Chapter 2: From Naxia to Melio

“I will not buy boys,” Thoth said with a dismissive wave of his hand, although the gleam in his eyes suggested otherwise. “They are unreliable and too inexperienced and they break the crockery while playing their childish games.”

“These are boys of fourteen, Excellency, almost developing into men,” the slave master simpered. “These are boys who will take your phallus like a boy but are past their playing stage and have been trained in service, in special service to a nobleman such as you. Besides, I was told—”

“You did tell me you liked your servants lithe and blond and graceful and small enough not to overturn the furniture, Thoth.” General Leonidas overrode the wheedling of the slave master with a smile. “Come select one of these and be done with it. You have done us a great honor by breaking with Melio and coming to us. We can surely take Melio with your help. Accept our gift of your own serving boy; you must be tired of calling upon the senator’s servants after he has done with them.”

Within, Leonidas was less patient. “Get on with it, you treasonous sea slug,” he was thinking and he was not fooled for a second that it was a kitchen servant they were shopping for here.

“Well, I don’t know,” Thoth replied as he reached over for his wine cup. As soon as he set it down, Senator Philon’s own serving boy stepped forward to refill his cup.

Thoth bounded off his couch. “Well, perhaps if I saw them in the light, and without those loincloths. Come, bring them out on the terrace.”

Thoth pranced out onto the terrace, and the slave master fell in step behind him, tugging on the chains of the three small blond boys struggling along behind him and hissing at them to strip down while they were moving to the terrace.

“How can we be sure he’ll pick the right one?” Philon whispered to the general, with whom he shared the ruling of Naxia, as he watched Thoth clucking and prodding the bodies of the boys out on the terrace, spending as long as he thought the Naxia general would tolerate in narrowing his choice to one—in the process getting some pleasure out of all three.

“They are all the right one,” Leonidas muttered back, and then he laughed. This was followed by a slight scowl. “But I already regret having included one in the mix. These are among our best-trained spies. Whichever one he picks will keep us apprised of his activities here in Naxia. It was indeed a small victory when he deserted the Melio and came over to us—he was one of their best military minds, despite his stupidity in other matters. But I don’t trust a traitor, even a traitor to our enemy.”

“And look at the fool out there,” Leonidas continued, changing the subject. “Who does he think he’s fooling? He’s not picking out a servant. He’s picking out a boy for his bed. But that’s fine. We want him besotted with whoever he selects. He will be more ours with a Naxian catamite than otherwise. Ah, there you are, dear brother Thoth, back with us again. Boy, refill the flagon of wine for our hero brother. Have you selected? Yes you have, and a very good choice it is too. Nikon, is it not?”

There was a catch in Leonidas throat when he said this. Of course Thoth would pick Nikon. What man wouldn’t? As he feared, Leonidas already regretted including Nikon among the candidates—but Nikon had insisted. He continually wished to show Leonidas his loyalty to the Naxian cause.

Thoth’s selection was standing in the center of the room, demur, his hands at his sides and his face looking shyly at the floor. He was small, as they knew Thoth really liked, and with blond curls falling down into his face. His body was lithe, that of a graceful dancer, and he was perfectly muscled for the role—not anything either overdone or underdeveloped. He had the cock and balls of a younger boy, which was particularly in demand this season. His lips were full and sensual and his eyes hazel and sultry, as Leonidas knew without the boy having to raise his head. Of the three, he gave the greatest impression of being innocent and virginal—although Leonidas knew full well this was just a trained pose. He knew this because Leonidas was a master of diplomacy through the art of subterfuge and spying and also because he had very intense and personal experience that belied any claim Nikon might make to being either innocent or, the gods laugh, virginal.

And for the benefit of Naxia, at least, Leonidas was supremely pleased that Thoth had chosen Nikon, because Nikon was his best sweetmeat spy. He was smart as a whip—and, if necessary, he would take the whip. If Nikon could not get the armies of Naxia inside the walls of Melio, no one was likely too.

Philon turned to a nearly trembling Thoth, who was barely able to contain his excitement at the gift of a blond beauty in service to his every need. And Thoth was aching to have his needs serviced at this point. Philon easily discerned just how aroused Thoth was. Togas were not built for privacy.

“I regret we cannot indulge ourselves in small talk and wine when your coming to us opens so many possibilities for moving at last against Melio, Thoth,” Philon said in his most magisterial voice. “I must be off to the Senate to arrange the resources General Leonidas and you will, I’m sure, make brilliant use of. And there is much preparation for General Leonidas to complete before you will be needed in counsel. Perhaps you would like to take your new servant back to your apartments and show him how he can best serve you.” Senator Philon could hardly keep a straight face at the hidden meanings in his last sentence. He and General Leonidas, the functional dictators of Naxia, wanted Thoth under their complete power as soon as possible.

“Well, I suppose that might be something I could take a few minutes from more important matters to do,” Thoth said dubiously. But he was already shuffling toward the passageway to his quarters and herding the shy Nikon before him, his hand on the servant’s naked buttocks.

“Silly dolt,” Leonidas muttered under his breath as he smiled his happy farewells at Thoth’s departure—happy principally at the departure. Then he turned to Philon and said, “I wonder how much flimflamming I need do in war counsel before managing to convince that ass that it’s his idea that he is going to return to the court of Melio.”

When Philon had all of his plans in order and his minions in tow, he moved down the corridor toward his scheduled meeting of the Senate. As he passed the door into Thoth’s apartments, he saw that Nikon was already at work. Thoth was lying on his back in the mountain of pillows, and Nikon was astride his pelvis, riding his cock like a ship upon the Ionian sea the day after a tempest. From the sounds Thoth was making, he was quite content with the service his new servant was providing him.

“I will not do it; they cannot expect it; what were they thinking?”

Nikon raised his head up from the task at hand and asked, “What, noble sire? What do they expect of you and who is they?” Nikon knew Hades well what this was all about. His assignment was to make Thoth fall for the plan.

Thoth was laying on his couch just beyond the line of sunshine flowing in from the terrace of his apartment. Nikon knelt between his thighs at the end of the divan, Thoth’s legs raised and resting on Nikon’s shoulders, and Nikon was working Thoth’s cock in his mouth, sucking on the bulb and flicking the piss slit with his tongue and then taking the whole shaft in with one long slide, listening for the sigh from his master, and then slowly pulling his mouth back. Down again and listening for the sigh. Feeling Thoth’s body go tense and his hips start to jerk, grabbing Nikon’s golden curls in his hands and emitting little chirps of pleasure. Nikon taking him down to the root and applying pressure to the root with his teeth while gently squeezing Thoth’s balls in his hand. And then swallowing the spurted semen as quickly as he was able, trying not to gag or to spoil the moment in any other way for his master. Then sitting up and looking down into eyes glazed with the satisfied remembrance.

Eyes that quickly cleared and set into an expression of the spoiled pout.

“Wine, Nikon. Must I tell you whenever my glass nears empty? And it’s long past time for my massage. The games this morning were grueling.”

“Grueling for your adversaries,” Nikon voiced in honeycombed praise as he scrambled off the couch and trotted off for the wine pitcher and the oil, sponge, and marble phallus. That was one thing Thoth was very good at, Nikon had to admit. Prissy and self-possessed as he was, Thoth was master at the games, and, Nikon assumed, therefore also a champion on the field of battle. The man obviously had won his general rank through military skill. Nikon had watched in the stadium and had slowly and involuntarily taken on Thoth as his champion. His muscled body was beautiful to Nikon as he watched Thoth win one throw after the other, and when they had returned to the coolness of the senator’s villa in the heat of the day, Nikon hadn’t minded at all sponging water over Thoth’s body in the bath as Thoth sat back in the water, lapped Nikon, and raised and lowered his hole up and down on a strong, firm cock. That was another thing Thoth was. He was young, virile, big cocked, quick to recover, and ever ready for the fuck.

His strength was also his weakness, though. Thoth became ever more controllable as Nikon spun a web of lust and want around him.

“You did not tell me what was troubling you,” Nikon whispered in Thoth’s ear as he had him laid belly down on the couch and was massaging his neck muscles. Nikon had his own agenda to work to.

“The fools want me to return to Melio and be their spy inside the court—to undermine the Melio from within. Do they have any idea what that would take, what the dangers are?”

“They must, master,” Nikon spoke in a soothing voice. “They have devised this as their best stratagem, laying it all, the future of Naxia, on your shoulders. They must trust you very much and must see the great talent that is within you. I think they respect your use to them too much to put you in mortal danger. I have heard that they have great plans for you as a leader.”

“Humph,” was Thoth’s reply, and then, in a huskier voice, “Yes, that is good, deeper there. Oh yes, and there too.”

Nikon had moved his oiled fists down to the small of Thoth’s narrow waist at the back and then down to roll and knead his meaty buttocks. Nikon pulled the cheeks apart as he was working them and bent down and blew on Thoth’s hole, which puckered right up, the action earning a sigh from Thoth. And then Thoth was grunting and slowly churning his hips as Nikon’s tongue went to the opening.

“Enough,” Thoth growled huskily, and then he turned onto his back, saluting Nikon at three-quarters’ staff. “The marble phallus,” he murmured.

Nikon oiled up the marble phallus as Thoth watched with slitted eyes and licked his lips, and then Thoth, his legs bent, hips rolled up, and a hand encasing Nikon’s cock, moaned, as Nikon moved the bulb of the oiled phallus around the rim of Thoth’s opening, slowly worked it inside his channel, and rubbed the smooth tip on Thoth’s prostate. Thoth was slowly working Nikon’s small, thin cock and his pert little balls while Nikon worked both Thoth’s hole with the phallus and his staff with an oiled fist—at first—and then with his mouth, until Thoth had ejaculated once more and Nikon had swallowed his essence again.

It was not that widely known that Thoth enjoyed receiving as well as giving the phallus.

While Nikon was massaging Thoth’s legs and chest after, he endeavored to complete his essential assignment.

“Who but you could bring off such a feat, master? Isn’t it, upon reflection, a brilliant plan? And aren’t you the perfect man to bring it off? Your story and name will be sung down through the ages.”

“I suppose you are right,” Thoth said in a faraway voice, already composing his own song to his personal glory. “But you have had enough rest, you lazy slave. Here, I want you.”

As Thoth sat up and picked the small servant up from the floor with hands encasing his waist and seating him on the couch in front of him and facing him, Nikon worked in the last, burning question he’d been told to have answered. Thoth was here, but no one in Naxia could tell the senator and general how he had gotten here, how he had gotten out of Melio unnoticed—which may just be the key for getting the army of Naxia inside Melio.

“But it may all be just a dream, you cannot return to Melio. It is too heavily guarded. You cannot get back in. Oh, sire!”

Thoth had pushed Nikon onto his back below him and barked, “Spread your legs and grab your ankles,” and Nikon was groaning at the invasion of his hole by oiled, thick fingers.

“Closed your channel on the fingers, boy,” Thoth commanded. “Be the perpetual virgin for me.”

They paused while the general worked the slave’s channel with his fingers and Nikon played the violated boy for the man. This was a frequent game they played before the general mounted him.

“Getting back in Melio is no problem for such as I,” Thoth boasted, as he straddled the couch with his legs and grabbed Nikon’s hips with his hands. “I will just go back in to Melio the way I came out. And speaking of getting in—”

“Oh, sire, oh, SIRE, OHHHH!” Nikon cried out as Thoth pulled the small, perfectly formed torso of the blond servant toward him along the now-slippery couch surface, and his long, thick cock slowly disappeared into a tight ass channel. In and out; in and out, and Nikon lost all intent of pursuing the question of entry into Melio further as he surrendered to the masterful fuck. There were benefits to spying assignment.

Later in the night, when Thoth was finished cocking Nikon again, they were laid, stretched out on the sleeping divan, bringing their breath back to calm.

“But, what about me, my lord?” Nikon whispered in a small voice. “I don’t know how I would live—”

“Hush, hush, my sweet one,” Thoth murmured as He brushed the sex-wet blond curls out of Nikon’s face and embraced him closely. “This cock has not had its fill of you either. I will take you to Melio with me.”

Nikon cooed and snuggled closer into Thoth’ embrace. This part of the mission accomplished.

“And I will take you again now.” And then he did. Whatever else the general was, he was very good at cocking a boy.

“Master, why are you leading me this way?” Nikon asked in a whisper. “Melio is on the west slope of Mount Aegae. You are leading us to the east.”

The night was dark and they had placed sacking on the hooves of the horses and were moving as silently as possible. It was a moonless night, and the only illumination other than the stars was the glow from atop Mount Aegae, which had been smoldering and sending up clouds of ash and noxious fumes since before Nikon was birthed.

“Yes,” Thoth answered with a low laugh. “And why is it that your searchers from Naxia have never found our secret entrance into our city? It’s because you look on the wrong side of the mountain.”

Hours later, standing on a shelf of rocks outside the yawning entrance to a cavern on the east slope of Mount Aegae, Nikon held back in fear when Thoth would have plunged right into the mouth of the deep labyrinth.

“This is the Labyrinth of the Underworld, isn’t it?” Nikon muttered in awe. “I’ve never been here, but I have heard of it. Our foretellers came here for signs until they all died of mysterious illnesses. I’ve heard that to enter here now is to die.”

“Yes, it is, and it indeed is a home of the dead,” Thoth answered. “But if you follow me, very close behind me, we will soon be inside Melio. You must trust me, Nikon.”

“Yes, yes, I must,” Nikon answered. And indeed he had to. His mission was to get inside Melio and return to serve as guide for the Naxian army, or not return at all. Thoth claims to have done it before and he seemed so confident that he could do it again that Nikon had to just trust him. There was no other choice really. Thoth did not seem to Nikon to be the type of man to volunteer for death.

They walked into the dark of the cavern, and Thoth lit a torch. Nikon saw that ahead was a maze of many choices, many decisions to be made. There were far too many passages leading off from the entrance cavern for him to have any idea which to follow. And it was not in total darkness here, any more than it had been on the trail around the base of the mountain from Naxia. There was a soft glow down some of the passageways and trails of vapors wafting out of the entrances to these shafts as well as others.

Thoth was doing something strange with the torch. He was not holding it high; he was holding its tip close to the ground and was training his own gaze there as well.