(Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], Summer, 1397)

Fair-haired, blue-eyed Petŭr now deeply regretted his previous actions in Constantinople’s main slave market, when the first attempt to sell him had occurred 2 days previously. Emotionally overcome by what was happening to him, especially after being hit for shamefully ejaculating publicly again, the tearful 13 year-old had begun to blurt out protestations that he was a free boy who should not be sold into slavery. Although the distressed child’s exact words were rather jumbled because of his distressed state and limited knowledge of the Greek language, the gist was clear to those who overheard them.

Naturally, the supervisory slave-trader tried to terminate Petŭr’s protestations by ordering the boy to be quiet and then beating the naked 13 year-old again with his crop when the young Bulgar naughtily declined to obey. However, the man’s actions were unsuccessful. The watching Dimitŭr’s prior confidence that the citizenry of Constantinople would not be put off from buying such a complaining child was additionally now to remain temporarily unproven because the market superintendent, who was also a spectator, intervened.

The market superintendent stopped the auction of Petŭr and ordered to his office both the naked boy and the merchant who was selling him. There, the distressed 13 year-old was the first to be invited to speak so that he could try to relate to the official why he should not be sold as a slave. The child tried his best to do so, within the restraints of his ability in the Greek tongue. Simultaneously, the deviously lying Dimitŭr, using his better local linguistic skill, constantly attempted to refute and ridicule the young nude’s arguments.

A prolonged debate later ensued between the market superintendent and Dimitŭr about the right of the latter to sell Petŭr, who now constantly tried to hide as least some of his shameful nudity by covering his smooth genitalia with his hands. However, the fat merchant eventually began to realise that the official with whom he was dealing was as deviously corrupt as him and was not really concerned about the boy’s rights but was much more interested in the bribe that would encourage him to ignore them.

By the time that the superintendent had successfully negotiated his cut from Petŭr’s eventual selling price, the slave market had emptied, as business for now had concluded. The annoyed Dimitŭr would therefore have to wait another couple of days for his next opportunity to realise the boy’s auction value. Meanwhile, for a further smaller fee to the official, the naked 13 year-old could be incarcerated in one of the large holding cells with which the basement of the retail establishment was equipped.

Of course, in the circumstances, Dimitŭr did not propose to allow Petŭr to escape punishment for causing the delay in his sale into slavery. The fat merchant also intended to make sure that the boy would not cause another disturbance when the next attempt was made to trade him. However, the sadistic man also appreciated that the methods of both chastisement and persuasion he now chose must not damage the 13 year-old.

The stripes on Petŭr’s back and buttocks, created by the slave-trader’s crop and now darkening from the original crimson into various shades of brown, were enough temporary visible disfigurement for now. Dimitŭr appreciated that any more similar injuries might adversely affect the boy’s selling price. However, the fat merchant sadistically knew how to inflict pain without obvious marking. Suffering the intended cruel experience, along with suitable psychological intimidation, should encourage the 13 year-old to be quietly compliant when finally sold into slavery.

The market’s basement holding cells were large, dark, dank rooms, with big, barred and locked entrance gates. The amenities of each were very basic. They included a few smelly round holes in the ground that were directly linked to the rat-infested city sewers, which were the ultimate source of many of the local outbreaks of plague. The apertures acted as the toilets. There were also some troughs through which ran fresh water for drinking and washing. No bedding or food was provided, as those being sold within the establishment were not expected to remain for long in the facility and the superintendent was not the type of person to waste money on luxuries.

The naked Petŭr eventually found himself alone in one of these cells, the previous temporary residents having been sold that day. Few of these had been like the 13 year-old Bulgar, a fresh arrival into Constantinople. Despite the porous nature of the Ottoman blockade, priority for imports was afforded to essentials and slaves were not classed as such, despite the fact that many of the local elite would think their quality of life intolerable if such servants did not exist.

Instead, most of the poor souls offered for auction were being sold by previously prosperous local families, who had been impoverished as a result of the economic consequences of the blockade imposed by the hated Ottoman Turks. Because of the lack of slave imports and the resultant excellent prices presently obtainable for such human chattels from those still somehow rich, familial destitution could at least be delayed by the money accrued from such sales.

Petŭr’s slim, bare ankle had been manacled to a sturdy metal ring resolutely embedded into the cool stone floor of his cell, with sufficient length of connecting chain to enable him to reach one of the toilet holes and a trough. The market superintendent had himself escorted the naked boy to his chilly, dark prison, which was illuminated only by a few oil lamps attached to the damp walls. The nude 13 year-old, acutely unhappy that the official had ignored his desperate pleas for freedom in favour of a share of the young Bulgar’s eventual selling price, was then left alone in the sinister place.

The weary Petŭr eventually sat on the cold stone, the chill from which quickly ran through his bare bottom to affect his whole form, which consequently began to shiver. In order therefore to try to retain some bodily warmth, the sorrowful, naked boy pulled his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms round his legs. The 13 year-old was to remain in this position in his solitude until finally he mercifully cried himself to sleep, after tearfully praying regularly for salvation from his miserable situation to the patron saints of his Bulgarian homeland, the Greek brothers Cyril and Methodius.

Both saints had, perhaps ironically given Petŭr’s current circumstances, lived, studied and taught in Constantinople before being sent by the Byzantine Emperor to covert heathens in the Slav lands, including Bulgaria. In order to help spread the faith in such previously infidel countries, the two Greeks had invented the Cyrillic alphabet, which was named after Cyril.

Unfortunately for the boy incarcerated about 500 years after these events in the one of the holding cells of Constantinople’s main slave market, the ears of the saints in heaven appeared to be currently deaf to Petŭr’s desperate entreaties. In fact, the 13 year-old’s life was, in the short term, to become even worse.

Petŭr’s present dejection did not just stem from his current, very sad situation but also from alarm at a promise made to him by Dimitŭr before the fat merchant had left the slave market. The cruel trader had told the fearful boy "I’ll be back, slut, to punish you for your insolence in protesting your right to freedom!"

Petŭr appreciated that Dimitŭr was not promising another beating, or the fat merchant would have inflicted that on him before he had departed. The highly intelligent boy astutely realised that, presumably because of the need not to cause visible damage and a possible resultant reduction in the 13 year-old’s auction value, the cruel trader intended instead to hurt him in some other way. The clever young Bulgar also recognised that the sadistic man would be impatient to fulfil his foreboding vow and had therefore undoubtedly only left the slave market to collect some equipment from elsewhere before returning as quickly as possible.

The uncomfortable environment in which Petŭr now found himself, plus trepidation about Dimitŭr’s sadistic intentions, caused the 13 year-old to sleep fitfully and experience nightmares. The latter tended to involve the terrible torture of his lovely boyish body through the use by the fat merchant of many exotically heinous devices.

In fact, Petŭr initially still thought that he was in the middle of one of these nightmares after being awakened from his slumber by a boot harshly tapping his bare young bottom. The boy’s sleepy sensuous eyes had subsequently been looking for several moments at the instruments that were about to give him much grief before, to his utter horror, he finally realised that he was now truly conscious and that the tools concerned were not just a figment of his literally tortured imagination.

Petŭr was still remembering these traumatic events 2 days later, when he once more found himself on the auction block, with his freshly washed and groomed naked body again being intimately inspected by many eyes and prodded and probed by many hands. The boy possessed little obvious sign of recent, severe chastisement anywhere on his delightful nude form, apart from the fading marks of the slave-trader’s crop, inflicted for insolence whilst last standing here. Nevertheless, the 13 year-old was not now protesting at his treatment, as he had previously done. The young Bulgar instead stood compliantly, eyes focused with seeming resigned disinterest on the far wall and whilst displaying his now usual humiliating fulsome erection, as the pre-sale examinations proceeded. The child had learnt a severe lesson and was therefore succumbing with meek silence to his fate.

"Yes, slut," a smiling Dimitŭr had declared in the holding cell 2 days previously, as he showed the instruments of penance to Petŭr, "these are indeed the tools that will fulfil my promise to punish you for your recent insolence!" As the boy later recalled these chilling words whilst later standing on the auction block, his naked body trembled with fright, a reaction noticed by the man currently inspecting and talking to a female companion about the nude 13 year-old.

The man had been feeling Petŭr’s scrotum to check the whereabouts and nature of the balls within in order to judge the difficulty of castration. At 13 years old, the boy was older than normal for conversion into a eunuch but the servant suggested to the lady, in whose prosperous household he was employed, that the pretty young Bulgar’s sexual organs should give up their testes with little problem.

On observing Petŭr’s bare body tremble, the servant incorrectly suggested in Greek to his mistress "The boy must understand what we intend!" In fact, the 13 year-old was so resigned to his fate that he had not been listening.

Petŭr’s mind, still traumatised by the events in the holding cell of 2 days previously, was instead focused on the long, sharp needles that Dimitŭr had then held in his hands.

(Bursa, Ottoman Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], same time)

After discovering the disappearance from their luxurious quarters of both Mehmet and Vladimir, the prince’s intensely worried black eunuchs had called out the full palace guard to search the entire residence and grounds. Given the large size of the palatial complex and despite the substantial numbers of soldiers involved, this task took many hours. By the disturbing conclusion of the hunt, the mercantile caravan, amongst which the two bound and gagged boys had been secreted, had advanced a long way along the road to the port of Mudanya. By the time that Bursa and its environs had also been comprehensively explored and suspicion began to focus on the trading convoy that had recently passed through the city, the two 8 year-olds were already at sea.

The black eunuchs and their military colleagues back in Bursa now wondered how they were going to tell Bayezid I about his youngest son’s disappearance without subsequently being horrifically put to death for their efforts. Many began to pray at local mosques and shrines of Muslim saints to encourage Allah to grant them mercy.

(Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], same time)

As 13 year-old Petŭr stood naked for the second occasion, this time acquiescently, on the auction block in Constantinople’s main slave market, two similarly nude, very pretty 8 year-olds were walking down a gangplank onto a harbour quayside nearby. The boys, whose slim necks were now decorated by metal collars linked together by a chain about a normal man’s pace in length, whilst their hands were shackled behind them, had already guessed from their impressive surrounds that they were disembarking in Constantinople. However, the prospective dangerous consequences of arriving in a city that had been targeted for brutal conquest by the father of one of the youngsters was not immediately at the forefront of their distressed minds.

Fair-haired, blue-eyed Vladimir was leading dark-featured Mehmet and both were completely absorbed by the utter shame of arriving in Constantinople in chains and in the nude. The boys’ extreme abashment and dejection at such a circumstance was compounded by the ribald remarks they received from many sailors and dock workers who crowded the dhow from which they were disembarking, as well as adjacent moored vessels and the quayside.

The abject humiliation of Mehmet was further compounded when his little cut cock rose to erection in response to the bawdy commentary. The boy could not fully understand the cause of this peculiar, disgraceful, physical phenomenon. However, the 8 year-old was astute enough to realise that his shameful genital display had somehow literally arisen because of incongruous excitement at appreciating the essence of the lewd remarks, which, despite being spoken in largely alien tongues, was obvious through associated body language. Meanwhile, Vladimir’s similar distress was intensified not by penile unruliness but instead by the exposure of his gelded state.

Mehmet and Vladimir were coincidentally destined for the nearby slave market, where Petŭr was now being auctioned. The 13 year-old Bulgar was still thinking, as he was undergoing his shameful pre-sale scrutiny, about the horrors that Dimitŭr had inflicted upon him 2 days previously.

Each of Dimitŭr’s slender needles possessed tiny metallic heads, rendering them similar in appearance to particularly thin and finely polished nails. The wickedly grinning fat merchant had held them up in the lamplight so that his appalled imminent young victim could fully appreciate their awful, cruel splendours.

On observing the glinting metal more fully, Petŭr, who was still sitting on the cool stone floor, had begun to beg for mercy, although he appreciated that his pleas would certainly go unheeded. The boy’s supposition was quickly proved correct when Dimitŭr issued orders to the two sailors he had brought with him from the coastal barge that had transported them all to Constantinople. The men were as aggrieved as the fat merchant that the 13 year-old had been the cause of a 2-day delay before they could return home. All of the other goods that the smugglers had brought to the city had found eager buyers just after arrival.

"Hold the brat firmly now," the sadistic Dimitŭr ordered, "whilst I work out what part of his body I’m first going to use my needles on. There’s so many I can select where the torture will leave no readily visible marks. For example, there’s the slut’s lips and tongue or even gums, where I’m sure I can locate a tender nerve. There are also his nipples, armpits and earlobes, as well as the ultimate highlight, his anus and sexual organs!"

"I’m sure, slut," Dimitŭr commented to the aghast Petŭr, as the petrified naked boy was dragged to his feet by the strong sailors, "that you’re really looking forward to having one of my fine needles pricking your sphincter, penetrating your cock or piercing one of your balls!" Naturally, the horrified 13 year-old did not reply positively but instead engaged in even more desperate but fruitless entreaties for compassion.

The grinning Dimitŭr had happily responded "There’ll be no pity for you, slut! Instead, I’ll tell you what I’m about to do. I’m going to use my needles on all of the body parts I’ve mentioned. You’ll then be too busy screaming to be begging for mercy!"

By now and despite Petŭr’s struggles, the boy’s lovely naked form had been presented by the two sailors for Dimitŭr’s sadistic attention. The fat merchant, having temporarily laid all but one needle to the side, then gently ran his free hand over the 13 year-old’s chest before harshly pinching the child’s right nipple.

Petŭr now felt the point of the first needle pressing against the rosy papilla. This encouraged the boy to attempt to make one final plea for clemency. However, his intended words were never fully uttered, as a vociferous shriek instead emerged from his sweet lips when thin metal pierced his nipple.

The happy Dimitŭr then left the first needle firmly and cenrally embedded in Petŭr’s anguished flesh, as a sort of trophy decoration, before picking up another and diverting his attention towards the boy’s left nipple. Another scream soon resounded round the dark, dank cell, as this other papilla was fitted with its own metallic adornment and whilst little droplets of blood spilled from each fresh piercing.

Despite the fact that Petŭr’s agonised eyes were now awash with tears, the boy then managed to notice the third needle being presented to his lachrymose face. "I’d now be very compliant and certainly wouldn’t struggle too much, slut," the smiling Dimitŭr subsequently suggested, "or I might take one of your eyes out instead of piercing your lips, gum and tongue!"

Petŭr somehow managed to summon enough courage to follow Dimitŭr’s suggestion, whilst the fat merchant attacked the boy’s rosy lips with the needle, piercing them in several places before moving on to the 13 year-old’s gums. However, although causing great pain, the penetration points were so diminutive that they would not have been discernible if minuscule droplets of blood had not been simultaneously created. The tiny wounds would also heal quickly and invisibly.

Petŭr, wary of accidental damage to his pretty but presently lachrymose face, eventually even obeyed Dimitŭr’s demand for him to stick out his young tongue for further attention by the cruel needle. The fat merchant and his sailor accomplices later laughed at the sight of the metal tool penetrating right through the organ, preventing the soft, fleshy, muscular protuberance from returning to its oral home.

Fortunately for Petŭr, unlike his nipples, which were still decorated by needles, the cruel trader did not leave this latest instrument of torture in place for long. The sadistic man instead slid the thin metal carefully out of its temporary location and ordered his equally sadistic and amused sailor allies to lift the arms of the unhappy sobbing boy into the air.

The holding cell quickly resounded with yet more of Petŭr’s shrieks, as the needle was subsequently harshly thrust several times into different parts of the boy’s exposed armpits, from which some blood soon dribbled in several narrow lines down the sides of the 13 year-old’s sublime torso. Foregoing his promised attack on the child’s earlobes because of sudden impatience at wanting to attack more private parts, the excited Dimitŭr, hidden manly cock hard and throbbing within his trousers, then ordered his sailor accomplices to bend the young Bulgar over. "Now for some attention to your hole!" the fat merchant subsequently announced with happy relish.

The later pricking of Petŭr’s delicate pink sphincter was as agonising as anything that the boy had suffered so far in this awful place but, as he endured the painful and abasing torture, the child correctly worried that there was worse to come. What the youngster rightly feared most was Dimitŭr giving his undivided sadistic attention to completely smooth 13 year-old genitalia.

When Dimitŭr eventually knelt before the relevant enchanting set of young male sexual organs, having finally become bored with torturing Petŭr’s now slightly sanguine anal entrance, the fat merchant was instantly delighted, whilst his victim was again aghast. They both now realised that the associated penis was not only fully erect and almost vertically inclined but also drooling copious precum. To add to the boy’s obvious intense abashment at this situation, the cruel trader teased "You seem, perverse slut, to be thoroughly enjoying your punishment. Well, let’s see how much pleasure you gain when I pierce your penile skin and stick a needle into each of your balls!"

Petŭr’s lovely but currently tortured body now really struggled against the firm hold that the sailors had gained on his arms but to no avail. The pretty boy also tried to raise his legs from the floor in an effort to protect his vulnerable and threatened sexual organs.

Unfortunately, the manacle fixed to one of Petŭr’s slender ankles and connected to the ring embedded in the ground prevented that particular leg from rising very far. The fat merchant was also not put off his intended task by the elevation of the boy’s other lower limb, which creeping tiredness would anyway soon lower.

Ignoring the one raised leg, Dimitŭr grabbed hold of Petŭr’s erection with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, whilst, with his right digits, he guided the point of his now bloody needle towards the tender pink skin under the boy’s rigid shaft. A subsequent scream and drop of blood falling onto the stone floor indicated that the fat merchant had pierced some of the penile under-surface near the engorged cockhead, which was currently busy dribbling more precum. However, the later careful withdrawal of the cruel trader’s sharp instrument and its immediate repositioning further along the underneath of the young, throbbing member clearly demonstrated that the sadistic man was not to be satisfied with one such act.

In fact, the sadistic Dimitŭr punctured Petŭr’s delicate penile underskin four more times before moving his attention to the upper surface of the agonised, tearful boy’s erection. The fat merchant was to be rewarded by another loud chorus of anguished shrieking, as he now caused some droplets of blood to fall from this side of the 13 year-old’s hard cock as well as from the underneath.

Such a noisy reaction to the penile torture encouraged the happy Dimitŭr to comment "I don’t know why you’re making so much clamour, perverse slut, as these pricks are just gentle teasing compared to what I’m now going to do to each of your balls!" Soon afterwards, Petŭr felt the fat merchant release the boy’s still incongruously rigid young cock and instead rest the 13 year-old’s smooth scrotum in his fat, manly palm.

Dimitŭr then began to fondle Petŭr’s twin ball sacs in order to isolate the first testicle that was imminently to receive the attention of his needle. This chore was soon achieved. The fat merchant subsequently firmly held the little orb, hidden from view but not from his feel, between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand whilst he once more guided with his right the sharp and now bloody metal point towards the latest target.

"No, please no!" Petŭr now yelled as loudly as he could, whilst he felt the needle come to rest on the smooth young scrotal skin that now barely covered his left testis. "Yes, oh yes!" was Dimitŭr’s sadistic reply, as he ignored the desperate entreaty and began instead to push the metal point into the boy’s small ball. However, the 13 year-old, much to the disappointment of the fat merchant, was not to experience the full excruciation of such testicular torture, as he now fainted.

After the annoyed Dimitŭr had used some palm-carried water from the nearest trough to reawaken Petŭr, the boy almost lapsed into unconsciousness again, such was the extreme agony now experienced in his groin, where a needle was now firmly embedded in his scrotum. However, such a mercy was not to be permitted to the 13 year-old.

Instead, Petŭr was to witness Dimitŭr, who had left the first needle in the agonised boy’s left ball, present another similar metal object to the appalled 13 year-old’s right testicle. The young victim was also to experience the full excruciation of the penetration of this second testis, as this time he did not faint whilst the awful deed was done. Neither did he scream but he instead bit his already wounded tongue so much that more blood than was created by his earlier oral torture flowed from the sides of his lips.

Petŭr’s body also gushed another fluid. In the midst of this terrible testicular torture, the boy’s pretty form once more shook, this time with strange pleasure rather than pain, and the young Bulgar entered incongruous orgasm, with his hurting penis again spurting several thin streams of white ejaculate. However, probably fortunately for the 13 year-old’s further welfare, Dimitŭr was now accustomed to and expectant of such genital unruliness and, noticing the signs of the child’s imminent climax, managed to avoid being splashed by the resultant sperm. The fat merchant also decided that his young victim had suffered enough if permanent harm was not to be done and that he should therefore ignore his former apprentice’s resumed sexual ill-disciple.

Dimitŭr eventually proudly backed away from the distraught, sobbing Petŭr to examine the results of his sadistic work. Some blood continued to dribble down the boy, from the 13 year-old’s chin, chest, armpits, bumcrack and genitalia. The gradually softening cock of the child, whose nipples and scrotum were still decorated by needle piercings, was also dripping residual cum.

Dimitŭr then decided to inflict upon the acutely suffering Petŭr a psychological coup de grace in order to ensure that the child now proceeded compliantly to his enslavement in 2 days. The fat merchant proposed to achieve his aim by threatening the 13 year-old’s entire boyhood.

"Now, perverse slut," Dimitŭr announced, "if, in 2 days, you still protest your right not to be sold as a slave, I’ll not only return you here for a repeat punishment but also arrange to sell you privately. I understand that there’s some Chinese merchants in Constantinople, who’ve journeyed all the way from their homeland to trade their silks."

"They usually like to return along the Silk Road with pretty boys," Dimitŭr advised, "whom, because of the nature of the Chinese market, the merchants always convert into eunuchs by cutting off the whole of their genitals. If you don’t want me sell you privately to such merchants so that you end up as one of these nullified slaves on the other side of the known world, I suggest that instead you let yourself be sold quietly in this place in 2 days’ time!"

Dimitŭr now recognised that he did not need to await Petŭr’s reply to his suggestion. The fat merchant could tell, from the tearful boy’s current abject facial expressions and body language, that the 13 year-old had now accepted his ultimate fate, for the child’s mannerisms indicated final complete surrender to the cruel trader’s will.

Dimitŭr instead advanced towards the deeply distressed Petŭr again in order finally to remove, to accompanying loud whimpering, the four needles still piercing the boy’s nipples and balls. The restraining sailors then immediately released their tight hold on the acutely anguished 13 year-old, who reacted by crashing to the cool stone floor in spiritless misery and pain.

Soon afterwards, the disconsolate Petŭr felt splashes of gooey fluid drop onto his hurting, naked body, which was now lying on the cold ground. The boy looked up and was just in time to receive several more spurts of similar creamy liquid fall onto his lachrymose face.

Dimitŭr and the sailors had released their manly cocks from within the confines of their untidy trousers in order to masturbate over Petŭr’s nude prone form. The trio had cum almost simultaneously, with the fat merchant gaining the satisfaction of further despoiling the boy’s face, this time with his adult semen as opposed to the child’s own tears and blood.

Having returned their softening cocks to their smelly trousers, Dimitŭr and his companions then left the sobbing, naked boy alone to enjoy his enduring shame and suffering and await his destiny. However, as Petŭr stood humiliatingly nude on the upstairs auction block 2 days later, the 13 year-old had not been so traumatised by his humiliation and torture in the basement holding cell to forget the prayers that he had whispered to himself during the lonely aftermath.

Petŭr had prayed to the patron saints of his homeland to give him the opportunity, someday and somehow, to gain appropriate revenge against the evil Dimitŭr. The perceptive boy appreciated that his wishes were unlikely to be granted. After all, the fat merchant would be returning to Bulgaria, further enriched, whilst the 13 year-old would be remaining as a slave in Constantinople.

Nevertheless, the young victim of the cruel trader’s wickedness believed that there was no harm in at least pleading and hoping for a saintly miracle.

(Delhi, India, same time)

"Thank you, Sadhu," 10 year-old Ahmed responded to Krishnan’s help in dressing the immaculately groomed young Muslim prince in one of his most splendid costumes in readiness to attend an important ceremony in Delhi’s main mosque. "I wish you wouldn’t call me that," the similarly aged young Hindu replied, with a tinge of annoyance evident in his voice and on his very pretty face.

Ahmed had occasionally mischievously teased his eunuch slave and best friend, Krishnan, with the title of ‘Sadhu’ ever since they had both seen the eponymous naked, saintly, holy men of Banaras, who ceremonially mutilated their own publicly exposed genitalia, as a demonstration to their gods of their faithful chastity.

"But you’re a saint to me," Ahmed protested in reply, whilst displaying another of his completely disarming smiles.

Naturally and as usual, Krishnan could only instantly lose his annoyance, as a result of Ahmed’s kind comment and heavenly grin.

(Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], same time)

The Arab merchant, who had been responsible for the abduction of Mehmet and Vladimir from Bursa, was delighted to discover that the business of Constantinople’s main slave market had not yet ended for the day. He therefore proposed to try to organise the quick sale of the pair of pretty 8 year-olds. He would thereby rapidly secure profitable reward for his enterprise and would also rid himself of the trouble and cost of upkeep of retaining the boys in his possession until the next auctions.

Consequently, the Arab merchant speeded the two young nudes through the dockside area, guiding the boys by a chain lead attached to the metal collar now temporarily sported by the leading boy, Vladimir, who was similarly connected to another such adornment on the trailing Mehmet. The journey was short but nonetheless still deeply shameful to the pretty 8 year-olds because of their maintained nakedness and the continued obscene ribaldry from many passers-by.

Mehmet was especially distressed that his body, which was that of the heir to the Ottoman throne, should be so disgracefully exposed to such viewing and lewdness and that his little cut cock was still rigidly unruly, as he endured such opprobrium. Vladimir, who had been accustomed to some public nudity when originally sold as a slave, was more anguished about the dishonour of having his gelded genitalia exposed to public gaze.

Reaching the enclosed confines of the slave market brought Mehmet and Vladimir no comfort. The scene was very crowded and the naked boys astutely realised where they were and that they would soon undoubtedly appear on an auction block for intimate scrutiny by prospective purchasers.

Mehmet and Vladimir were not to be proven wrong. The Arab merchant quickly made the appropriate arrangements for immediate sale of his young nude charges with the market superintendent. Coincidentally, the scene for the eventual sale of the two boys was to be the same as for Petŭr’s recent, finally successful enslavement.

Petŭr had eventually pleased Dimitŭr enormously, partly by behaving and ultimately fetching a very high price. The boy had been bought, on behalf of an enormously rich and important master, by an exceedingly well groomed and dressed elderly eunuch, who was afforded much respect by other prospective purchasers, as well as by the market officials.

As well as obtaining an excellent price for the 13 year-old, the other part of Dimitŭr’s pleasure in eventually selling Petŭr was sadistic enjoyment gained from certain local knowledge. The fat merchant presumed that the eunuch buyer would soon be overseeing the conversion of his new boy purchase into someone like himself, without balls.

The eunuch had manhandled Petŭr with expertise, knowing how to appraise boy flesh skilfully from decades of experience. However, he also knew how to assess other characteristics well and it was this type of judgement that really resulted in his decision to buy the 13 year-old.

Despite the virtual disappearance of the various minuscule wounds caused by Dimitŭr’s needles, the eunuch could tell that Petŭr had been recently carefully tortured, presumably to make the boy stand compliantly today on the auction block. He also noticed something in the 13 year-old’s blue eyes, as he subjected the child to the indignity of intimate manual and visual examination, including the most careful scrutiny and fondling of the young Bulgar’s currently intact and rampant genitalia.

In fact, the look in Petŭr’s eyes had been the prime reason for the eunuch’s decision to buy the boy. Coincidentally, Mehmet and Vladimir now displayed similar ocular traits, as they took turns to stand on the same auction block on which the 13 year-old Bulgar had so recently been sold into foreboding slavery.

When Mehmet and Vladimir had still been incarcerated in the hold of the Arab dhow, they had agreed that it would be best for their own safety to continue for as long as possible not to tell anyone about their real identities. Their decision had not just arisen because, if the truth was revealed, their abductors would undoubtedly secretly kill and dispose of the boys in order to try to protect themselves against Bayezid I’s wrath. The 8 year-olds were also concerned that their ultimate destination might be somewhere like Constantinople, where the population would be very hostile, not least because of local suffering endured at the hands of the belligerent Ottoman Turks.

On eventual discovery that Constantinople was their destination, Mehmet and Vladimir fully appreciated that a son of the hated Ottoman Sultan, Bayezid I, who had been responsible for much recent humiliation and distress in the city, would not be welcome. In fact, knowledge of the boy’s capture might cause an angry mob to seek instant, horrific vengeance on the young prince and his similarly aged eunuch slave.

Mehmet and Vladimir were clever and mature enough to realise that the Byzantine Emperor himself would undoubtedly adopt an entirely different attitude to that of his aggrieved people. Manuel II Palaeologus would not kill the boys but would instead sensibly use the young captives as bargaining chips in negotiations with Bayezid I. However, the 8 year-olds recognised that, if they prematurely revealed their identities to someone whose reaction they could not trust, they could first fall into the hands of a resentful mob. The great city was known to have experienced such murderous crowds quite often throughout the millennium of its existence as an Imperial capital.

Mehmet and Vladimir understandably wanted to be sure that they would live long enough to secure Imperial protection. The boys also entertained some hope that somehow they could escape from captivity whilst their true status was still unknown, and so not further disgrace themselves by becoming Manuel II Palaeologus’ hostages. However, both also agreed that they could not maintain their secret if a threat arose to them staying together. Despite their tender ages and the mutual dangers, the intensely close friendship between the two 8 year-olds meant that they were unwaveringly prepared to risk death rather than be separated.

Later, as the now unchained Mehmet was made to suffer the same intimate inspection and handling as Petŭr had endured earlier in the same location, the 8 year-old, still firmly erect Ottoman prince felt that his degradation could not possibly ever become worse. However, Vladimir, standing adjacent on the auction block to be simultaneously examined, was slightly less disturbed, as the young Slav had already experienced the demeaning procedure elsewhere.

Over 4 years previously, the fresh young Slav captive, Vladimir, had been bought at auction by one of Bayezid I’s eunuchs. The newly enslaved infant had subsequently been castrated himself in order to serve Mehmet in the Sultan’s inner palace in Edirne, which was closely associated with the harem.

As Vladimir’s unchained, pretty, naked, gelded form was now once more being closely prodded and probed, the selfless boy’s worries did not concern himself but rather his young master and friend. The young Slav naturally hoped that he and Mehmet would not be sold separately, which would prompt the dangerous disclosure of their real identities. However, the 8 year-old’s bright mind was currently concentrating on another serious worry that could trigger the same perilous revelation.

Appreciating the Byzantine taste for eunuchs, the thoughts within Vladimir’s mind entirely focused on the ability of Mehmet to retain his young balls, which might be very important for future Ottoman lineage.

(Great Palace, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], next day)

The second son of the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel II Palaeologus, had again embarked upon an unauthorised solitary expedition of the vast complex of terraced buildings, courtyards and gardens that was Constantinople’s Great Palace. John had once more evaded his adult attendant servants and bodyguards in order to do so and, to avoid detection by other officials and to add to his interest, the very pretty fair-haired boy with the sky blue eyes was currently exploring some apparently obscure and unimportant passageways. However, the 7 year-old’s steady progress ended abruptly when he heard loud, obviously distressed shouting in a strange foreign tongue emerging from behind a sturdy wooden door.

If John had opened and looked through the door, he would have noticed two, newly purchased, naked young slaves being readied for their castration in order to begin lives as palace eunuchs. However, the prince, alarmed and a little frightened by the noise, decided that what was happening inside the room was none of his business. The 7 year-old therefore walked on past the scene of the young duo’s imminent gelding.

Petŭr, who was already immovably bound to the bloodstained castration table inside the room, was not the source of the loud entreaties, which had been overheard by 7 year-old John whilst the Imperial castrator had simultaneously introduced his well-used knife to the 13 year-old Bulgar’s genitals. The vulnerable scrotum of the proficiently gagged, gorgeous anatomy of the older boy was already dark in colour, as the twin ball sacs had previously been tightly tied round their base with thin leather cord.

A petrified Mehmet, who was nearby, firmly held between the resolutely strong arms of a pair of Imperial guards whilst waiting his turn on the sanguine tabletop, was instead the source of the desperate pleas. The threat to the 8 year-old’s boyhood had, of course, caused the young prince to reveal his real identity to an elderly palace eunuch. The young Ottoman’s willingness to reveal his true status was assisted by the fact that he was obviously in the residence of the Byzantine Emperor and therefore safe from any vengeful mob.

The elderly eunuch had bought Mehmet, Vladimir and Petŭr for palace service. Pretty slave boys were fairly commonplace at market. However, much rarer were youngsters whose eyes revealed some residual lively spirit regardless of their degrading situations.

Despite the superficial quiescence displayed by Mehmet, Vladimir and Petŭr whilst being auctioned, the elderly eunuch had been attracted by this, to his expert gaze, clearly mutually shared vivacious characteristic. The attribute would be important for the specific Imperial role for which the trio had been purchased.

Unfortunately for Mehmet’s boyhood, the elderly eunuch ignored the 8 year-old’s entreaties, even though Vladimir had supported the desperate child’s assertion about his true status. The young Slav slave’s sexual organs, unlike those of the Ottoman prince, would not, of course, currently have need of the castration knife, as he was already without balls.

The elderly eunuch would probably have dismissed Mehmet’s revelation as a desperate, immaturely silly attempt to avoid castration, even if the palace official or any of his colleagues had understood any of the Turkish spoken by the unilingual boy and the similarly aged and linguistically restricted Slav purchase. Vladimir had forgotten both the identity and language of his original homeland, having been captured and enslaved at only 3 years of age.

The palace officials knew none of the Turkish tongue and so the revealing pleas of both Mehmet and Vladimir were incorrectly misinterpreted as being mere begging for mercy and therefore went completely unheeded. Despite the fact that the intelligent young boys involved in this dilemma had recognised the reason behind their frustrating inability to communicate their message, they could not formulate a resolution to the problem. Moreover, their personal situation was now made worse by their temporary separation, as the presence of the already gelded 8 year-old Slav slave was, of course, not required in the Imperial castration chamber.

As the sorrowful Vladimir therefore waited elsewhere for the return of his prince, the young Slav, who had been converted to Islam after his original enslavement, begged Allah and various Muslim saints to somehow protect Mehmet. Meanwhile, the young Ottoman was coincidentally, but perhaps quite naturally in the circumstances, similarly praying, as was Petŭr, although the 13 year-old’s pleas for similar salvation were to sacred Christian entities.

Petŭr’s anguished mind was then suddenly distracted from prayer, as his lovely, firmly bound 13 year-old body again entered incongruously pleasurable, vibrating orgasm. The boy’s frequently unruly cock, which was now hard and throbbing, whilst being held for safety reasons by the Imperial castrator, once more erupted with much sperm.

Nevertheless, the gushing, creamy ejaculate was guided harmlessly out of the way by the expert castrator, who was both unconcerned about and expectant of such a penile event. The man caused the copious, white orgasmic product to splash inoffensively, in a fountain-like arc, onto Petŭr’s cute belly and chest.

The gelding knife of the Imperial castrator then proceeded to slice further into Petŭr’s smooth scrotum.

(Great Palace, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], 1 week later)

Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus of Byzantium was talking to his wife, Helena Dragash, as they readied themselves to attend a service in the cathedral of Saint, or more appropriately Hagia Sophia, which was adjacent to their huge main palace. The Empress was the daughter of an important southern Serb noble and, of course, mother of the delightful 7 year-old John.

"Have you done as I suggested?" 46 year-old Manuel asked gently of the much younger and beautiful Helena, whom he truly loved. The Empress replied affirmatively.

"Well," Manuel then commented, "let’s hope that the result is an end to John’s little adventurous escapades or one day our lovely second son could encounter real trouble when he wanders off alone from his rooms!"

(Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], shortly afterwards)

The first great church on the site was built in the 4^th century AD by Constantius, the son of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, but, after a short troubled history, this was finally burned down completely during riots in 532. The building was then rebuilt in essentially its present form over the next 5 years under the personal supervision of Justinian I, and is a supreme example of early Byzantine religious architecture.

The architects, Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, professors of geometry at the university of Constantinople, topped their great building with a central dome, representing the vault of heaven. This feature was 110 feet in diameter, and was therefore deliberately wider than that of the Pantheon in Rome.

The architects cleverly solved the problem of resting such a circular dome onto a rectangular base using four ‘pendentives’. The latter are concave triangular sections of masonry that pass the weight onto to massive piers at each corner.

Between the pendentives, the dome appears to float upon four great arches, whilst an associated arcade of 40 arched windows helps to flood the interior of the cathedral with light, adding magnificently to the ornate, colourful scene within. Smaller half-domes are situated at the western and eastern ends of the basilica, such spectacular roof arrangements making the building unique in antiquity.

By Manuel II Palaeologus’ era, the great cathedral, with its predecessor church, had been for over a millennium the seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople and a principal setting for Imperial ceremonies. The architecture of the basilica had also been the model for many other places of worship throughout eastern Christendom, most notably in Russia, where soaring but narrower domes top many beautiful buildings.

The reason for such architectural copying was that the ecclesiastical see of Constantinople was the mother church of eastern Christianity. The early organisation of the faith had involved five patriarchies, namely that of this city plus those of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. However, the latter three metropolises had subsequently fallen to Muslim invaders and in 1054 the Roman Church had broken away in the ‘Great Schism’. The liturgies evolved locally within the ceremonial splendours of the Imperial Byzantine court provided the distinct elegance and grandeur that Orthodox ritual possesses to this day, in contrast to the more restrained sacraments of other traditions.

The splendid, currently crowded cathedral was now the venue for another of these elaborate rituals, as the Emperor and his wife slowly walked down the wide central nave beneath the basilica’s main dome, the centre of which was about 210 feet above their crowned heads. Amongst those also present alongside Constantinople’s other elite were the 80 priests, 150 deacons, 60 sub-deacons, 160 readers, 25 cantors and 75 doorkeepers, who all served in the Hagia Sophia. Some of these church officials were chanting, whilst others rang bells and swayed incense burners to pervade the holy atmosphere with exotic sounds and scents.

John, dressed in appropriate, rich and colourful princely vestments with bejewelled Imperial diadem, whilst accompanying his similarly attired father and mother as they marched slowly up the nave in ceremonial formation, was, as usual, fascinated by his surrounds. However, the boy with the sky blue eyes was not looking forward to the long rituals that were to come. Instead, the very pretty fair-haired 7 year-old could hardly wait to return to the palace, where promised presents from his parents would be awaiting him.

John was not supposed to have any idea as what the presents were to be because his father and mother had teasingly declined to tell him. However, the lovely boy did not mind too much, as not knowing usually made the waiting all the more exiting.

(Palace of the Ming Emperor, Nanjing, China, same time)

Chi Le, now an 11 year-old, had fully recovered from his nullification, perpetrated in the previous autumn so that he could mix freely with all of the Imperial family and household, including the females. Richly dressed as befitted a palace servant of the 69 year-old Hung Wu Emperor of China, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was the first of his Ming dynasty and had already reigned for almost three decades, the boy eunuch was currently performing some menial chores.

The resplendent palace in which Chi Le served was located in the current capital of China, Nanjing, where he now expected to remain for life in the closeted world of the Imperial residence. The 11 year-old did not, of course, presently know that his future was to prove far more adventurous, thanks to his eventual acquaintance with a couple of historically significant people, one of whom was now resident in Beijing, whilst the other led a rather more nomadic existence.

(Near Yasi [modern town of Turkestan in Kazakhstan], Timurid Empire, same time)

Vissarion was trying his best to comfort his oldest and best friend, Arman, who was tearfully disconsolate at Teimuraz’s strange disappearance. They were in Tamerlane’s luxurious tent, the recent descent of darkness having made encampment essential, as continued search on the steppe near Yasi for the missing boy would be impossible until morning.

Tamerlane had ordered the search as soon as he had been told by a worried Arman that young Teimuraz had not returned from his horse-ride. However, the conqueror had been travelling only with a relatively small escort and so the numbers of cavalrymen involved were not great, especially when compared to the vast plain on which the 14 year-old had disappeared 9 days previously.

The first theory relating to the missing Teimuraz was that the very pretty 14 year-old’s horse might have become lame or he might have fallen from the steed and injured himself. However, no sight of boy or animal had worryingly so far been found.

Capture by raiding Mongols had then become the second theory. However, no such raiders had been reported by anyone living in the locality, and the destructive presence of such a force would surely have been revealed by now.

Some peaceful nomads had been reported in the area but they were not known for being unfriendly. Consequently, the reason for Teimuraz’s disappearance was currently a complete mystery to Tamerlane and his boys, all of whom prayed for the 14 year-old’s recovery alive.

As it seemed appropriate to do so, even the Christians, Vissarion, Nicolai and Teimuraz’s older brother, Todo, and the Zoroastrian, Rahu, included prayers to the local Muslim saint, Hodja Ahmad Yasewi.

(Palace of the Prince of Yan, Beijing, China, same time)

26 year-old Ma He shared Chi Le’s ethnicity and emasculated state. The adult nullified eunuch had been similarly captured as a boy from the Muslim Hui people of Yuan by Imperial Chinese forces. However, despite lacking genitalia, he had subsequently been very well treated and educated, and, also proving very capable and loyal, now prospered in the service of the 4^th of the 26 sons of the Chinese ruler. This particular Imperial offspring of one of many concubines of the Hung Wu Emperor had been given Beijing as a fiefdom and the title of Prince of Yan by his male parent.

The Prince, however, was much too ambitious to be happy with ruling a mere province and so, as he rather impatiently awaited his ageing father’s death, he was already formulating plans to become much more powerful.

(Central Asian steppe, north of Yasi [modern Kazakhstan], fringes of the Timurid Empire, same time)

To the now conscious Teimuraz, his disappearance was no mystery. The elderly shaman had earlier acquainted the appalled, naked boy as to why he had drugged, stripped, bound and abducted the 14 year-old.

To check on his captive’s welfare, the shaman had entered the back of the covered ox-driven cart, which carried Teimuraz and was heading, with the rest of the small nomadic group, north into the vast steppe towards distant tribal summer pastures. Then, in order to give the boy some water, the man had removed the gag, placed in the almost immovably bound 14 year-old’s mouth to ensure silence when he woke from his drugged sleep. The summer sun overhead meant that the inside of the covered cart became very hot indeed, as the vehicle bumpily rolled across the immense plain.

After consuming the much-needed water, Teimuraz had taken the opportunity of the removal of his gag to protest his kidnapping, as well as the humiliating loss of his clothing. In response, the shaman apologised almost politely for his action but then excused it by advising the horrified boy that the 14 year-old’s lovely naked body was needed to make medicines for his people.

"When we reunite with the rest of our tribe at our traditional summer pastures," the shaman informed, "there’ll be various ailments for me to treat. I’ll therefore need at least some of your fresh body parts to make the relevant medicines. For example, your testes will certainly be used to cure infertility, which is a tribal curse at present amongst many of our women. Meanwhile, your empty scrotal sac and now suddenly virtually useless penis will be used to produce a potion to improve virility!"

The shaman then took the precaution of re-gagging the aghast, loudly protesting Teimuraz in order to restore tranquillity, at least in terms of noise if not in respect of the terrible thoughts now searing the boy’s distressed mind, before happily continuing to provide information about the 14 year-old’s destiny. "Naturally, the elderly man subsequently disclosed, "I’ll keep you alive for as long as possible, in order to keep your organs as fresh as possible, after I begin to extract important bits of your insides. You see, child, I’ll do so in such a way that your vitals are only removed last!"

"Rest assured though," the shaman concluded before clambering back out of the wagon, "your sacrifice, like that of all of the abducted children who’ve predeceased you over the years at my sacred hands, will be greatly appreciated by my people and gods. Oh, and by the way, thank you for my new horse. It’s a splendid steed!"

The nude, sobbing, petrified Teimuraz was somehow not comforted by the departing shaman’s assurance or thanks. The 14 year-old Georgian instead began to pray to the patron saint of his homeland, St. George, to influence the Christian God to secure his salvation.

(Near Yasi [modern town of Turkestan in Kazakhstan], Timurid Empire, same time)

Vissarion’s prayer to the local Muslim saint, Hodja Ahmad Yasewi, appeared to some bear fruit, in the form of a sudden theory. The idea concerned was the same as one that the fictional English detective, Sherlock Holmes, was supposed to invent half a millennium later. However, the bright mind of the 20 year-old Georgian eunuch actually thought of the notion first.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire [modern Turkey], same time)

A furious Bayezid I, who had been busy campaigning in the northern Balkans to mop up residual resistance after destroying the Crusade of the previous year, arrived in his palace in Edirne. Written news of the disappearance in Bursa of Mehmet and Vladimir, conveyed by a series of mounted messengers, had belatedly reached the Sultan and, leaving the bulk of his army in the hands of competent generals, he had swiftly returned to his capital.

Bayezid I did not, however, remain long in Edirne. The Sultan quickly set out for Bursa to take personal charge of the search for his young heir and the execution of those responsible for the prince’s disappearance, who had been demonstrably incompetent enough to allow the event to happen in the first place.

Because most of Bayezid I’s army was either still in the Balkans or guarding his large empire, for his search the Sultan could only call upon his personal white eunuch and Janissary bodyguards, supplemented by some soldiers gathered from garrisons encountered en-route to and in Bursa. Consequently, whilst in Edirne, the Ottoman ruler, knowing that he might need as much help as possible, summoned the instructors and pupils from the local acemi oglan to help him.

Accordingly, a certain multi-national group of highly excited 9 year-olds, who had only just learnt to ride, soon found themselves on the backs of ponies, heading southeast towards the port of Gallipoli. The unofficial but now natural joint leaders of this particular assemblage of boys were, of course, Kiril and Zoran.

(Great Palace, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], shortly afterwards)

John was delighted with the presents from his parents, even though they might represent an end to his occasional unauthorised expeditions round the Great Palace.

Coincidentally standing beneath an ornate icon of the 9^th century Ignatius of Constantinople, who was the first undoubted eunuch saint, an elderly emasculated official introduced John to his gifts. The man announced "The older slave, Majesty, speaks improving Greek. The younger two are slowly learning our language but all have been instructed in the proficient performance of their duties and the potential unfortunate consequences of any ineptitude."

"Their names, Majesty," the elderly palace eunuch advised, "are respectively Petŭr, Mehmet and Vladimir. However, you, Majesty, can, of course, call them anything you want!"

(Central Asian steppe [modern Kazakhstan], north of the Timurid Empire, 1 week later)

The deeply afraid and ashamed Teimuraz wondered what made his boyhood so attractive that God and His saints were prepared to allow it to be threatened so frequently. The first to want to emasculate the young Georgian had been a Chinese trader. Then, the Sultan of Baghdad had desired to have the child gelded. Now a Mongol shamam proposed to extract the 14 year-old’s balls, as a precursor to much other mutilation.

Teimuraz prayed again to Saint George for salvation, although somehow the boy knew that he was not going to be lucky on this third occasion that his masculinity was seriously endangered. The 14 year-old gained this perspective from his current position, immovably strapped naked, spreadeagled and face-up, on a sturdy, heavily bloodstained trellis table, whose wooden legs were carved with the shapes of exotic mythical animals.

The table had been situated under the hot overhead sun in the clean open air of the vast steppe pasture on which the nomads, who had abducted Teimuraz, had met and encamped for the summer with the rest of their large Mongol tribe. The frightened, bound and now gagged boy could hear the sounds, incongruously peacefully pleasant in the circumstances, of bellowing animals and excited young children playing nearby, all of who were completely disinterested in his harrowing predicament. However, the 14 year-old was also surrounded by many people of the opposite attitude, who were thoroughly looking forward to watching their shaman castrate another fresh, healthy young captive.

Teimuraz’s penis was humiliatingly hard and throbbing, whilst pointing vertically towards the cloudless sky, with a little clear precum oozing out of the cockhead. The base of the boy’s smooth scrotum had already been tightly bound. The local anatomical scene was therefore much darker in hue than normal by the time that the shaman, grasping the rampant penile shaft to safeguard the young erection during the imminent ritual, introduced his own, very well used knife to the middle of the 14 year-old’s genital sac.

The shaman, expert in the procedure, was then too alert to allow himself to be sprayed by Teimuraz’s ejaculate when, to much accompanying laughter from the large crowd of appreciative spectators, his imminent young victim’s gorgeous body now shook in intense, productive orgasm.

(To be continued in chapter 36 – ‘Surprises’)