Chapter 14

Things changed… He was on his knees at the floor, head pressed in as far as he could get it between his knees and his lower arms clutched to his ears as if trying to shut their angered voices out. It was of no use, they were shouting too loud at each other. Lord Medora, Lady Erennis and Young Master Azrel. A few times he could hear the sobs of Miss Alisa too and Lady Medora telling her to shut up and stop sniveling. They fought… and they fought over him. >>> * <<< Seka would have thought it strange before that people could live in the same house for years without ever saying a word to each other but now he had learned it was indeed possible. There was a very strict hierarchy in the richer houses of this city and there was as little contact as possible between the different classes. He hadn’t seen it at first but he knew now that was because he was the only one floating between these layers. He had thought Lord Medora treated him like a non-human but he had soon understood that he treated him better than most here. At least he acknowledged him as being there. At least he talked to him. The other slaves around him might as well have been invisible spirits conjured up to take care of things around him. He had an old servant that took care of his room and his clothes and served the meals he preferred to eat alone and helped him getting dressed. That old man had been in his service for very long and he did acknowledge him too. Seka had seen him small talk and joking a little with him from time to time. But the others? No he would never stoop to talk to them. He soon learned that the curse of the catamite was that there really was no fixed place in the hierarchy for someone like him. He thought the others hated him so much because he disturbed the order of things. Because they really didn’t know what his status really was. Well, he couldn’t help them there. He knew even less about such things. So there were the free people on top and under them their body servants. And under them the slaves running the household, the cook, the gardener, the chief steward and so on. And at the bottom all the slaves actually doing all the work. And no one ever overstepped the boundaries. Except him! Now he had understood there was as strict a hierarchy between free people too and they parted themselves not only into a lot of classes but also in men and women. Here the men did not live with their women. Not in the richer homes anyway. Here the women had their own quarters in the house and seemed to live a life of their own. Lord Medora sometimes ate with his whole family in a shared dining room but most of the times they ate in their own dining rooms. And they didn’t share a bed but when Lord Medora felt so inclined he went visit his own wife. And when he wanted to talk with his daughter he went visit her too. Seka found it strange. But it meant that he rarely saw the free women of the house. Lady Erennis now and then visited different parts of the house to see to it that the work was done to her satisfaction and when that happened he kept out of the way as much as possible. He wouldn’t even have been very ashamed to admit that he was scared to death of Lady Medora. Miss Alisa, Lord Medora’s pretty daughter rarely left the women’s quarters at all. At least he never saw her around the house. And the few times he had seen her it had been at a distant in the garden and always together with her mother or some sturdy servant woman. Seka was of course not allowed anyway near the women’s quarters and also avoided that area like the plague having Lady Medora’s threats always in fresh memory. He sometimes thought that Miss Alisa must no be much freer than he was though. At least he got out of the house sometimes. He doubted she did very often. He thought of her sometimes when he had got a glimpse of her. She always looked kind of sad or at least he imagined she was. She must be bored out of her mind. He didn’t think it was right to lock someone up like that. Sure at home, the girl’s virginity had been guarded too but they did not make prisoners out of them as Lady Erennis did with her daughter. >>> * <<< He had found a little haven of his own. Furthest back in the garden where the artificial brook was led out under the garden wall there was a big vault of bricks totally overgrown with bushes. It created a nice little grotto with a slip of dry land just big enough for one person to stretch out on, and be totally hidden from the world. He fled there now and then when he thought he just couldn’t stand to even look at the people in the house anymore. He could get away with it if he was careful. No one knew about it he thought and if he didn’t use it too often and didn’t stay too long no one would wonder about his absence. He had learned the rules and habits of this house well during the approximately two years he had been a prisoner in it. He knew pretty well by now what he could get away with or not. So for a short time now and then he stole a moment there, just to rest and revel in being left alone with his own thoughts and to remember things. He had to concentrate to remember things nowadays. To remember his mother and father and his siblings. To remember being a person of relatively free will. To remember having his body to himself. To remember roaming the woods at his own leisure… He loved that little damp grotto; it was his only recluse. The only thing that kept him sane he sometimes thought. It had been a very large shock to find out that he wasn’t the only one using the overgrown wide brick pipe as a hideout. It was hard to tell who got the biggest shock. Seka at hearing the rustles in the leaves and seeing a pair of white hands part them to let a small head in. Or Miss Alisa at seeing something pale sitting covered in black hair to the ground in her little grotto. She shrieked and retreated. Seka just shrank at that sound clasping his hands over his chest. They must have heard that all the way over to the house he was certain. He was like frozen at this sudden discovery of his recluse. She stuck her head in a second time a scowl on her face. "What are you doing here?" She demanded to know. A very valid question no doubt but he couldn’t answer. Medora’s daughter had just found him hiding away in the garden and it was quite obvious he had no business being here and that he was dodging work. What was he to say to that? He was too surprised to get a word out anyway. She promptly slid between the branches then and sat down on the damp ground beside him. He huddled up and pressed himself into the corner between the pipe and the garden wall. "I asked you, what are you doing here?" She repeated, clearly very annoyed. "I… ah... Uh… I’m…" He just couldn’t answer that. There just was no good answer. He felt hot tears starting to form at the corner of his eyes and cursed inside. He had managed to avoid being beaten with that horrible cane again ever since that time Lady Erennis had had him bend over that bench in the kitchen but there was no avoiding punishment for this. But then it struck him like a fist to his stomach. That someone had discovered that he sometimes snuck away without being allowed to was the least of his problems right now. It wasn’t a servant girl that had found him. It was Lord Medora’s daughter! And he was under no circumstances allowed to be this close to her, not allowed to look at her, not allowed to speak with her, not allowed to even let her be aware of his very existence. They would have him killed for this… or worse… His legs involuntarily pulled together as to protect certain parts that he’d rather not be robbed off. He had seen it happen, near The Quarters. They had cut a young boy and he had nearly fainted seeing it. Lord Medora had had to hold him up. He had laughed at him for his queasiness. It had had nothing to do with queasiness… He tried to escape her then. He rose as much as one could in the low pipe and intended to dash pass her and throw himself through the branches of the bushes and run back to the house. It wouldn’t help much of course but he couldn’t think straight. She grabbed his arm though and pulled him back. "Wait! I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m not angry, really." She gave him a sunny smile as if to emphasis this statement and smiled even wider as she saw him slump back in a way as if all the air had gone out of him. And as he still looked all pale and frightened she tried to calm him down further. "I’m not angry. I was just a little surprised. I thought no one else knew of this place. I come here now and then. Just to be left alone and think and such, you know? It’s been my favorite place since I was very small. I think no one else has been here before. So you come here to think too?" He nodded warily. "Why do you look so scared? I haven’t done anything to you, have I?" She sounded a little hurt. "No… noo… " he managed to croak, "it’s not… not… please Miss I can not be here with you… please let me go…" She looked even more hurt. "Why? I just wanted to talk to you a little. I’ve seen you sometimes. You’re that slave that papa brought home from the war right? What’s your name?" He just shook his head and looked down biting his lips. She looked at him with round eyes. "Please, won’t you talk to me a little? No one ever talks to me. I only have these silly friends that mother chose for me. I hate them. I never get to talk to anyone exiting. I never talked to anyone from another land before. How is it there where you lived?" She got a little closer. "Can’t you just tell me your name?" He looked up trying to relax and think straight. Better not annoy her, she might run straight to her mother and tell her. She obviously meant him no harm. She was lonely and bored just as he had imagined she would be and she just wanted to talk a little. So just talk a little with her he said to himself so you could maybe explain to her how very important it is that she does not mention this to anyone. "My name’s Seka." He said cautiously and she smiled. "See that wasn’t so hard, was it? Seka is a pretty name. Mine’s Alisa. You talk strange," she giggled a little, "what’s your work here?" She asked further and Seka felt his mouth open in a way that must have made him look pretty stupid. Could it be possible she didn’t know? He felt himself blush. "Ahh… I… I work in the kitchen Miss." He finally managed to press out. Some cynical side of him would have liked to answer, ‘I’m your father’s and your brother’s private fuck toy!’ But he’d better not worsen things here. She looked a little suspicious in a teasing way. "You sure don’t look like any kitchen boy I’ve ever seen. Your hair is so long and so pretty, lower slaves never have such long hair." She raised a hand as if intending to touch the hair she was speaking of but he looked so utterly alarmed at her movement that she let it sink again. It went on like that for while. She sat at one end and hugged her knees and he was pressed into the wall at the other end trying to quench his fear. She asked him questions, innocent questions. Did it snow at winters where he came from? Had he ever had a dog? Did he like living in this house? Childish questions. Alisa looked like a little woman but she was still a child and an overprotected and naive child too. She was a sweet girl he understood that, nothing mean about her. It wasn’t coldness that made her seem so oblivious to what his life was like. It wasn’t cruelty that made her ask if he sometime missed home. She just didn’t think that far. She just didn’t know. Had things not been as they were he sure would have enjoyed talking to her for a while just for her sweet innocence and pretty as she was that would really be the only thing he would have wanted to do. He would never take advantage of such innocence. Not like her father had taken advantage of his. On some level he might have had some thoughts of revenge but it never came up to the surface. He was just not like that. And he didn’t even really have had to abuse her to get revenge. No he could just have told her…. Told her so many things. Shatter that rosy glass bubble she seemed to live in. He could have told her what he had seen in the war. He could have given her graphic details about what her father did to him in bed or how her brother liked to tie him up and shove his cock down his throat. He could have told her what went on in The Quarters… he could have told her many things… But he just smiled too and told her that he had never had a dog on his own and that winters got pretty bad where he had lived and yes, sometimes he missed home very much… When there finally was a breech in their little conversation he tried to get a word of his own in. "Miss? Could I ask something of you?" She nodded smiling. "Of course. I told you, you don’t have to be afraid of me." He nodded too. "Thank you Miss. You are very kind… Please Miss Alisa will you not mention to anyone that you met me here… ah you see… I’m not really allowed to be out here and… they will beat me if they knew. They will truly really beat me very, very bad… Please don’t tell anyone. Especially not Lady Medora, she would… would…" He couldn’t even say it. "It can’t be that bad?" She said but even though she didn’t believe he would get that severely beaten just for sneaking away in the garden for a few minutes there was no mistaken the very real terror in his whole demeanor. She nodded seriously. "I promise I won’t tell anyone. Not a soul… cross my heart…" His relief was so big that he nearly glided off the bank. "Thank you Miss. Thank you so, so much. You have saved my life Miss…" He meant it quite literally. "Would you mind very much… I really should get back to work… but it has been very nice talking to you Miss Alisa." He added and wondered if this really was a proper way to talk to the lordship’s daughter. Probably not but she wasn’t exactly treating him like a slave should be treated either. She nodded, still all sunny. "Of course. I will not cause you trouble. But will you come here again? Maybe you could tell me more about your land?" Coming here again? She wanted to have more secret meetings? Never on his life! He promised himself that he would never set foot in this part of the garden ever again. But he gave her a slight nod just to humor her so that she would let him go. It was obviously a little adventure to her. He did not need that kind of suspension thank you very much. Though she rose too. "Well, I guess I’d better get back too, mother will wonder where I am." She turned to give him a wave with her small hand before slipping through the branches like a dryad. He just sat there for a minute or so trying to still his beating heart before leaving the pipe as well. It was true that no one knew Seka used to sneak away to this hidden corner of the big garden but that Miss Alisa used to do it was certainly no secret. She might think it was but every servant girl ever ordered to take care of her knew about it. They didn’t bother her though. Why would they? She wanted to be left alone for a while then let her. But they were always lurking nearby. And the sturdy woman that Seka often had seen at afar in Miss Alisa’s company stood hiding behind some shrubbery at that very moment and smiled tenderly as she saw the girl appear from out of the bushes. Her smile got stuck in her throat though as she just a few moments later saw the leaves rustle and move yet again. And her heart almost stopped as she saw that small man she knew was the lord’s catamite appear from out of the same bush. She looked long after him as he hurriedly ran towards the house. Was she mistaken? No, she couldn’t be, she would know that hair everywhere. No other person in this house had pitch-black hair trailing down to below the butt. It had been him all right and just wait until the lady got to know… >>> * <<< He had about one and a half-hour of relative piece of mind before his world came to pieces. Azrel appeared in the kitchen, strode up to him with a grim look in his face and simply pulled him along with a grip of his upper arm hard enough to bruise. Seka knew something was wrong. He could see it in Azrel’s face. He could feel something was terribly, terribly wrong. And he was even surer of it as Azrel violently pushed him into a room so that he fell on his knees and they were all just standing there. Lord Medora, Lady Erennis, Miss Alisa and that woman that used to take care of her… They all just stood there and stared at him with the same grim faces, except for Miss Alisa… she was crying. He could feel his very blood starting to freeze up in his veins. Azrel pulled him to his feet again and pushed him a bit closer and then held his chin up so they could all see his face. The nanny raised her arm and pointed an accusing finger at him. "It was him! As sure as I’m standing here it was him!" It all happened too fast for him to react. Lady Erennis just leapt at him and raised her arm. And the next second he had spun around from the force of her fist hitting him in the face and he fell flat on his belly and for a few seconds there was this strange buzz in his ears and his vision swam before him. It shocked him that a woman could hit so hard. He had nearly blacked out from the blow. He wished he had. Lady Medora was angry, furious, stark raving mad… it was very likely that he wouldn’t survive this. He just hoped it would be fast. Azrel pulled him to his feet yet again and he nearly clung to him from pure fear as she went for him again all wild eyed and shouting threats at him. Lord Medora encircled his wife’s waist though and hauled her back telling her to please calm down. Miss Alisa was crying even more. Erennis didn’t seem to want to calm down, she screamed at her husband to let her go so she could kill the horny little bastard. He gasped and did cling to Azrel’s shirt breast like a frightened child then. He understood that him and Miss Alisa somehow had been seen together in the garden. He understood they had got to know he had talked to her, he understood they were angry about it since he had been clearly told not to go near her. But he had not understood until those words that they actually thought he had abused her. He couldn’t help whimpering. Lady Erennis would never be contended with a mere whipping now. He would be killed or castrated… or both. Lord Medora seemed to have had enough. He roared to everybody to be silent and then he just grabbed hold of Seka and pulled him through a door and into the next room, angrily slamming it shut behind them. He was pressed back up against the wall, a big hand around his throat. Lord Medora was angry too. They were all very angry with him. He could have pissed himself. "Now I will ask you just once and I want the truth and nothing but the truth what ever it is, you hear? If I get even the faintest suspicion that you are not telling me the truth then this day will be your last and your death will not be an easy one. Have you understood me slave?" He shook so much that he doubted Lord Medora could read the faint signs he was trying to make in the affirmative. He was trying to answer but his mouth just opened and no words came out. "Now, did you touch my daughter?" Tears were streaming down his face by now and he knew he had clawed a tear in the thin fabric of the curtain hanging just beside him and he shook his head as much as he could from the suffocating grip at his throat. No, no no he had not and that was the absolute truth and every God there was knew it was the truth but would his Master believe him? "I… I… didn’t… please Master… don’t kill me… please… did… did… nothing… just talked… I swear…" He heard his own voice and it was like the pathetic whimpering of a child and he knew how it must sound. Lord Medora tightened his grip pulled him to him and then slammed him against the wall. It took the air out of him and there were red lightning in front his eyes. He would have glided to the floor if he weren’t still held up. He fought to remain conscious. "So why were you seen coming out of the same bush?" He growled. He must gather himself. He simply had to regain his composure and try to explain or he would be dead in a couple of hours. His teeth were chattering and he must try and calm down so his teeth would stop chattering so he could talk and explain. "It… it… it wasn’t a bush… I mean it’s a pipe… a pipe behind the bush and… I… I dodged work… I dodged work and went there… to just be on my own… I didn’t know… I swear I didn’t know that it was her hideout too, I just… she just… she came there and I didn’t know…. And she wouldn’t let me go and… we just talked…" He couldn’t get one more intelligible word out from crying so much and what kind of stupid explanation and excuse was it anyway? If his master even understood half of the words that had just fell out over his lips in a meaningless shamble it would be a miracle. Lord Medora unexpectedly let go of his throat though and pulled him into his arms. "You stupid, stupid fool." He whispered in his ear. He took him by the shoulders and held him at arm's length. "All right. I believe you. I didn’t think you would do such a thing anyway, you just don’t have it in you, do you? And you are not that unintelligent, you know what it would mean. Besides I talked to Alisa earlier and she said the exact same thing. I just wanted to hear it from your own lips. Don’t worry, you are not going to die." He was taken out to where the others waited. "He says nothing happened," Medora said, "and Alisa said nothing happened. There’s no reason not to believe them." Lady Erennis gasped. "No reason not to…? Are you out of your mind? And so what if nothing happened this time. Who knows what will happen in the future? I want him dead!" Lord Medora let go of him and he sank to the floor covering his ears with his arms. "No, you can’t have him killed, he hasn’t done anything." Azrel said angrily. His mother just looked coldly at him. "There are lot of other toys for you to play with, you won’t miss him." Miss Alisa burst out crying even more and stamped her foot as angrily. "I told you all nothing happened, leave him be!" Lady Erennis told her to shut up unless she wanted a slap to her face and turned to her husband again. "I told so you, didn’t I? I told you he would be trouble. But if you are bent on keeping that misfit alive then at least cut him. I do not trust him. Cut him!" "Oh no. Papa you wouldn’t do that, would you?" Azrel said and looked pleadingly at his father. Medora sighed. "I hardly think it’s necessary…" Erennis just screamed with anger. "Isn’t anyone going to listen to a word I say? What the hell is it with this boy that you must defend him whatever he does? It’s a simple worthless whore for goodness sake. You rather risk your daughter’s virtue just to keep the fucking balls of this damn talking hole!" Lord Medora stared at his wife and Azrel stared at his mother. She usually didn’t lose control like that. They both shook their heads in Miss Alisa’s direction to make her realize that her language might not be very appropriate in Alisa’s presence if she wanted to keep all aspects of her daughter’s innocence, which seemed so important to her. Lady Erennis got it and turned slightly red. Miss Alisa had stopped crying and just looked at them all in stunned silence. "All right," Lady Erennis hissed, "Now you all have better listen because I really mean this and I will not be contradicted anymore. You keep him alive, you keep all his parts intact I don’t care but by the end of this week he will be out of this house and that’s my final word. Get him out of my house!" Lord Medora nodded. "All right, all right, I will. He’s out!" >>> * <<< Lady Erennis had taken her daughter by the hand and left the room with long angry strides, the nanny trailed along. Lord Medora told Azrel to leave too which he did sulkily and so he was left alone with the slave who still huddled at the floor. He was not weeping anymore but was still shaking. No wonder. He sighed and crouched down beside him to lay a hand on his back. Seka could not believe it all. He supposed he should be grateful that he was not going to die. That he was not going to be cut. That his Master had believed him after all. That Miss Alisa had not lied to save her own skin and that Azrel had defended him so but all he could think about was that Lady Erennis had ordered him away from the house and that Lord Medora had agreed! That could only mean one thing. He was to be sold. No other way to interpret those words. But to where? To the brothels in The Quarters? Serving an endless line of men day after day after day…? To one of the old men panting in his ear at Lord Medora’s gatherings at his private room at The Quarters? (Young men such as Azrel didn’t keep their own catamites that were a privilege of mature men.) He would rather die. But there were worst things still. What if he wasn’t sold privately at all but pushed naked onto an auction block at the market? He had seen it. It was simply awful. It would be something like when at the shield. He would go completely nuts he just knew it. And the mere thought of being owned by someone else… He could end up with the cruelest of men that beat him every day and maybe would still cut him? Medora was good to him he really was, there were much worse masters out there he had come to realize that. And he would probably not even get to live the comparatively easy life of a catamite anymore either. He was over twenty after all. Too old really. Whoever bought him would surely just shave his hair off and put him to clean the sewers. Nothing was as worthless as an ex whore was. How could his master have agreed to it? Just like that? How could he do such a thing to him? Seka was in total shock. He felt his master’s hand on his back and startled violently. He obeyed though as he told him to get up. He sat down where he told him to and looked down at the floor. He had let him live, he had said he would not be cut. He should be grateful, he could not beg and plead not to be sold now and besides it would be of no use. Lady Erennis had been very determined. Tears started running again. He just didn’t know how to cope with this. "So," Lord Medora said, "You just thought my life started to be too damn tranquil ha? You just had to stir things up a bit. Causing me trouble amuses you or what?" Seka burst out crying miserably at these words doubling over on the chair and hiding his face in his hands. Medora sighed and gathered his hair where it hung to the floor and made him sit straight up again. "Gods, you’re a worse cry baby than any woman I ever met. I was just making a joke. Do I look angry? I told you, I believe you and nothing bad will happen to you." His friendly words made him weep even more and he started to beg anyway. "Please… please don’t sell me… please I couldn’t stand it…" Medora raised his eyebrows but then smiled. "I’m not going to sell you, you nitwit. I’m not through with you by far. Oh no, you’re not slipping out of my bed so easily." He stared at his master without understanding, but then what...? Medora grinned. "You thought I would…? No, I have no intentions of parting with you yet. We will just move out for a while until my dear, dear wife will calm down a bit. Been thinking about it lately anyway. I own several estates at the countryside and I often used to spend the summers at one of them. It hasn’t been time for it in a few years now but this summer it will suit me just fine. As things turned out as they did here I’ll just go a few weeks earlier. That’s all. You will come with me, Azrel too I would think. He likes the countryside." He laughed heartily now. "Don’t look so perplexed. Cheer up. You will not get rid of me, just so you know it." He turned more serious though and leaned back in his own chair. "Though come fall and we are to go back to the city… Even though she has surely calmed down by then she will still not trust you. I’m afraid I will have to have you infibulated or she will never, I fear never let you back in the house again and then I would really have to sell you." Seka gasped at those words. He was not so naive anymore and knew exactly what that was. He had to admit that given a choice between being castrated or being infibulated he would have gladly spread his legs for the latter procedure but it still made his stomach churn. Medora well noticed his expression. "Don’t think about it now. It’s a long time until then. Come on! We have much to prepare now if we are going to leave in a few days!" >>> * <<< A few days later they were on their way. And Seka felt his heart lighten and as if he could finally breathe freely again as he for the first time since he was taken here over two years ago was taken outside of the city walls.

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