Tamerlane's Boys 30

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Autumn, 1395)

Having returned again to Samarkand laden with booty from the Mongols of Rus and the body of Umarshaykh, Tamerlane decided to winter in his capital. The conqueror particularly wanted to spend time overseeing the continued aggrandisement of the city, which now possessed a splendid new tomb housing the deceased form of the ruler’s second son.

Tamerlane was no longer concerned about the antipathy of Shadi Mulk Aka, his Eldest Queen, or ‘Bibi Khanum’, to his boys, as he and she had reached an agreement about how he would act in respect of his female consorts when in Samarkand. The conqueror knew that, as long as he abided by the bargain, the formidable but honourable woman would stick to her side of the deal and not seek to harm her husband’s catamites again, after poisoning them almost 4 years previously.

Tamerlane also perceptively appreciated that, after the incident in the Caucasian forest, in which he had shown clear preference for one of his boys above his oldest living son, nobody else would dare to try to injure his catamites. Although the fatal incident had officially been described as a tragic hunting accident, correct rumours abounded about what really happened. One of the consequences for Vissarion, which he found acutely embarrassing, was the sycophantic respect the young Georgian subsequently acquired from ambitious people on the periphery of his master’s court or petitioners, many of whom began to call the 18 year-old "Young Lord" when addressing him.

Those who truly knew Vissarion, and were not jealous of the young Georgian’s immense abilities and influence, not only recognised his worth, despite his tender age, as an imperial advisor and administrator. They also realised that the 18 year-old’s inherent modesty disliked such fawning and associated labelling, and that it was therefore best just to be straight with him and address him by his name and not by any artificial title.

Meanwhile, the 14 year-old sister of Teimuraz and Todo gave birth to a son, who was to grow to be as boyishly pretty as his uncles and thankfully to exhibit none of the awful characteristics of his incestuous father or grandfather. The child was called Tedor, in order to maintain the family tradition of beginning all male names with a ‘T’.

Tedor’s young mother was found a place at court, as one of the females charged with looking after 1 year-old Ulugbeg, only offspring of Tamerlane’s youngest son, Shahrukh. The wife of the latter showed no interest in childrearing, and so the baby prince was effectively to be brought up by his nurses, although they currently invariably needed Vissarion’s nightly help to encourage the child to sleep.

With the acquiescence of the Bibi Khanum, Vissarion came discreetly every night and followed previous practice by picking up a well-insulated Ulugbeg and carrying him outside to look at the night sky, even in the midst of winter rain or snow falls. However, in Samarkand, a palace balcony represented the external environment.

If clouds blocked sight of the moon and stars, Vissarion’s sparkling blue eyes and assuring whispers still inevitably quickly soothed Ulugbeg into slumber. Others tried the trick but nobody except the young Georgian was ever successful.

Within a couple of years, after Ulugbeg had learnt to walk and grown to understand the words spoken by Vissarion, the child would be content to stroll under the night sky, holding the young Georgian’s hand, before being returned inside and tucked into bed by him. A short story from the vast library of such enchanting tales stored in the eunuch’s head would then despatch the boy for the night into the wonderful world of dreams. By now, Tedor would be sleeping happily alongside the prince, with the infant pair revelling in each other’s company.

Tedor was being reared alongside Ulugbeg, who became his older playmate and ultimately brother in all but name. Their close companionship, like that between Vissarion, the stars and the prince, was to become lifelong.

(Delhi, India, same time)

"While I’m here," Mahmud Tughluq advised his son, Ahmed, whom the Sultan was visiting after his return from visiting the provinces, "I’ll now inspect the standard of your slave’s castration." The Muslim ruler of Delhi then turned to the richly garbed Hindu, Krishnan, and ordered the boy to drop his silk trousers.

Although ashamed, Krishnan no longer tried to hide his private parts from the Sultan’s gaze and obeyed immediately. Meanwhile, Ahmed did not this time intervene to try to prevent his father satisfying curiosity.

"Hmmm," Mahmud Tughluq commented in surprise but without suspicion, as he lifted Krishnan’s little flaccid cock to scrutinise the empty scrotum underneath, "the scar looks almost new, not over a year old!"

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, same time)

Tamerlane’s agreement with his Bibi Khanum entailed respecting his female consorts’ rights to enjoy their husband’s company whilst he was in Samarkand, and for him not to embarrass them by parading round the capital with his boys, thereby advertising to everyone his preferences. Naturally, some of the time that the conqueror had to spend with the women was to be spent in satisfying their conjugal rights. Not only did the younger Queens want to make most of the rare opportunity to indulge in heterosexual sex but also some entertained the hope that they might yet produce another son for the man, thereby strengthening their own positions within the court.

In order to satisfy the agreement, Tamerlane’s boys were mainly housed in a palatial residence on the outskirts of Samarkand, vacated for the purpose by one of the conqueror’s sycophantic nobles. Here, they were required to maintain very low profiles whilst in the vicinity of the city. Even Rahu was expected to be invisible. Although ‘The Little Limpet’ was still allowed to form part of his master’s bodyguard, he did so not at the side of the conqueror but watchfully hiding amidst the man’s large retinue of adult guards.

Meanwhile, Nicolai and Rezan were temporarily redundant and therefore forced to spend more time with their tutors, as so-called more respectable servants took their place to look after Tamerlane’s menial needs. The boys’ only consolation for a reluctant return to full-time education was hearing their master grumble, during a sadly rare visit to see them, that their adult replacements were "Incompetent, nowhere near as efficient as you two!"

Vissarion managed to keep busy with affairs of state, with an array of messengers going backwards and forwards to his residence from Tamerlane, who was located in the conqueror’s palace. The communications carried invariably involved news of imperial happenings and policy advice sought from, and subsequently invariably proffered expertly by, the young Georgian.

Vissarion obviously appreciated that such a system did not encourage efficiency within the imperial government. However, the significant compensation was that keeping discreetly at a distance from Tamerlane whilst in Samarkand provided his master with a degree of domestic harmony, if such can ever be achieved when a man possesses many wives.

Vissarion was even the soul of discretion when making his visits to the palace to ensure Ulugbeg’s nightly slumber. The young Georgian always resisted the great temptation to call in on Tamerlane, who anyway was probably with one of his queens.

Meanwhile, Arman was less encumbered by the diplomatic goings-on in Samarkand. With his lover, Sibur, attendant, Teimuraz, princely friend, Shahrukh, and the latter’s new groom, Todo, he was engaged on military manoeuvres on the steppes of Transoxiana before the usual local heavy snowfall meant that the army finally reverted to somewhat somnolent winter encampment.

Then, one day, a messenger brought Vissarion the alarming news that revolutions against Tamerlane’s suzerainty had broken out in both his own homeland, Georgia, and that of Arman, Armenia. The exiled Sultan of Baghdad, Ahmad Jalayir, had also returned to retake his city. A number of the conqueror’s garrisons had been massacred in the process.

A few tears now came to Vissarion’s sensuous blue eyes, as he realised that he would now have to choose between his own people and remaining one of Tamerlane’s boys.

(Delhi, India, 1 month previously)

"I don’t like doing it unless the boy’s first been purged and starved for at least a week," the man advised. "We don’t have time," the naked 8 year-old retorted, "you have to do it now. If I’m prepared to take the risk, then so should you be!"

"Well," the man responded ruefully, whilst still amazed that he was being ordered to do the deed, "don’t blame me if anything goes wrong." "I won’t!" the nude Krishnan replied, as he lay face-up on the straw bed. The young Hindu, unknowing to Ahmed, had contacted the castrator who, in return for a huge bribe offered by the Sultan’s son, had agreed not to geld him a year before. The reprieved boy knew to where the man had secretly retired and now blackmailed him with the threat of exposure of his duplicity and whereabouts if the adult did not carry out what he had failed to do earlier.

The castrator’s now 13 year-old assistant and catamite firmly tied Krishnan’s lovely naked form, face-up and spreadeagled, to the straw bed. The efficiency of the impending gelding of the selflessly brave young Hindu was not to be disturbed by subsequent movements of his anguished body, as his boyhood was cut away.

"Are you sure?" the castrator then asked of Krishnan, as he presented his specially sharpened knife to the young Hindu’s small but delightfully proportioned smooth scrotum, earlier also proficiently bound round the base with thin leather cord by the 13 year-old assistant. "Yes!" the 8 year-old somehow managed to croak in answer.

"So be it!" the castrator commented rather sadly, after he ordered his assistant to gag Krishnan and subsequently began to make his neat incision down the centre of the young Hindu’s smooth scrotum. The latter was now dark in colour because the leather tourniquet was performing its job well.

The castrator felt Krishnan’s body, in undoubted agony and shame, try to wriggle beneath him. Having by now exposed the first of the boy’s testicles, the man therefore took the opportunity, before cutting the associated spermatic cord, to ask his young customer again whether he was still to proceed.

The gag, introduced to Krishnan’s sweet mouth to prevent the boy from biting his lips or tongue, caused the young Hindu to nod to convey his answer. The movement of the 8 year-old’s lovely but now tearful head was positive.

Consequently, the castrator severed the spermatic cord and extracted the first of Krishnan’s testes. Soon afterwards, the man had accomplished his belated commission to convert the boy into a eunuch and had stitched and bandaged the resultant genital wound.

Krishnan had not wanted to jeopardise Ahmed’s position with his father, which he incorrectly believed might happen if the Sultan discovered that his son had deceived him over the young personal slave’s castration. In fact, given Mahmud Tughluq’s character, he would undoubtedly just have laughed off the little revolution against his original wishes as a very enterprising and caring escapade by his offspring, whilst taking no further action against the young Hindu servant’s boyhood.

Sadly, Krishnan’s misjudgement of the Sultan, much to Ahmed’s subsequent distress, needlessly cost the brave and selfless young Hindu his balls, lost in the same cell in which he should have already been transformed into a eunuch a year previously. The young Hindu’s similarly aged 8 year-old, Muslim master only later heard about the deed when the perpetrator’s 13 year-old assistant delivered a message advising of the fait accompli. The man himself had been too afraid to convey the news himself.

Ahmed subsequently organised other competent, Hindu slaves, whom he trusted to keep silent about the matter for the sake of their compatriot, to nurse Krishnan through his convalescence. The latter was successfully completed, despite the lack of preparatory purging and starving prior to castration, by the time of the Sultan’s return to Delhi.

Ahmed naturally forgave his courageous but foolish slave. The boys then simply carried on as before with their lives, although the young prince’s admiration of Krishnan’s bravery was always tempered by concern about the young Hindu’s judgement, until one fateful and dreadful day, still 3 years into the future, engulfed them both.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, 1 month later)

Tamerlane’s initial reaction to the revolutions in Georgia and Armenia, and the retaking of Baghdad by the previous Sultan, was remarkably mild. He simply calmly called a council of chief advisors, who met at Vissarion’s residence so that the domestic harmony at the conqueror’s palace was maintained, with certain boys still not passing in daylight through its ornate gates. However, another probable reason for the choice of venue was the opportunity afforded for Nicolai and Rezan to resume, albeit only temporarily, their highly efficient servicing of their master’s menial needs.

After the meeting had convened, Tamerlane asked for opinions as to what should now be done. Various advisors supported the same ideas, namely that, once weather permitted, punitive military expeditions should be launched against Georgia, Armenia and Baghdad. All eyes, including those of the conqueror, eventually focused on the still immensely boyishly beautiful Vissarion, who was the last to offer his counsel.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

Mehmed was weeping profusely, with his 6 year-old mind experiencing grief never previously endured. Vladimir was very ill, almost fatally so if Bayezid I’s court physicians were to be believed. However, the young Ottoman prince was prevented from seeing or trying to comfort his slave and best friend.

The doctors, although they believed that Vladimir had been grievously poisoned, because he had taken ill immediately after tasting some of Mehmed’s food, did not want to take any chances that the young Slav was suffering instead from a contagious disease.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, same time)

The generally happily gregarious Vissarion looked unnaturally very glum, as he prepared to offer his master his advice, which almost everyone expected, in relation to his homeland, to be contrary to the previously expressed popular view round the council table. Only one person anticipated otherwise and Tamerlane was not to be disappointed.

"I have always," Vissarion now advised with unflinching conviction, "supported our Great Lord when he has sought due terrible retribution from those who have betrayed his trust, as such deeds are necessary to prevent strife elsewhere and the possible disintegration of the empire. The citizens of Baghdad have invited further trouble by killing our soldiers and restoring their Sultan. However, the Georgians and Armenians have been even more perfidious, given our Great Lord’s recent largesse in respect of their renewed self-governance and restoration of religious institutions. I am particularly ashamed at the actions of my own people, who have risen under the leadership of the supposed son of the former king, whom I have no doubt is an impostor. I too feel betrayed, given my role in persuading our Great Lord that generosity should subdue local dissent."

"I therefore fully support," Vissarion firmly announced, "punitive military expeditions against Baghdad, Armenia and........" The young eunuch then paused briefly before even more angrily and loudly declaring "Georgia!"

Tamerlane smiled, for he had never doubted where Vissarion’s loyalty would lie, just as he similarly and correctly never distrusted that of the Armenian, Arman. The conqueror knew that the young Georgian was not someone who would be dishonest about such an issue by pretending to be supportive in order not to displease. He appreciated instead that the brave and forthright 18 year-old would have aired other views if he had held any, regardless of the consequences.

Tamerlane now sought counsel in respect of the military operations. The conqueror then eventually surprised everyone by announcing his proposed troop dispositions for the beginning of the campaigning season in spring of the following year.

Tamerlane’s new oldest son, 30 year-old Muranshah, would lead the expedition against Baghdad, whilst Shahrukh, only 18, would command the forces against Armenia and Georgia, assisted by good generals and, probably even more importantly, Arman and Sibur, as military advisors, and Vissarion, as political counsel. Meanwhile, the conqueror would remain in Samarkand, which was an unprecedented stance for the energetic, eager campaigner to take.

Only the wise young Georgian perceived Tamerlane’s reasonings for unprecedentedly remaining in his capital, whilst his army went back to war. The conqueror wanted literally to blood his remaining two sons in sole command positions. However, more importantly, whilst the homelands of Vissarion and Arman were ruthlessly attacked, he wanted to keep his own furious anger at events there out of the vengeful recipe.

Tamerlane believed that by remaining in Samarkand, whilst awful revenge was extracted against Georgia and Armenia, he would be doing his beloved Vissarion and Arman a favour. The conqueror recognised that his own presence would probably lead to excessive retribution, whilst the young command team he had chosen instead would be more clinical, only subjugating the lands and people to duly proportionate terrors.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, later same day)

With one exception, all of Tamerlane’s council, including the conqueror himself, had departed from the borrowed palatial residence Vissarion shared with Nicolai and Rezan on the outskirts of Samarkand, well out of the way of annoying any touchy queens. The one exemption was Arman, whose lover, Sibur, was still with the army on the Transoxianan steppes.

On leaving with his father, Shahrukh had collected the waiting grooms, Todo and, with Arman’s permission, Teimuraz. The latter pair, having been with their respective masters on military manoeuvres, was now to make, in the pleasant company of Tamerlane’s youngest son, their first visit to see the many splendours of Samarkand.

In Samarkand, Shahrukh would also ensure that his groom and that of Arman could visit their sister and baby Tedor, as well as their other three infant nephews. The latter, sons of the hated and now deceased eldest brother of Teimuraz and Todo, had been adopted by one of Tamerlane’s older and therefore now redundant palace concubines, who had been barren but always wanted children. She was to prove a worthy surrogate for the useless mother left behind in the boys’ home village, near Gori in Georgia.

Arman, despite his youth and lack of seniority compared with Tamerlane’s generals, had been, at Vissarion’s wise suggestion, a new recruit to their master’s council, although not out of nepotism. The young Armenian had demonstrated on a number of occasions that he was able to introduce the peerless strategic and tactical guile that he brought to chess to the conqueror’s campaigns.

Like Umarshaykh and Miranshah, Tamerlane’s generals had naturally resented the appearance of a mere 18 year-old Armenian onto the council, someone who not only regularly countered their military views but also was usually proved correct. The disrespect of the senior officers, all of whom originated, like the conqueror, from Chaghatay tribes, for the young foreigner was compounded by the fact that he had resolutely remained clean shaven.

The previous universal adult male fashion in Tamerlane’s army, followed by all, including the conqueror, was for beards or, at least, moustaches. To the generals, anything less suggested effeminacy.

Despite official Muslim proscriptions, the practice of homosexuality was common in the conqueror’s army, as not all of the warriors liked to keep wives or other women amongst the large volume of camp followers who invariably followed the conqueror’s primarily mounted forces. As the satisfaction of lusts by raping subdued native populations was not always possible or permitted, finding male sexual partners, amongst fellow soldiers or by recruiting young personal grooms, was therefore frequently alternatively indulged. This scenario was one of the reasons why Tamerlane’s possession of a coterie of beautiful boys to look after him during his travels, both inside and outside of bed, was accepted by most without demur.

The practice of homosexuality was not related to effeminacy but being a clean-shaven male adult in Chaghatay society was so deemed. However, Arman emanated from a different branch of Islam, where the possession of facial hair was not regarded as an essential display of masculinity.

Arman had shaved his growing body for as long as had been necessary in order to continue to be attractive to Tamerlane. However, when both finally accepted that the young Armenian was fighting a losing battle because of his irrevocable advance into adulthood, and he had transferred to the tent of Sibur, who liked young men as opposed to boys, he devoted the daily attention of the razor only to his face.

Arman did so because he recognised that Sibur had a preference for him without beard or moustache, although the older officer had never actually stated this because he did not want his lover to embarrass himself in front of his peers by remaining clean shaven. However, the young Georgian was unfazed by Chaghatay attitudes and was happy brazenly to use his razor every day to counter current custom.

In the event, Arman began a fashion revolution, for an increasing number of the younger, more audaciously modern warriors started to follow his practice, to the further annoyance of the tradition-minded, especially the generals. However, the latter discovered that they could not reverse the gathering trend when Tamerlane himself refused to condemn the taste, because he secretly rather enjoyed, what he considered to be, the improved aestheticism provided by the shaved faces of handsome young men.

Consequently, Arman became even more unpopular amongst the conqueror’s generals. However, after previous examples of what might happen to someone who tried to harm one of Tamerlane’s boys, nobody dared to plot against the young Armenian.

Arman was technically no longer one of Tamerlane’s boys. However, everyone recognised that their leader not only still retained great respect for the young Armenian but also immense affection for the 18 year-old, to the extent of probably still being deeply in love with him, albeit not now sexually. The position of the clever and courageous, young and shaved cavalry officer in the conqueror’s army and travelling court was therefore unassailable, unless anyone fancied risking an awful, lingering death.

After fussing over Tamerlane’s every need during the council, and being rewarded with lingering hugs and kisses before their master eventually and very reluctantly returned to his palace and his queens, Nicolai and Rezan now diplomatically left Arman alone with Vissarion, who were currently standing opposite each other. The 14 year-old Muscovite and 12 year-old Persian knew enough about the relationship between the two 18 year-olds ostensibly to find for themselves an alternative venue in their residence for the foreseeable future. Having recognised the telltale signs, the younger pair politely excused themselves and walked from the room, managing to restrain their outburst of giggling until out of earshot.

"I haven’t seen you for a while," Vissarion commented to Arman, once they were alone and with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "You know that I’ve been busy with military manoeuvres," the young Armenian answered, with some noticeable concern in his own verbal tones, as he hoped that his prolonged absence had not truly upset his oldest and still best friend.

"Are you sure that you haven’t been too busy with Sibur or Teimuraz to bother about me?" Vissarion then asked sulkily and accusingly. Arman now really was worried that he had upset the beautiful young Georgian and began to stutter nervously "I....I....promise....I....I’ve only....been busy....with....military...." However, that was to be the extent of the young Armenian’s explanation, as the usual, completely disarming smile reappeared on the gorgeous face opposite him, whilst he now saw clear mischief in the sparkling blue eyes.

"You naughty Georgian," the grinning Arman now exclaimed loudly as he rushed towards and then embraced Vissarion, "you’re going to pay for your tease!" "And how are you going to extract payment from me?" the young Georgian eventually managed to enquire, once his rosy lips emerged for air after a long bout of passionate kissing with and bodily groping by his fellow 18 year-old.

"Well," the eager Arman answered, "we’ll begin by removing these!" The young Armenian then proceeded, rather clumsily because of the excited intensity of his long unrequited passionate needs, to deprive Vissarion of the young Georgian’s rich clothing.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

Sultana Olivera checked the unconscious Vladimir before dismissing her husband’s physicians with the command "Leave the boy to me!" The doctors politely objected but were nevertheless ultimately ejected from the young eunuch’s bedchamber, which was next to the much bigger and more ornate version occupied by Mehmed.

"Idiots!" Olivera then commented to her own handmaiden, who had accompanied her on her visit to Mehmed’s quarters. "They’re checking for poison when it’s quite clear what the poor fevered boy is suffering from," the Sultana further remarked.

Olivera then ordered her handmaiden to organise bowls of both hot and cold water, with many clean flannels and towels, plus some of the Sultana’s own personal medications. "And," she finally instructed, "let Mehmed in too. The prince will fret himself to death by not knowing what’s happening and, anyway, he’ll be much happier doing something to help me cure his slave. The disease is only contagious by way of consuming infected food or drink!"

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, same time)

Nicolai and Rezan furtively watched Arman make artful love to Vissarion through an internal latticed shutter on the wall of the latter’s bedroom. The young pair of fascinated observers somehow did so without resuming their giggling.

Despite being considerately practised and usually culminating in the pleasant tickling of his prostate, Vissarion had rarely secured great pleasure through Tamerlane’s lovemaking. For the young Georgian eunuch, being the subject of sodomy by, or performing fellatio on, the conqueror was more a duty to him than a passion, even though he truly loved the man. However, Arman’s invariably more skilful attentions inevitably brought immense joy.

Arman would always first pay great, lengthy and delicate attention, with fingers, lips and tongue, to Vissarion’s erogenous zones, which the young Armenian knew intimately by now. Consequently, the young Georgian was invariably subsequently more than ready, and in fact often desperate, for the caring invasion of his rectum by his best friend’s inevitably rampant, throbbing, long, slender cock.

Vissarion’s sublime body would be tingling in rapture, as a consequence of Arman’s manual and oral actions. However, he would now experience sexual pleasure of such intensity, as his lover’s penis gently penetrated him and began to thrust slowly in and out of his innards, that he never regretted his own inability to perpetrate the same on the young Armenian. Given the acute ecstasy always gained, as a result of his best friend’s skills, the young Georgian realised that possession of balls was not essential for sexual joy.

Vissarion’s groans of delight would generally reach a crescendo in line with those of Arman, with both 18 year-olds climaxing simultaneously, as the young Armenian’s copious, gushing ejaculate filled the young Georgian’s rectum, deliciously delighting his prostate in the process. The timing and quality of today’s mutually delectable pair of orgasms was no different to those usually achieved.

After Arman gently collapsed onto the naked back of Vissarion, with his slowly softening cock still embedded inside his eunuch lover, and had managed to regain some breath, he shouted, for the benefit of the supposedly secret young watchers, "I hope you both enjoyed the spectacle!" Both the young Armenian and Georgian had detected the presence of Nicolai and Rezan earlier but were content to let the younger boys remain to enjoy the show.

The lovely visages of Nicolai and Rezan immediately blushed but, as they subsequently ran away, they resumed their giggling. As they escaped the scene of their detection, the 14 year-old Muscovite eunuch also noticed the clear bulge in the 12 year-old Persian’s silk trousers.

"I suppose," Nicolai remarked to Rezan, "that you now want to have your evil way with me in the same manner that Arman’s just enjoyed Vissarion?" Unsurprisingly in the circumstances, with his need clearly evident from the bulge in his trousers, the 12 year-old Persian answered "Yes, please!"

The beautiful, blond, blue-eyed Nicolai was delighted to hear his similarly impressively lovely, brown haired and eyed, younger friend’s reply. Soon afterwards, clothes were shed in the 14 year-old Muscovite’s bedroom, whilst two gorgeous boys kissed and played with each other’s sublime bodies, before bringing their own passions to the inevitable climax.

Afterwards Nicolai happily and truthfully advised Rezan that, despite his younger age and smaller cock compared to Arman and Tamerlane, both of whom had often enjoyed the 14 year-old Muscovite, the young Persian was swiftly becoming as expert a sexual partner for a eunuch as anyone. The 12 year-old’s lovely face subsequently beamed with pride.

(Janissary Barracks, Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

Beautiful dark haired and eyed Kiril came from a proud and noble Bulgar family. Nevertheless, the boy’s grieving parents had been compelled to give up their fourth son as part of the Ottoman devshirmeth. The 7 year-old had been compulsorily enlisted into training to become one of the feared Janissaries, which would represent a complete and unwanted revolution in the child’s lifestyle.

Kiril now found himself faraway from home, amongst a group of other young frightened Bulgars, aged between 7 and 10, who were about to be inducted into their ‘acemi oglan’ school. "Strip naked!" the fearsome, moustached Janissary instructor, who now confronted the new recruits in the spartan establishment’s courtyard, commanded loudly and authoritatively of the boys.

Despite the fact that heavy, cold rain fell down from the dark sky above and a chill wind blew through the courtyard, none of the terrified, shivering boys failed to comply with the dreaded Janissary’s vociferous order.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, same time)

As the shadows in their room began to lengthen, the still naked Vissarion and Arman indulged in pillow talk. On this occasion, they chatted about the apparently miraculous empathy they still had for each other, which somehow enabled their minds to recognise their friend’s emotional peaks, even when out-of-sight of each other.

Once, 3 years before, outside Kashan in Persia, such empathy had revealed to Arman that Vissarion was still alive, even after being pronounced dead by Tamerlane’s doctors. The young Armenian’s mind had not detected life but, equally importantly in the circumstances, had instead failed to discern his friend’s death, proving to him that the Georgian’s soul had not yet parted his body.

Most recently in the Caucasus, Arman’s mind suddenly became aware that his best friend was in mortal danger and he somehow knew precisely where. The young Armenian arrived alone in the relevant forest clearing, almost breathless from his running, to discover the distraught and tearful Tamerlane hugging an equally emotional Vissarion, whilst standing adjacent to Umarshaykh’s dead body.

"I think that it’s about time you came to my rescue," Arman smilingly remarked, as he and Vissarion came to the end of their reflections. "I’ll only oblige," the young Georgian replied, whilst grasping and quickly reinvigorating his friend’s flaccid cock, "if this entertains me again!"

(Janissary Barracks, Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

The Janissary walked slowly along the line of young, cold, wet, frightened and shivering recruits, inspecting their diminutive, naked frames. The man held a wicked-looking leather horsewhip in his hands, which he forced against the quaking bodies of the boys to turn them slowly around in order to gain an appraisal of their nude forms from all angles. He also used the implement to raise the invariably little cocks of the youngsters to check the cleanliness of the juvenile genitalia, although some of the penises concerned were already incongruously erect.

The Janissary occasionally felt obliged to hit the odd new recruit hard with his horsewhip, if any proved reluctant or too stupid to obey the unspoken instruction behind his prods. The man only deigned to use his fingers on the boy’s flesh when he knelt and separated their buttocks to gain an insight into the cleanliness and innocence of their young anuses.

The Janissary finally directed the boys to large tubs, fed by drainpipes from the school roof and full to the brim with recent rainwater, and instructed the young Bulgars how they were to wash themselves, after they had climbed inside the freezing contents. Meanwhile, heavy, cold raindrops continued to fall and the chill wind still blew onto the young, shivering, petrified nudes.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire, 1 month later)

Both Mehmed and the fully recovered Vladimir now viewed Olivera in a new light. After saving the young Slav slave with her care and medications from the mysterious disease, which she called typhoid, the boys regarded the Sultana as not only a kind woman but also a guardian angel.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, same time)

Shadi Mulk Aka, Tamerlane’s Eldest Queen, or ‘Bibi Khanum’, greeted Vissarion in her palace quarters when the young Georgian arrived in her formidable presence in response to her summons. "Don’t eat or drink anything whilst you’re with her", the concerned conqueror had advised, after his favourite boy had advised him about the sudden and completely unexpected invitation.

"Please," Shadi Mulk Akas now smilingly requested of Vissarion, "accept my hospitality. Join me in consuming some fruit juice and sweetmeats as we talk." The young Georgian fully appreciated that the Queen’s summons either represented a complete revolution in her attitude towards him or something much more sinister. However, despite the 18 year-old’s natural concerns, he knew that following Tamerlane’s advice would be highly insulting to the Bibi Khanum.

Vissarion therefore declined to refuse to follow the dictates of Muslim hospitality and began to consume some of the proffered fare, hoping to still be alive when Tamerlane’s redoubtable Eldest Queen finally came round to explaining her mysterious summons.

(Janissary Barracks, Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

Kiril was once again naked in the school courtyard. However, on this occasion, his sleek limbs were not free. The 7 year-old was instead bound to a sturdy wooden stake, with his ankles fastened together and his hands tied so far above him that only the toes of his feet touched the paved ground.

The courtyard was full of Janissary instructors and their cowed pupils, all observing the bound Kiril as the first, harsh lash of the horsewhip struck the nude boy’s pretty, curvaceous bottom.

(To be continued in chapter 31 – ‘Janissaries’)