Currently running serialized sagas by Carl Dickson:

Story Name	Date Posted
Traveler	08/11/07
Mitch and Carroll	08/03/07
Blues	07/31/07
Him	07/31/07

There is EXTREME VIOLENCE in this chapter. This is by far the worst of them all and you may well choose to skip it.TRAVELER will return next weekend for the final chapters. Those of you on our mailing list will be notified when we return to our regular story.

          I lowered fat rag head to the floor. He begged and pleaded as he crawled after me on his belly. I had lots of help from the boys. Believe me I have anguished over this part all morning, do these boys need to see this? Harry stood up and looked at me, "You have to do it. Timmy, tell him what dinner was last night." Two of the boys I had found in the kitchen ran to the side of the room, I rushed to them and held them as I kissed their tear streaked cheeks. Timmy told me that they had eaten the roasted buttocks and thighs of a ten year old boy that Seigy had in the dungeon for not serving one of his guests properly. I told Timmy to hold these boys close and tell them it was not their fault, they had to prepare the meat or be the meat themselves. I got tongue from each of them as I moved back to the wailing lard lump on the Persian rug. I had the boys pull their ropes to hold his hands over the top of what I was sure was a chopping block. I played like an actor in a cheap movie as I swung the scimitar over my head and listened to it sing as it dropped into a dead thud on dry wood. Lard lump had managed to move his right hand back at the moment of impact so he still had a piece of the heel of his hand, his left arm ended at the wrist joint.
          I had him stripped and his minuscule jewels laid on the block. I almost wanted to let the tiny six year old victim from the night before carve and serve the bite-sized morsel to the ugly bastard. I got a clean cut on the hands of the other rag head. I had the boys use the men's robes as bandages to stem the bleeding from the cuts. I looked at the doctor; he had wanted to take Salman upstairs but the boy fought him with more strength then he had thought the boy possessed. I told the doctor the boy's recent history. He agreed that the boy needed to see the end of his father, that act alone may even give the boy the will to cling to life.
          I had the guards brought to the blocks, I asked the boys to tell me about the guards. All three guards took a boy at will, without any feelings for the boy, they enjoyed inflicting pain. I asked the boys for a sentence. To a tongue I heard slow and very painful. I asked Hmcal if he knew where their guns were, he was gone in a flash but turned back to get the keys. Harry went with him as they ran through the house.
          In the meantime I had the three men lowered so that their weight was on their feet. Their hands were still chained over their heads but they were able to stand and breathe deeply for the time being. Harry and Hmcal came in laden with pistols and four rifles. Harry laid the weapons on the table and began to break them down, he removed the rounds and the firing pins or bolts. I grabbed a Glock .9mm and chambered a round. I walked over to the guards and one by one I blew their knee caps off. I had their ropes lowered and put around through the back of each of their wrists then let them lay there and whine.
          I love tasers, Athos had me playing with them a couple of years back. It is fun to make slime slime themselves with a well placed taser touch. I checked out Seigy's reflexes, even with a mouth full of shit he articulated well when caressed with fifty thousand volts of static electricity, he's not a bad aerial dancer either. I had already spotted the tool that was designed for his miserable end but if Athos was coming I wanted to save him at least the main event of the show.
          I walked over to the table and sat back. Petro had a boy helping him to carry in a tray of juice, he told me that this was the juice of a fruit that grows in his orchard; he made the juice just for me. It was sweet and just what I needed, my blood sugar was wrecked; I had eaten very little and had been keyed to the very edge all morning. I asked for a thick slice of the bread and the bowl of butter to be passed down the table. Honey and fruit preserves came also but I didn't want to spike, I just want to come up. The bread was made with hand ground whole grains and would not spike me, the juice would, I used the two to their best benefits.
          The televisions were showing a large tanker approaching the occupied ship, I had the volume raised slightly. I talked to Andy as I cooled down. He told me that the tanker was secure. Three crew men had killed themselves, without damage to the ship, the captain had hanged himself. I made sure to relate this news to Seigy and his guests. The approaching tanker was commandeered at sea as it returned to its home port empty. The bomb boat would have its oil off loaded to the empty tanker which would then be allowed to go back to the west to sell its free cargo on the open market. There was going to be one very happy and very rich crew on that second tanker.
          The unmistakable chop of a Chinook helicopter echoed across the mountains and through the house. I arose and walked over to kiss tiny little Salman. He had color in his hollow little cheeks. His eyes seemed to have regained a bit of a sparkle. Oh I hoped I was not seeing something that is not there, I so want to see this boy survive. I will take him home to join his brother Jason. I walked outside to greet my fat cop friend.
          I had not seen where we were before now. We were on the west slope of a short mountain. Around us were tall Juniper pines, or something of that genus. I saw a rocky out cropping maybe ten miles across the valley from where I stood. I looked at it, Hmcal saw where I was looking and told me that is where we landed the night before. From here it didn't look large enough to land on.
          The chopper came in to discharge its cargo then lifted off. It moved over and set down on another flat peak two miles away. The boys that had been on the yacht and at Athos' villa, along with a doctor and his equipment were the only things off of the bird. I was pondering that when Athos said that the crew would stay with the bird. They could see no way to get over here from their landing site and they weren't excited about a twelve mile walk anyway. I looked back as the bird set down, it was much further than I had thought, the clear air made it appear much closer. The large chopper was a mere bump on the skyline.
          I made the boys with Athos sit down before me, Hmcal and Bahir came out to help the doctor with his equipment. Suddenly there was pandemonium from Athos' gathering. Of course these boys would know one another; they had not seen each other for some time but one always remembers a friend, or his brother. Fuck trying to prepare them for what the were about to see, for the most part they have seen much worse.

          Our young cooks were placing large trays of food on the table. I walked up to a large roast and looked at the boy setting it on the table, he looked at me then his eyes got huge. He pointed at his ass and started shouting, "Nicht, nicht. Moooo," he bellowed, "Mooooo." I laughed as I held him to my breast.
          I led Athos, Harry and Timmy to the side for a conference, I had the two doctors join us. I asked the new doctor what he thought of Salman. "He is going to do very well, Chris. It is a good thing you found him today. I do not believe he would be alive tomorrow."
          I had to do a double take, I had not see Doctor Saltzman in fifteen years, he is showing his age. He was in his fifties at the last party he attended. That and the beard that he wore now... He told me that Athos was hiding him, he had taken liberties with a boy who talked too much and he had fled Canada six years earlier.
          I briefly ran through my idea of how the rest of the day should go. I was a bit carried away when each man told me that he knew the time and the research I had put into this. They supported me one hundred percent in any method that I felt necessary to end this. My main concern is mop up.
          "Me fine little yank friend. When are you going to trust ya old Bobby Gendarmerie? I have people jest waiting for me call. Do ya wurst mate, do ya wurst, I came to see me a show.
          "I brought ya a treat meself I did. Ya didn see this bloke did ya?"
          Help me, I've gone blind. I can't believe that had not seen Ibrahim and Dimitri come in. Harry grinned at me. He had his radio tuned to Athos' frequency and had hidden away when the chopper landed. He had taken the two men out the side door of the bird and in through the kitchen doors. He and Athos had arranged this as their contribution to the grandest finale of all.
          "Chrissss, mine freeeennndd. . ." Dimitri began.
          "Shut him up." I looked at the boys, "anybody able to fix him an appetizer?" Two boys were squatting over napkins instantly. Athos had to sit down as he watched the gagging gags be placed in the mouths of his two additions to the party.
          "Boys I do not like what I am about to do, I like it even less that you are here to watch this. You are not the only victims of this man. Many of you are members of his own household and have witnessed scenes much worse than those of today for most of your lives. I can not imagine the horrors that you have grown up with.
          "Some of you that just came in with Athos have never seen the brutality of this man. You each have had the pleasure of knowing Ibrahim and Dimitri. Athos thought it would be good if all three of these slime die together, in front of you. Yes, I am going to kill them right now. Their death should take the rest of the afternoon and maybe on into the night. I kind of believe that Dimitri may go first, he is soft. He was very fat, also he has been hanging around Athos' house for almost two years. Athos hasn't fed him very well and he is looking thin. We'll see how long each of them linger.
          "Boys, please hear me. You are young, you are too young to see this. I would never let my boys see this but. . . well, you have a special right. If this gets to be too much for you please get up and leave. No one here will think anything less of you if you do leave. In fact if the truth be known it will take a stronger boy to leave than it will to stay.
          "If you want to stay I would like to ask you to make yourself comfortable. You all know how he killed his own father while he sat and ate as the man suffered in agony before him. Now he is going to suffer that same agony as his son's watch him die the same way."
          The room filled with cheers and applause. Suddenly boys were running to the walls to pull down twelve foot long pikes of about ten inches in girth. The ends were stained in old blood from many similar uses. I had the boys lay the pikes down. "Sit down, all of you. Harry, down. Now everyone of you here listen to me. I am here to commit murder. Cold blooded premeditated murder. I am the only one who will leave this place with blood on my hands. Each one of you is a bystander. Some of you might be considered guilty for knowing about this murder but I am the one that will do. I can and I will stop anybody who tries to get involved.
          "I have spent many hours before the Lord God, I Am. He is the only one to whom I will answer for my deeds here. Various law agencies may bring me to task for what I have done and am doing and am going to do before I am through here. I can be tried and executed at anytime for the rest of my life because time never runs out on a murder charge. You will let me live with that fear. You SHUT UP AND WATCH."
          I reached up and pulled at the modesty garment that Seigy had worn all morning. I chuckled to myself as it fell to the floor in a wet plop, he had pissed himself sometime through the morning. I walked over and picked up a pike. I located the hole that I was sure would be in the floor. I placed the long pole directly below the rib cage and pressed forward, Seigy's eyes widened from the pressure, he was not hurt, yet.
          "I call upon my Lord my God to let me be the instrument of His wrath. I call upon Him to let you suffer much lingering pain throughout today, tonight and as long into tomorrow as His Will shall be. I call upon Him in the name you use, Allah. I ask Him to turn his eyes from you that you die out of His sight and that you be doomed to nothingness forever more." I pushed forward, raising him higher in the air until the pike's end fell across the hole in the floor. I anchored my foot so that the pike would not slide back as I pulled with all of my strength until the end of the pike fell into the hole. The pike dropped two feet to the bottom of the hole and stopped with a harsh thud that hurt Seigy.
          It hurt him bad, his eyes were wide in pain. There was no blood, the pike had not broken the skin. This promised to be a classic impaling one that Seigy's ancestor, Vlad Tepes, would surely approve. I am only glad that the man hovering above me was not able to be like his ancestor. I don't know if we will ever know how many people this man has killed. I am going to leave that between him and He who sits on the Great White Throne. I am going to have to answer for the eight lives that I am going to take this day.
          I didn't stop, I grabbed a pike and raised Ibrahim to the same level of his half brother. This was the first time they had been on an equal level in all of their pitiful lives. I almost hated to put Dimitri on their level. I reached for another pike when my eye was caught by something most curious.

WHAT I HAVE DONE HERE IS EVIL NOW IT GETS WORSE THIS IS A SHORT BIT SO SKIP BY IT

          Resting against the corner out of sight of the main hall was something that fit Dimitri so well. The anger boiled in me as I recalled his fat hand clutching the dog leash fastened around the neck of one of God's most innocent young boys, Bryan West. "You sorry sack of shit. This is for the one I saw you molest and for all of the hundreds of others I know about you molesting. I made the mistake of not killing you in Greece in 1990. Ride this pony faggot." I asked for a can of shortening then greased a ten foot pole of a good fourteen inches girth. I aimed it right against his ass hole and pushed up with all of my strength. I pushed forward toward the hole in the floor and let him drop. Unlike the other two this pole penetrated his often used rectum. Several inches of the pole disappeared into the old fag, I wondered what all he has pushed up in that exit whole during his life as I turned and walked to the table.
          Athos handed me a cup of coffee, I broke out in hysterical, maniacal laughter. I held my old friend tightly as I let the tension flee my body. Tears flowed like a river from my eyes as my whole body shook. I grabbed a bucket of some kind that was on the floor nearby and heaved everything in me out then I chugged half of the cup of coffee and praised my Lord that it wasn't hot. I shook my body out and took a deep breath, I crossed the floor and grabbed the fat rag head. I dragged him by his beard and stretched him backwards on the stumpy chopping block. I picked up the scimitar shaped kilij and swung. The man was on his back and he saw the blow coming. His head rolled across the floor, the eyes opened to look at me until their life faded from them. I repeated the process with his companion. He begged me to show mercy and put him on his face. I told him that I would show him all of the mercy he was willing to show the millions of victims of his bomb then cut his head off clean across his thorax.
          I looked at the guards, they were in serious pain but somehow I didn't feel merciful. I walked over to the table and picked up the Glock. I reassembled it and held out my hand to Harry for a clip, he passed me one. I walked back to the guards and placed the barrel of the gun at a downward angle against their prized parts. I blew their cocks off, I was not ready for them to die, they needed to see their boss and share his pain.
          I went back to the table and took a seat. I asked for a thick slice of the carved roast mooooo. My sweet little carver from lunch on my yacht the day before brought a plate to me. He put a dollop of horseradish on the of the plate and held it before me. I grabbed him and pulled him to my lap and enjoyed the boy for a long time. He returned my kisses with serious passion. I felt his little body quake but he would not let me let go of him, he kept himself tight against me as if to transfer my pain to himself as an empath might do. When I broke away I decided to eat the meat on my plate then I would go eat his awhile. His helper stepped up to the plate as I held it for the boys to prepare my horsey sauce. I love Arby's™ Horsey Sauce™ but these boys gave this sauce a special twang.
          I asked for a baked potato with cheese and sour cream. One of the young cooks dashed away and was back in moments with a hot potato. I pulled him to me for a kiss and a grope and asked if he would cream my potato for me. He giggled as he stroked his wonder meat to my pleasure. I ate the salad with the creamy dressing on the table then finished my repast with a fistful of grapes. I asked if there was a room with a clean bed in it, I needed a nap, bad. I led three boys and followed after Hmcal and Bahir to the second floor. Hmcal showed us a room with a king sized bed, he started to turn away. I told him that he needed to stay and talk to the cook for me.
          With the boys side by side in my bed I saw something that I had not paid attention to before, Hmcal and Bahir were twin brothers.
          The six of us reappeared about four thirty that afternoon. I had a much better outlook on life and I had four very sweet new friends along with the two waiters from my yacht. I wanted to be finished with the killings. Once started I should have stayed with it, not taken a sex break and a nap. Now I was looking at things through clear eyes instead of a pair fogged by hatred. I had let the hatred consume me. I couldn't look at the impaled men as I sat at the key chair behind the massive table. The son of a bitch. . . that's not fair, I just impugned the man's mother of whom I know nothing. All I have learned of her is that she was eleven years old when she was taken from the market in the village near this castle. I will try to refrain from that kind of slur in the future.
          I walked over to the three guards, what did Hmcal call them, koruma, They had each one bled to death. I almost felt a twinge of remorse. They were, after all, human beings, "Or less," I decided as I looked at the group of boys that watched them slowly die. Because of the stories they had told us about these men I knew that every boy in the room has the right to kill these men themselves. They are babes, they do not need this blood on their hands. It is already heavy on mine and I feel so terribly unclean.
          "Chrissss, mine freeeennndd. . ..why for you do dis to me. I no hurt deez boyzzz." He was in trouble, the pole he was on was now a good foot inside of his ever stretching guts. It was only a matter of time before the walls of his intestine would tear and their putrid contents would spill into his unprotected body cavity. His pain had yet to begin, I summoned young Androv to me. I let him stand before Dimitri as I moved for something I had seen on Seigy's toy wall.
          Dimitri stared at the good looking lad with a long, stiff cock shaft. "Only shaft, Dimitri. This is one of the boys you never hurt. You only cut the head of his dick off and made him eat his balls, raw."
          "Androv, can you think of any place where we can put these? I am afraid that the sharp points may hurt one of these boys." Androv's face lit up as he took the four inch long hat pins from me. He reached for his antagonist's balls but could not bring himself to touch them. I placed my hand on his shoulder and handed him a pair of tongs, the type that a blacksmith would use to pick up red hot metal, these were only about a foot long, easy to handle and manipulate. He used the tongs to hold a thick testicle in place as he pushed one of the pins all the way though it and into the wood of the pole on which Dimitri rested.
          Dimitri's howls were sure to raise the dead on the other side of the mountain. Androv turned and called to another boy who ran over and took one of the pins. His taut butt was covered in what appeared to be cigarette burns. Dimitri never hurt deez boyzzz, my ass.

          A loud knock on the fifteen foot tall front doors startled all of us. Harry was still dressed, as was Timmy. Harry was at the door instantly with his Uzi locked and loaded. Timmy took up position to cover the door. Harry looked through the six inch view hole and lowered his weapon. He opened the door and stepped aside. Twenty five of the boys in the room were on the floor bowing before the giant man that stepped inside. King al-Hadi bid them rise and let them gather about him to hug him and kiss his sandaled feet.
          A tiny little guy that Chris remembered from the first night at Athos' villa burst through the ranks to throw himself prostate before the mighty King. "Kardal, of all of my brother's sons you are the finest." He picked the boy up and jostled him about.
          He carried Kardal as he stepped in front of Murat and Ibrahim, his brothers. A strange smile played over his face as he stood there looking up. He beckoned me to his side as he lowered Kardal to stand beside him. He pulled the tiny lad in with his right hand. Kardal instantly wrapped his arms around the man's robed legs. Raven put his left arm over my shoulder and pulled me close. From what little I know of the culture this was an honor indeed. Raven began softly as he spoke to his siblings who just seemed as if they were too aloof to come down from their lofty perches and meet him eye to eye. He took on a harsher tone and soon was very loud. I looked at the boys that had genuflected before him. They were huddled together but with a serene smirk on their faces.
          Raven led Kardal and me to the other side of the table. He started to sit and I indicated the throne chair to him. He laughed as he told us that this old wooden chair is more throne than Murat ever deserved. Then he apologized and said Seigy. Seigy is the name the man has used in the west. I had only learned of the name Murat when I visited with this great man at Brad and Jay's wedding the previous summer. He sat back and put his feet on the table, a terrible insult to the head of the house. I put my feet up and we laughed and feasted as his brothers hung around before us.

          I told Raven that I had some entertainment for his brothers and he was just in time to enjoy it with them. I took a video disk out of my back pack and passed it to Bahir to put into the playback unit. I asked Hmcal to see if Salman felt strong enough to join us. I asked for all of Seigy's sons to take a seat where he could look down on them with pride for what he had done to them. Fifteen boys moved to the front of the table and sat on the floor. Ten of the boys had been in the home of Athos and the other five were in Seigy's castle.
          Malik proved what a perfect angel he was, the fifteen year old elvish faced boy had worn a small drawstring type bag around his neck since he had arrived this morning. He lifted the strings of the bag over his small head and opened it. The boys to his right moved away slightly to give him room. The boy took out a sling made of softened sheep skin. He had a nice selection of marble sized stones which he slipped into the pocket of the sling, one at a time. He swung the sling over his head then released the stones one at a time to strike his father over and over on his face. The boy was deadly accurate.
          He told us that he wanted to hit the man's balls, like he was known to do to his sons, but the pike prevented clear aim. Boys scampered about to gather the spent stones and return them to Malik to be used again. I remarked at how good the boy's aim was. Raven told me that Malik was one of the young goat herders of the family. He liked to sit out on the desert at night with the goats, he felt safe from his father out there.
          Hmcal slipped a tiny bundle of smiling boy into my arms, I pulled the blanket back to look at his tortured shape. He looked much better than he had just three hours earlier. One look at Salman and Raven was about to go over the table to kill his brother with his own hands. "How could you do this to your number one son? He is your first born, your heir."
          I whispered to Raven that there was another, he looked at me with anger filled eyes. As my words sank his expression relaxed. We turned to look at the televison nearest to us in the room. A monster tanker loomed over the one we had watched all morning as it sat along side, taking on all of the oil the bomb ship had carried. I quickly filled Raven into the bomb plot and explained the headless men on the floor. He leaned over the table and looked at the faces of the two dismembered heads. He slapped me on the back and told me that he was forever in my debt for ridding him of these two. I nodded at Bahir to start the disk.

          "Take a good long look you pig eating spawn of worms from camel dung, you are my sire. I was born into your house. You named me Muti Rayhan al-Hadi. You believe me to be dead but here is the truth of it. My mother fled your tyranny and ran to your brother Ibrahim. He is so true and loyal to you, he allowed your partner, Nicholas Pagonis, to kidnap me from my mother and smuggle me to America. He changed his name to Wilson Weller and raised me as his son, Jason Edward Weller. When you named me you were almost prophetic because as my name means favored by God I have been. Only it is the true God of Heaven and earth that has shown his favor and love to me as he brought me to my dad. I now have a name of which I am proud. As the rest of the name you gave me means obedient I am. I am obedient to Chris Dickson who has taken me to his heart and given me the name of Jace Dickson, Chris will forever be my dad, he has been known to say, "Any man can produce one single sperm that fertilizes an egg and make a baby. Being a father is nothing, it takes a man to be a dad." I know what a man and a dad is, his name is Chris.
          "Dad asked me if I wanted to come and watch you die, that would be fun. I don't want to see you, I don't ever want to know what you look like. There is only one desire I have to be in your presence for and that is so I could shit in your face. I have spent some time with your good brother, you remember? your King. He has told me stories about you that made me sick but dad and I asked him for a favor and he was gracious enough to grant it. Your homes and palaces have been destroyed. Every reference to you in your country of birth is gone. You never existed. All of your wives and children have been set free and you will never hurt another person, ever. Everything you ever owned is now mine. I have billions of dollars that have been taken from you. I am the richest kid in the world. Shit, I got me more money than Billy Gates.
          "Remember this as you face Jesus, Lord of Lords, I loved to hate you. From the day I learned of your existence I have tried to wash you out of me. It is pitiful when a person can't stand the blood in his own body. Oh, I was telling you about your brother, Ibrahim. After he let Weller kidnap me he took my mother out to the middle of the ocean and let her go for a swim. I don't know who she was, there is nothing known about her. That is the only reason I can continue to live, I have learned to tell myself that it is her blood in me. You're just the filth that pawed over her body for your perverted pleasure and I am the result." Jace ran from the camera but I remember that day quite well. I held the six foot one inch boy as he cried his heart out. I can only pray that when I return home with the news of the final end to this person that he will find peace in his young heart.
          Tiny little Kenny Minor dragged a bar stool in front of the camera and climbed up on it. "Daddy tells me that it is Ibrahim's ball spunk that mixed with the egg of my twelve year old mother and made me. You must be pure slime, fag foot. I really do hate you, you know, you tried to kill me. You tried to kill my dad and all of my brothers. Dad says that when you see this you are going to be dying. I hope it hurts, I Wish I could hurt you. You don't do nothing but hurt kids and that just ain't right, see. I got me and a whole bunch of brothers here that hate you for what you done to them and others.
          "Daddy says that he is gonna vilate yer rites. I don't know bout that but I hope it hurts like hell. My best friend is this kid named Ronnie and he says you chained him and his little brother to a wall and wouldn't let them eat if they didn't fuck with old fat men. They's both so skinny and they really hurt cuz a you. I wish an elephant would fuck you then you'd know what it feels like to have a big fat shit on you poking his pecker up your butt." He started to cry as Toby gathered him in his arms.
          "Well, your brother already killed the rapist that was my sperm donor so where's the fun. It was that brother that raped my twelve year old mother in Kuwait so now I'm here. Then I watched you rape my sister and sire my baby brother here. I will protect him with my life. If I ever see you face to face I will lead the elephant to you. I think Kenny has it right there.
          "But just so you know, we all love Raven and will be loyal subjects to him as long as he lives. Just like Jace we got money too, we got everything you had. You may remember back there in November of 2005, you were just kind of hanging around in a dungeon in France. I didn't know then that you were Kenny's father, I should have killed you then. I should have killed you a few months earlier when you tried to get me and Mr. Minor to spy on my new dad. You are such a liar. Just so you can die happy I want you to hear this. Our uncle, Raven, has said that me and Kenny can have our real name of his family. I would be proud to have his name but it is also yours so I'm gonna pass. I know I am too old for dad to adopt me but I want to have his name and so does Kenny.
          "I think that my husband is there helping dad kill your sorry ass. I hope that he and dad don't bury your sorry body, you will kill the ground for hundreds of miles around. I want them to throw you in a pig sty and have you buried in pig shit forever. Die hard queer."
          I didn't know about the boys wanting to carry my name. I will handle that as soon as I get home in a day or two. I am missing my family, I just wonder if I should go back to them with all of the blood that I now wear. Dimitri made a gruesome noise and was forever still. That was the first time that I realized he didn't have his gag in his mouth. I looked about for it but could not find it. I told the boys what I was looking for and the told me that I had told the fat man to eat shit and die so maybe he did. That sent the whole house into a fit of laughter that released a lot of tension.
          The smell was starting to get very bad, Raven held my arm and told me stay seated. He spoke in Arabic as he told all of the boys to move behind the table and stay out of the way. He walked over to the front door and put his fingers to his lips to let loose one of those piercing whistles that rip my head apart. I could hear the sound of running feet only they were in cadence.
          Thirty men in white pantaloons, is all I know to call the full cut cloth pants shaped garment, ran in, three abreast. Each man wore a small silver vest and a black turban. I thought I was at a Hollywood musical but these men did not break into song or dance. They performed a ballet as they removed the corpses of the dead and washed down the floors. In only moments they had the room spotlessly clean and the bodies with their associated odors were gone.
          Five more men took to removing all of the food and dishes from the room then washed everything down. They ran off toward the kitchen and moments later returned with five more men, all ten were bearing large trays of food. Fruits, meats, roasted birds, and drinks quickly covered the tables then they fell in with the other thirty men.
          The troop quick-marched out in military formation, the doors were shut and locked behind them. In their wake was a spotless and very sweet smelling room The only stench was coming from the two men impaled before us. Ibrahim was having real trouble breathing. I could see that the pike had worked its way deep under his ribs but the skin had not been broken. I had pictured this form of torturous death as being bloody. That is the way it is depicted in history books and horror movies.
          Seigy had cut the pikes correctly, they simply pressed against the skin and worked their way up under the rib cage. The victim was compressed to death, his lungs would eventually be crushed as his organs split internally from the pressure on them. I had not realized the horrors of this, I really regretted allowing the boys to sit and watch. Raven and Harry were watching me and talking back and forth. Many of the boys heard their talk and came to me. They put their youthful arms around me and in so many forms of broken English they told me that the loved me.
          Harry used the name that the tribe had given me, Shoemowetochawcawewahcatowe. He was howling and trying to imitate a wolf. I knew I was headed for trouble.
          Suddenly Hmcal jumped up yelling, "Yolcu, asil yatak zampara!!! Yolcu yatak zampara." The boys stopped and listened to him then picked up the cheer. Raven stood up and bowed low before me, "Yolcu asil yatak zampara. You are the Yolcu, traveler. You are a zampara, mighty wolf, and king of all you find and conquer, yatak. A royal king of the wolves that travels and conquers, Yolcu asil yatak zampara. Crude translation, mostly literal. Not the way it would be spoken in Hmcal's native Turkish dialect. Actually Hmcal is Kurdish, he speaks the combination of many languages that his people use in the mountains between Iraq and Turkey.
          "We can not say your Indian name but we see the mighty hunter wolf in you, my friend and I am proud to know you. I am proud to give these boys to you. You are their wolf guide, the conqueror and their new king. From this day you will be known by my people and all of these as Yolcu zampara, asil yatak."
          I had to think about that for a minute, "Traveling wolf, royal king, not bad, I've been called worse. I was even called late for dinner once." Timmy hit me first then I was assaulted for my pun. "Do these boys know that they are mispronouncing your name, Kaloná?"
          I turned to the room, "Your uncle is an Indian chieftain of the Cherokee tribe. He is called Raven for his wisdom."
          Forty naked boys started dancing and whooping like red Indians from the movies as they chanted, "Kalona and Yolcu zampara. Kalona and Yolcu zampara. Kalona and Yolcu zampara."
          Ibrahim broke our mood, he is always interrupting something, he won't, ever again. Blood ran down his chin as his eyes went blank and his body settled on its invader. His sphincters relaxed and both bladder and bowels emptied. I was glad that the King's guard had placed sheets of plastic around the base of the pikes.
          Raven and I walked over to look at Seigy, he was still strong and defiant. Raven spoke to Harry who went to the door. Four of the guardsmen quick-marched in to clean up the mess and remove Ibrahim's remains. Raven spoke to one of the men who climbed on a chair and fished the shit filled napkin from Seigy's mouth. The guard then took a water bottle from his hip and stepped back a bit as he sprayed water into Seigy's mouth. The water had a terrible effect to the crushed internal organs and Seigy screamed in agony. The guard was passed a wet cloth from one of the others. He washed Seigy's face down then he squirted more water into the man's mouth. Seigy thanked him and he thanked his brother.
          A torturous death does not have to be inhumane, I stood corrected and I apologized. I told Seigy that I only wanted to see him die, slowly and in agony. I was remiss in not giving him water. I was glad that my Arabic is so limited, I think he may have called me some very bad names.
          Andy spoke in my ear, "You're a nasty boy. You should have given him water."
          "Are you still eavesdropping? You better be careful. You are learning things that you may have to deny later."
          "I know, that's why I am recording every word so I can remember what I need to forget." I was laughing out loud for no apparent reason. Harry had to show the boys the earphone hooked to the radio on a strap around my head. The boys had seen it but had feared to ask about it. Meanwhile Andy was filling me in on what he was doing. He had dispatched a cargo plane with food stuffs and equipment that we would need to stock the castle for the boys to continue on here. I listened to him and agreed when necessary the it was time to sit down and lay out the ground rules of the house.
          I quickly recounted heads, all total there were seventeen boys in the castle, plus Salman. Athos had brought the twenty two boys from his house and eight from the yacht Gunther's family had been located and he was in Germany recovering from his three day swim. The banker's boy that had been with Harry had returned to Paris with his daddy. Forty seven boys, what do I do with them? I would like for them to live in the castle and go to a school that would teach them in their mother tongue. I had no one to oversee the house.
          I was using Harry as a sounding board. Timmy was the only one that could really bridge the language barriers so he was surrounded by naked boy flesh. He and Harry still wore their uniforms from our overland trek earlier in the morning. I had not put my shirt back on after my nap but I did have my pants and boots on. We were still in danger of being overrun, weren't we? Well, we could be couldn't we? I'm paranoid, you know that.
          It was getting late in the day, I asked Raven about his body guard, where would they sleep? He told me that they were on duty about the castle grounds and were fine in their tents. The weather was fair and it had not been terribly uncomfortable the night before. I just don't handle cold well. These were desert dwellers themselves, however they are sworn to protect their King.
          Raven understood more meaning in my words than I had spoken. He gave firm orders in Arabic then clapped his hands. All of the boys bowed to him and backed from the room. Naked feet could be heard on the stone floors as boys scurried about with household duties. I saw several boys run past with arms piled high with dirty linens. Minutes later they would scurry back up the stairs with stacks of fresh linens and towels.
          A medium sized fire was laid in the fireplace behind the table. When it was an even blaze the two young cooks came in bearing a heavy kettle between them which was slung from a steel rod over their shoulders. A boy ran before them to clear the way and announce what I understood to be "HOT". Carefully the kettle was attached to a large swing out hook in the fireplace and pushed back over the fire. The three boys slapped their feet against the stone as they ran back to the kitchen. I am going to have to tear my floors out and put in stone, that is such an exciting sound; it makes the old colloquialism of the pitter patter of little feet make a whole new sound bite memory. They made several more entries as they pushed in carts with bowls and utensils. Cheese, breads, cakes, trays of fresh garden vegetables, and fruits were placed on the table.
          Looking at the rib count of the inhabitants of this castle I wondered how long it had been since they had eaten as well as they were today. To add to my thoughts Dr. Saltzman approached a youngster stirring the kettle. The boy nodded and picked up a bowl. Dr. Saltzman sat beside me with Salman in his arms. I asked if could hold him. He passed me the small bundle with a smile on his face and removed the blanket.
          Salman smiled wide as he sat up in my lap. He moved to me and kissed my cheek. Customs and INS be damned this boy is going home with me. The cook set a bowl of broth on the table. He had a chunk of the bread and a bit of butter scraped on the side of the plate. I picked up the bread and tore off a small piece. I placed it on a spoon and held it in the broth until it was saturated then I held it to Sal's lips. He blew weakly, mostly from habit but it may have yet been too warm for his frailty. He opened his mouth and took the bird seed sized piece of bread inside. His eyes rolled about as his smile returned. "Mmmmmmm, is good."
          He ate the piece of bread which was about equal to two normal sized slices and he took a little more than a half a cup of the broth. The boy is going to be okay, I was overjoyed. All of my friends knew it and they were happy with me. All of my fears fled from me, any regrets or second thoughts that I had about the work I had done here today was gone. I had found the purpose of my mission. God Himself had brought me here to find and rescue Salman and He was going to heal the boy. I was going to raise him up to be a powerful fighter against such tyranny and a champion to the underdog. I was going to make him a mini-me.
          Lofty dreams. I can't make anybody anything. It did help me to feel good and dig my way out of the pity party I was having for myself. I laid down plans for the care and feeding along with clothing and educating the remaining forty six boys in the house. One look told anyone that the boys were in serious need of medical attention. They are young and resilient but they have been starved and abused. They need to fight to regain their strength and grow properly. I looked at the other eight boys that had been in the dungeons. They were getting about quite well but I could tell that they were tired. This had been a long day, I wanted the boys to eat and go to bed. Seigy can hang around and do whatever a vampire does.
          I watched the boys' eyes. I stopped them and gave them the old, "It's your body" speech. I told them that the six of us would not run anyone away that wanted to spend a night with us. Besides that, we didn't know our way around the house so we didn't know where could sleep. That got giggles and all of us had boys dragging us through the house. I already had Sal but I found two boys that wanted to make him feel good along with me. Sal held on to me as he tried to walk to bed, his legs aren't ready for his weight yet, maybe after a good night's sleep. I hoisted him to my shoulders and listened to his gleeful squeals as I jumped from one stair up to the next. I slept the sleep of innocence in the arms of those three sexy lads that night.

          My awakening came as a shock then anger. Kenny was sitting on my chest looking down at me. I was startled to see him. It took a moment to figure out how he got there then Jace moved into view. That brought me out of bed. My bladder stopped me short but my anger seethed as I emptied the organ. I turned back to an empty room. Only young Sal sat up on his own strength as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
          I looked him over, his eyes were full, his face had filled out some. He was still skin and bones but his protruding belly seemed smaller. I know that it wasn't but that is what I wanted to see. I helped over to the toilet and held him on his feet as he let go of a healthy young stream. All of these were good signs and I know that he is going to make it. A lot of damage has been done to his body and even more to his developing mind. I was all the more determined to take him home with me, right after I go kiss two kids that shouldn't be there then kill them.
          Toby was holding Kenny on his shoulders and Jace to his side as they stood looking up at Seigy. He had made it through the night, the man is much stronger than I gave him credit for. Harry came to me with a cup of coffee, it was real, I thanked Athos. He shook his head and pointed at Toby. I decided to wait for my answers and turned to the table to sit down. Raven was in a chair next to the empty throne shaped chair. He indicated that I should sit there, I took my seat and learned.
          "Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem," Jace rattled off in flawless Latin. I looked at him and he grinned at me then ran over for his kiss. "Weller insisted that I learn the languages. I know Latin and Italian, as well as French and Spanish."
          "So why didn't you speak French at the Villa?"
          "Didn't need to, nobody spoke French so I didn't either. I just listened when we went to the beach that day."
          "So what did you just say to that creep up there?" I wasn't sure if I was taking a chance or not by calling his natural father a creep, it is one thing when a boy refers to someone in a derogatory term but it can be quite something else when another uses that same word, especially where family or close friends are involved.
          "I quoted from Virgil's Aeneid, 'The one hope of the doomed is not to hope for safety.'"
          I tickled the ribs of the lanky teen and got him to giggle as his brothers about the room looked on. "So why didn't you tell me that you were so smart?"
          "What and make you think I got a big head?"
          I gripped his soft cock and skinned it back to reveal a sweet glans. "Everyone knows that you got a big head." That sent him into a fit of giggles and his arms around my neck. I needed that right then, he had no idea how much I needed that. I love all of my boys but to have these three show up unexpectedly was a real treat. I wished that Cory could have been there but he does not need to see what I really am inside. I only hope that these three, especially the two younger ones, are not traumatized by what they are seeing and will see.
          "So do you want to sit and join the vigilia?" I asked him.
          "You speak Latin?"
          "I know a few words but all of us have kept vigil over the scum to make sure that they don't get up off of there and run away." That got instant giggles as translations were made to each of the boys. "I also know that we get the English word, vigilante, from the Latin vigilia, but I hope nobody thinks that we are vigilantes for what is going on here. These people have enough money and enough high placed connections that I doubt that we could get a conviction in a court of law. Their death has to mean something to them as well as these boys sitting here.

          "You do not want to go in there but damn I feel better. Phartzalot is still taking a dump," Cory came into the room. He spotted me and ran to sit in my lap and kiss me half to death. "I have had to shit since we took off from England, that shitter on the plane is no place for a good dump," he told me. Chrisy and Timmy walked in wearing nothing but a huge smile that stretched between the two of them.
          "I almost wish that Ronnie and Bryan were here, oh and Rusty too. Those boys deserve to see this but then I worry about what this will do to all of you. You will have nightmares forever because you have seen this." I told Cory.
          "I won't get no nightmare from seeing that slime ball die. I just wish I could get up there to shit in his face," Kenny gets on a track and stays there.
          "Kenny, his brother only raped your young mother. He has raped these boys and made them eat the flesh of their own brothers, your half brothers. These boys want to do worse than shit in his face but they are content to eat and drink and enjoy themselves as they watch him agonize in the last little bit of his life. I have done the bad here, I have impaled him and it is me that is responsible for his murder. I am the one that they will put in prison and execute in their own time for this crime. Please don't compound my crime by wanting to be a part of it."
          "Daddy, you ain't done no crime. I won't let no sucker take you to jail. You have to stay home and take care of me until I am old enough to take care of you. I need you and so do my brothers so you ain't going nowhere but back home." Jace agreed with him and I got the kisses and neck hugs to prove it. Kenny pushed Cory aside then wiggled his tiny butt around on my cock until it was stiff enough then he slid himself into place as the whole room full of boys rose up to see the entry for themselves. I heard some of the English speakers proclaim that they wished that they could be loved by me. I could love these boys, but I don't want to use them. Maybe I will stay with them awhile.

          One television set in front of the table showed the large tanker several miles from the bomb boat. Timmy filled me in with an update. The oil was off-loaded and headed to market in the west. The bomb had been isolated but it was still unobtainable. The bomb boat was to be towed to the center of the Atlantic, as far as possible from land in any direction, before any further attempts were to be made to deal with the nuclear device itself. It was unknown if the device was armed. Interpol had several people in custody and they had what they had been told was the detonator, a satellite telephone unit.
          Harry grinned at me, he had been on the phone much of the previous afternoon. Toby walked over and sat down beside him. Jace took the chair next to me and Kenny slipped in beside me in the large throne. He and Sal were smiling at each other.
          Harry has a side to him that he had never revealed, to any but Toby I guess. Harry had been touched by the conditions of the boys in the castle. He talked with Athos and thought that he had a plan. He called Toby and twisted his arm up behind his back as he placed his hobnailed boot against his boyfriend's face. He didn't quit the pressure until Toby agreed to his plan.
          Next he had to put the touch on Andy. Harry only had to twist his wrist a little bit before Andy yelled uncle. Jace decided that he did want to have one look at his sperm donor, I am glad of that, it will help him close that part of a life that he never knew. Kenny wanted to go with Toby and Jace. Cory had to go and protect the younger boys and of course Chrisy needed to help him. He was sure that his Timmy needed help too so it was sealed. Andy made the offer to Ronnie and Rusty and also to Bryan but they all said that they did not belong here. They are victims and are content to know that their tormentors can never hurt anyone ever again. Cory whispered to me that they felt that the children of the bastards should be together and they were not family. I loved them for that but not all of the boys around me at the time were family, some were victims, just like my three boys. Andy flew the boys to Athens then chartered a hop up to Sighisoara's small airport. At least now I know that I can fly in and out of here in the Lear Jet, I'll have to see if the 737 can land here.
          Harry had it all worked out, he wanted to be the boys' guardian. He and Toby would be mommie and daddy with Dr. Saltzman living in to provide medical care. Dr. Saltzman was nervous being in French territory all of these years and was afraid that he was going to prison in Canada. Whatever his reason I would love to have him stay with the boys. Athos is not that far away that he can't get up to check on the boys from time to time and as an officer in the Interpol he could be of great value.
          Raven overwhelmed me once again. He told the boys that they were members of my household and that I would raise them by the laws of my God. He told them that he knew that I would respect their choice of worship but that they should work with me and learn of the Christian God. The boys were in agreement, he introduced his favorite nephew to the boys. They had seen Toby on the video but now they could see him. Raven told the boys that Toby and Harry were going to live with them and see to their education and living needs.
          Toby stood up and told them that he had been raised in Islam but that he was now a Christian. He wanted to teach them to pray as a little old lady had taught him when he was a boy younger than some of them. Without being told the boys all knelt and bowed their heads as Toby led them in an Arabic Christian prayer. They rose and dug into a bountiful breakfast of pancakes, potato cakes, pastries of all sorts and even eggs and bacon. I looked at the bacon then at Raven, he put his hand up as if to push it away but he smiled at me.
          The pressure finally got to Seigy and with a hard drop his body fell deeper onto the pole and he was gone. Raven's guard cleaned the last of the evidence away and prepared to leave. I didn't really want to know but I asked anyway. "Where will you dispose of the bodies?"
          "Where you told me too." There is a very large pig feeder lot several miles away. The herdsman has a large grinder with which he grinds organic matter to feed his swine. From time to time he grinds trees to blow out onto the ground to give it a bit of body. He told Athos that the ground becomes a marsh of pig shit and he has lost small pigs in the quicksand like mire. Athos had asked to use the grinding machine to clean up debris from a friend's castle. Athos knows that the man got his start by grinding his own debris when a turf war broke out eight or nine years earlier.

          I will miss Harry and Toby but they have promised to drop in from time to time. Harry has a job with Foss International Security which is based in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona, I am an officer of that corporation and so I know that I will see the two boys pretty often. I will have to see too Kenny and Toby visiting each other from time to time also.
          I bid a fond farewell and thank you to Raven and watched as his convoy of vehicles made its way down into town and off to their awaiting plane. Athos shuttled Timmy, Chrisy, Cory, Jace, Kenny, Sal and me to Athens in his chinook. Harry had to go back to France with Timmy to have their passports stamped out of the country then he would fly back on the next cargo plane with more food for the boys at the castle.
          We set down by a big FI cargo plane that was off loading two vehicles to take up to Toby. They were both pulling trailers fully laden with non-perishable food for the castle. I bid farewell to the old Bobby Gendarmerie. I climbed the stairs to the new black cargo plane where I was greeted by an old familiar face. The load master that I had sat with as Brad and Jay told him about their young love. I asked the young sergeant about his love life and learned that he and his boyfriend are doing well.
          I'm anxious to get home to my boys. I also know of an empty throne and a boy in my house that will have to occupy it.