Pueros

Tamerlane's Boys

Chapters 22-26

Chapter 22
Squires

Teimuraz learns some new duties.

(Persia, September 1393)

"I'll have whoever did this to you beheaded," Tamerlane had angrily announced at viewing Arman, giving cause for the older pair of his boys to wonder whether the conqueror had somehow learnt about the happenings at the Spadonis Monastery. However, the duo were quickly and happily purged of this fear when it became clear that their horrified master was referring to the young Armenian's terrible haircut, which Vissarion had been unable to do much to put right.

Fearing for the life of his closest friend's innocent barber, Vissarion, as usual quickest in formulating a diplomatic solution to a problem whilst telling no lies, responded truthfully "I'm afraid the perpetrators were the monks of the Spadonis Monastery. However, Arman volunteered to have his head shorn to show respect to the monastic order during his visit. I'm sure his lovely silky long brown hair will grow back to its former splendour soon, unless you want him decapitated first for his action." As usual, the young Georgian's soothing, and latterly amusing, words, and accompanying sweet smile, completely disarmed the dreaded conqueror, whose annoyance immediately dissipated.

The conqueror's ominous scowl immediately turned to a broad grin and he declared "No, I'll forego the pleasure of separating Arman's lovely head from his sublime neck, or doing similar to the beautiful wise Vissarion for suggesting such a thing. Instead, I'll just elevate the former miscreant to captain in my army and the latter to adviser on my council!" Such advancement for ones so young was unprecedented. Yet, most appreciated that they were based on genuine ability and not just on Tamerlane's love for his boys, especially as time would prove the genuine worth of the promotions.

Naturally, Tamerlane delighted in the happy celebratory embraces that instantly engulfed him from the young Georgian and Armenian, and in which his equally cheerful younger boys soon joined.

Vissarion, rightfully hoping that Arman's stamina might be up to entertaining a young Georgian prostrate once more, had begun to revive the large Armenian cock with his rosy lips, and the eager tongue contained within, when Teimuraz disturbed them. The 10 years old was supposed to be out riding with Tamerlane, Nicolai, Rezan and Yaroslav to practise his developing horsemanship. Accordingly, the boy was not due back for several more hours.

Vissarion immediately terminated his oral activities and both he and Arman tried to cover their embarrassment with the latest bearskin on Tamerlane's bed. If the unexpected intruder had been the conqueror, Nicolai or Rezan, the young Georgian and Armenian would not have bothered with such attempts to disguise their recent action. They were accustomed to occasional discovery in such compromising positions by their master and his younger boys, who not only did not mind such play but also often joined in such activity.

Tamerlane also sometimes commissioned such entertainment from his boys, as a visual aperitif before indulging himself. Performances requiring an erection somewhere had so far necessitated Arman's presence, something Sibur might have been secretly jealous, but never complained, about. However, 10 years old Rezan's burgeoning awareness of his sexual desires and capabilities led all to believe that the young Persian might attempt to tickle the prostrates of the conqueror's beautiful young eunuchs, Vissarion and Nicolai, sooner rather than later. Such belief was reinforced by the clear rapid growth of the boy's cock, which was now very big for someone of his tender age because of the frequent manual and oral attentions his master afforded to its delicious smooth form.

Rezan now regularly experienced gorgeously intense orgasms. However, the lovely brown haired and eyed boy did not yet produce any milky sperm whilst doing so, his pleasant sexual organs preferring to discharge copious clear fluid at this stage of his genital development. Nevertheless, Vissarion and Nicolai often looked at the boy's erection with furtive covetousness, caused not only be their own sense of loss but also by a desire to feel the growing shape inside them. Happily, the pair of resplendent eunuchs would not have to wait long to enjoy such pleasure.

For Vissarion and Arman, however, thoughts of Rezan were not currently at the forefront of their minds. They were instead unusually embarrassed at having been caught at sexual play because Teimuraz, immaculate beauty now blossoming after being well cared for, apart from a terrifying sojourn in a certain monastery, for a while now, had been sheltered from such activity, or so the young Georgian and Armenian thought.

Neither Vissarion nor Arman had known that ever since Teimuraz had spent the first night with the older pair, in the tent in the north Georgian town, where he had first quietly seen their lovemaking, he had since regularly sought to spy on such activity. The 10 years old squire always slept in the tent occupied by his young master, whether the canopy belonged to Tamerlane or Sibur, and would often pretend to be asleep until the inevitable nighttime activity began. Then a little eyelid would be raised for a lovely brown eye to peer through the lantern-lit gloom to watch the nocturnal action.

Since becoming Arman's squire, Teimuraz had furtively watched his young master make love, in all sorts of varied ways, to Vissarion, Nicolai and Rezan in the conqueror's tent and, of course, Sibur in the cavalry officer's own canopy. The young Armenian's body was now a little too old for Tamerlane's tastes, but this did not deflect from the man enjoying the sight of the 16 years old having sex with his other boys.

Teimuraz had becoming increasingly excited at what he had seen, evidenced by invariable growth to full rigidity of his own cock, something he had not previously knowingly experienced. This caused the 10 years old to indulge in something he had not practised before. Whenever he watched the love-play, the boy began to rub his hard penis.

At first, such penile attention did not lead to anything. Then, one night, when he saw the sublime bodies of both Arman and Vissarion shudder in acute orgasm, as the young Armenian flooded the young Georgian with much sperm, delighting his friend's prostrate in the process, Teimuraz's smaller, but nevertheless delectable form and member quaked in ecstatic sympathy. As the 10 years old curled up, whilst experiencing unparalleled delight, albeit of a dry nature, his mind begged him for more.

Teimuraz had already experienced some jealousy at missing out on nighttime companionship but his first successful masturbation only intensified the emotion. He knew that somehow he had to involve himself in his master's nocturnal games. For his part, Arman, despite fancying his new squire, especially now that the boy's former scrawny form had filled out because of good diet, had remained determined not to force himself on the 10 years old. Instead, the young Armenian insisted to himself that the youngster would have to make the first move and demonstrate that he truly wanted to be bedded.

Arman knew that Teimuraz loved him, but felt that such emotion only stemmed from thankfulness at the 10 years old's salvation from destitution and not from other growing mental or physical desires. The young Armenian was therefore resigned to the fact that he might never enjoy his young squire's many delightful bodily attributes. However, the 16 years old was now to be disabused about this notion.

Teimuraz, who had returned early from riding because a hidden hole had caused his horse to stumble and go lame, initially blushed at interrupting his master's exceptional daytime activity with Vissarion. However, the redness of his face was not as deep as the shades displayed on the beautiful visages of the embarrassed young Armenian and Georgian. The hues on the 16 years olds intensified even more, this time in shock, when they now saw that the unexpected 10 years old intruder was beginning to strip.

Teimuraz has seen his chance of introducing himself fully to the delights of shared sex and was determined not to deny himself the pleasure. However, the 10 years old's hands shook in nervous excitement, causing his disrobing to be prolonged. Meanwhile, Arman and Vissarion looked on speechless, although the young Armenian's cock no longer needed his 16 years old friend's oral attentions to restore the penile member to full rigidity.

Teimuraz, growing impatient, eventually virtually ripped his remaining garments off his gorgeous body, causing several buttons to spill onto the carpeted floor. However, the 10 years old's aim was then quickly achieved and his marvellous naked form, displaying a small but proudly quivering erection, advanced towards the pair of still quiescent nude 16 years old's on Tamerlane's bed.

Teimuraz then boldly enquired "Can I play too?" There was no verbal response from the bed. In fact, the only immediate reaction of Arman and Vissarion, apart from a matching throbbing of the young Armenian's own fulsome cock, was the parting of their splendid 16 years old bodies, as well as their bearskin cover, to permit the naked young squire to lay between them.

Vissarion's immediate thought was that perhaps he too should acquire a beautiful young squire, one with a substantial penis to entertain the young Georgian eunuch whenever he wanted. However, such considerations were soon subsumed when three sets of searching hands and lips began passionately to explore new domains, with the gelded member of the trio pleasuring in the experience as much as his rampant partners.

For the beautiful Teimuraz, the next few hours in the conqueror's bed, with two of Tamerlane's boys, was another defining moment in his young life.

Chapter 23
Zoroastrians

Vissarion somehow manages to put himself in peril again, whilst Arman visits another religious community and the young Armenian's new squire meets sinister strangers.

(Shiraz, Persia, September 1393)

Nicolai's younger brother, Yaroslav, currently safe elsewhere and dressed in Muscovy style, had still not found a function in life. It was too dangerous to attempt to return the 8 years old to his family, who were normally resident in Serpukhov, a city to the south of Moscow, because the boy's father was the local appanage prince. The journey would have entailed highly precarious passage through the lands of the Mongol Golden Horde, led by Toqtamish.

Yaroslav was instead just tagging along with Tamerlane's rightly feared army in the company of his older brother and his friends, amongst whom the dreaded 57 years old conqueror was numbered. The 8 years old was biding his time until circumstances permitted him to return safely to Rus.

No-one knew when this might be but everyone assumed that the appropriate situation would arise when Tamerlane and Toqtamish crossed swords again, which was considered by most to be inevitable. Meanwhile, Yaroslav waited, relatively content with his present company and associated interesting travels, despite apparently missing his parents, especially his mother, and his siblings more than Nicolai, who had no intention of returning to his homeland, apart from rare visits to see his family.

Nicolai's attitude was caused by two factors. First, the boy found his current adventurous life and marvellous friends respectively too exciting and too delightful to abandon, even for family. Second, as a eunuch, the 12 years old now felt that he had no future in Rus, where attitudes to gelded males might actually also make existence unpleasant.

Meanwhile, Teimuraz, was also finding his present life, as squire and occasional bedfellow of Arman, too agreeable to want to move, especially as he was still beholden to his youthful master for his salvation from street destitution. The 10 year-old's attitude was fortified by now being treated by the young Armenian and his friends, including Tamerlane, as if he was a member of an extended regal family rather than a lowly servant.

In fact, as Teimuraz grew older, he began to appreciate that Tamerlane and his boys were, for all intents and purposes, a close-knit family group. The young Georgian squire also began to feel very happy at, and proud of, his inclusion in the quasi-familial assemblage.

Vissarion himself was also currently very happy and proud. However, the young Georgian's present emotions stemmed from acting for the first time as a formal adviser on Tamerlane's large council, members of which were now all sitting, with the conqueror, cross-legged in their leader's large tent, around a low table. The latter was covered with bowls of exotic fruit and other snack delicacies.

The counsellors, amongst whom the beautiful, but diminutively boyish, young Vissarion appeared rather incongruous until he spoke, had all been given golden goblets by the efficient Nicolai and Rezan. Only the young Georgian newcomer rejected local wine for the filling of the precious vessels, with the 16 years old instead preferring fruit juice.

Vissarion's attitude was not a critical reflection on the wine produced at the time in the environs of the Persian city of Shiraz because the local viniculture was renowned for excellent quality. The young Georgian's restraint stemmed instead from the fact that he had determined to remain a lifelong teetotaler, never wanting his wise mind befuddled by alcohol. This objective did not arise because of ascetic sanctimoniousness, but rather because the 16 years old reasoned that his mental processes were already too often disturbed by love and associated sex.

Shiraz had been sacked by Tamerlane five years earlier but never formally absorbed into his domains. However, given continued unrest in Persia, the conqueror had decided to rectify this situation and so had returned once more to demand the city's permanent submission.

Much of Shiraz had been destroyed, and many of the city's people killed, during Tamerlane's last visit because the citizenry had tried to defy the conqueror. In fact, the only reason the metropolis was not completely levelled, as many other resistant communities had been, especially the double-crossing rebellious Isfahan, was because of the existence of one resident.

Shiraz is picturesquely situated [over 200 modern miles] south of Isfahan in a pleasant climate, on a high plain surrounded by the Zagros Mountains. As well as viniculture, the fertile location is conducive to growing a number of other agricultural products, such as cereals and sugar beet. Textiles and rugs remain to this day other famed local products. The city, at times the Persian capital, was also the birthplace of two renowned Muslim poets, Sadi, who lived 1184 to 1291, and Hafiz, who was still alive, albeit a very old man, when Tamerlane last visited.

Tamerlane, although by no means a devout Muslim himself, was interested in Hafiz's works, not least because some appeared to be highly critical of the conqueror, and so he had spared Shiraz complete devastation in return for a meeting with the great poet and other local men of learning. The conqueror wanted the writer to explain himself, intending to secure either a retraction of any intended criticisms or the old man's head.

Tamerlane knew that he would have to go about the latter task carefully, as he did not want to upset fellow Muslims, especially similar Islamic scholars and writers who could cause internal religious strife within his growing Empire. However, the conqueror believed that, if necessary, he could organise an acceptable excuse to silence the aged poet through decapitation.

Tamerlane prepared for this eventuality by having his own Islamic scholars analyse Hafiz's works to identify controversial passages, which might be used against the poet to discredit him in the Muslim world. They eventually provided the conqueror with a number of contentious phrases that could be interpreted as blasphemous.

In the event, recording the meeting with Hafiz was one of Vissarion's first scriptural commissions for his master, when the beautiful young Georgian was just 11 years old but had recently become capably literate in Tamerlane's Turkish dialect. The conqueror had never seen the importance for himself of being able to read or write, especially when his beautiful boys could perform such tasks for him.

(Shiraz, Persia, over 5 years previously, early 1388)

Vissarion accurately recorded for posterity that, at that time, Hafiz was advanced in age, possessing a bent body and very weak eyes. Tamerlane started his diplomatic prosecution by concentrating first on the accusations of blasphemy, not wanting to put his own personal grievances before those of God. The conqueror began by asking the poet "Did you compose the verse that reads…." The young Georgian eunuch, in his high boyish tones, then completed the question, being the one capable of reading the relevant quotation from a scroll. "'Sakinan-i haram-i sitr-u 'afaf-i malakut ba-man-i rah nishin bada-yi mastana zadand'?" the 11 year old said.

Vissarion wrote that Hafiz responded "O Amir, my eyes are weak, and I cannot see you properly but I can hear well your voice, and that of your young servant. Yes, I composed that poem."

Tamerlane responded "You have uttered blasphemy in this poem, because you have spoken of God as if He has a haram-khanah [harem]! Besides this sacrilege you also have disgraced the Almighty by saying that His women, having abandoned His harem, have joined you on the side of the road in drinking and revelry."

Hafiz answered "O Amir, there is nothing that is blasphemous in what I have said, neither have I disgraced the Almighty. In the first misra' of this bayt, I have talked about 'sakinan-i haram-i sitr-u 'afaf-i malakut'. The two words 'sitr' and ''afaf' indicate that, by a harem for God, I am not referring to an ordinary harem but rather I am referring to a mysterious harem. I am talking about a harem the mystery of which is not known, one in which only chastity rules. Besides, I have not said that there are women in the harem of God. In fact, I have not made any mention of women. I have talked about the 'sakinan-i haram' [residents of the harem] and not the 'zanha-yi haram' [women of the harem]. I have made no reference to a haram-khanah in a secular sense. I have talked about a haram as a place that is so holy no stranger can gain entrance. I composed this poem, on a midnight in spring. The weather was pleasant and I could smell the scent of the flowers in the air. My heart was filled with 'wajd' [ecstasy] and I could hear the nightingales sing. At the time of the composition of this poem, I was so engrossed in ecstasy and joy that I felt that I was participating in the very existence of the universe. It was as if heavenly angels were living within me, and I was transformed into an angel. It was under the influence of this moment of wajd that I composed this verse."

A frustrated Tamerlane, clearly defeated on the opening topic, then changed subject by asking "Why in your second misra' did the 'sakinan-i haram-i sitr-u 'afaf-i malakut', or, as you put it, the 'heavenly angels', drink wine with you? You well know that drinking wine is forbidden!" With this question, the conqueror was actually being very hypocritical because he regularly personally indulged in the product of the grape.

Hafiz replied "O Amir, drinking wine is a Sufic idiom. It does not refer to drinking wine in the general sense. It alludes to the acquisition of knowledge from the perfect ones. However, in the same way that ordinary wine, the drinking of which is not allowed, causes intoxication, the acquisition of knowledge from the initiate also induces a similar drunkenness for the seeker. For the Sufi, the may-khanah [tavern] is a place where this type of wine is used. The tavern is a place where one acquires knowledge of the unknown. In that spring midnight, I was so overwhelmed by ecstasy that I felt the presence of heavenly angels as they talked with me. It was as if they were disclosing the secrets of creation to me. Thus, when I say that they were drinking wine with me, I am merely expressing my feelings at that moment."

Tamerlane now enquired "What were the secrets that they told you?" Hafiz advised "O Amir, during that late night, I imagined that the heavenly angels were disclosing the secrets of the universe to me. However, that was merely a feeling invented by my imagination and, because it was impossible for me to verbalise the images that crossed my mind, I versified those feelings. Every 'arif [mystic], when he is immersed in deep thought, experiences certain feelings that he cannot verbalize, and some of these feelings are inexplicable. One cannot describe these feelings in words, be it in poetry or in prose, because one can describe only such senses as coldness, softness and roughness. When discussing these sensations, people can easily understand what is being said. However, inner and metaphysical feelings are not describable in the same way. If we attempt to describe these, our very intent will remain a question for the hearer. I think that anyone, even one who is not an 'arif, upon hearing late in the night the singing of the nightingale, and the sound of the adhan [call to prayer], at that time of the night, when the air is redolent with the scent of flowers, experiences certain feelings that he cannot put into words. This is why, at that time, I could not describe what those imaginary angels were telling me and this is why now I cannot express what the secrets that they were discussing with me were. Otherwise, I would have put all that, too, into verse."

It was already evident to the young Vissarion that Hafiz was too clever to be trapped into self-incrimination, either for blasphemy or libel, and so it proved. Fortunately, Tamerlane did not become angry in frustration at his inability to pin a successful charge on the poet. Instead, as he heard the old man's ingenious, eloquent and profoundly earnest defensive arguments, the dreaded conqueror's original chagrin at the Muslim scholar's accusatory works became subsumed by admiration for the person who had formulated them.

Tamerlane's fundamental change in attitude occurred despite recognising that Hafiz would undoubtedly continue, for as long as he could, to exercise a right to free speech to be critical of the conqueror. However, Vissarion helped to overcome any residual acrimonious and potentially fatal reservations, to which his master might have clung in respect of the poet, to aid the transformation.

As the straight-faced Hafiz had proceeded with his various defensive verbal acrobatics, Tamerlane began to hear muffled chuckles coming from the direction of his beautiful young eunuch. This then induced the conqueror to glance frequently towards Vissarion, who was now to display a broad grin on his sublime face throughout the remainder of the debate. The disarmingly sweet smile would also occasionally be accompanied by a titter whenever the old poet devised a particularly adroit retort to accusations, despite the boy's attempts to subdue what might be construed as rude disrespect, although the chortles actually conveyed the opposite.

In response, Tamerlane's anger at Hafiz collapsed and he now only prolonged his meeting with the great poet to enjoy, in tandem with Vissarion, more of the old man's nuncupative ingenuity. By the eventual end of the meeting, the conqueror's admiring smirk was as broad as that of his gorgeous young catamite.

Accordingly, Tamerlane and Hafiz departed on good terms, with the former now generously agreeing to cause no more harm to Shiraz and accepting that he would simply have to tolerate occasional poetic reproach by the latter. It was one of the first times since the destruction of Isfahan that the dreaded conqueror's originally dark intentions were to be influenced for the better by one of his boys. It foreboded the future and was also a development that had not gone unnoticed by the aged guest.

Vissarion had the dutiful responsibility to guide Hafiz out of Tamerlane's tent, after the two men had made their now genuinely respectful farewells. Before the old poet advanced to the waiting horse-drawn wagon, which would take him back to Shiraz, he turned to the young Georgian and said "Thank you, boy, not only for your kindness in serving me with your master's munificent hospitality and recording our meeting, but also for saving my life!"

"What do you mean, sir?" enquired a puzzled Vissarion, who was unaware of the role he had just played in changing Tamerlane's attitude. "Oh, don't you know?" Hafiz asked rhetorically before advising, with a little sarcasm intended to tease rather than insult, "I'm sure that my head and body would have left your master's tent separately if you hadn't shown such friendly regard for my responses to the conqueror's questions!"

The bent, almost blind, old poet then shuffled off towards his wagon. He was guided most of the way by some of his literary disciples, who rushed forward to greet him. They had earlier fearfully accompanied their hero to this potentially fatal rendezvous with the dreaded Tamerlane and had awaited his re-emergence from the conqueror's tent with due anxiety.

Later, one of these pupils returned to the huge encampment of Tamerlane's army to deliver a present from Hafiz to Vissarion. It was a scroll, inscribed with one of the great poet's greatest works.

Despite being a Christian, reading the scroll caused Vissarion to shed some tears. When a concerned Arman, a very new acquaintance at that time, asked "What's wrong?", the young Georgian answered "The words seem to reach into my very soul!" The young Armenian could not verify the truth of his new friend's declaration, because he could not yet read the language concerned, and so tried to show empathy instead by giving his fellow 11 years old a hug.

Hafiz died of natural causes soon afterwards and he was interred in Shiraz within a splendid tomb, extant today.

The scroll given to Vissarion by Hafiz was to remain amongst the Georgian's closest possessions until the day that he too died, with the poet's words gripped in his left hand. His right hand was occupied by something else.

(Shiraz, Persia, over 5 years later, September 1393)

Many of the advisers who spoke first appeared to Vissarion to be playing on their leader's clear anger at the apparent distrust of the local ruler, evident by his unneeded solicitation. The young Georgian perceptively decided that they were doing so for one of two motives. The first was simple obsequiousness, whereby the counsellors concerned just agreed with Tamerlane's apparent attitude, whatever that might be, whilst the second was greed. After all, it was the violent sacking of cities rather than their peaceful surrender that led to most profit for the dreaded conqueror's chief lieutenants.

"What do you think?" Tamerlane eventually asked of his newest and youngest adviser, having already heard a number of unanimous opinions suggesting the besieging, and subsequent pillaging and devastation, of Shiraz. Vissarion had remained quiet so far whilst the others had made their cases for violent action because of understandable reserve at attending his first council amongst the many adults, either grizzled generals or long-serving officials. However, the 16 years old now summoned up the courage to disagree with all of the previous speakers.

"I understand," the young eunuch propounded, in his high-pitched boyish voice, "that an immediate assault on Shiraz is not advisable because much of our specialist siege equipment, being so slow to transport, not only hasn't yet arrived here but won't be here for many more days. I therefore suggest that, given that we have the time and before we commit ourselves to any other action, we should send a return emissary to advise the city's prince that Tamerlane gives no guarantees to any city. The conqueror's treatment of any metropolis will entirely depend upon its treatment of him."

"I would ask the emissary also to appraise the local prince," Vissarion proceeded, "that Tamerlane already feels insulted by Shiraz and to ask the local ruler whether he wants to compound this affront by continuing to withhold the city's hospitality from the conqueror. It is my humble opinion that not only will the city gates soon be opened but also the reception afforded to our master will be bounteous indeed."

"I give this advice," Vissarion added, with what he cleverly perceived would be the clinching argument with Tamerlane, "whilst recognising that Shiraz is the city of Hafiz and houses the tomb of the great writer, whom I know is revered by our master. Despite our understandable annoyance at the local prince's impertinent attitude, I believe that we should temper our response, if we can, out of respect for the late renowned poet."

Tamerlane pondered Vissarion's sage advice for a few moments before bursting into laughter. However, the conqueror's reaction was not one of insult at puerile counsel but rather one of delight at receiving such mature, considered and well-expressed wisdom.

As Tamerlane subsequently accepted Vissarion's advice and declared that the only other issue to be resolved in respect of the subject was the identity of the emissary, many adult faces round the table furtively looked with fury at the young eunuch. Many of those not in the conqueror's closest inner circle knew little about the intellectual capabilities of the young Georgian and already resented the fact that someone, who looked little more than 14 years old and was, in their prejudiced eyes, a mere bumboy, was amongst their supposedly learned number. The fact that the catamite had now dashed their hopes for a nice bit of highly profitable rape and pillage only reinforced their resentment, which nevertheless was carefully disguised as no-one wanted to anger the short-tempered conqueror by undiplomatically attacking his young male whore.

Unfortunately for Vissarion, one of the most embittered counsellors was not going to let the matter rest. This was the reason why the quick-thinking general concerned, a middle-aged man by the name of Qazagh, nominated the young Georgian to be the emissary to Shiraz, announcing that it was only right that the purveyor of such wise counsel be given the honour of carrying out the agreed policy. Although the beautiful 16 years old was delighted to agree, Tamerlane was very unhappy with the suggestion, not wanting to endanger his beloved young eunuch. However, the conqueror also appreciated that denying his catamite the commission would be to demean him in front of the other counsellors and so, with undisclosed reluctance, he agreed to the appointment.

Within a few hours, after the conclusion of his first council meeting, Vissarion, escorted by his normal cavalry bodyguard, was riding on his splendid steed towards Shiraz. The city was a good distance away because Tamerlane had, as usual, sensibly encamped his forces beyond the range of effective surprise excursions by cavalry from the metropolis, which was a possibility despite the fact that no siege had commenced and negotiations about submission were being undertaken.

Unfortunately for Vissarion and his mission, a lone horseman had already been secretly despatched to Shiraz by Qazagh. The general's aim was to nullify the message and eliminate the messenger.

(Yadz, Persia, same time)

Yazd, [almost 200 modern miles] northeast of Shiraz across the Zagros Mountains, is one of the oldest cities in the world. The metropolis, through which Marco Polo once passed on his way to China, is located on the Silk Road, at the edge of the Dash-e-Kavir desert.

Yazd has long been an important centre of Zoroastrianism, a gentle religion that pre-dates most other faiths and which exerted significant influence on Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Nevertheless, adherents were regularly attacked and persecuted over the centuries by followers of other doctrines, so much so that worshippers were sadly pitiful in number by Tamerlane's time, a situation that remains to this day.

Arman, in line with his perpetual interest to learn more about other faiths, had sought and obtained Tamerlane's permission to visit Yadz, an arduous journey from Shiraz that took four days to complete in the company of his squire and some of his cavalrymen. The young Muslim Armenian had great respect for the other main religions of the known world, not least because he now recognised the links between them all and firmly believed that they all sought to serve, in their own way, the same God.

For example, Arman had concluded that Islam was just a development of Christianity, which in turn had evolved from Judaism. The young Armenian now wanted to see whether all three faiths actually owed their origins to more ancient Zoroastrianism. However, the 16 years old knew that his visit to Yadz had to be brief because his military duties necessitated a quick return to Shiraz in case Tamerlane was forced to take that city by force.

Arman had taken the opportunity of the brief respite, afforded by the negotiations between Tamerlane and Shiraz's prince, over the terms of the city's submission, and the delay in arrival of the vital siege equipment, to make his visit. The young Armenian's decision to travel was aided by appreciation of the fact that, even if the necessary assault apparatus arrived and the conqueror resolved to attack the southern metropolis forthwith whilst the youth was away, many days of preliminary technical manoeuverings would be required before the fighting started. The 16 years old intended to return in time for the latter. He might be a devout worshipper of a God but his beliefs did not extend to wanting to fail in his duty to the conqueror or miss out on exciting military action.

Arman received a marvellous welcome and excellent hospitality from Yadz's Zoroastrian community, who were very happy to tell the very friendly and obviously interested young Muslim about their beliefs. The 16 years old soon began to realise that Zoroastrianism was not only probably the oldest world religion but also possibly had achieved more influence on mankind, directly and indirectly, than any other single faith.

The faith was founded in Persia, sometime between 1500 and 1000 BC, by Zarathushtra, known locally and in India as 'Zarthosht' and in Greek as 'Zoroaster'. He preached monotheism, including beliefs relating to God and Satan, heaven and hell, the soul, a saviour, resurrection and a final judgment, in a land that then followed aboriginal polytheistic beliefs. He was originally attacked for his teaching but finally won the support of the king, with his creed eventually becoming the state religion of various Persian empires until the 7th Century AD.

When Muslim Arabs invaded Persia in 650 AD, and converted most of the population to Islam, some Zoroastrians fled to India. Most Zoroastrians are now concentrated in this latter country in the modern era, although about 18,000, of the estimated 140,000 worldwide adherents, still reside in what is now Iran, chiefly in Yazd, Kernan and Tehran.

The Zoroastrian holy book is called the 'Avesta', which includes the original words of Zarathushtra, preserved in a series of five hymns, known as the 'Gathas'. The latter represent the core text of the religion and are abstract sacred poetry, directed towards the worship of the One God, understanding of righteousness and cosmic order, promotion of social justice and individual choice between good and evil. They propound a three-fold path, best summed up in the motto of the faith, namely 'Good thoughts, good words, good deeds!'

Arman was currently studying the Avesta in the comfortable home of a kind rich Zoroastrian merchant, and in the present company of a young 10 years old named Rashu. The pretty boy, an orphan and distant relative of the host, who was his guardian, had been allocated as a de-facto servant to the young Georgian, to ensure that the guest was afforded every consideration. The mutual language spoken was Persian.

Arman was sitting crosslegged, under a shady tree in his host's large exotic garden, whilst he read the Avesta, with Rashu situated similarly nearby, ready to fetch anything the young Georgian wanted or attempt to answer any questions the 16 years old guest might wish to ask. Meanwhile, the visitor's official servant, his squire Teimuraz, was elsewhere.

The energetic Teimuraz did not want to study the Avesta quietly but wanted to indulge in more adventurous activity. The 10 years old boy was certainly to achieve his aim, after Arman had given him permission to practise his horsemanship once more.

Teimuraz was aware that he was still far from being as proficient as Arman at riding a horse and, as he felt that it was his duty as a squire to keep up with his young master at all times, he took every opportunity to practise the skill. The boy also currently believed that being on his steed, indulging in this exhilarating pastime, was better than sitting reading a religious tome, regardless of how worthy the latter might be.

Arman had told Teimuraz to take some of the cavalrymen as guards on his ride with him and not to stray too far from Yadz. Naturally, as many active 10 years old boys, seeking fun and adventure, would have done in similar circumstances, the young squire complied with neither command.

Accordingly, Teimuraz was currently riding alone, in the desert about five modern miles away from Yadz, and close to the Silk Road as it headed east from the city, when his horse once again managed to find a small hole in which to stumble and become lame. The last time that similar had occurred, the boy had ended up sharing a bed with Arman and Vissarion, whilst his very pleasant smooth genitalia were pleasurably entertained by the young Armenian and Georgian. Unfortunately for the 10 years old, on this occasion, he was to end up somewhere far less pleasant, where his delightful sexual organs were to be the focus of much less gratifying attention.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

The result was Vissarion's immediate arrest and incarceration in a dingy dungeon cell of the local prince's internal citadel. The 16 years old did not yet know, but Qazagh had not only compromised the young emissary's mission but also endangered his life.

(Silk Road, east of Yadz, Persia, same time)

In fact, Teimuraz was about to encounter his first Chinese merchants. Unfortunately for the boy, the traders were of the more unscrupulous variety.

By now, both Teimuraz and his steed were desperate for water in the desert surrounds. Consequently, as they finally encountered the Chinese caravan, the boy asked, in the best local Persian that he could muster, given that he had only recently been introduced to the tongue, the merchant on the leading horse if he could be supplied with a small amount of liquid refreshment.

This man obviously could not understand what Teimuraz was requesting, because he summoned another rider whom he hoped could interpret the boy's words. Fortunately, this merchant did indeed know something of Persian, as he had traded in this part of the world for decades.

As the requested water was fetched, the interpreter, whilst carefully eyeing Teimuraz's delectable slim form, currently covered by simple garb, suitable for horse-riding but nevertheless well made from obviously expensive material, asked the boy what he was doing alone, in this lonely inhospitable location. The 10 years old, grateful to be given a leather canteen of water, was pleased to answer, although, as it turned out, he was too truthful for his own good.

Teimuraz, graciously supplying his own horse first with water from his cupped hands palms, despite his own intense thirst, described the circumstances of his expedition from Yadz for the Chinese merchant. As the large dried tongue of the boy's steed eagerly lapped up the liquid from the 10 years old's palms, the young squire also bemoaned the fact that his master would worry about his late return, especially as the youth did not really know where his servant had gone riding.

Teimuraz wondered at first why this latter revelation induced a broad smile on the interpreter's face, followed by a number of words in Chinese to his mounted companion. The boy's puzzlement intensified when the latter, apparently the leader of the caravan, seemingly shouted orders to more of the mercantile outriders. However, the 10 years old's mystification at the turn of events soon became shocked recognition when several of these traders jumped down from their own steeds to grab the young squire and his lame horse.

"What are you doing?" Teimuraz desperately asked, although he believed that he now already knew the appalling answer. The boy's assumption was proved correct when the interpreter replied "You can come with us to China!" The man then followed up this revelation by instructing his colleagues, in his own native tongue, to "Strip and bind him!"

Teimuraz subsequently struggled and shouted fruitlessly, as he was forcibly disrobed and his hands were then bound tightly behind his now bare back with cord. The naked boy's lovely body was subsequently held firmly whilst the smirking mercantile leader, himself dressed in colourful silks and sporting a traditional Chinese hat and long drooping moustache, also dismounted and approached.

Teimuraz's wondrous form shivered in fright and shame as the senior trader carefully appraised the gorgeous young nude in front of him, before moving his right hand towards the 10 years old's hairless genitalia. The young squire then exclaimed, whilst his smooth sexual organs were being intimately manually and visually inspected, "You can't do this. Let me go. I'm a servant to one of Tamerlane's boys!" However, his entreaties were simply ignored.

Meanwhile, Teimuraz's cock expanded in response to the public attention being afforded to the boy's most private parts until the member, substantial for a 10 years old, was fully erect and throbbing. Fortunately, the manual molester ceased his fondling just before the young squire would have been brought to deeply humiliating dry orgasm.

"Attach him to the others!" the mercantile leader then commanded in Chinese and, in response, the reluctant naked Teimuraz, still displaying his fulsome erection, was dragged towards the middle of the caravan. It was only now, from the boy's fresh perspective, that he saw that the procession did not just comprise mounted horses and wagons.

The tremulous Teimuraz, still uselessly shouting "You can't do this!", now espied the long single column of approximately twenty similarly naked and bound beautiful young boys, positioned between a central pair of wagons. They were all aged between about 7 and 11 and their invariably delightful young bodies were somehow shimmering in the strong sunlight.

Each of the boys' slim necks were connected by rope to youngsters in front and behind, unless they were in the leading or trailing positions, when the lack of a young nude human either before or aft would be rectified by attachment to one of the wagons. Teimuraz, raging thirst temporarily forgotten, quickly found himself attached to the rear of this sad column of young recently purchased slaves, destined for the distant Chinese market where particular types of servant from the west were considered exotic and therefore much sought after.

Teimuraz's neck was attached to that of the naked boy in front, who was a beautiful 11 years old Persian, whose body had apparently been smeared with oil, and to the horse of the wagon behind. The 10 years old Georgian's continued repeated suggestions that "You can't do this!" were then rapidly terminated. One of the men, who had fixed the boy in place, withdrew a small leather crop from his belt and smashed it across the lustrous curves of the noisy newcomer's bottom, terminating the annoying entreaties with a final anguished squeal.

Teimuraz immediately understood the intended message and, after issuing his pained bellow, fell silent. The traumatised boy's marvellous naked body was then covered, from head to toe, in some form of oil, which turned out to be a very necessary and efficient sun blocker that caused his wonderful form to glisten in the bright light.

The caravan then restarted its relentless journey towards the east under the remorseless overhead desert sun and Teimuraz, cock rigidly pointing in the direction of his new destiny, suddenly remembered that he was still very thirsty.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

"No chance," the gruff smelly middle-aged gaoler replied, "as his majesty knows that your mission was perfidious, designed to hand Shiraz easily to Tamerlane for his men to loot and destroy. The prince has no intention of wasting any of his precious time on you. Instead, he's told your master to go away, and take his army with him. Otherwise, if the so-called conqueror attacks the city, your horribly mutilated body will be the first object that one of our defensive catapults will hurl at him!"

"But my mission's genuine," Vissarion desperately pleaded, "and peace will reign, with no harm to Shiraz, if the city opens its gates to Tamerlane." However, the gaoler retorted "That's not what one of our spies tells his majesty and he prefers to believe him than you. Enjoy your bread and water, as, if your master fails to comply with the prince's demand, it may be your last."

Despite attempts to plead his case further, the despondent Vissarion was soon left alone in the cool dark solitude of his tiny cell.

(Silk Road, east of Yadz, Persia, same time)

"Who are they in the wagon ahead?" Teimuraz enquired of the similarly nude young Persian just in front of him. Fortunately, despite his only very recent acquaintance with the local language, the 10 years old's query was understood by the 11 years old.

"Same as us," the young Persian answered, in a sad whisper similar to the one in which the original question had been delivered, "only they've already been nullified and are currently recovering from the experience." The original enquirer did not like the sound of the word 'nullified', even though he did not know what the expression meant. It was therefore with great trepidation that he quietly requested clarification of the phrase.

"They've had their genitals cut off," the young Persian announced, with morose resignation, "just as we'll have ours severed soon!"

"What do you mean by 'just as we'll have ours severed soon'?" an appalled Teimuraz not unnaturally now asked. "I'm sorry," the young Persian replied, "but I didn't realise that you didn't know how the Chinese like to alter attractive boys from the west. They have a lucrative home market for eunuchs with our features and whose genitals have been completely shaved away. The merchants who now have us seem to prefer to prepare their goods in advance, presumably for quick retail turnaround once their eventual destination is reached. I think the only reason why all of us haven't been nullified at the same time is the lack of room in the recovery wagon. However, I'm sure more of us will lose our sexual organs as soon as some of those in the cart ahead can resume their feet and walk again."

A mixture of shock at the young Persian's dreadful revelation, thirst and the almost overwhelming heat, as the caravan made its gradual progress east across the desert, now caused Teimuraz to become light headed. However, the naked boy's resulting faltering progress was corrected by the rope, attached to his neck and dragging him forwards, and another blow of the leather crop from a vigilant attendant outrider. As a consequence, another red stripe formed across the boy's sublime smooth buttocks.

(Yadz, Persia, four days later)

Arman's choice was simple but stark. The young Armenian could remain in Yadz to continue the search for Teimuraz or he could return to Shiraz to try to help Vissarion escape from his alarming predicament.

In the event, Arman knew that there was really only one choice. Despite the young Georgian's affection for his new young squire, the youth could not abandon his oldest and dearest friend to the mercy of the prince of Shiraz. The 16 years old's decision was assisted by consideration of two important factors.

First, the grieving Arman had to accept that Teimuraz was probably already dead, having encountered, four days earlier, some terrible misfortune in the desert around Yadz, where no-one could survive for long. Second, the youth owed his beloved Vissarion, for rescuing the young Armenian from previous personal perils.

Nevertheless, it was with a reluctant and heavy heart that Arman left Yadz, and the delightful Rashu, to take the road southwest, back to Shiraz.

(Silk Road, east of Yadz, Persia, same time)

Tears flowed down Teimuraz's gorgeous face as he finally resigned himself to his fate, just as the young Persian on the trail in front of him had already done. Meanwhile, the first nullified eunuchs had taken the places of the boys at the front of the walking column, with the replaced youngsters now in the recovery wagon.

Teimuraz now appreciated that the Chinese perpetrated their horrifying agonising deed when the caravan rested overnight and they had surmised that previous victims were ready to return to their feet. The 10 years old's recognition of this fact was helped by hearing the muffled screams of the gagged boys, as they were deprived of their sexual organs before having the resultant frightful wound cauterised.

From the sight of the ugly scabs where boys' genitalia should have been, on the naked bodies of those now leading the sad column of young slaves, Teimuraz also appreciated what his own loins would soon look like. As the 10 years old walked towards his undoubted destiny, he could not help but glance down frequently at his doomed boyhood, incongruously regularly displaying a rampant erection.

On the current rate of progress, Teimuraz estimated that his endangered genitalia had another week to live at most.

(Shiraz, Persia, one week later)

"You'd better get used to your surrounds," the ugly smelly man continued, whilst looking round the tiny dark dank dirty cell and displaying a broad sneer, "as this'll be the only world you'll ever now from now on. However, in return for a few favours, I might be able to make your existence a little more comfortable."

The apparently abandoned Vissarion knew full well, from the gaoler's suddenly lecherous eyes, what such favours would entail. The young Georgian presumed that the man had only desisted from making earlier approaches through fear of the consequences if Tamerlane had somehow prevailed and rescued the beautiful 16 years old eunuch. However, the turnkey probably now felt secure enough to seek compliant sexual pleasure from a young prisoner who had to be accustomed to providing such services, given that he had been one of Tamerlane's bumboys.

Vissarion also recognised that the gaoler would probably have friends who would like to share his enjoyment of the young Georgian's divine body, and that they would undoubtedly be prepared to gain their pleasure forcibly if needed. For a normal 16 years old in this position, life's immediate prospects would certainly have led to anguished despair. However, the young eunuch was not such a person, and not just because he lacked testes.

In fact, Vissarion possessed balls, but ones of character rather than genital physique. The young Georgian also had Arman constantly in his thoughts. He somehow knew that his oldest friend would not abandon him to rot in this terrible place.

Vissarion, of course, rejected the gaoler's initial verbal sexual approach. However, the young Georgian realised that staving off the second was going to be more difficult when the man returned with two equally grubby acquaintances.

"Now, boy," the gaoler asked, "are you going to be a good boy and strip to entertain my friends and me or are we going to have to rip your clothes off you. I can assure you that, if we're forced to do the latter, you'll never wear anything again!"

(Silk Road, east of Yadz, Persia, same time)

Teimuraz could see the cauterising iron glowing red-hot in an adjacent brazier, as well as blood on the ground beneath him. The sanguine stain had been formed when the young Persian had previously been nullified at this horrendous moonlit scene, with the 11 years old's casually discarded severed genitalia still resting nearby on the reddened desert soil. The older boy's lost penis was strangely still rigid and oozing cum.

Teimuraz also noticed the bloodstained emasculating knife in the hand of the smirking mercantile leader as he approached. When the man knelt before the terrified tearful 10 years old and pulled the imminent young victim's doomed genitals harshly downwards to stretch and expose the youngster's scrotum in readiness for severing at the base, several small drops of white seminal fluid began to emerge from the endangered cockhead.

Teimuraz had entered intense orgasm, whilst his threatened genitalia were viciously manhandled, and his sublime body visibly reverberated within the tight constraints of his bondage, as he produced his first ever, as well as undoubtedly last, sperm.

Teimuraz's mind, caught between the two opposite worlds of pleasure and pain, now felt the cold steel of the Chinese merchant's bloody knife come to rest against the left side of the base of his ball sac. The boy then uttered a muffled squeal, when the man who was to emasculate him squeezed and pulled down further on his 10 years old testes.

Whilst yet another little drop of semen spilt in response from Teimuraz's cockhead, there was to be no rescue from nullification for the boy by Arman. The young Armenian was currently almost two hundred modern miles away and firmly of the somber belief that his young squire was dead.

As the Chinese trader readied himself to perform the quick slice that would sever Teimuraz's boyhood, the 10 year old Orthodox Christian began to panic and pray for salvation from any God that might help him, even that of the Zoroastrians.

Chapter 24
Beliefs

Vissarion and Teimuraz are both apparently about to suffer appallingly.

(Silk Road, east of Yadz, Persia, September 1393)

Teimuraz had been happy to leave Arman in Rashu's capable hands because he appreciated that his fellow 10 years old was not only highly competent but also very pleasant, both in terms of character and physique. The young squire knew that his young master would both rejoice in such fresh charming company and benefit, because the young Zoroastrian could answer the questions of belief about his faith that the young Muslim Armenian would undoubtedly want to ask.

Teimuraz was not possessively jealous about Arman's attentions. After all, the young squire already had to share them with Vissarion, Nicolai, Rezan and Sibur. The latter cavalry officer had remained in Shiraz, whilst his young lover journeyed to Yadz, because he was now Tamerlane's prime bodyguard. His protective duties were currently required more than ever because of the potential for assassins to be despatched from any restless Persian city, let alone the one that was the subject of the conqueror's present attentions.

As Teimuraz felt the cold steel of the knife belonging to the chief Chinese merchant press against the base of his endangered and painfully stretched and squeezed scrotum, he had no time to regret the delegation of duties to Rashu. The boy's terrified mind instead focused on the beliefs of the Zoroastrians because his desperate befuddled mental processes had made him, for some unknown reason, pray to their God for salvation from his imminent nullification.

Teimuraz could not later be sure whether his thoughts, as he awaited his emasculation, were as a consequence of what he had somehow subconsciously learnt, when he had been with Arman in Yadz, or whether some sacred omnipotence had placed them there. However, the 10 years old always leaned towards the idea that he had truly picked up the liturgical data via divine inspiration. Nevertheless, regardless of the reason, the boy was subsequently able to recall that, over what must only have been an instant in time, the whole theology of Zoroastrian belief flashed through his mind, whilst the Chinese trader steadied himself to perpetrate the act of nullification.

Teimuraz somehow knew that he had prayed to the single supreme God, Ahura Mazda, whilst the man who was about to emasculate him was an earthly representative of the evil spirit of violence and death, Angra Mainyu. The cosmic ethical conflict between these good and bad deities involves the entire universe, including humanity, whose individual consciousness is required to choose whom to follow. Evil, and its associated spirit, will only be completely destroyed at the end of time when spiritual dualism will come to an end and only goodness will reign.

In the interim, after someone's death, the soul, or 'urvan', is allowed three days to meditate on the past life, before being judged by a divine troika comprising Mithra, Sraosha and Rashnu. If the good thoughts, words and deeds of the deceased outweigh the bad, then the soul is taken into heaven. Otherwise, hell is the destination. Meanwhile, the universe will go through three eras, namely creation, the present world, where good and evil are mixed and people's good works are seen as gradually transforming the world towards its heavenly ideal, and a final state after when righteousness and wickedness will be separated. Eventually, a saviour, or 'Saoshyant', will be born of a virgin, but of the lineage of the Prophet Zoroaster, who will raise the dead and adjudicate on everyone in a final judgment so that all can be purified, with even the occupants of purgatory being released from their torment.

Teimuraz's tremulous feverish mind was, in the circumstances, peculiarly considering this last theological promise of ultimate salvation when his sensuous tearful eyes glanced at the man who would nullify him. Despite his acute anguish, the boy was beginning to wonder why the Chinese merchant had not yet fulfilled his awful deed.

Teimuraz noticed that the still smirking man was returning the boy's stare, but with a strange look in his eyes, as if he too was experiencing some mystic revelation. However, the 10 years old also surmised, with appropriate acute apprehension, that the Chinese merchant could surely not delay completing his evil task for much longer.

It was then that Teimuraz saw the man's eyes glaze over, as if in ecstasy. The boy now began to wonder whether the Chinese merchant was going to enjoy orgasmic ejaculation whilst he severed the 10 years old's genitalia.

Teimuraz's thought was, however, quickly disillusioned when the man's hand and knife slipped harmlessly off the boy's endangered sexual organs. The body of the Chinese merchant then crashed sideways to the ground, which was already heavily stained red as a result of the earlier nullification at this spot of the young 11 years old Persian. The sanguinity of the soil was now increased, as a result of the blood that flowed from the expertly delivered fatal arrow wound created in the middle of the Oriental trader's back.

The lives of the other watching Chinese merchants did not last much longer than that of their erstwhile leader, as a hail of arrows quickly sent them to the judgement of the divine troika comprising Mithra, Sraosha and Rashnu.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

Vissarion was determined to survive, at whatever cost, even that of his pride, because he had a belief, without any accompanying vanity because he truly possessed none, that he had an important contribution still to make to this world before he departed to wherever God had destined for him. The 16 years old's determination was boosted by not only a deep desire to see his dear friends again, amongst whom he included Tamerlane, but also because of another fervent unflinching belief.

The latter foretold that his beloved Arman would come sooner rather than later to his rescue. The young Georgian did not know how the young Armenian would achieve the feat but Vissarion somehow simply knew that his oldest and best friend would succeed.

For these reasons, Vissarion had elected to strip compliantly, not wanting the gaoler to carry through with the threat of depriving the young Georgian permanently of his clothes if he did not acquiesce quietly to being raped. Accordingly, having chosen abject surrender to sexual abuse, the 16 years old began to remove his once resplendent but now grimy and disheveled court clothes, much to the delight of the watching adults, who, in response, began to expose their universally obnoxious and erect circumcised cocks.

As Vissarion eventually removed his colourful silk trousers to stand before the lecherous trio dressed only in his spare underbriefs, of similar rich material, the sneering gaoler addressed the imminent victim of his libidinous attentions. "There's a good bumboy," the turnkey commented with clear derogatory intent, "you're obviously accustomed to providing your body for the pleasure of others. Well, let's see how good you really are. Strip completely and then get on your knees because you have some sucking to do to ready our dicks for your rear. Then, after we've sodomised you, you can clean our members before we give your throat some liquid reward for all your efforts!"

Vissarion's hands slipped into the sides of his sparse tight silk briefs, which already highlighted the full shape of his gelded genitalia, but some residual pride caused him to delay in carrying through with the next final shameful act of disrobing. This hesitation caused the gaoler to remark "Now, pretty bumboy, don't be so shy. We already know you're a eunuch and haven't any balls but we'd like to see and feel your dick and, of course, we'll soon want to give our full attentions to your bare buttocks!"

If such words were intended to spur Vissarion into completing his undressing, they were, of course, rather inappropriate, being somewhat demoralising to the recipient. However, the young Georgian appreciated that this was not the intent of the remarks, as he fully understood that the utterances were instead meant to degrade. Nevertheless, the 16 years old began to push his briefs downwards, his action not spurred by the gaoler's articulations but by the sudden desire to conclude the current appalling scene as quickly as possible.

Vissarion's briefs soon lay on top of the pile that represented his other discarded clothing, whilst his hands instinctively then went to shield his gelded groin from view. However, this manual genital protection only induced a further command from the smirking gaoler. "I've told you not to be so shy, pretty bumboy," the grubby man announced, "so put your hands at your sides so that we can all see what you've got between your legs, or should I say haven't got?" The last phrase created much hilarity amongst the adult trio, from the unbuttoned flies of whose dirty trousers three massive filthy throbbing erections had emerged, already drooling precum.

Vissarion reluctantly complied with the gaoler's instruction, an action that only intensified the trio's laughter and ribald commentary, as they made verbal observances about the young Georgian's amended genitalia. The 16 years old's perfect face, already blushing a little in shame, immediately turned a deeper scarlet hue.

After the gaoler and his friends eventually curtailed their mirth, the turnkey ordered Vissarion to his knees. The gorgeous completely smooth form of the young Georgian, already shivering slightly from the pervading damp chill and the awfulness of his situation, then began to quiver even more, once he had reluctantly obeyed.

These bodily reactions did not stem just from the additional cool, inflicted by the cold wet floor pressing against Vissarion's knees and lower legs, but were caused by the sight of the gaoler's wide cockhead, oozing a long thread of clear precum, now appearing before the young Georgian's sublime face. "Suck!" was the one word command then issued by the turnkey. Meanwhile, two other similarly obnoxious huge cut hairy penises appeared either side of the one eagerly demanding the 16 years old's initial oral attention.

(Silk Road, east of Yadz, Persia, same time)

"I can understand that," Teimuraz replied, "as I'd have done exactly the same in the circumstances. However, I don't understand why you, someone I hardly know, carried on the search with the cavalrymen he left behind." "Well, Rashu," responded, "by not finding your dead body, or indeed any sign of your horse, both Arman and I believed that there was a small possibility that somehow you might still be alive somewhere, although few survive the desert alone, without food and water, for long. I agreed to help his soldiers continue the search, as I know the area so well. I do think that it was both very thoughtful and brave of your master consequently to return to Shiraz on his own without any bodyguard. I'm sure there are many brigands who'd like to grab his person for ransom, given his well-known importance to Tamerlane." As the young Zoroastrain spoke these latter compliments, the similarly aged young Georgian squire recognised an unmistakable look in the boy's sensuous hazel eyes.

Teimuraz immediately appreciated that Arman had become a hero to someone else. The young squire also realised that it was obviously not an uncommon phenomenon, given the fact that the young Armenian already possessed numerous existing fans, ranging in age from 57 years old Tamerlane to 8 years old Yaroslav. The youth was clearly in the latter's heart because he had helped to rescue the youngster, as well as his older brother, Nicolai, from Toqtamish's clutches.

"Why did you eventually pursue the caravan of the Chinese merchants?" Teimuraz now enquired, still puzzled as to how he had been located, given that, in the ten days since his disappearance, he must have travelled a great distance from Yadz along the Silk Road. "Our inability," Rashu answered, "to find either your body or that of your horse. Fresh carcasses are usually easy to spot in the desert from the circling air or ground based scavengers of carrion. However, there remained no sign of you or your steed. I then began to speculate what could possibly have happened if you had disappeared for some other reason than a terrible fatal accident. Fortunately, I remembered the Oriental traders from when they passed through my city. At the slavemarket, run by Muslims not Zoroastrians I should add, they purchased more slaveboys to add to the sad naked collection I had already seen in their possession."

"I then put two and two together," Rashu proudly announced, "recognising that, if you were originally returning to Yadz along the Silk Road from the east, you undoubtedly would have encountered the Chinese on the way. Here, I have to commend the leader of Arman's cavalrymen, for he took the brave and energetic decision to have faith in my belief and put all his eggs in one basket by launching the expedition in pursuit of the caravan. I'm sure that many in his position would not have dared or bothered to act on my conjecture. However, our subsequent ability to overtake the traders before they could illicitly perpetrate the same sort of damage on you, as they were quite legally inflicting on their slaveboy purchases, was hampered by our delayed realisation, as to where you probably where, and consequent late departure from my city. We rode day and much of the night but were still very fortunate to arrive unnoticed this evening, just in time to save your boyhood!"

"I did suggest to the leader of Arman's cavalrymen," Rashu continued matter-of-factly, "that he might just want to secure your person peacefully from the Chinese. However, he told me, after noticing what the merchants were proposing to do to you, that not only did he not have time for such niceties but also that Tamerlane would insist on the deaths of the thieving traders, for stealing and trying to nullify one of his boy's young servants. In fact, he suggested that killing the merchants quickly with arrows was actually doing them a favour because he was sure that the conqueror would have had other, much more painful and lingering, methods in mind!"

Teimuraz's beautiful brown eyes felt drawn towards the campfire that was providing him and Rashu with warmth, much needed because desert nights were cold and despite the fact that he had been dressed in his original garb. The latter, presumably destined to be sold in some Chinese market, had been found in one of the deceased merchants' wagons, which, apart from the one accommodating newly nullified young eunuchs, otherwise contained much western non-human merchandise, bartered for spices and other precious Oriental goods.

Other nearby campfires were now surrounded by Arman's cavalrymen, celebrating their success in retrieving Teimuraz by consuming some of the unexpected booty that had accompanied their victory. However, although they ate and drank with relish, their prodigious consumption did not include enjoying any of the slaveboys who formed part of their plunder. All of the soldiers felt too sorry for the hurting damaged human pillage to want to satisfy any sexual needs in that way.

Instead, apart from those still recuperating from their dreadful ordeal in the recovery wagon, whose every need was attended to as far as possible, the men let the boys sit amongst them unmolested. The soldiers also shared their abundant fare with the youngsters, who were all now literally overdressed in the much-too-big gaudy silk bloodstained clothing formerly worn by their erstwhile Chinese owners. The cavalry would gain their ultimate financial reward for rescuing Teimuraz when their booty, including the young nullified slaves, was eventually sold.

Later, a very grateful Arman, at his young squire's request, saw to it that the boys went to a good master for a good price, because he in turn persuaded Tamerlane to buy the young eunuchs. They were all also then found good jobs, mainly attending some of the unused female harems that were housed in the conqueror's many palaces throughout his vast empire. The young Persian found himself serving in Tamerlane's capital, Samarkand, where he eventually became a rich and influential court official of the conqueror's immediate successor.

"Did you know," Rashu rhetorically asked of Teimuraz, whom he had noticed was seemingly transfixed by the campfire they shared, "that my people consider flames to be divine, symbolic of our God, Ahura Mazda?" The boys then embarked upon a lengthy conversation about Zoroastrian beliefs, with the young Christian Orthodox Georgian now displaying great interest in the subject.

Later, warmed by some of the bedding of the late Chinese merchants, whose naked dead bodies, dumped not far away, were currently the subject of much dispute amongst desert carnivores, Teimuraz encountered difficulty in sleeping, despite an overwhelming feeling of weariness. This inability was induced by a mixture of horrible memories, relating to the previous ten days, and elation at his timely rescue, which echoed that in the Spadonis Monastery in Armenia, and anticipated reunion soon with Arman and his friends. Accordingly, the young squire tossed and turned until he felt another young body join him amongst his bedcovers.

The highly considerate Rashu held Teimuraz gently and platonically and requested "May Ahura Mazda give you peace!" In seconds, the young Georgian squire was sleeping soundly and he would not wake until dawn.

"Thank you, Ahura Mazda," Rashu then quietly declared before he too, still holding Teimuraz, entered comforting slumber.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

The naked Vissarion was now standing and leaning his palms against one of the cool damp stone walls of his cell, whilst presenting the rear of his nude body, partly bent with legs apart, so that his bumcrack was nicely positioned for imminent attack. The young Georgian's face was not as visually pleasant, as earlier in proceedings, because his visage not only sported some extraneous sperm running down his chin but also a red mark on his left cheek where he had been harshly slapped.

Vissarion, after somehow overcoming his natural desire to gag and vomit at the introduction of obnoxious cocks into his mouth, was only supposed to bring the penises of the three rapists to maximum size before presenting his anus to accept the resultant imminent penile product. However, his sucking and licking of the large, hirsute, filthy throbbing member of one of the gaoler's friends had brought the smelly man to premature climax.

Vissarion had been forced to swallow all of the man's resultant copious semen because the alternative would have been to drown, as the young Georgian's beautiful head was immovably held in place whilst the rapist enjoyed his early orgasm. However, the only reward the 16 years old secured for his successful efforts, after being released to gulp much needed air, was a facial slap and an admonition for inducing the precipitate emission.

Nevertheless, Vissarion, whilst moving to his new demeaning position, was sure that the unruly cock concerned would have enough energy and fortitude to be able soon to impregnate his rear orifice with as much enthusiasm as it had indulged in respect of the oral aperture. His certainty was increased by a glance behind that provided the unwelcome sight of the owner of the relevant penis masturbating his member back to speedy fulsomeness, whilst his friend, the gaoler, prepared to sodomise the young Georgian.

Vissarion soon felt the gaoler's wide cockhead begin to press against his sphincter, which had always remained pink and tight despite regular invasion over the years by Tamerlane and Arman. However, the latter duo had always entertained the young Georgian's rectum and prostrate with careful gentleness, wanting the pulchritudinous provider of their penile pleasure to gain as much personal entertainment from their acts of sodomy as they did. Unfortunately, the turnkey and his friends had no such ambition, only keen selfish licentiousness. Consequently, the 16 years old eunuch uttered a loud squeal as the first huge anal intruder, lubricated only by his own oral juices, was rammed fully inside him with no preliminaries or mercy, a reaction that only further energised his rapist's eager delight.

Vissarion's anguished groans continued to resound around his tiny prison as the gaoler brutally sought the deliverance of his seed deep inside the beautiful young Georgian's innards. However, the 16 years old's pained whines were almost drowned out by the laughter and commentary that accompanied the turnkey's vicious penile thrusts in and out of the eunuch's rectum, which filled virtually all of the crevice whenever the massive member advanced forwards.

Vissarion was fortunate in that the now panting gaoler's excitement and eagerness to enjoy the young Georgian's wonderful body for the first time was such that he could not delay climax. As a result, the 16 years old soon felt his rectum filling with warm creamy fluid. Nevertheless, the turnkey subsequently seemed to want to keep his gradually softening, finally temporarily placated, member inside the young eunuch before one of his friends instructed him, with clear desperate impatience, "Alright, withdraw from the whore. It's my turn now!" However, unfortunately for the man concerned, his wish was to be thwarted.

As the turnkey withdrew his cock from Vissarion, with as much brutality as he had entered, causing a loud pop to reverberate around the cell as a vacuum was overcome by air, the unlocked door of the tiny prison burst open. The gaoler turned to see who could possibly be making this unwarranted, unwanted and unexpected intrusion, as did his two companions, both masturbating their penises in acute anticipation of the pleasures to come.

The gaoler, own cock still exposed and dribbling residual cum, saw a very handsome youth, with long silky brown hair and similar coloured eyes, enter first. However, the apprehensive man had no immediate wish to appreciate the immense beauty of the young newcomer, because the latter was dressed worryingly in a warrior's uniform, which included a fur-rimmed metal-spiked hat, and carried an unsheathed curved sabre in his hand.

The gaoler's concern was compounded when the clean-shaven youth was followed into the cell by a fierce looking but immaculately dressed bearded older man.

"Who are you?" the fretting turnkey, perhaps understandably, enquired of the two unanticipated arrivals. It was the older personage who answered, having quickly taken in the debauched scene within the tiny prison.

"His name is Arman and mine is Tamerlane," the clearly furious man announced, "and it is my belief that you'll soon regret what you've just done to one of my boys!"

Chapter 25
Recruits

Whilst Vissarion and Teimuraz are saved from nasty fates, disaster befalls another boy.

(Shiraz, Persia, September 1393)

Vissarion was now redressed, and lying on the magnificent bed in the opulent palace quarters previously occupied by the now former ruler of Shiraz. Meanwhile, Tamerlane, assured as to his favourite catamite's welfare, had vengeful business to conduct elsewhere, from perpetrating certain of which his more merciful boys knew that it would be useless to attempt to dissuade the furious conqueror.

Arman, whilst sitting on the bed next to his resting best friend, who was 16 but looked 14, and whose silky golden locks he was gently stroking, smiled at the big sensuous blue eyes gazing back at him. The young Armenian then began to relate the background to Vissarion's rescue.

(Yadz, Persia, same time)

Teimuraz, despite the very pleasant local company and the fact that he had not had time to recover fully from his recent ordeal, had left Yadz. The dutiful boy had wanted to return immediately to Shiraz and, more importantly, Arman, accompanied by the cavalry escort kindly left behind by his young master to assist Rashu to continue the search for him.

The sight of Chinese caravans, passing through Yadz on their trading journeys along the mighty Silk Road, to and from their distant homeland, was not uncommon. However, the beautiful Rashu suffered a worrying feeling of foreboding regarding this latest arrival, which, like the one that had abducted Teimuraz, counted a number of attractive young slaveboys amongst the goods purchased and being taken to the far east.

Rashu was sad at the thought that all of the boys would undoubtedly soon be converted into nullified eunuchs for the Chinese market, where such goods from the west were greatly prized. However, the young Zoroastrian somehow did not believe that this consideration was the root cause of his distinct unease.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

Qazagh, furious at Vissarion's accepted counsel to try to secure the surrender of Shiraz without a fight, which promised to deprive him of the lucrative spoils to be gained by looting, had despatched his own secret emissary to the city in advance of the young Georgian's embassy. One of the principal reasons for the general's previous rise, in the hierarchy of Tamerlane's vast mobile army, had been his proficient use of local spies. This practice had not only enabled him to provide his master with useful campaign information, which had brought his advancement, but also secured other private data that had led to furtively acquired rich plunder, invariably not shared with others.

Qazagh had regularly tampered with the intelligence that he passed onto Tamerlane, whenever it suited his greed. However, this avariciousness had eventually caused the general's downfall.

The man, whom Qazagh had despatched to Shiraz, was a local merchant, well-known in the area and therefore someone to whom the gates of the city, not yet surrounded or besieged by Tamerlane's army, would be opened. The trader was also of sufficient importance to have his request for an immediate audience with the local prince granted, not least because the ruler also knew him as a provider, in return for a monetary consideration, of useful information.

The merchant had been commissioned by Qazagh, in return for an eventual slice of the booty gained from the violent sacking of Shiraz, to tell the city's prince that he had learnt that Vissarion's mission of peace was false. The trader had untruthfully suggested that, if the young Georgian managed to persuade the ruler to open the gates of his metropolis, then Tamerlane would let his army destroy and pillage the place, regardless of any guarantees his 16 years old emissary had delivered.

The prince, having acquired very useful and truthful information from the mercantile source before, foolishly believed the man. However, the ruler's reaction to Vissarion's later arrival as Tamerlane's emissary was not as the devious treacherous Qazagh had anticipated.

Qazagh had expected the local prince, known for possessing a short violent temper that often caused him to act unwisely, to murder Vissarion, having been aggrieved at Tamerlane's supposed perfidy. The general was therefore highly displeased that the ruler, in the event, did not act in this manner, which would have triggered the dreaded conqueror's vengeful fury, so dooming Shiraz. Instead, the young Georgian was imprisoned as a hostage.

This acute disappointment had caused Qazagh to make his literally fatal mistake. As Tamerlane removed his army from the environs of Shiraz, in response to the local prince's promise to catapult Vissarion from the city walls if he did not, the general refused to reward the returning merchant for his covert mission.

Qazagh's lack of generosity was based on his angry declaration there was to be no plunder from which the trader could earn commission. However, the unhappy merchant was not the type of person to be messed about with in this manner, particularly as he realised that the general was already enormously wealthy and so could afford to provide him with at least a little financial recompense for his efforts. The trader also appreciated that there was someone else who would undoubtedly pay him vast riches for his particular knowledge, if the data could be safely delivered.

The merchant was astute enough to recognise that a direct approach to Tamerlane would be very unwise, given the conqueror's notorious short temper, which was often fatal towards those upon whom it was inflicted. It was the sight of Arman, rushing back from Yadz on his own, that eventually provided the clever man with the idea as to how he might accomplish another, this time hopefully highly lucrative, trade.

The merchant was aware not only of Tamerlane's famous boys, and their influence on the dreaded conqueror, but also the well-known common sense and reasonableness of Arman and Vissarion. He therefore approached the young Armenian, with confidence as to how the 16 years old would treat his story, which, of course, would be slightly amended from reality in order to sanctify the trader's own role in recent affairs.

The merchant managed to intercept Arman one evening, after the young Armenian had left the tent of Tamerlane, who was distraught at his favourite catamite's fate, to return to the canopy the youth shared with Sibur. He told the young warrior that he had information that might be of great benefit to the welfare of Vissarion and, accordingly, the 16 years old was more than happy to hear what the man had to convey.

Having found a quiet place in which to talk, the merchant confessed to his own role in undermining Vissarion's embassy, believing that the truth about this might now eventually emerge anyway, to his undoubted excruciating detriment. However, he excused his action by advising, with an air of guiltlessness, that he thought that he had been sent by Qazagh as part of a convoluted plot to take Shiraz, organised with Tamerlane's knowledge, although the trader himself was ignorant of the full details. He then told the young Armenian that subsequent happenings had made him realise that the general had been acting on his own, for perhaps treacherous reasons, and that he should somehow warn the conqueror about such duplicity.

Having secured his revenge on the greedy general, the merchant now sought monetary riches by telling Arman that he could try to make amends, for his role in Vissarion's misfortune, by obtaining information as to how the defences of Shiraz could be furtively breached. The trader lied that he would need a substantial amount of gold to secure, from others through bribery, the full details, of which he gave a brief outline, whereas, in fact, he was already aware of the requisite knowledge. He additionally requested, in return for the data, anonymity and protection from Tamerlane's wrath for his, using his own words, "Innocent involvement in Qazagh's evil plot."

Arman was not foolish enough to believe totally in the merchant's claims, including the contention that he had been an unwilling stooge in Qazagh's wicked design. However, just as the crafty trader had anticipated, the young Armenian also did not care too much about the extent of the man's involvement, as long as the situation was put right and Vissarion was rescued.

Arman therefore agreed to the merchant's terms, even securing, from the keeper of his master's mobile treasury, substantial largesse as a down-payment for the supposed bribe. Naturally, the official in charge of the conqueror's vast wealth could not deny the relevant request of one of Tamerlane's trusted boys.

On eventually delightedly receiving the information from Arman about a way to circumvent Shiraz's walls to gain furtive entry into the city, Tamerlane did not immediately turn his vast army round to return to the Persian metropolis. The conqueror did not want to alert the defenders to their possible renewed danger until it was too late.

Tamerlane instead secretly retraced his steps at night with two small mobile forces, having had the rightfully terrified Qazagh arrested and encouraged to confess fully to his deceit, by means of a visit to a tent full of torture apparatus, always ready in the encampment to question captives or traitors. The conqueror then personally organised his soldiers in their damming and diverting of the narrow stream, hidden in nearby hills, which fed some of Shiraz's wells through a long secret tunnel, usually totally filled with water.

Clambering through the drained, but still damp and very confined, lengthy tunnel was not pleasant. However, as soldiers, led by Sibur and Arman, subsequently climbed up and out of some wells to surprise Shiraz's garrison and open the gates to another, bigger, furtively waiting warrior force, headed by Tamerlane himself, all felt that the arduous endeavour had been well worth the effort.

With the somnolent garrison quickly overcome and Shiraz soon at Tamerlane's mercy, it was very fortunate, for the citizenry of the city of the poet Hafiz, that the conqueror's current forces were too small in number, as well as preoccupied with security matters, to bother immediately with vengeful rape and pillage. By the time the main army later arrived, it was also then too late to wreak such havoc because a rescued Vissarion had prevailed upon his master to forgive the people. Having learnt of Qazagh's treachery, the beautiful young Georgian had used all his substantial charms, not least his pleading sensuous blue eyes, to beg his master to reprieve the local populace from terrible retribution. However, the 16 year-old had himself been too late to save the local prince and some of the ruler's immediate male family, not from death but from being blinded and castrated.

Tamerlane had perpetrated these appalling acts because of some early unwillingness on the part of the local ruler to relate where Vissarion was being kept prisoner. The conqueror proposed to follow the extracted eyes by detaching many other parts of princely anatomies, but the eventually released young Georgian's intervention had brought this to a halt. Accordingly, only the visual organs concerned, along with some regal testes, were subsequently fed to feathered predators of carrion.

The blind emasculated local prince was eventually despatched, along with his family, some of whom were now as unfortunately disabled as him, into distant exile. Meanwhile, the wily merchant, who had revealed the rescue route into the city, not only escaped retribution, for his own original role in Vissarion's imprisonment as a hostage, but also retired from trade to live the rest of his long life in wealthy luxury in another part of Persia.

(Yadz, Persia, next day)

As Rashu returned his gaze to his front, he then saw two other Oriental traders approaching him from the other direction. A shiver ran down the beautiful boy's body but nevertheless he tried to dismiss the concern that had invaded his mind. Surely, the 10 years old reasoned, there was nothing sinister in such a situation and his sudden worries were just paranoia. However, the young Zoroastrian's attempt to dismiss his fears was soon proven to be inappropriate when, shortly afterwards, four pairs of adult arms grabbed hold of him in the otherwise quiet thoroughfare and a strange-smelling cloth was placed firmly over his rosy lips.

Darkness then overwhelmed Rashu's appalled mind.

(Silk Road, east of Yadz, Persia, two days later)

Rashu had been rendered unconscious by his abductors by means of a cloth drenched in a mysterious fluid, the tranquillising properties of which would not be known to the western world for centuries. When the boy had later woken, he had found himself already naked and far from Yadz. The 10 years old then subsequently quickly found himself walking, as Teimuraz had done, towards his new destiny. The young Zoroastrian's small slim penis also incongruously rigidly pointed the direction, with his protestations at his predicament having been rapidly ended by several harsh agonising lashes of a leather crop across the lustrous curvature of his lovely bottom.

Rashu's hands were bound behind him and his lithe neck was attached by rope to the young pretty nude in front. However, unlike Teimuraz, the young Zoroastrian did not have to ask the leading boy about the identity of other youngsters, whom he had noticed were lying in the covered wagon immediately ahead, with their groins covered in bandaging. From knowledge acquired previously, the 10 years old also appreciated that, before long, he was scheduled to be placed in the cart too, whilst he recovered from the removal of his genitalia.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

Arman and Teimuraz knew that the arduous journey, across the Zagros Mountains, to the home city of the delightful Rashu would take at least four days.

(Silk Road, east of Yadz, Persia, ten days later, early October 1393)

Rashu's small ball sac had been tied tightly with thin leather cord to help to stem the later blood loss. The young Zoroastrian's desperate pleas not to suffer the same fate, as all the other boys in the possession of the Chinese traders, had then been not only ignored but also stifled by an effective gag. The 10 year-old could also now see the cauterising iron glowing red-hot in an adjacent brazier, and the emasculating knife in the hand of the smirking Oriental mercantile leader as he approached.

The merchant knelt before the terrified tearful Rashu and pulled the boy's doomed genitals, incongruously displaying a small but fulsome erection, harshly downwards to stretch and expose the smooth scrotum in readiness for severing. The trader then let his knife come to rest against the left side of the base of the young Zoroastrian's ball sac, before soliciting a muffled scream as he squeezed and pulled down further on the 10 years old testes.

The merchant then paused and, in decent Persian, asked Rashu "Do you know, boy, why I organised your abduction from Yadz in order to perpetrate this on you and then sell you in my homeland as a nullified slave?" The tearful anguished 10 years old was obviously not expected to answer verbally because of his gag and so just nodded his sublime appalled head negatively.

"Well," the man advised, "I recruit you for service as a eunuch because I discovered in Yadz, from boastful citizens, that you played a prominent role in the massacre of the traders in the previous caravan, which had passed through your city on the way to my homeland. Their leader, murdered by Tamerlane's men, was my brother!"

As the Chinese mercantile leader appraised Rashu of this actuality, the boy felt the sharp blade begin its dastardly and excruciating deed. Meanwhile, a small amount of white fluid was expelled from the young Zoroastrian's resolutely hard cock, representing the first and last time that he would expel such reproductive juice. Of course, the 10 years old was in no fit state to reflect on the fact that the ability of his endangered genitalia to produce such a substance, at such a tender age, was remarkable.

Rashu's beautiful frame experienced a strange concoction of intense ecstasy and agony as he was being slowly and carefully deprived of his boyhood, the unparalleled delight of previously unknown sexual orgasm mixing with the similarly unprecedented excruciation of nullification. However, despite the agonising intensity of the latter, the 10 years old somehow remained conscious. The young Zoroastrian was therefore able to appreciate fully the close-up view of his own severed bloody genitalia, presented to his appalled eyes by the now standing and happy Oriental emasculator, before the small organs were eventually nonchalantly cast onto the ground nearby.

Rashu was to retain the awful memory of his severed boyhood, little erection still oozing a little cum into the merchant's palm, for the rest of his life. However, perhaps thankfully, immediate recall was short lived, as the horrific feel and smell of burning flesh, caused by the cauterisation of his terrible wound, now induced unconsciousness.

(Shiraz, Persia, two months later, December 1393)

Meanwhile, 16 years old Arman shared, with his older lover, Sibur, another nearby tent. This canopy had also recently been enlarged, on this occasion to accommodate the young Armenian's 10 years old squire and sporadic sexual playmate, Teimuraz.

Vissarion and Nicolai were currently fussing over the latest recruit to Tamerlane's service, not in the conqueror's vast, luxurious and warm tent but in the cool open air of this bright but cold winter's day. Accompanied by the usual mounted bodyguard, the young trio had gone hunting, an activity rarely undertaken by the newcomer previously. Rezan had reluctantly remained behind in the encampment because it was his turn to look after their master's immediate daytime needs.

Vissarion and Nicolai had been gratified to observe the look of delighted exhilaration in their younger companion's face whilst they had gone about their enjoyable business. The young Georgian and Muscovite had been especially pleased to see the regular broad smiles on the boy's beautiful visage, now happily accumulating a healthy cheerful rosy hue once more.

As Vissarion, Nicolai and their new younger friend finally returned to Tamerlane's encampment, with their bodyguard and their copious hunting trophies, the newcomer asked "Can we three do that again some time soon?" "Of course we can," the young Georgian answered. He then looked at the young Muscovite and winked.

Nicolai knew instantly, from the signal, what was required of him. The young 12 years old Muscovite was to join the young 16 years old Georgian in a refrain they often mutually indulged.

"Of course we can," the beautiful and broadly smiling Nicolai and Vissarion joyously shouted simultaneously, in an almost melodic tone, "because we eunuchs have to stick together!"

Rashu could not help but join his new friends in their subsequent laughter, as he finally came to terms with the fact that there was, after all, a life to be enjoyed after nullification.

Chapter 26
Battles

(Shiraz, Persia, Spring 1394)

Vissarion, Nicolai and Rezan, now respectively 17, 13 and 11 years old, spent each night with their infamous master, snuggled up in a great huddle, resting against either his slightly tubby and hairy manly body or each other's slim, completely smooth, boyish versions. All could happily sleep naked because of the warmth generated by their own forms, plus the efficient insulation provided by the bearskin. Meanwhile, the young Muscovite's 9 year-old brother, Yaroslav, and the new recruit to the conqueror's entourage, the 11 year-old Zoroastrian, Rahu, occupied adjacent personal compartments, whilst 17 year-old Arman shared, with his older lover, Sibur, another tent nearby. Their much smaller canopy had also recently been enlarged, on this occasion to accommodate the young Armenian's 11 year-old squire and sporadic sexual playmate, Teimuraz.

Tamerlane still had unfinished campaigning to perform in Persia, mopping up residual resistance from the previous year's uprisings. Naturally, for those foolishly continuing to resist his will, the conqueror was unlikely to exhibit much mercy.

Tamerlane also decided that it was time to try to return young Yaroslav to his family in Moscow, even though such an aim was fraught with danger. The intervening vast forests of southern Rus were still controlled by the Mongols of the Golden Horde, who had efficiently regrouped under their leading general, Toqtamish, after the acute devastation inflicted upon them a couple of years previously.

The Khanate would never fully recover from what Tamerlane had already inflicted, not least because the defeat encouraged the subject peoples of Rus to believe that they could one day perpetrate the same and evict the Golden Horde from their lands for ever. However, this growing aspiration of the currently subjugated local populations would take time to achieve and would once more need assistance provided by the stimulus of battles between the feared conqueror and the oppressors. Meanwhile, the various local principalities were forced to continue to send both tribute and hostages to the Mongols in return for peace.

Typically, Arman volunteered to lead the cavalry unit that would try to escort Yaroslav back to his family in faraway Moscow.

Naturally, Sibur offered to accompany his younger lover, whose senior military rank now matched his own after swift promotion by Tamerlane, despite the fact that the conqueror's former catamite was only 17 years of age. However, few actually begrudged this elevation, which, at first sight might suggest nepotism, because, to anyone who knew him, the young Armenian displayed both mature competence and promise in military matters.

Equally naturally, Nicolai asked to go on the expedition too, both to accompany his younger brother back to his homeland and to meet his family again. However, unlike his sibling, the now 13 year-old Muscovite had no intention of remaining in Moscow when Arman's unit set off to return to Persia.

Nicolai loved his family and home city, but he adored life with Tamerlane and his boys and army much more. The daily domestic routine in Moscow simply did not compare with the adventure, excitement and sex gained by living with the infamous conqueror. Anyway, the 13 year-old firmly believed, undoubtedly correctly, that Muscovy was no place for a eunuch, whereas his master's vast empire accepted as routine the existence of geldings like himself. It also, in his correct opinion and like all Turkic societies, offered greater opportunities for those without balls to advance to high office than those who still possessed their testicles, especially if you were intimately acquainted with the ruler.

Nicolai actually currently had no particular ambitions, other than to enjoy life. The young Muscovite was content in the knowledge that, once he had lost his looks, as far as Tamerlane's tastes were concerned, the conqueror would find him a good and appropriate post from which to launch a decent career, whatever that might be. The 13 year-old also did not expect such a development for several more years at least, going by the example of the similarly gelded Vissarion.

Vissarion was now 17 years of age but looked much younger and, if anything, more boyishly beautiful than ever, with Tamerlane's liking for his perfect, delectable, fair, blue-eyed form still undiminished. The similarly physically featured Nicolai had, of course, been close witness to the conqueror's continued lust for the young Georgian, as they and Rezan shared their master's bed throughout the winter.

Nicolai also perceptively appreciated that Vissarion was Tamerlane's undoubted favourite, of not only his current coterie of boys but also all others who had shared the conqueror's bed over the years. The young Muscovite additionally realised that such a status did not just arise from the young Georgian's unparalleled beauty but from his character as well.

Vissarion exhibited wisdom beyond his tender years, fully deserving, despite his youth and boyish appearance, his place on Tamerlane's most senior council of advisers. The young Georgian was also selflessly considerate and loving, of his master and friends, for whom he would sacrifice anything, including his own life, as he had already proved.

Nicolai possessed no jealousy towards Vissarion, as a result of his perceptive recognition that the 17 year-old was Tamerlane's favourite, which the conqueror had always tried to disguise out of consideration for both his other boys and the young Georgian's inherent modesty. The young Muscovite simply could not begrudge such a status for the perfect youth, whom he loved as much as anyone.

Despite his natural worries, resulting from previous dangerous escapades, Tamerlane could not resist the entreaties of some of his boys. Consequently, the cavalry unit, which was relatively small to facilitate speed and secrecy and which eventually tried to escort Yaroslav back to Moscow, was led jointly by Arman and Sibur, assisted by their groom, Teimuraz, and accompanied by Nicolai. Vissarion and Rezan fancied the adventure but knew that their simultaneous place was to remain at their master's side in Persia.

At dawn, on one cold, spring morning, tearful farewells, full of best wishes for respective safe campaigns, eventually sent the cavalry unit disappearing beyond the horizon, of the lofty plain surrounding Shiraz, and the vision of the damp eyes of the still watching Tamerlane, Vissarion and Rezan. Recognising that all three of them then needed cheering up, the young Georgian suggested to his master and younger fellow catamite that perhaps the trio should return to bed, although he did not have sleep in mind as the activity to be indulged under the bearskin. However, the conqueror unusually declined such an inviting invitation, after again spotting 11 year-old Rahu standing rather morosely nearby.

Vissarion and Nicolai had, over the winter, tried their best to cheer their fellow eunuch, Rahu, with the help of the still-whole Rezan, Arman and Teimuraz. Sometimes their enthusiastic efforts to rehabilitate the young Zoroastrian into normal life, after his appalling nullification, had born fruit, and he had acted like any other energetic and playful 11 year-old. However, on other occasions, the boy could not be lifted out of his melancholy and all his new friends could then really do was keep a close watch on him to ensure that he did himself no suicidal mischief.

Tamerlane was no fool when it came to the goings-on amongst his boys, as he naturally liked to maintain a furtively close watch on their welfare. The conqueror was therefore fully aware of the situation regarding the very pretty Rahu. The latter was currently not one of his catamites, not because he did not fancy the boy, as he did, but because, as had become usual in recent years, after the advent of Vissarion into his life, he no longer forced anyone into his bed.

Nevertheless, Tamerlane considered he owed a debt to Rahu, because the boy had lost his genitals in vengeance for helping to save those of Teimuraz, and so he kept the young Zoroastrian amongst his closest entourage. The conqueror's beholden status towards the 11 year-old also now caused him to attempt to salve the obviously uncured psychological scars suffered by the youngster, alongside the healed physical wounds, at the time of his nullification.

Tamerlane approached Rahu, placed a comforting arm around the small boy's shoulder and politely suggested "Come with me!" Vissarion and Rezan were still accompanying the conqueror but, cleverly realising what was afoot, the young Georgian grabbed hold of the younger Persian's hand and uttered the same words. However, the latter instruction now caused the pair of catamites to run off in a totally direction to that traversed by their master and the young Zoroastrian.

"Where are we going?" 11 year-old Rezan not unnaturally asked of Vissarion, who was still leading him away from Tamerlane and Rahu. "Wherever they're not!" the young Georgian answered, nodding at the man and boy receding into the distance.

"Why?" enquired Rezan. "Because," Vissarion patiently replied, "it's obvious that our master wants a private conversation with Rahu." "W....", the young Persian managed of the intended further question of 'Why?' before the light dawned in his normally bright mind.

"Ahhh," Rezan then commented instead, "he's going to ask Rahu why he's so often sulky!" "Partly," Vissarion responded, whilst displaying one of his famously endearing smiles, "but he, like us, already knows the answer to that question. What he's really intent on is trying to cure the boy's sulks permanently. We've failed to do so, and so I recently told our master that it's his turn to have a go when the opportunity presented itself. Our Lord obviously believes that the time is now ripe to embark on his mission!"

"Ahhh!" Rezan repeated, with a now knowing, returned sweet grin.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

They were currently both naked and playing with model galleons in a large ornate bath, whilst a patient retinue of large black eunuchs attempted to bathe the spirited and mischievous infants. As the boys were eventually encouraged to desist with their naval battle to allow their mutually very pretty young bodies to be sponged by their gelded, trousered servants, Mehmed's tiny cock rose to erection.

(Delhi, India, same time)

Like Vladimir in faraway Edirne, Krishnan had been purchased to be the menial slave and companion of the eldest, similarly aged son of a ruler. However, in this case, the 7 year-old concerned was named Ahmed.

Krishnan now occupied the worrying position of being the oldest of the Sultanate's intimate male slaves still to retain his testicles. Castration was usually perpetrated early on such servants, to prevent the later development of any sexual interest in the many girls and women of the primary family and its large household. The boy feared that his developing scrotum might now be considered ripe for the plucking of its key contents.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

Rahu at first sat on the hard stone at a diplomatic distance from the conqueror, not from fear of the man but rather to demonstrate some public decorum. Vissarion, Nicolai and Rezan, and even Arman despite his recently revised status, would have had no hesitation in blatantly snuggling close to their master in such circumstances. However, in the young Zoroastrian's mind, the others comprised Tamerlane's famous boys, whereas at present he was merely a court hanger-on.

Tamerlane, however, was in no mood to permit such a lack of intimacy. Rahu soon found the conqueror sitting next to him, with his right arm once more round the boy's young shoulders.

"Now, boy," Tamerlane asked, "why do you dislike being in my closest entourage so much?" Rahu was deeply shocked at hearing this question, as he had never considered himself to be unhappy about his current social position. The 11 year-old's regular mental distress was instead entirely due his lack of genitalia.

"I....I....I don't dislike being in your closest entourage," Rahu eventually managed to retort. "Then," Tamerlane responded, "why does your face frequently look as if it's just experienced hell?"

Rahu was silent for a while, but Tamerlane did not break the quietude. The conqueror instead continued to hold the boy platonically, fully knowing that the 11 year-old would feel compelled to reply to his question sooner or later.

On his part, amidst the silence, Rahu felt Tamerlane's continued comforting embrace and was eventually tempted to glance into the man's brown eyes. To many rogues and rebels who had previously looked there, only merciless, deadly disdain had been decipherable. However, on this occasion, the boy could only espy caring compassion but this discovery did not at first cause him to answer the conqueror's query. The 11 year-old Zoroastrian instead broke down completely.

Tamerlane felt Rahu's small, slim body vibrate uncontrollably, whilst copious tears flowed from the boy's own sublime brown eyes. In response, the most feared man in the world tightened his platonic grip on the child and suggested "That's good! Let the demon inside be expelled!"

(Delhi, India, same time)

The chief eunuch was again examining the boy's genitalia with another man, although the sexual organs concerned were by no means as tiny as they had been when the adult pair had last inspected the scene, 2 years earlier. "What do you think?" the former asked, whilst handing over the fondling of the acutely abashed youngster's private parts to the latter, who had recommended at the last inspection that they waited "a year or two to let the scrotum grow before I geld him". Meanwhile, just as when he had been subjected to such abject shame previously, Krishnan's slender, light brown, uncut penis was embarrassingly horizontal, whilst he stood before the men.

"He's now just right," the court craftsman advised, "as his sac is perfect for cutting to extract the balls inside and then stitch and heal the wound safely. I therefore recommend that he be starved and purged to prepare him for his castration."

On hearing this suggestion, 7 year-old Krishnan fainted.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

Rahu then began truthfully to answer Tamerlane's question.

(Delhi, India, same time)

The only sustenance within the cell was water contained in a nearby jar, which was adjacent to several large empty bowls, presumably placed thoughtfully to receive the contents of his stomach. The boy instinctively and astutely knew that once he drank some of the contents of the jug, which thirst would eventually compel him to do, his young body would start to be purged of its contents, in readiness for his impending castration. The latter sad, and undoubtedly mentally and physically painful event, would probably occur after about a week of internal purification and starvation in this horrible, lonely place.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

When Tamerlane's boys, especially those who were eunuchs, namely Vissarion and Nicolai, had earlier afforded Rahu their undivided attention, in order to raise the young Zoroastrian's spirits, it appeared that the 11 year-old could quickly forget what had happened to him and instead again enjoy life once more. Unfortunately, the conqueror's catamites had been unable to sustain such a campaign permanently, because of other constraints on their time, amidst their busy lives in their master's travelling court.

Consequently, whenever such attention to his mental welfare had come to a temporary rest, Rahu had quickly retreated into deep melancholy, a regular recurrence that even the astute Vissarion had been unable personally to cure. Accordingly, the wise young Georgian, who was 17 but resembled a boy at least 2 or 3 years younger in physique but, of course, not intellect, hinted that Tamerlane himself should be able to secure the remedy.

"Ah," Tamerlane now suggested rather brutally, "so you're still feeling sorry for yourself!" Rahu's sobbing immediately ceased and, whilst he dried his residual tears with the back of his right hand, he retorted "I think that I've a lot to be sorry about!"

"Do you?" Tamerlane then responded, as he terminated his embrace in order to stand. "Well," the conqueror continued, "let's go to see if you're right. Follow me!"

Tamerlane then began to march off alone in the direction of the nearby city of Shiraz. Rahu initially remained where he was, sitting on top of the rocky outcrop, until he noticed that the conqueror's bodyguard were not following their leader. The boy then began to worry for the safety of the man, who had shown him nothing but kindness, although he probably possessed more enemies and was more feared than anyone in the world, not least in his present environs of Persia.

Rahu's fear for Tamerlane's welfare then overcame his indignity at the conqueror's accusation. The boy therefore began to run after the man.

Rahu soon experienced Tamerlane's protective, caring arm again round his shoulder, as they marched resolutely together towards the damaged walls of Shiraz. Whilst now in such comforting company and for the first time for a long time, the boy himself then somehow felt strangely shielded against the dangers and vicissitudes of the world around him.

This perception was despite the fact that Rahu also now believed that he had been ensnared into a pre-arranged trap. The boy thought that his supposition was possibly encouraged by the fact that Tamerlane's normally faultlessly dutiful but previously apparently neglectful bodyguard had now resumed a discreet tracking of their leader.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

"Why do they do things like that to slaves?" Mehmed next enquired. "You know," his fellow 5 year-old replied, "I haven't got a clue!"

(Delhi, India, same time)

(Shiraz, Persia, later that evening)

Tamerlane had led Rahu to the poorest quarters of Shiraz, where, despite the wealth of the city, many people had lived in unhealthy urban squalor, with life expectancy was low, especially amongst the children. The pair, now much more closely escorted by the conqueror's fierce and proficient bodyguard, had seen the misery, caused by acute poverty, at first hand. The boy could not help but contrast the rich clothes he was wearing, and the affluent, travelling lifestyle he currently enjoyed, with what he saw.

Tamerlane also guided Rahu to the local charity hospital, which was overwhelmed with sick patients, most aged under-5 and showing clear signs of malnutrition and associated diseases, as well as being close to death. The conqueror additionally took the boy to the city's orphanage, which was so nasty and brutal that children often preferred to live on the streets.

Later, as Tamerlane and Rahu retreated from such terrible scenes back to their nearby encampment, outside Shiraz's walls, the conqueror pointed to some hills that marked the western edge of the surrounding plain. "That's where the local leper colony is situated," he advised. He then enquired of the young Zoroastrian "Should I show you that too?" Meanwhile, one point that he omitted, during his tour, was that Vissarion was currently engaged on developing solutions for all of these dreadful local problems.

"You don't have to," Rahu replied, "as I can imagine what it's like." "I wonder if you really do," Tamerlane responded softly and sombrely, and in no way nastily, "because the poor lepers not only live in far greater squalor to what we've just observed in Shiraz but also their bodies gradually and agonisingly lose far more than just their genitalia!"

As anticipated by Tamerlane, and planned by Vissarion, Rahu was slowly beginning to feel rather ashamed about his own personal depression. Recognising this, the conqueror now proposed to administer the coup de grace to achieve a permanent change of attitude for the better within the boy's soul.

On return to the encampment, Tamerlane guided Rahu amongst the vast throng of his soldiers, to whom this place was temporary home until their, to them beloved, leader led them on fresh campaigns and into new battles elsewhere. The conqueror especially sought out particular members of his army, whilst greeting, amazingly often by name, many of his raucous warriors, who were clearly ecstatic that he was again taking the time and trouble to visit them.

Tamerlane introduced Rahu to soldiers who, despite disabilities suffered in earlier battles, had nevertheless remained well-regarded members of the conqueror's forces. For example, there were many men who were without one or more limbs, or who sported terrible scars or only one eye.

One soldier had lost both legs, but Tamerlane assured Rahu, in the proud, delighted warrior's presence, that there was no better cavalryman in the army, once he had been strapped to his horse. The conqueror then concluded his tour of the camp by introducing the young Zoroastrian to someone who was completely blind, having lost both eyes in battle.

"There's no better scout in my army," declared Tamerlane, as the blind man's chest veritably preened in grateful pride, "for he more than makes up with his other senses for what he's been deprived of by losing his eyes. He can hear and smell the enemy, and give their precise location, long before anyone else can see them!"

Rahu now continued his confession, whilst ensconced alone with Tamerlane under the man's regal canopy. "I felt that I could not live without my manhood," the boy advised, "for its loss was surely both too shameful and grievous for anyone to be expected to endure. Vissarion and Nicolai tried to assure me that such injury was easily survivable, giving as evidence that their own lives were so full of excitement and love that they rarely regretted the demise of their own balls."

Tamerlane winced a little, on hearing this comment and whilst he remembered the now deeply regretted, respectively active and ignorant, roles that he had played in the castration of Vissarion and Nicolai. However, the conqueror had little time for further reflection because Rahu continued remorselessly with his confession.

"I, however," Rahu remarked, "had, of course, lost much more than my balls. The rest of my scrotum and my penis had been shaved away by the Chinese merchant's blade. I am now forced to endure the indignity of urinating in a squatting position, like a woman. I believed, despite the contrary protestations of Vissarion and Nicolai, that I could not look forward, when I was old enough, to enjoying sex. I had no real role in life, and was also tormented by the fact that I could not follow my forefathers by continuing my paternal line by having sons."

Rahu then glanced once more into Tamerlane's brown eyes, whilst again feeling the man's strong arm embrace him. "Lord," the boy now announced, "after what you've shown and told me today, I no longer feel sorrow that I don't have a cock or balls, or have to crouch to urinate. I now truly believe Visarrion and Nicolai, when they say that there's a way for eunuchs, even the nullified variety, to enjoy sex. Sons of my own bloodline also seem unimportant, when there's so many destitute children to take care of!"

"Well then," Tamerlane reflected, as he tightened his platonic hold on Rahu and whilst appreciating that there was still one more issue to resolve before he could claim victory in his latest battle, this time a conflict against the demons in Rahu's disturbed mind, "it seems that all we've now got to find is a role in life for you. As it so happens, I have the perfect post in mind!" The boy was not surprised by the conqueror's announcement, as he suspected correctly that what he had just experienced had been carefully planned by a very clever but caring mind, of Georgian origin and only 17 years old.

It was now Rahu's turn to remain quiet, whilst he awaited Tamerlane's, or more likely Vissarion's, suggestion for his new role in life. The boy did not have to wait long for the conqueror to continue.

"Ever since Arman departed my tent for that of Sibur," Tamerlane declared, "I've been without an intimate bodyguard, someone who's literally at my side 24 hours a day, even when I'm asleep. Vissarion, Nicolai and Rezan try their best to fulfil such a role but they also have other responsibilities."

"Vissarion," Tamerlane confirmed, "is now one of my senior counsellors and so has duties to perform in this sphere, especially the accumulation of intelligence information. Meanwhile, Nicolai, who is anyway currently on his way to Moscow, and Rezan are responsible for performing for me those little tasks that nevertheless are very important. They ensure the smooth running of my daily schedules, and thereby the administration of my empire. For example, they organise my bathing and dressings, arrange my meals and refreshments, convey messages to officers and officials and timetable meetings. They also have lessons with their tutors, as you too will have."

"There is therefore a vacancy for someone to be my intimate bodyguard for 24 hours a day," Tamerlane advised, "apart from when they're at school. Would you, Rahu, care to accept the position?"

(Delhi, India, 1 week later)

A week later, Krishnan's previously attractive but malnourished form had begun to reveal the full outline of his internal bone structure, suggesting that his body was ready to be deprived of its regenerative capabilities, in the shape of a pair of little white orbs within his scrotum. Certainly the castrator appeared to be of this belief, as he entered the cell with a young male assistant, who was 12 years old.

"Now, boy," the castrator remarked to the petrified, cowering Krishnan, who was now sitting on his straw bed, with his knees resting against his chin, "I hope that you're not going to prove difficult today, as I'm going to geld you whether you like it or not. If you just lie quietly, I promise it'll be better for you. I can then be quick, minimise the pain and guarantee a good job that'll heal well with little scarring."

"However," the castrator continued, "if you battle against your inevitable fate, I'll be forced to call some of the palace guards, who'll not only efficiently restrain you for me but will undoubtedly whip you first for causing them trouble. Your struggles will also certainly prolong your anguish and might cause me to damage your genitals more than needed."

"So, boy," the castrator asked, "what's it to be? Are you going to be brave or a coward?"

Faced with the choice, and weakened in body and crushed in spirit by the experience of the last week, Krishnan somehow answered, in a quaking voice, "I'll try to be brave, Sir!" The boy's quivering, naked, 7 year-old body then laid itself flat and face-up on the straw, with hands at his sides and legs apart.

The castrator subsequently commanded his young assistant to "Do the usual. Tie the brave boy in place, wash his front and then bind his scrotum tightly!" The man did not mind flattering his imminent victim slightly when issuing this order, as long as the 7 year-old maintained his meek acquiescence to what was about to be inflicted on him.

(Shiraz, Persia, same time)

Otherwise, Rahu had been ever present at Tamerlane's side, including on horseback and in bed, although the latter situation still remained platonic for now. Both the man and boy knew that it was correct to advance their burgeoning, very close relationship a step at a time. After all, the conqueror was not missing out on his nightly sexual pleasures, which Vissarion and Rezan were more than happy to continue to provide exclusively.

Tamerlane, Vissarion and Rezan indulged their sex games when they thought that Rahu, now invariably nearby under the same bearskin on the same enormous bed, was diplomatically asleep. The young Zoroastrian was, of course, rarely truly slumbering and was instead listening to the adjacent, apparently very exciting nocturnal activity, involving many low ecstatic moans and restrained giggles, as a manly cock entertained young eunuchs' oral orifices or, more pleasurably for the gelded partners, prostate glands. The trio, engaged in such pastimes, suspected that the 11 year-old might be feigning his somnolence. However, they were happy to let him continue to do so, as they now realised that it was just a matter of time before the miraculously revitalised and now seemingly permanently happy youngster joined them in their hobby.

(Delhi, India, same time)

The castrator turned to see Ahmed, the Sultan's 7 year-old, eldest son, standing alone at the barred, metal door of his young slave's cell.

(Western Persia, 2 months later)

Rahu had been riding next to Tamerlane during all three battles. In fact, the boy had become so renowned for his constant watchful proximity to his master, now also fully-fledged lover, that he had been affectionately nicknamed 'The Little Limpet' by the non-seafaring army. However, no-one laughed at the young Zoroastian's protective capabilities, despite his tender age and diminutive, nullified physique.

Everyone had instead heard the news, spread by Rafu's instructors in the arts of battle, that the boy had quickly picked up the relevant skills to become a prospectively very deadly little warrior. Neither did anyone deny the boy's proficiency in his new guardian role, as he was apparently constantly efficiently alert and sizing up the dangers presented to his master by the people and environs around. Nor did anyone doubt that the 11 year-old might indeed prove rather fatal for someone intent on trying to slip past his young defences to harm the conqueror.

(Forests of southern Rus, 2 months later)

Tamerlane and his officers were usually tolerant of soldiers wanting to terminate their service early for such reasons, sending them on their way with due pay and best wishes. Nevertheless, some members of the army were still too afraid to confess such difficulties and fled instead. However, on this occasion, the deserter escaped the conqueror's military encampment because he was a Mongol spy, who was now eager to report to Toqtamish, leader of the Golden Horde, the secret despatch to Moscow, through Khanate territory, of the enemy cavalry unit.

Toqtamish did not know what path the cavalry unit would try to take through the vast, forested lands he nominally controlled, and so split and focused his forces at the various, most likely routes. Consequently, when some of his men did indeed encounter and ambush the enemy, the Mongol leader was elsewhere.

The battle between Tamerlane's formidable, but small, cavalry unit and that of Toqtamish's equally diminished but less comptetent contingent was short but sharp. Fortunately, the superior skills and leadership of the former won the day, with the latter eventually retreating, bloodied, back into the safety of the surrounding trees.

Arman and Sibur, however, appreciated that the Mongols not only now knew of their presence in Rus but also had been forewarned. They therefore realised that it was essential either to make progress towards Moscow even more rapidly or to retreat equally swiftly back into Tamerlane's territories, before the enemy could regroup, re-strengthen and re-engage in pursuit.

Unfortunately, there was one major obstacle to meeting either of the commanders' objectives. Their cavalry unit had suffered remarkably very few casualties in the recent battle, but one that did occur was of major concern.

An arrow had pierced Nicolai's chest and the beautiful 13 year-old boy was too sickly to be moved. Death was already a strong possibility but would be a certainty if the young Muscovite was forced to travel. Meanwhile, everyone appreciated that the dreaded Toqtamish was bound to arrive at the scene soon, ready to follow the tracks of Tamerlane's cavalry.

"You must leave me behind with my knife," the agonised Nicolai bravely whispered to Arman, as his voice could not speak any louder. "If Toqtamish discovers me," the 13 year-old then advised with firm resolution, "I'll kill myself before he can capture me!"

"We've no other choice," Sibur then told his young Armenian lover bluntly, "but to do the boy's bidding, or we'll all die."

Arman sadly recognised that both Nicolai and Sibur were correct in respect of their advice.

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