion.

Arman was to remain nearby for now, amongst the conqueror's closest entourage, but it was the symbolism of the occasion that affected Tamerlane and his boys most, with the apparent exception of Rezan. The only consolation for the young Armenian, as he finally reluctantly managed to extricate himself from the tight holds of Vissarion, Nicolai and his master, to walk to his new life, was the identity of his new mentor.

Arman had announced his desire to be a cavalryman and Tamerlane had at first proposed that he be posted to the staff of his best general to learn the role. However, the young Armenian demurred, suggesting an allocation to another younger less senior officer. His master was no fool and correctly surmised the reason behind the proposition but he was not displeased either by the identity of the changed mentor, as he knew him very well indeed, or the idea.

After all, Tamerlane knew that his beloved Arman would, probably now literally, be in the best of hands. The conqueror actually experienced a tinge of envy at the thought of the two young men together, wishing that he himself was thirty years younger.

It was with an understandable mixture of sadness and excitement that Arman eventually approached another tent, formerly only catering for one but which was also now going to be the young Armenian's new home. The owner was already eagerly waiting.

Sibur welcomed his new young charge with a formal and polite hug. However, soon afterwards, in the privacy of the tent, the embraces were to be a lot more passionate.

Chapter 16
Emotions

Disaster befalls one of Tamerlane's boys.

(Persia, November 1392)

Tamerlane first returned to the scene where Rezan's late father had captured Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai. Here, he recovered the bodies of the murdered bodyguards and guides from the secret burial site to where his boys could now lead him. He then progressed to Kashan, where the men were re-interred with full honours and from where pensions of much gold were dispatched to their families back in Transoxonia.

Tamerlane subsequently went to inflict appropriate punishment on a city that had treacherously repudiated a previous very generous peace treaty with the conqueror, killing many of his soldiers in the process. More horrendous towers of thousands of skulls were to appear once again on the Persian landscape.

Despite their inherent decency, Tamerlane's boys felt little sorrow for most of the victims. It was not only a cruel age when massacres of whole municipal populations were not unusual but also there was little sympathy for rebels who had blatantly defied the conqueror's suzerainty, knowing full well, from earlier examples, what the consequences could be. It was not as if the people concerned had been forcibly cajoled into revolt by unwise leaders, for the bloody uprising, like others in similar cities, had been pursued with popular nationalistic zeal.

Despite the terrible scenes to which they were witnesses, Tamerlane's boys, now officially comprising just 15 years old Vissarion and 12 years old Nicolai, with 10 years old Rezan a currently peripheral presence, only experienced compassion for the Persian children, innocent victims of their parents' folly. Accordingly, the young Georgian led the way in using all his well-practised charms on his master to persuade him to alter his early intent. The young Muscovite had been happy to assist his friend and so the conqueror had stood no chance in maintaining his original stance. As a consequence, most of the rebel offspring were enslaved rather than decapitated and a not inconsequential minority actually enjoyed better lives than previously.

The pretty brown haired and eyed Rezan watched the awful sights outside the city walls whilst displaying no feeling. He also observed his new friends' loving manipulation of Tamerlane with apparent disinterest. However, inside his pretty slim frame, the young Persian was suffering an intensity of conflicting emotions not experienced for many years, ever since he had learnt to hide his true passions.

Rezan desperately wanted to love and be loved, emotions he was seeing at first hand being enjoyed fulsomely by Tamerlane and his remaining pair of boys. The young Persian now shared the conqueror's resplendent large new tent, compartmentalised to allow separate accommodation for the three young occupants and their master. However, the 10 years old was not stupid and had recognised that Vissarion and Nicolai rarely occupied their own beds.

Although the young Georgian and Muscovite, out of diplomatic consideration for the newcomer, had always tried to creep secretly to join the conqueror, Rezan had noticed their supposedly furtive moves. The young Persian had previously become accustomed to listening for the sounds of the night in case they heralded the dreaded approach of his father or mother, usually to beat him for no real reason other than their own drunkenness or anger with some unconnected person or matter. The 10 years old also realised what happened under the huge bearskin that adorned his new overlord's bed.

Rezan really wanted to join his young friends, worry about becoming the object of attention for Tamerlane's lusts being overwhelmed by his intense desire for love. However, his inner terror of trying to become too close to anyone was too great and restrained him from following Vissarion and Nicolai into the conqueror's waiting arms. The 10 years old feared either rejection or later betrayal of any approach, just as he had suffered years earlier at the hands of his parents. After hearing the young Georgian and Muscovite make their nightly way, quickly followed by discreet sounds of pleasurable passion, the young Persian would invariably just cry himself to sleep.

Rezan's attitude was maintained despite Tamerlane's clear interest in him. The conqueror treated the young Persian not only with honoured respect, as befitted someone who had saved his boys, but also with affection and kindness.

In fact, Tamerlane tried his best to handle Rezan as a father would, although both man and boy, the latter from the constant look in the eyes of the former, secretly appreciated that the adult would prefer to indulge in a sexual role. However, the conqueror was too respectful towards the saviour of Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai to make the first move and the young Persian too reserved and afraid. The situation obviously needed the intervention of someone else to break the deadlock and, not uncommonly, it was the young Georgian who not only astutely perceived the situation and need but also took it upon himself to try to end the impasse.

Blonde, blue-eyed Vissarion, whose impeccable youthful beauty had only become more dazzlingly refined as he grew older, undertook the project not to satisfy Tamerlane's lusts but to help break Rezan's emotional shell, realising that this had to be done if the boy was to achieve both contentment and fulfilment in life. It was obvious to the young Georgian, although to few others, that the young Persian was not only unhappy inside but also in great inner turmoil, and the 15 years old eunuch had correctly guessed why.

Vissarion had secretly been sad at observing Rezan's apparently unemotional front, knowing it to be a false façade designed to hide his true feelings. Although the young Persian was a pleasant enough companion, in a quiet reserved manner, the young Georgian instinctively knew that this did not reflect the 10 years old's true inner character. The perceptive soon-to-be 16 years old was determined to bring the latter to the fore, believing that otherwise his new friend would not display his full true worthiness and could grow to be psychologically scarred. However, he particularly needed and so enlisted Arman's help in order to achieve his aim.

Arman might have been bigger in physical stature but he was otherwise similarly featured to Rezan, not only having brown hair and eyes but also possessing testicles. It was the latter anatomical feature, and the young Armenian's highly proficient and considerate lovemaking skills that went with them, that particularly recommended him for the cause to his Georgian friend.

Arman, although now clearly the happy sexual companion of Sibur, had by no means forgotten his deep affection for Tamerlane, Vissarion and lately Nicolai. In fact, despite his new passionate relationship with the cavalry officer, the young Armenian still considered the young Georgian to be not only his best friend but also foremost lover, an attitude that was reciprocated.

Arman frequently returned to Tamerlane's canopy to spend early evenings with his friends in both conversation and play, although the latter was now more adult than previously. Gone were the children's games, with greater concentration given to pastimes such as chess and, regularly with Vissarion and Nicolai, sex. The latter usually diplomatically happened when the conqueror was engaged on time-consuming business elsewhere.

The young Georgian and Muscovite still greatly appreciated the young Armenian's ability to entertain their prostrates with careful skill. Much sublime pleasure was thereby acquired by all three parties within the tent compartments belonging to Vissarion and Nicolai.

They had the full blessing of their master for these activities, for he was happy to keep his remaining boys content whilst he was busy. Sometimes, the conqueror would unexpectedly return early and inadvertently walk in on such liaisons but he would always then discreetly depart to his own bedroom, where his unoccupied catamite would invariably be considerately waiting.

Sibur was also not displeased by Arman's alternative lovemaking because he appreciated that the objects of such attention still held a very special place in the young Armenian's heart, which the cavalry officer knew could never be displaced, even if he wanted to see that occur. However, he had no such ambition, for he recognised that his young lover's wellbeing needed the continued association with Vissarion and Nicolai.

Sibur was instead content to see Arman happily enjoy the company, in all senses of the phrase, of his two oldest friends and to accept whatever the young Armenian had left for him, both in terms of time and energy. Happily for the unselfish cavalry officer, the latter were still substantial in both quantity and quality.

One evening, Vissarion had, as usual, just lost at chess to the more expert Arman, whose highly skilful strategic proficiency would eventually prove to be more wide ranging than just the game board. The variation of the pastime played by Tamerlane and his boys used an uncheckered board of 112 squares, with ten rows and eleven columns, plus two extra squares, one left of the ninth row and one right of the second row. These two extra fields were called the 'citadels' and played a special role. Each player possessed a king, a vizir, a general, two giraffes, two pickets, two knights, two rooks, two elephants, two camels, two war engines and eleven pawns. The latter were of special types, such as a pawn of kings, of vizirs, of generals and so on until a pawn of pawns. Different rules applied when each type of pawn promoted.

After the young Georgian's rear was afterwards again impregnated with much Armenian sperm, the naked friends held each other tightly in post-coitus respite before whispering to each other about Rezan. Vissarion's permanently hairless chin rested close to Arman's shaved equivalent whilst they debated their plan to encourage the young Persian out of his shell, by lovingly bringing the younger boy's emotions to the fore through careful seduction.

Vissarion would lead the way by gradually enticing Rezan, whom he perceptively knew admired him, and not just for his impeccable personality, into bed with him. There, the young Georgian would use his hands and mouth to show how much he cared for the young Persian, an emotion that would not be false. Naturally, it would have to be Arman, with his intact testes, who would later have to introduce the youngster to the pleasures of other forms of submissive sex, a duty the young Armenian was more than happy to attempt and not just from altruism. His task was thought achievable because the 10 years old was recognised as liking his particular variety of 15 years old boyhood as well.

The whole idea was that such intimate physical relationships would also cause Rezan to be mentally more open and honest, at first with his two young admirers and sexual partners and later with all, to everyone's benefit, not least his own. Nicolai was acquainted with and agreed to the plans, accepting a minor facilitating role. Vissarion's scheme would probably have worked too, if grievous personal tragedy had not intervened.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

The city was in the Byzantine Empire until 1361, when it was conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Murat I, who made it his capital. By 1392, most of Edirne's Orthodox Christian churches had been converted into mosques. Much other construction work had been undertaken to build or improve other religious complexes, bridges, bazaars, caravanserais and palaces. In one of the latter, 3½ years old Mehmed, first son of the present ruler, Bayezid I, played on his own. However, the infant would soon have a new, similarly aged, playmate.

Vladimir was a Christian Slav, recently captured during one of Bayezid's Balkan campaigns. The blue-eyed fair-haired 3 years old had been bought at public slave auction by the Sultan's chief eunuch. The infant had been selected for his beauty because his much later duties might be sufficiently manifold to include his new adult owner's bed. However, the petrified youngster was currently unconcerned about his future because he was more worried about the present.

Vladimir had been strapped, naked and spreadeagled, to an old table, discoloured over the years by the spilling of much blood on its smooth surface. The infant was too young to appreciate that the grim cellar he was in, and the table he was on, had now been the scene for a couple of decades of the creation of the Sultan's many white and black eunuchs. However, the 3 years old was mature enough to know, as an ancient blade was applied to the middle of his tiny scrotum, that something awful was about to happen.

(Kashan, Persia, December 1392)

Tamerlane's army was wintering outside Kashan. The conqueror spent much of the daytime without his boys, the sad circumstance being necessitated by their need for education. He had sacrificed the very pleasant daylight company of Vissarion and Nicolai, as well as of Rezan, so that they could be with their tutors, although all concerned knew that the young Georgian and Muscovite, at least, would prefer to be with their master. Meanwhile, Arman was rapidly and very efficiently learning the arts of cavalry warfare from Sibur.

Tamerlane usually spent much of this winter's daytime either in audience or counsel, ruling his lands and planning the military campaigns that would start the following spring, or out hunting with his bodyguard. However, he appreciated, from their joyous nighttime company, that his boys were up to something in relation to Rezan. He had decided not to interrogate them over the matter to discover what was going on, although he knew that he would easily be able to elicit the information from Nicolai. He would not have required his torturer for the task, even though the young Muscovite would try his best not to be a traitor to the cause. Instead, the conqueror could simply have resorted to his usual practice when he wanted the boy to confess to something, for the 12 years old was readily intimidated by tickling.

Tamerlane was therefore unaware, as he slept soundly with Vissarion and Nicolai under the huge bearskin that kept out the winter chill, that his boys had not yet put their plans into action, although a start was imminent. Rezan, slumbering alone in his adjacent compartment, also did not appreciate the fact that he was the centre of a conspiracy. However, the plot was to be foiled before it even began.

Rezan, always a light sleeper, was woken by low strange noises, apparently emanating from just outside the tent entrance. He then heard more sounds, unusual not for what they represented but for where they were now originating.

Rezan perceived the undoubted noise of footsteps in Tamerlane's bed compartment, although there was a clear attempt to mute the sound. The young Persian knew that no one should be creeping into the conqueror's normally well guarded tent at any time, let alone the middle of the night. The 10 years old therefore stole from his own lonely bed to peek through the separating flap that represented the door between his sleeping compartment and that of his overlord.

Tamerlane's bedroom was a myriad of dark shadows, with the only light provided by a small night oil lamp located on a table in one corner. However, the illumination was sufficient for the sharp-eyed Rezan to spot a reflection on the metallic blade held by the adult male intruder, which also appeared to be shedding liquid droplets onto the floor. The young Persian immediately put two and two together and shouted, as loud as he could, "Assassin!"

The startled would-be killer, a bearded middle-aged cavalryman of Tamerlane's own army, stopped his furtive advance towards the conqueror's bed and turned to see who had raised the alarm. He seemed satisfied that it was only a young unarmed boy, a factor that should enable him still to proceed to accomplish his knowingly suicidal mission before effective help could be summoned. He had already disposed of the two guards on watch outside the tent, who had thought him a friend until he stabbed them, causing his knife now to drip with their blood. The assassin therefore returned to his original progression but now speeded by the realisation that his intended victim would be stirring.

Tamerlane was indeed waking up but only very slowly because he had been in deep sleep. However, Vissarion, nearest on the bed to the would-be murderer, was roused instantly by Rezan's call and observed the assassin's now rapid approach, knife ready to plunge into the conqueror. The young Georgian knew that there was only one way that he could save his master's life and he took it, bravely moving his own gorgeous naked body in the way of the thrusting blade. The metal penetrated deep into the boy's chest.

The would-be killer, now kneeling on the bearskin and furious that his first attempt to murder Tamerlane had been thwarted by the catamite, then withdrew his knife from the collapsed Vissarion's limp form to launch another strike. However, he had fatally ignored the boy who had been sleeping on the other side of the conqueror.

As the assassin's blade was about to plunge into the correct, still sleep-befuddled target, the man's eyes suddenly glazed over and he was dead before, with a neatly timed push, his own killer shoved him onto the floor. Nicolai looked with contempt at the body on the ground, with the boy's own knife squarely embedded in the middle of the would-be murderer's back, the young Muscovite having always kept such a weapon close to him, ever since his escape from Mongol captivity. However, the 12 years old's attention quickly refocused on the unconscious Vissarion.

(Kashan, Persia, the next morning)

The poison had apparently originally been contained in a small distinctive phial carried by the assassin but no one could identify the toxin and therefore an antidote. "Are you telling me you can't do anything for him?" Tamerlane screamed at the large retinue of doctors that had attended Vissarion in the conqueror's tent. None immediately answered, being too fearful of the consequences.

Vissarion's deep chest wound had been proficiently tended and bandaged but he had not regained consciousness since the assassination attempt, perpetrated by the aggrieved brother of a general beheaded earlier in the year for plotting against Tamerlane. The young Georgian's temperature had also risen to fever point and his breathing was becoming shallower and shallower. His ashen face was matched by those of Arman and Nicolai, who lay on the conqueror's bed, either side of their fallen friend, with each holding one of his hands. Tears also regularly dropped from the visages of the young Armenian and Muscovite onto the bearskin below.

It would have been Vissarion's 16th birthday the next day but it did not look as if the young Georgian would now live that long.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

"Lord Mehmed," the chief of the castrated Ottoman servants announced, "this is your own eunuch, come to serve you!"

(Kashan, Persia, same time)

It was Rezan's beautiful face that peered up at Tamerlane, whilst the boy's hand maintained a firm grip on that of the conqueror. "These men," the young Persian quietly suggested, whilst again displaying maturity beyond his tender years, "cannot help Vissarion without the antidote. I have a proposal as to how the potion might be secured!"

It was Sibur and Arman who were charged with the commission to find the antidote and, in order to do so, they had moved to the middle of the main central square of the adjacent city of Kashan. They stood behind a trellis table on a hastily erected low wooden platform, surrounded by some of Tamerlane's own bodyguard. On one side of them on the dais rested a large open chest, full of gold and silver coins and jewels, extracted from Tamerlane's mobile treasury and representing enormous wealth. On the other side, was a bloodstained block of wood, used previously in the decapitation of many victims of the conqueror's displeasure.

The governor of Kashan, recently appointed by Tamerlane, had proficiently spread news of the conqueror's offer throughout his city, using his full complement of military and civilian officers and servants. The new ruler of the metropolis had no intention of being called to account for any lack of effort on his part to save his master's catamite. Meanwhile, Sibur had unsheathed his sabre in order to demonstrate to the huge crowd, rapidly gathering around him and Arman, his intent to fulfil one aspect of the issued challenge.

The desperate Tamerlane had liked Rezan's suggestion and had had it immediately implemented, whilst he went to replace Arman in performing the vigil on his own bed. However, a young Persian maintained a firm grip on one manly palm whilst the conqueror's other hand held that of a young dying Georgian.

Rezan's plan was simple. He reasoned that the assassin had likely acquired the poison in Kashan and that an antidote, if there was one, and there usually was if only to rectify mistakes, should be available there too, probably from the same provider. The latter would therefore have to be advised that, for supplying the toxin, he would be given amnesty, an act justified because he almost certainly would not have been told what it was to be used for, even if he wanted to know, which would be debatable. He would also need to be told that there was a great reward ready to be collected for the required corrective substance, demonstrated by the chest on the platform. However, to save not only precious time but also Vissarion from absorbing useless palliatives, wastrels needed to be discouraged.

There was a fear that the immense reward could attract apothecaries willing to guess at the antidote. These would be dissuaded from such action by the presence of the chopping block and Sibur's sabre, for the price of prescribing an unsuccessful potion would be decapitation. Nevertheless, a large line of people formed to examine the little phial, the sole item placed on the table positioned on the platform. The queue comprised those who hoped to identify, from sight or smell, the earlier contents of the small container. Many of these personages could not be deterred in case someone could indeed recognise the poison and cure, although their numbers were efficiently lessened by some of the city governor's staff who asked questions about their qualifications for such a task.

In the event, no one took the risk of suggesting an antidote until, after several hours, an old wizened woman reached the front of the queue and took one look and sniff at the phial. Arman somehow knew instinctively that she had the antidote and this was confirmed by the production from her pocket of a similarly distinctive small container, along with a broad grin that revealed her gross black teeth.

Arman grabbed the new phial and leapt from the platform onto his horse. Escorted by waiting cavalry, the young Armenian rode out of Kashan to the nearby army encampment as fast as he could. Sibur remained behind with the old woman, ready to enrich her if the potion proved effective or use his sword if her prescription was false.

As Arman and his mounted escort speeded out of Kashan's gates and through Tamerlane's vast crowded camp, the surrounds were even more eerily quiet than before. However, in his rush, the young Armenian took little notice until he jumped off his horse outside the conqueror's tent. It was then that the boy realised that something terrible had happened.

There was hardly a dry eye amongst the experienced fighting men who encircled Tamerlane's canopy, from where sounds of loud wailing emerged. However, it was the sight of Nicolai, crying profusely as he stepped out into the daylight from the tent, that caused Arman's heart to sink. Nevertheless, the young Armenian shouted hopefully to the young Muscovite, as he speedily approached his 12 years old friend, "I have it. I have the antidote!"

Nicolai's lovely blue eyes, besmirched by tears, looked up into Arman's rightly deeply apprehensive face.

"You're too late," the young Muscovite replied, between sobs, "for our beloved Vissarion is dead!"

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