The White Rat – Chapter Twenty-Nine

The White Rat – Chapter Twenty-Nine

So David has got his reprieve and he’s going home. That idea might take a minute or two to get used to… and there’ll be a few loose ends that need tidying up before he leaves. If, indeed, he decides to go...

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“Home?” said David, looking stunned. “You mean… I can go back to England?”

“That’s right. If you want to, of course. I mean, if you really want to stay here we can probably arrange it.”

David actually thought about that for a moment: now that he was in no danger of losing his balls he thought he could actually be quite happy here. He probably had more friends here now than he had ever had in Cheltenham – he didn’t think too many people back there would have queued up to speak up on his behalf the way the rest of the household here had done. And if Ali was prepared to offer him a job as a servant…

But then he realised that this was a short-sighted view. After all, he would probably still have to move to the main palace next summer when he turned sixteen, and then he’d have to win people over all over again. And even if Ali arranged for him to stay here, it still wasn’t much of a future: he hadn’t left the palace since he arrived, and although the servants were allowed to visit the local town on their days off he somehow didn’t think it would prove all that attractive to him. Where would he be in ten years’ time if he stayed? At best, a clerk in Ali’s household. So it was only the thought of losing his friends here that really made him hesitate.

“Master,” he said, “if I decide to go… would I still be allowed to come back to visit you sometimes?”

“’If I decide to go’? Are you really hesitating, Cockroach?”

“Well… a little. I have a lot of friends here, and now that I know my balls are safe I think I could be happy here, even as a slave. But… no, Master, I think I really have to go back to England – I have a family there, after all, and friends, too. But I’d like to be allowed to come back and see my friends here again sometimes… and you, of course, because if I am not to be a slave in future, I’d like to think of you as my friend, too. You’ve given me back my life, and I’ll always be grateful for that.”

“And you saved mine, so we are equal. But…I think you are already my friend, Cockroach, even if you couldn’t say so as a slave. Only a friend would have pleasured me the way you have, and only a friend would not have spoken of what we do downstairs. I’m going to miss that, you know. Perhaps we can do it again before you leave.”

“Of course I’ll do that if you want. But maybe you don’t have to stop when I’ve gone. I’m sure you can find another slave to take over from me.”

“Really? Who could I trust as much as I trust you?”

“Well, the twins might do it, though they’re not slaves, of course, and it would be better if you can get a slave, because that would be more shaming for you. So, which of your slaves do you trust most?”

“I’ve never had a reason to distrust any of them, though this is something more than a normal service. With you I felt safe because you were always separate from the others – though to hear them speaking about you lately I suppose I might have been wrong to think that. Who would you suggest, Cockroach? You probably know them all better than I do.”

“Well… if you want to be beaten hard, I’d suggest Madjid, but really I think you’d be better keeping him well away, because I think it would interfere with the progress he’s making. Master, he wants to succeed here, and he’s working hard, so if you could find him a place near you – maybe as assistant to Rafik, or whoever replaces him – he won’t let you down. He can read and write and count, and if you let him study with you he could become really useful to you. In a year or two he could even be ready to become a servant.”

“I thought he hated you - so why are you speaking up for him now?”

“He doesn’t hate me really – I mean, you know that, because he came and tried to talk you out of castrating me. It’s more of an act. I just think he’d be capable of helping you a lot, if you gave him the chance.”

“He said he wanted you to keep your balls so that he could take them from you himself… well, that’s what he tried to say, but I knew he didn’t mean it. He wanted to help you, he just didn’t want to admit it openly. Anyway, I’ll think about bringing him on a bit if you think it’d be worth my while. What of the others?”

“Well, Samir is a good senior slave: he looks after the others and lead by example, and that goes for when the slaves disliked me as well as more recently. Maybe your father can find a good job for him when he moves. Most of the others seem happy enough as they are. The only other one I think has a special talent is Mohamed: he truly loves working with the horses, and he dreams of being able to ride with you one day. He’s probably too young to replace Abdelaziz, but maybe in a couple of years he’d make a good stable servant. But if you want to see for yourself how good he is with the animals, let him ride with you once Abdelaziz moves on – there’s no rule that says it has to be a servant who rides out with you, not a slave, is there?”

“No, it’s just how we’ve always done it.”

“Then change it, Master – let Mohamed ride with you. He’ll be so happy he’ll be ready to die for you after that. Which of course means you could use him for your games in the punishment room, because he’d never say or do anything to risk being moved out of the stables. But if you really want to know who I’d recommend for that job, I’d say Nacer.”

“Nacer! Why him?”

“Because he’s devoted to you: you can see the pride at serving you in his face every time he passes on one of your orders. He would never, ever betray you. And, once he knows it’s what you really want, he’ll enjoy it, because he’s got a sense of humour and enjoys playing games. I could say the same things about Abdelkader, and if you really want to get adventurous later you could get them both to work you over. But Nacer has one big advantage if you only want one to start with: he’s got a big cock. It’s bigger than yours, and that gives him another really good way to taunt you, especially since he’s a year and a half younger than you. If you want to be teased for having a small one – I mean, yours isn’t small really, it’s about average for your age… but still, having the teasing done by a much younger boy who is bigger will make it even worse. Believe me, I speak from experience.”

“Well… okay, then, we’ll try him. I’m sure you’re right about being able to trust him, anyway. You can take me down there before you go and we’ll bring him along so that he can learn what to do. So, is there anything else you can tell me about my household?”

“Not really. They’re a good bunch, Master, and they all think you’re a fair master, and that’s why they’re happy to serve you. But you still haven’t answered my question: will you let me come back and see you all in the future?”

“If you really want to come back to this place again, bearing in mind what happened to you here… I mean, I’m not very proud of this,” he said, walking over to where David was sitting and touching his circumcision scar, “or this,” which was his brand mark. “We can pay for a skin graft to cover it once you get back home.”

“No, thanks. I want to keep it to remind me of my time here, the good bits and the bad bits. Not that I think I’ll ever really be able to forget… anyway, you did what seemed the right thing to do at the time: you thought I was a nasty little racist bastard, and it’s true that I was like that once, before you, the twins and the slaves taught me better. So I’m not sorry you did it to me, really, and if you need my forgiveness, you’ve got it.”

“Thank you. In that case, you would be welcome to come back whenever you want. You will probably have to make your own way, at least to Algiers, though – I can't keep asking my father to use one of his planes. And it's probably quite expensive.”

“That shouldn't be a problem: my family has got money. I just don't want to leave here and think I'll never see any of you again, that's all.”

"We would be glad to see you any time you want to come. And, if this isn’t asking too much… maybe we could stay in touch? By writing, I mean. We can write in French, in case your written Arabic isn’t good enough yet. I might want your advice sometimes – I mean, Rafik is a big help to me, and it’ll be a while before whoever replaces him is able to give me the sort of advice he does. And you know this place really well now, so if you could help me out for a while after Rafik goes, it’d be really good…”

“I’ll do my best,” David promised. And then he went to give the news to the twins, whose reaction was mixed.

“We are happy for you,” said Kuyo. “You will see your family again – and families are important. But we will miss our slave.”

“And our friend,” added Yeyne. “We will never find a slave like you, Kikem. No other slave could give us pleasure the way you do and yet remain our friend.”

“You won’t need me. Surely now you are men you can go home to your village and find wives?”

“We will have many beautiful wives and many strong sons,” Kuyo promised him. “We are sure to have no trouble in finding wives: twins are a sign of good luck, and we are strong and work for a fine master – and we speak another tongue, even. Girls will be unable to resist us.”

“But they will scream and run away in fear when they see your huge spears,” said David, grinning. “Only your Cockroach can face such spears without terror.”

“We will truly miss you,” agreed Kuyo. “But I think the girls may not be as fearful as you think – and to marry a twin is to be assured good luck. But… we are still too young to marry, so our spears will see little action once you are gone.”

“I’ll come back sometimes,” David promised them. “Ali says that I can come back whenever I want, so when I do I will be able to give your spears some practice, so that the many beautiful wives will not be disappointed when their turn comes.”

“You will truly come to see us again?”

“Of course. I will want to be there when you choose your first beautiful wives, and before that I have promised to return for Tahnu’s manhood ceremony. You are my friends, and I will want to see you again.”

“You are indeed our friend, Kikem. Will you share our blood so that we may stay friends?”

David didn’t get it straight away until Kuyo pulled his knife from his belt and cut his own hand with it. He handed the knife to Yeyne, who did the same and then passed the knife to David. He’d certainly never imagined becoming blood-brothers with a pair of black Africans, but… well, why not? These two really were his friends, and twins were good luck, apparently. So he cut his palm and clasped hands with each twin in turn, allowing the blood to run together.

“Now you are of our village,” Kuyo said. “We will be friends for ever. And, as you are of our village: my hidden name is Bassala.”

“And I am Dramane,” Yeyne told him.

“And I am David,” said David, “though that is not a hidden name, really – it’s the name everyone calls me at home. But it is my real one. I don’t think I’ll find it easy to think of you as anything except One and Two, though.”

“And you will always be our Cockroach,” said Yeyne, grinning at him.

“Then let’s stay as we are. And now I must go and tell the others what has happened.”

Most of the slaves were simply happy for him, though the ones he knew best were also obviously sorry to see him go.

“I’ve enjoyed being with you so much,” Djamel told him. “Now I’ll never be able to repay you for saving me. And I’ll miss being able to suck on you, too – and having you sucking on me, of course.”

“You could try asking Abdelkader if he wants to do that with you. He loves being sucked. I don’t know if he’s ever done any sucking himself, but you might be able to talk him into it. But I hope I’ll be able to come back and visit sometimes, so even if you can’t find anyone to do it for you, I promise I will when I come to visit.”

David was fairly sure that Madjid’s reaction would be different, and he was right.

“So you’re running out on me,” said Madjid. “I should have guessed: you get me all fired up and then just leave me to it.”

“Look, I had no idea what was going to happen when I started talking to you. And even when Ali told me I could go home I had to stop and think about it, and you were one of the main reasons I didn’t say ‘yes’ straight away.”

“Really?” said Madjid, sceptically.

“Yes, really. And I’m not going to abandon you, either: Ali says I can come back to visit, and when I do I expect to see that you’re still working hard, okay? Because when you’ve been a servant for a while, have saved some money and are ready to move out on your own I’ll help you: I’ll match whatever money you have to help you make a start somewhere. And we’re going to write to each other, too: I’ll make sure Ali gets some money you can use to buy postage stamps, and then you can tell me how you’re doing, and any time you’re feeling pissed off with life you can write and tell me, and I’ll try to find ways to help you cope with it. And you will cope with it, because you’re strong, Madjid. That’s why I respect you.”

“Don’t lie. As soon as you’re out of here you’ll just forget me.”

“No, I won’t. Madjid, right now I’m still a slave, and I’m junior to you, and so I’m swearing to you as my master that I won’t forget you, or stop trying to help you if I can. As far as I’m concerned, you’re my friend and I owe you.”

“What do you owe me? I haven’t done anything for you.”

“That’s not what Ali says. He tells me you asked him not to cut my balls off.”

“Oh. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone… anyway, I only said that because I thought it would be easier to hurt you if you still had balls I could crush. And I was hoping that next time you mess up Ali would change his mind and let me do it to you, instead of having done in a hospital.”

“Right. But you still talked him out of doing it, so I still owe you, and I always pay my debts. And that means you’re not getting rid of me: I’m still going to be leaning on you to make you work hard, even if I have to do most of it by post. And if it pisses you off, I’ll make sure that every time I come to visit you can take me to the punishment room for an hour for so to show me how pissed off you are with me. Does that sound like a fair deal?”

“You mean, you’ll still let me beat you even when you’re free and I’m still a slave?”

“Like I said, I owe you. And while I owe you, you’re still my master, whatever Ali says. Okay?”

“Well… okay, if you really mean that.”

“I do. And to prove it… strictly I probably don’t actually belong to the twins any longer, since Ali said I was free a couple of hours ago. Now, I’m not going to change anything in the couple of days before I go home – I’m going to stay in the room I’ve been in all along, and I’ll eat with you lot, not with Ali, and I’ll keep working with you all until Saturday, too. But if I don’t belong to the twins, then it means that other slaves have to right to do what they want to me if I need punishing. So, if you think I deserve a really hard whipping, one that makes me bleed, I can’t argue any longer. And if you wanted to do anything else to me…”

“Yes!” said Madjid, his face lighting up. “Right, Cockroach, I’m going to fuck you – really, really hard! I’m going to put loads of sperm in you and make you keep it there – that way you’ll always know what I did to you. I’ll be the only boy who ever fucked you, except for the twins, and I’ll be the last one to ever do it to you, too. That way you’ll never be able to forget me.”

“I don’t want to forget you,” David assured him. “So, what time do you finish work today?”

“As soon as I can get the school-room clean at the end of lessons.”

“Then I’ll come and help you. That way you’ll get as much time as possible to make sure I can’t forget you.”

So at the end of the afternoon David helped Madjid to clean the school-room as quickly as possible, and that left them with a good hour before the evening meal.

“Okay,” said David, a little nervously: he wasn’t sure which way Madjid was going to jump. He was fairly certain it would be sex before pain, but he couldn’t be absolutely certain. “Punishment room?”

“Nah,” said Madjid. “I reckon Ali would get angry if I made you bleed after he set you free. I’ll save the whippings until you come to visit, because in the meantime you’ll forget how bad it can be and your bum will get soft and flabby, and then it’ll hurt ten times more than it would if I did it now. No, I’ll just going to fuck you, really slowly, for ages. Let’s go to the store-room.”

David had thought to bring some cream with him – he’d borrowed the jar the twins used - so he was fairly sure this wouldn’t hurt. After all, Madjid had no more than four inches, and after the twins that should be no problem.

Once in the store-room David closed the door and dropped to his knees in front of Madjid, who pulled off his robe and stood there, legs slightly apart and penis rigid. David started to kiss the other boy’s balls.

“I’m really glad I’m getting to keep mine,” he said. “I mean, yours are bigger and nicer than mine, but at least I’ve still got a chance to grow a bit now. And now one day I’ll be able to grow some proper hairs, like yours.” And he kissed those, too.

“If you were staying here I wouldn’t ever let you grow hair,” Madjid told him. “Every time one appeared on you I’d pull it out by the roots. But… if I let it grow, do you think it would come out the same colour as the hair on your head? That would look really strange.”

“I don’t know – I mean, I’ve never had hair there. But it would probably be blond, I suppose, though if I start wearing clothes again it won’t get bleached quite as white as the hair on my head. If I grow some before my next visit I’ll show you.”

“Are you really going to come back, or are you just saying it?” asked Madjid, and for once he didn’t sound forceful and dominant, but almost lost.

“I promise,” said David, in the same tone, looking up into his face. A long moment passed while they looked at each other, and then Madjid seemed to shake himself out of his trance.

“Go on, then,” he said. “You can suck me a bit first to get me in the mood.”

“If I suck you until you spurt,” David told him, “and then you take a few minutes to recover, you’ll be able to fuck me for a very long time without getting too excited, and I’ll have to kneel here with your cock inside me for absolutely ages.”

“I like the idea of that. Suck my spunk out, then.”

So David sucked slowly and steadily for a couple of minutes, fondling Madjid’s bum and balls as he did it, not making any serious attempt to draw it out, and before too long Madjid tensed up and shot into his mouth. David slipped it out of his mouth and spat into his hand, but before he could wipe it on his body Madjid grabbed his wrist.

“Eat it,” he ordered. “I want to see you swallow my spunk.”

“Oh, come on, Madjid, please don’t make me do that.”

“Do it, or maybe I’ll whip you after all.”

So David licked the contents of his hand back into his mouth and swallowed it down. He didn’t really mind the taste by now, and he knew that doing this would make Madjid feel good, so he pretended to cough and choke a bit while Madjid grinned at him.

“I’ve got too much for you to handle, haven’t I?” he said. “Poor little Cockroach, you must hate being shown up by a proper mature boy. Okay, so now what do we do?”

“Now we wait for a few minutes until you’re ready for sex again. Lie down beside me and I’ll sort of stroke you for a bit.”

So they lay down together and David put his arm around the other boy, and after a few seconds Madjid did the same thing.

“I hope none of the others comes in, or they’ll think I like you or something,” said Madjid.

“I think they know you better than that. They’d probably think I was desperately trying to persuade you not to hurt me by trying to act like your girlfriend.”

“If you’d lost your balls, you could actually be my girlfriend. Perhaps I can still persuade Ali to make you have the complete operation – not only do you have to have your cock and balls cut off, but they give you a cunt, too. Then I could fuck you front and back. It’d be funny thinking of you having to be a real girl and knowing that you were really a boy trapped in a girl’s body.”

“You’re cruel, Madjid.”

“I know. It’s fun, isn’t it?”

They lay quietly in each other’s arms for a few minutes.

“Fuck, Cockroach, do you really have to go?” asked Madjid.

“I think so. But I swear I’ll stay in touch with you, and I’ll visit whenever I can. And I meant what I said about helping you if you ever start up on your own. Maybe if I promise to do that you won’t whip me and fuck me hard every time I visit.”

“And maybe I will anyway, just to pay you back for running out on me. But right now I’m going to fuck you properly, so you have something to remember me by. So… how do we do this, exactly?”

“We can do it different ways, but I’ll show you the one the twins use. Just kneel behind me and I’ll try to guide you into position.” And he knelt down on the mattress, rubbed a little cream round his hole and bent forward with his arse in the air.

Madjid got into position behind him. It took a bit of wriggling about, but finally he got lined up. He seemed nervous, so David decided to help him a bit.

“Now push,” he said. “But… please, Madjid, don’t hurt me too much, okay?”

“I’ll hurt you as much as I want,” said Madjid, recovering his bravado a little and pushing. And David pushed out to meet him and the head of the penis slipped inside, and both boys gasped, though David’s was mainly for effect. Madjid pushed some more, and David gave a little cry, and Madjid grinned and pushed harder until his whole length was inside. And then David squeezed, and it was Madjid’s turn to gasp.

“Oh, God, that feels tight,” he said.

“It does to me, too. Obviously I have recovered since the last time the twins did it to me, because you feel really big.”

“I am really big,” said Madjid, loftily. “Now what do I do?”

“You pull back about halfway – make sure it doesn’t come right out – and then push it back in. And please be careful – it’ll hurt me if you’re too rough.”

David had thought this would lead to a really hard thrust, but instead Madjid took it slow, and it didn’t hurt at all.

“Thanks, Madjid, I think I can stand it if you do it like that. Now you just keep doing the same thing, and it should make you excited.”

Madjid started to rock carefully and slowly back and forwards, and it didn’t hurt David at all – in fact it felt quite nice. “Is it okay?” he said, squeezing in time with Madjid’s thrusts.

“Yes, it feels great. I mean, I think it’ll take a long time yet, but, just in case, how do I stop it happening too quickly? I want to make it last as long as possible.”

“Just stop moving if you think you’re getting too close and wait for half a minute or so. But… please don’t make me take this for too long. You’re bigger than I thought you were, and it’s a bit uncomfortable.”

“Tough,” said Madjid, and started moving steadily once more.

David realised that this was making him feel good. He was already hard, and he thought that if Madjid kept fucking him for long enough it would make him spurt, and he wasn’t sure if he really wanted that to happen – after all, now it was no longer a question of enjoying every possible sexual experience before he lost his balls. Now he had to think like a normal boy once more, and being made to come through being fucked by other boys didn’t seem at all normal to him. On the other hand, it felt good…

And then Madjid slid his hand around David’s waist, found his erect penis and laughed.

“You think I’m sexy!” he accused. “I’ve made you stick out! Fuck, Cockroach, you’re halfway to being a girl already if you get hard when I fuck you.”

“It’s because it’s you,” said David. “You make me feel sort of girly and useless, and you have got a nice cock… I can’t help it if my body likes you forcing me to act like a girl. I hate it in my head, but your body feels good against mine, and you know I think you’ve got a really nice body… I can’t stop it sticking up, Madjid. Please don’t tell anyone.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to tell anyone I’d fucked you, because I don’t want anyone else to do it. You’re my property now, and I’m not going to share you. But you can bet I’m never going to let you forget this.”

It was odd, but David was actually enjoying letting Madjid treat him like this. He couldn’t understand it, unless it was because he really did feel guilty at leaving Madjid: in that case maybe he subconsciously wanted Madjid to punish him. But maybe it was just that he really liked Madjid and just wanted to do everything he could to increase Madjid’s pleasure. But being teased and dominated like this felt good, whatever the reason.

Madjid started to masturbate him slowly. “I’m going to make this worse for you,” he said. “I’m going to make your spunk come out while I’m fucking you. That’ll make you feel like a complete pervert, won’t it?”

“No, please don’t,” begged David, wanting it to happen, because it would be less shameful if Madjid wanked him and he spurted than if he spurted simply through being fucked.

“Oh, God, this is brilliant!” said Madjid, thrusting a little harder. “You’re going to lose all your spunk, and I’m going to shoot loads of mine into you instead.”

Madjid was just holding David’s erection without rubbing it now, and that felt incredible, and David knew he was going to have an orgasm.

“Please let go of me,” he begged. “It’s going to happen to me in a moment…”

“I’m not even rubbing it,” said Madjid. “You really must think I’m sexy, Cockroach. Come on, admit it.”

“Well... fuck, Madjid, you know it's true. You're a nice-looking, normal boy with a big cock and balls, and hair, like any proper boy should have by the time he's thirteen, while I'm fifteen and a half, I've got no hair and my cock and balls are smaller than yours. Obviously you're far better than me. I deserve to have you treat me like a girl. And... oh, fuck, Madjid, I'm going to spurt... please stop! I don't want... aaaarghhh!!!”

And David ejaculated onto the mattress, and Madjid laughed, squeezed his penis to make a bit more spurt out, and thrust against him while it was happening.

“I made the Cockroach spurt,” he crowed. “God, you'll never get over the shame of that, will you?”

David shook his head. He felt strange: his watery semen was dripping from the tip of his penis, which Madjid had now released, and he now wanted Madjid to stop fucking him, but of course Madjid was still nowhere near his own climax and just went on and on thrusting against him.

“Keep squeezing, Cockroach,” he ordered. “It felt good when you did that.”

So David had to try to help him along, even though now he felt sort of sick. But he recognised that he’d got himself into this position and now he had to live with it, so he did his best to squeeze and to help increase Madjid’s pleasure. And after a couple of minutes the sick feeling disappeared and after another minute he started to feel nice again, and then he got another erection – and when Madjid felt it he started laughing again.

“God, even after I force you to spurt you still can’t control yourself,” he said. “I wonder if I could make your spunk come out again? I think I’m going to try.” And he started to fondle David’s genitals, and there was no denying that it felt good.

Madjid went on fucking him, stopping to rest every now and again, and at the same time he kept playing with David’s erection, until David felt sure he was going to disgrace himself once more. But before that happened Madjid started to get close himself, and then he just held David’s penis tightly and concentrated on reaching his own climax, which he did with some strong thrusts and a fair bit of groaning and gasping. And David was right on the brink of another orgasm, and he was so desperate that he pushed Madjid’s hand aside and grabbed himself, starting to rub, but Madjid wouldn’t allow it.

“Oh, no,” he said, dragging David’s hand away. “You’re going to have to put up with me doing that to you, while my cock is still inside you.” And he gripped David’s penis firmly and rubbed it, and in less than fifteen seconds David cried out and ejaculated again, though this time there was only one small colourless spurt and a dribble.

“Poor little Cockroach,” jeered Madjid, leaning sideways to watch. “Is that all you can do? You’re such a baby.”

He squeezed David gently a couple of times to milk the last drops out of him and then let go, put his hands on David’s hips and pushed, drawing his own spent penis back out.

“There’s a rag next to the cream,” David told him. “You can wipe yourself off with it.”

“Okay, but then I’m going to wash it properly. And it’s the same as when the twins fuck you: you’re not allowed to move until I come back, okay?”

So Madjid wiped himself and then went to the slaves’ washroom to clean up, and David stayed obediently exactly where he was until Madjid came back, fully dressed, nearly ten minutes later.

“Now you’ll never be able to forget me,” Madjid said, sitting on the mattress next to him. “You’ve got one load of my spunk in your stomach and another load up your bum, and you’ll never manage to get rid of all of it. For the rest of your life you’ll know that there’s a bit of me inside you somewhere. And every time you come back I’ll force some more into you, too – if you ever do come back.”

“I will,” said David, wiping his bottom on the cloth and then sitting down beside him without waiting for permission. “I’ve promised, Madjid, and I never break my promises, okay?”

“Even after I did that to you?”

“That makes no difference – like I said, you’re senior to me and you have the right. And… well, I didn’t want you to, exactly, but if any of the slaves was going to do that to me I think I’d have chosen you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re good-looking, and you’ve got a brilliant cock, and I knew it would make me feel good, even though it made me ashamed at the same time. And because I knew you’d enjoy it, too – and I owed you that for going home and leaving you.”

“And you really will write to me, and come back to visit?” said Madjid, and once again he now sounded like a scared kid instead of a brash, self-confident teenager.

“I swear,” said David, equally gently. “You’re my friend. And you own me now – like you said, after what you just did I can never get rid of you.”

Madjid managed to smile again. “Good,” he said. “And don’t you ever try to forget it, either.”

And he got up and went out, closing the door behind him, and David, who really was feeling a bit guilty about abandoning him, thought that at least he’d given him a send-off to remember.

The following day he went with Ali and a mystified-looking Nacer down to the punishment room. Kuyo went with them as far as the door, taking up a position outside to prevent anyone else coming in.

“Have I done something wrong?” asked Nacer, looking at the A-frame nervously.

“Not at all,” said Ali. “You’re here because out of all my slaves you’re the one I trust most.”

“Really? Gosh!”

“I mean it. Look, Nacer, I’ve been playing a game with Cockroach for a couple of weeks now, and as he’s going to leave us in a couple of days I need to find someone else to play with – and he suggested you, and I agreed that you were someone I could really trust. You’ll understand why in a minute, but first you have to swear that everything that happens in this room is just between the three of us, so you must absolutely not talk about it outside this room. So, will you swear?”

“Of course,” said Nacer, still looking confused.

“Good. Okay, Cockroach, explain it to him.”

“See, what it is… a little while back when me and Abdelkader got caught… well, misbehaving in Ali’s bedroom, he had us whipped, and then said I had to suck Abdelkader’s cock while he was still tied to the frame. And Abdelkader really liked it – he said it felt exciting, not being able to move or to do anything to stop me. So Ali decided he wanted to find out what it was like, and so I strapped him to the frame and sucked him, though I teased him a bit first. And he liked the teasing almost as much as the sucking – he said it felt exciting, being completely helpless and having a junior slave able to do whatever he wanted to him. And each time we’ve done it since I’ve teased him a bit worse, and I whip him, too – and he really enjoys it. I don’t really understand it myself, but if he enjoys it, I don’t mind doing it for him.

“So we need you to take over as his master, because in this room Ali is the lowest slave in the palace and you’re his master, and you can do whatever you want to him. There are only two rules: you can’t whip him hard enough to make him bleed, and you have to suck his cock and make him excited at the end. But you can do absolutely anything else that you want.”

Nacer stared at him. “You mean, I have to whip my master and make fun of him?”

“Yes, except he’s not your master when you’re in here. You’re free to do anything at all, and you’ll never be punished for it, because it’s part of the game. The only other thing you need to remember is that once you leave this room he is your master again, and you have to respect him and obey him the same as you do now. And, obviously, you can’t tell any of the others unless Ali gives you permission – and he can only give permission for that outside this room, so you can’t torture him into it in here.”

Nacer still seemed to be having trouble taking it in, so Ali said, “Let’s just show him, Cockroach, okay?”

“Okay. Get undressed, then, and I’ll get the collar.”

So Ali stripped and David put the slave collar on him and gave the key to Nacer, who stared in disbelief at his naked master. Next David strapped Ali to the frame and gagged him.

“We don’t need to gag him, because in this room he can’t give you orders – you can ignore anything he says in here. But it’s fun to see him trying to speak and not being able to. Last time I took the gag off for a while so I could enjoy hearing him beg, though – that’s fun, too. So you can decide whether you want to gag him or not – it’ll be entirely up to you.

“Now, first of all we show him that he belongs to us completely and we can do anything we want to him. I usually do that like this to start with.”

And he began to caress Ali’s body, fondling his private parts until Ali was seriously erect, and showing Nacer what Ali’s anus looked like, penetrating it a bit with a finger just to show him that he could.

“See?” he said. “He doesn’t have anything that’s secret or private – even his bum and his balls are ours to play with whenever we want. Come on, you have a go.”

And, Nacer began to run his hands over Ali’s body, hesitantly at first but gradually increasing in confidence. Over the next half hour David showed him the various things he could do, including whipping Ali’s bum, and while Nacer was understandably nervous about that at first he soon warmed to the task, drawing some muffled squeals from his victim.

“Of course, you don’t actually have to hurt him to make him feel bad,” David went on. “I mean, you can see that his cock isn’t very big, and he hasn’t got any hair yet – and you know that most North African boys are starting to show some signs of hair by the time they’re Ali’s age. It makes him embarrassed if you keep telling him what a baby he is, and how small his cock is for his age, and stuff like that. And it’ll be even more embarrassing for him when you’re in charge, because yours is a lot bigger than his, isn’t it? So you should punish him with your robe off, so he can see how much more of a real boy you are than he is. Go on, take your robe off now and show him.”

So Nacer did that, and he was obviously enjoying himself because he got an erection straight away. And it was obviously bigger than Ali’s, even though Nacer, who had turned ten a week earlier, still didn’t have any hair himself: Ali’s was at best three and a half inches long, but Nacer’s was a good inch longer.

“See? You’re far more of a man than he is, even though he’s a year and a half older than you. And while he’s strapped up like this his bum is completely unprotected – you could even fuck him if you wanted to, and there wouldn’t be anything he could do about it. Can you imagine how bad it would be for him to get fucked by a younger boy, and by a junior slave at that? You might need to find a small box to stand on, and you’d need to rub some cream round his hole and round your cock in order to make it slip in, but that would be easy, wouldn’t it?”

“Could I really?” said Nacer. “I mean, wouldn’t he be angry afterwards?”

“No, once you’re finished here everything is finished – you’re not allowed to say anything or treat him as anything other than your master, and he isn’t allowed to punish you for anything that happens in here. It’s like it never happened. So you really can do absolutely anything you want.”

“Oh, wow!”

“Just remember that he needs to be sucked at the end. Do you know how to do that?”

“Not really. I remember how nice it felt when you did it to me, but I’m not sure if I could do it as well as you do.”

“Okay, time for a refresher.” And David gave Nacer a ten minute how-to-suck lesson, getting Nacer to suck him for a bit, giving him pointers and advice as to how to make it more enjoyable experience for the person on the receiving end. By the time the lesson was over he reckoned Nacer was pretty good at it, and – more important – the young boy didn’t seem to mind doing it at all, and in fact he seemed to be enjoying making David wriggle about and utter little gasps. And when David told him to try it for real on Ali – and he took Ali’s gag off first so that he could comment – the result was as good as he could have wanted: Nacer immediately grasped the idea of teasing his master by stopping short before he could get excited, and successfully kept him on the edge for a good five minutes. Finally David told him to finish the job, waited for Ali to get his breath back and then unstrapped him.

“So, do you think he's up to the job?” he asked.

“Definitely,” said Ali. “He'll need to practise sucking a bit, because he's not as good as you yet – though obviously you've got loads more experience than him, so I'd be surprised if he was as good as you. But otherwise I think he'll do really well.”

“Good. Then kneel in front of him, kiss his cock and swear to be a good and obedient slave to him whenever you play this game together.”

Because Ali had only just had an orgasm his enthusiasm was a little reduced, but he still forced himself to do as David told him. Then David told Nacer to remove Ali's collar and put it back in the cupboard, so that it would be ready for the next time they played, and then Ali and Nacer got dressed and Ali led them back out into the real world.

“Don't forget that in that room he has to do anything you want,” whispered David in Nacer's ear. “Even when he isn't strapped to the frame he has to obey you. So you can force him to do anything you want. I think it would be funny if you made him suck your cock for a change. And you should definitely fuck him: he'd never admit it, but I think he'd want you to do that.”

Fixing things so that Ali could go on enjoying his bondage game was about the last task David had to do. That evening after the evening meal Ali took him through to the main part of the palace for the first time to meet his father, though he got Rafik to find David a spare slave robe first – he wasn't sure that his father would appreciate a naked boy in his house. It was the first time David had worn anything except, briefly, a blanket in nearly six months, and it felt strange. Ali took David to his father's study and left him there, and his father told David to sit down.

“Which language would you prefer?” he asked in French.

“I don't mind, Sir. I can understand Arabic, but I don't think my grammar is very good.”

“We can use English if you like.”

“Thank you, Sir – I'd like that.”

“So, you're the boy my nephew said was an obnoxious little racist, and you're also the boy who saved my son's life. How did that happen?”

“Well, Sir, Brahim was right about me once, but I've learned an awful lot since I came here. Now I'm really close friends with a lot of the other slaves, and the twins are wonderful masters – if their brother hadn't taught me to play the stick game I wouldn't have been able to get the snake before it bit Ali, so really you should be thanking them.”

“Ali said it was really brave, that you could easily have been bitten yourself.”

“To be honest I didn't stop to think. I just grabbed it. I think I was lucky, really.”

“Well, Ali thinks you're wonderful, and I have to say that you don't seem anything like the boy Brahim described to us. So I've arranged to have you flown back to England on Saturday. I don't know if Ali's told you, but Brahim's still in hospital and nobody knows if he's going to recover or not, but... I know I have no right to ask you this, but I'd really appreciate it if you could keep quiet about him bringing you here. Obviously if you want to make a complaint about him you can, but if you could just say you don't know how you got here, or where 'here' is, it will make it easier for his father and mother, who have got plenty to worry about already. If you do complain I'm certain it won't affect me or my son, but Brahim's in England... well, you see what I'm saying here. It won't stop me taking you home, but I know Ali would prefer to keep his cousin out of trouble if possible.”

“I'm sure I could do that,” said David. He wasn't sure that he actually would do that, not yet, but then if Brahim really was seriously ill it wouldn't really do any good to set the law on him. And, since it had been his attempt to get Brahim expelled that had kicked the whole thing off, maybe it would be better to let it go – after all, he thought that on balance he'd benefited from his time here.

“Good. Now, you're going to need some clothes for the journey – it'll be cold in England, so you can't just go back wearing a thin robe. I'll get one of the servants to measure you up and we'll find some English clothes for you.”

“Thank you very much,” said David.

“Not at all. Now – and I'd like an honest answer here, please – what do you think of the way my son runs his household?”

Now that was a tricky question.

“Well,” he said, “all the slaves say he's fair: if you do something wrong you get punished, but if you do your job properly you'll be fine. Slaves like a master like that, because they know where they stand. I've heard the slaves complain about one or other of the overseers from time to time, but never about Ali. And he doesn't go overboard with punishments, either: when I first got here, Brahim was trying to frighten me by saying Ali used scorpions as punishments, and he pretended the same thing himself once, too. But now I know that's rubbish: bad slaves get beaten, that's all.

“Once or twice he's made mistakes, I think, but he knows when to ask for advice, and he always asks Rafik for help if he needs it. A lot of masters would be too proud to ask a servant for guidance, but not Ali. He's even asked me for advice in the last day or two. I think he's doing a good job.”

“So do I. I visit sometimes, usually in the evening after you'd have been asleep, I think, but I like the way things run over there. I'm quite proud of him, actually. Fairly soon we'll have to push his education forward a bit... still, that's not for you to worry about.

“Come on, let's go and get you measured, and then you can get back to your own room.”

He took David along a corridor to a room where a servant measured him for his new clothes, and then Ali took him back to his own side.

“So what did he say?” he asked, nervously. “Did he ask you about me?”

“Yes, and I said you were hopelessly incompetent, a tyrant who whips his slaves for no reason at all, and that the place was falling apart round your ears.”

Ali stared at him and David laughed.

“Of course I didn't, you idiot,” he said. “I told the truth: I said you were doing a good job, and that the slaves respect you because you're fair. Don't worry, Master, he's happy with you. Very happy, I think.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Hold on a moment...”

They had reached their own side, and at once David removed his robe and the sandals he had been lent.

“I'm not allowed clothes over here, remember?” he said. “Actually, I'm more comfortable without, and I'd like to stay like this for the last day and a bit. That way you don't have to break your word to Brahim about that, either.”

“I don't mind if you want to keep that robe until Saturday.”

“No, thanks. It's not as if the rest of the household doesn't know what I look like, is it?”

He went back to his room and slept. He spent most of Friday with the twins, and they seemed a little subdued, so he talked them into having sex with him for most of the afternoon, and they enjoyed that, teasing him about his tiny dagger as compared to their mighty spears, which they used on him one more time.

At the evening meal all the slaves lined up one by one to say goodbye to him – probably he would not get another chance to see them all before he left the next day. They wished him luck, and he promised to come back to visit them whenever he could. Madjid looked as if he wanted to say something but wasn't prepared to in public, so instead he hugged David really hard, pretending he was trying to hurt him but clearly doing nothing of the kind.

That night the twins got him to bring his mattress out of the closet into their room, and the three of them slept side by side: as far as they were concerned David was now their brother and friend, not their slave.

He still went and collected breakfast for them in the usual way, ate it with them and then returned the bowls to the servery, and by the time he got back upstairs the twins had gone to report to Ali as usual. He waited to be sent for, but before the summons came Madjid appeared at the door.

“I've got something for you,” he said, holding out the little box containing David's foreskin.

“Keep it,” said David. “I want you to have it – that way you'll always have part of me, just like I'll always have part of you inside me. And it's a guarantee I'll come back, too, because every now and again I'll have to come to make sure that the last bit of me is still safe.”

“Right. Thanks, Cockroach. I've decided I'm going to ask the imam if I can learn French, then I'll be able to come to Europe one day and beat you up in your own home and fuck you in your own bed. That'd be fun.”

“If you ever do come to England you can do that as often as you like – but I don't suppose you'll have the money for that for a few years yet.”

“Me, neither. Still, it'll be worth waiting for. Oh, well, I'd better go to work, I suppose. Have a good trip. See you, Cockroach.”

And he turned and opened the door and hesitated, and David grabbed him and hugged him hard.

“Work hard, Madjid,” he said. “The sooner you start earning money, the sooner you'll be able to come and fuck me in my own house, okay?”

Madjid grinned at him. “That's worth working for,” he agreed, and he gave David a quick squeeze and broke free. He opened the door, smiled once more, and was gone.

Nacer came to fetch him about half an hour later, but before they went back to Ali's day room, David pulled the younger boy into the room for a moment.

“Has Ali treated you any different since Thursday?” he asked.

“No, he's been exactly the same as always – and so have I. Nobody will ever guess we're doing bad things down there.”

“Good. And have fun, Nacer – the more you do it, the more completely Ali will trust you, and the more bad stuff you'll be able to do to him. And next time I visit I'll want to hear all about it.”

“Don't worry – I've already got some really dirty ideas. This is going to be the best game ever.”

Nacer led him back to the day-room, and there David found Ali, the twins, Rafik and a complete set of Western clothes. The underwear was a very unfashionable white, and it felt really strange having a pair of white briefs pressing against his genitals. But the rest of the clothes were decent, a good-quality shirt, a pair of jeans that fitted perfectly, a pullover and a thick ski-jacket. It was far too warm to wear either the pullover or the jacket, and so he packed them into the small suitcase that had also been supplied.

“You'd never recognise him, would you?” said Rafik.

“It feels really weird,” said David. “I think I prefer being naked.”

“You won't when you get back to England,” said Ali. “My father says it's about three degrees above freezing over there.”

David put on the socks and the expensive-looking leather shoes, though that felt strange, too, and then he was ready to go.

He shook Rafik's hand, gave Nacer a quick hug, and then gave each of the twins a much longer one.

“You've taught me a lot,” he said. “I'll miss you.”

“We will miss our Cockroach, too,” said Kuyo. And then Ali took him back to the main part of the palace, where he found Ali's father waiting with the two men who were going to escort him back to England.

Ali turned to go. David wasn't sure if he should hug him with his father watching and offered him his hand, but Ali just pushed it aside and hugged him instead.

“There's an envelope in the suitcase,” he said. “It has my address on it. I'd really like it if you could write me a letter when you get home to say that you arrived safely.”

“I'll do that,” David promised. “And I'll expect you to write to me sometimes, too, just to tell me what is happening here and how everyone is.”

“I will.” Ali hugged him again and then watched as David shook his father's hand and then followed the two men away down the corridor.

The journey took quite a while: a short ride in a land-rover to an airstrip, a flight in a small plane across the Sahara, landing to refuel somewhere in the north, and then another journey over Spain and France and on towards England. David didn't have his passport with him, of course, so the pilot did a very short unscheduled landing at a private airstrip that consisted of one grass runway and a couple of sheds. David and his escort jumped out and the pilot resumed his journey towards Bristol where he would in due course land as per his official flight plan. If anyone had noticed the unscheduled stop he would claim engine trouble.

There was a car in one of the sheds, and David and his escort got into it and drove the rest of the way to David's home near Tewkesbury.

“Now, you can't describe the car or us, remember?” said one of his escorts. “We'll be safely away in half an hour, so all you have to do is to keep quiet until then.”

“Don't worry,” said David. “I think I can forget the last few hours. And thank you.”

He got out of the car, zipped his ski-jacket up – it really did feel cold – picked up his suitcase, watched the car drive away and then walked the last fifty yards to his driveway. He had no idea of what sort of welcome he'd get: he thought maybe Joe would be happy to see him, but otherwise he really wasn't sure. And he wasn't sure what would happen when he went back to school, either... still, that was something to worry about later. Right now only one thing mattered: he was home.

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Well, David is back in Gloucestershire, but he’s been away for nearly six months, so it might be difficult to settle back into his old routine. Even remembering to put some clothes on in the morning might not come easily… In the next chapter we’ll see him trying to reintegrate – things might have changed a bit during his absence…

So now finally the end of the story is in sight. If you've got this far without sending me a comment about it, you're running out of time, so take a moment and write to gothmog@nyms.net

Copyright 2009:all rights reserved. Please do not reprint, repost or otherwise reproduce this or any part of it anywhere without my written permission.

David Clarke