This is a work of fiction. I love getting email so if you would like to contact me you can at taarob@yahoo.com or if you'd like to see some other things that I've written you can go to my web site at http://www.mygaystories.com .
Slave 3
Caesar has been in Gaul with his army for almost nine years and the senate's fear of him has increased beyond measure, Pompey has been maneuvered into a position in opposition to him and Rome is once again on the verge of civil war.
The sounds of the wharf surrounded us and seemed strange after days of hearing only wind and waves. Water lapping against the sides of ships, slaves moving raw materials off of some ships and loading finished good onto others and always the gulls hovering overhead, waiting.
Traxos stepped down carefully onto the deck of the Eagle. He was a man who must have been beautiful in his youth but now, approaching fifty, his comfortable life was beginning to work against him, his once black hair was turning gray and heavy jowls hung from his face.
The ships crew had erected a sheet of canvas that we might be spared the sun as we sat and talked. Traxos lowered himself slowly to his folding chair.
He shook his head slowly. "It seems like only yesterday you were a boy." He sighed. "Your father is well?"
"Quite well." My father had freed Traxos more than fifteen years ago.
"Of course I saw him only a few months ago when he was staying at his villa." He shifted in his chair and the light caught the gold rings on his fingers. "He was....uncomfortable.....with the political situation. I take it that that has not improved?"
"No.....quite to the contrary actually and it is the reason for my visit. Production of all weapons must be maximized. Spearheads, bolts, arrow heads, swords and chain mail, all must be at least tripled. I am continuing on to Alexandria to increase our grain shipments from there and you must contact our agents in Sicily and Sardinia and have them buy all that they can get. Everything is to be shipped to our northern warehouses. It is probably best that this be done without drawing attention to your efforts, the usual drill." The grain would stay good for up to three years, the weapons for a thousand.....perhaps two.
Traxos produced a bit of chain mail from his clothing. "A new design, stronger and more flexible than the old. We can produce a thousand sets a month, more if you authorize additional slaves."
"Do what you must. We'll need at least ten thousand a month until this time next year, maybe more." A faint breeze of a smile passed quickly across Troxos' face. I wondered how much he was making off of this new design. I didn't care deeply and neither would my father, we understood that this was the way that things were done.
Traxos and I agreed on production figures and I authorized, on behalf of my father, the increased expenditures for slaves and raw materials.
One of the most important points of our stop was to pick up an elderly Greek gentleman of quiet demeanor. Servanos was the best pilot my father and his pirate allies had been able to find in many years of looking. His almost magical ability to read the skies, the waves and the stars made him worth his weight in gold. We didn't pay him that much, of course, at least not in sesterces but rather in security, enough money to be comfortable and provide for the future, but more importantly a safe place for him and his family. He was one more of the thousands who depend on my father for a decent life. With the guidance of Servanos it wouldn't be necessary for us to hug the coastline all the way to Alexandria but could instead cross Our Sea and travel directly to Alexandria.
The wind is at our back and the great sail is full and is pulling us quickly forward over the water. The sun is beating down hotly and most of the men are naked or nearly naked. My bodyguards are sharpening the tools of their trade, the ships crew are scrubbing the decks and making a thousand and one minor repairs. The ballista have been set up on deck and the ships crew have been practicing with them. They're unbelievable, it's like watching a bow shoot trees through the air.
Bara is leaning against a mast that rises from the deck behind our cabin and attaches to the roof of it, I'm lying between his legs with the back of my head against his chest and his huge arms around me. We're both naked. Marco walked by and glanced up at us and smiled, then he slowly shook his head.
Bara and I could never be seen this way in Rome but here at sea the only ones to see us were my slaves and employees. You can't ever completely stop slaves from talking but then that would mostly be to other slaves. No citizen is going to pay much attention to what slaves are discussing and besides everyone has their secrets.
Islands came and went, appearing on the eastern horizon like bits or gray brown nothingness and then receding away from us leaving me to wonder what I had just missed....or been spared. The sun was intense but was mitigated by the cooling breeze and the salt spray off of the endless ocean and Bara erected a piece of canvas over our perch on top of the cabin so that we might not suffer its most intense rays. This also afforded us a bit of privacy as the ends of the canvas hung down and were tied to the roof. The crew and my bodyguards had done much the same on various parts of the deck.
Bara fed me bits of dried fruit that Traxos had given us before we left and it felt a sensuous thing to be taking food from Bara's fingers and then licking the remaining sweetness off of them. He smiled at me every time that I did that, an odd little smile and then pulled my face to his and kissed me while making a strange sound in his throat, almost like a growl that a beast might make. How conquered I was by this boy, how defenseless against his love of me and mine of him.
The day drifts languidly into night and in our cabin I'm lying on my stomach naked. Bara is straddling my thighs and massaging my back with his huge hands, his erect penis lies like a log on my backside. Bara is immense compared to me and sitting on my thighs he covers me completely. He stretches out fully on my back but still supporting his weight on his elbows and knees. His erect sex is beginning to work it's way into me and I lift my head a bit as he kisses the side of my neck and his large hands kneed my shoulders.
The morning brought haze that lifted as the sun began to climb. Unfortunately the morning also brought pirates. A pair of triremes that we had spotted upon waking had moved to intercept us and grew steadily larger as the distances closed. What had originally been seen as black spots on the horizon became enormous ships with over a hundred rowers each and twice as many fighters. They were well separated and accompanied by many smaller boats, thus making it impossible to go around them. We, of course could have turned back but that wasn't a consideration at least not at the moment.
Our captain dropped the sail and hove to in the water. We sat perfectly still as our own pirate flag was raised. The huge ships slowed and then stopped, the hundreds of oars being raised while figures other than the fighters appeared on their decks. On the one hand the flag we were flying told them that we were the property of one of the oceans most dangerous pirates, my father, indirectly of course, and on the other hand they recognized the ship and knew that it carried valuable cargo. It always did. They made their decision.
The pause had gained us advantage. The triremes had moved closer together and the smaller vessels had hung back. The captain came over to me.
"Sir, we must move quickly. I propose that we sprint to starboard. The trireme on the right will try to block us but we're much faster and we'll be firing our ballista at him which, considering the type that they are, will be a surprise to him. It isn't possible for the other ship to stop us once were under way and have clear sea ahead of us. Our major worry is that they'll have ballista too and we'll also take a lot of fire from those archers."
"Are your fighters ready, Captain?" The man showed no fear at all and seemed as excited as a man making room for an unplanned event into his usually busy day.
He laughed. "More than ready, Master! This is what they're trained for and when they can make significant amounts of money. Believe me, they're ready." I knew that the men were paid a huge bonus for this kind of fighting and they came to hope for it. One battle like this one, if we won, could pay for a small farm for each of the men.
I turned to Marco. "Your men, Marco?"
He smiled at me. "I haven't let anyone kill you yet, Master!"
I turned to Bara who stood behind me. He held a tall rectangular shield and wore a sword. I nodded to him and looked into his blue eyes.
Marco moved forward and spoke to Bara. "You'll have to watch for the arrows. I know that you've never seen this before and it's......well, it's hard to prepare for but the arrows will be falling like drops of rain but they are much deadlier." Marco turned back to me. "I would be much happier if you would stay in the cabin."
I looked at the Captain. "We're wasting time, let's move." I smiled at Marco. "Relax, if I'm taking up too much attention I'll go into the cabin......but only if I have to."
Marco turned to Bara. "Use that shield to protect him!" He pointed at me. "Remember, if he dies we all die!"
Hundreds of oars on the triremes dropped to the water and our captain began shouting orders. As the big fighting ships began to move towards us the Eagle sprang forward bearing off to starboard. At the same time our own fighters lined the deck with shields lined up in front of and above the deck. Behind this overall shield our fighters loaded the ballista with four meter arrows tipped with large cones of volcanic rock that had been soaked in pitch. These flaming missiles exploded into a ten meter wide cloud of fire when they hit something solid. This had been my father's invention, well, at least he took credit for it although I always suspected that it was his chief engineers idea. Whenever I asked him about it he went into a spasm of rapid-fire blinking which was a pretty good indication that it hadn't been his idea.
The big ship to the right was beginning to close with us just as we were trying to slip past it to the open sea. We were moving with great speed about a hundred meters from the trireme when the first volley of arrows came towards us. Marco called a warning and Bara quickly pulled me back against him with one hand while covering us with his shield. It sounded, in a way, like someone had thrown a gigantic handful of stones that were now thudding to the deck. I couldn't see anything but I could hear some of the arrows hitting the roof of our cabin right behind us. Then when the thudding stopped I looked out from Bara's arms and saw the big ship turning to port to try and head us off. I knew that this was our moment and at a command from the captain our missiles were lit and then the huge bows fired, sending six long fire tipped arrows towards the big ship as our own archers let fly a volley. The regular arrows at this distance and against that behemoth were useless but three of the missiles hit their mark and almost the entire side of the larger ship was engulfed in flame.
The rowers on the starboard side of trireme seemed to be out of commission and for several moments the larger ship seemed out of control and began to turn quickly to starboard since the only rowers still rowing were on the other side of the ship. The normal movement of the sea was now in opposition to the big ship and waves slapped heavily against it's side as it's huge ramming prow plunged into and out of the water with the rhythm of the waves. Just as the fires that had been started by our missiles seemed on the verge of going out something volatile caught fire and there was a huge flair up on the top deck of the ship causing bright orange and yellow flames to leap skyward as the fighters on the deck began to scatter. Moments later and the Eagle was free of the trap, her attackers to her port and behind her and her speed steadily increasing. Our men were cheering and as I turned to look back I saw the pained look on Bara's face.
"What Bara?" He looked confused and frightened and then looked down to where blood was pouring out of his leg.
"I'm sorry, Master......an arrow, I think."