Pueros

Aztecs

Chapter 1
Sungod

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, midsummer’s day, 1520)

The 99th terrified victim was now suffering the honour of being sacrificed and the boy looking down from above was not displeased that he would soon be released from the cross to be, at noon, the 100th and last offering on this midsummer’s day. He knew that, unlike the others, his small loincloth, which had a much bigger sunburst on the flaps, and also a noticeably large bulge at the front, would be stripped from him before he was splayed so that his seed could be produced, and his smooth genitalia sliced off, before his heart was removed. All three items extracted from his body would be required to initiate his successor, who would be another form of himself.

The boy firmly believed that he was the reincarnated sungod, on earth just for this sacrificial purpose so that his sacred day could be blessed with his own divine fertility and life offerings, which would guarantee the people good harvests of both food and babies in the year to come. He was happy to be returning to his spiritual form so that another similar rare boy could soon be found, amongst the many captives secured during the Aztecs’ on-going conquests of neighbouring peoples. The boy would clearly be imbued with the earthly presence of the sungod, who could therefore be here again, on this cross at the same time next year, after many months of rituals in the many temples of the major cities.

The 99th victim was despatched and the 100th released from his bondage. Unlike the others, the boy did not have to be dragged to the plinth but boldly stepped towards it. He removed his loincloth, to reveal a full erection, and then lay spreadeagled on the pool of warm blood that covered the stone surface. Four priests held the young god tautly in place in case he suffered any last-moment human frailties, for the strong hallucinatory and aphrodisiac mixture he had been given during his lengthy indoctrination had been known to fail embarrassingly at such times. His sacrifice would be conducted by the High Priest who had only watched the previous ninety-nine. The man, attired in flowing red robes, with the sunburst symbol emblazoned on the front and with a magnificent feathered head-dress, came forward and loudly uttered a prayer. He then began to masturbate the boy whilst four acolytes stood by, one holding in outstretched hands the sacrificial knife, dripping copious amounts of blood, and three proffering bowls to collect the sacred offerings.

Chapter 2
Tezozo

(Tenochtitlan, midsummer's day, 1520)

The first of these was about to be removed from the young sungod's beautiful earthly form. The High Priest held the light-skinned boy's now softening penis firmly in his left hand whilst he placed the re-sharpened sacred sacrificial knife against the underneath of the lad's deliciously smooth scrotum with his other hand. With practised skill, he began the incision that would unman the boy. The sungod screamed as agony overcame his sense of spiritual destiny and blood began to spurt all over the plinth and onto the High Priest's hands and robe, but this did not deter the man because he had become accustomed to such messy reactions. This would be the fifteenth time that he had performed this particular rite, and he had had to emasculate thousands of others during the rituals of other ceremonies.

The knife advanced upwards and both the screams and blood flowed relentlessly. The blade soon began to appear either side of the upper base of the cock and, with one last push and rip, the sungod's genitals were dangling above his loins in the grip of the High Priest's left hand. The held them up for the now agonised and horrified boy to see before showing them to the cheering masses at the foot of the pyramid.

The boy would quickly bleed to death if left but the High Priest had one more function to perform that would bring forward the sungod's return to the heavens. Having placed the severed sexual organs in the proffered bowl, he carefully used the bloodied knife to slice open a circle of skin on the boy's left chest. As the man peeled back the flesh, he saw the sternum and ribs underneath. He prised apart these bones with the knife, aided by his left hand, and soon saw the full beating heart. He gripped the throbbing organ in his left hand and skilfully started the cutting necessary to extract it from inside the sungod's body with the knife held in the other. The still-vibrating cardiovascular organ was soon raised from the now quietened boy and being displayed to the rapturous throng.

The boy's body, now free of its divinity, was disposed of in the same way as the previous 99 young victims of this midsummer's morning.

(Eastern coastal plain, Central America, same time)

The father realised that they were about to die and looked forward to meeting his son again in paradise. He had sent the rest of the family to a remote village in the hope that they would be safe from the Aztecs for he knew this battle would be lost, although he hoped that his people's tiny army would be taking many invaders with them into the afterworld. Their general was in front of the line and signalled the charge. Tezozo and his father therefore started running towards the mass of Aztecs, attired only in small blue loincloths and armed with only a dagger and a spear. As they neared the enemy, the young boy's erection increased.

The clash between the two lines of warriors was ferocious but the subsequent fight was short. Tezozo saw his father fall after a spear had struck him in the chest. The boy managed to exact revenge on the thrower by spearing him in the stomach. He also knifed another Aztec in the neck before darkness overwhelmed his mind. His blood-spattered body fell on top of that of his dead father.

Tezozo awoke with a sore head for he had been hit with a slingshot. He found that his hands had been bound tightly behind him with rope, which was attached to the neck of another captive sitting two paces behind him. His own neck was fixed by another rope to a prisoner sitting two paces in front. In fact, there was an inter-connected line of about forty prisoners, all guarded by heavily armed Aztecs. Tezozo was immediately sorry that he had survived the battle for joining his father in paradise was much more preferable to being enslaved or sacrificed by these evil conquerors. However, he and the others were soon making the long march towards Tenochtitlan and their fate.

Chapter 3
Selection

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, July 1520)

All of the captives were amazed at the sight of the Aztec capital, which they reached late one afternoon, for their own small town could bear no comparison. The huge crowded city, with its many beautiful lakes and waterways, magnificent buildings and skyline dominated by stepped pyramids, was like another world to the astonished Tezozo and fellow prisoners. Some now thought that their captors must truly be representatives of a mighty irresistible race which had the favour of the gods. A lot of passers-by stopped to watch the line of fresh males, destined either for sale in the metropolis' slave-market or use on its many sacred altars. All admired the unusual looks of the fair-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy, attired in just his skimpy, and now rather dishevelled, blue loincloth.

The prisoners were taken across a causeway to a huge, heavily fortified and guarded stockade located on an island in the middle of one of the lakes, populated by crocodiles through human design. It was the transit centre for fresh slave stock and temporarily housed hundreds of men, women and children until they were scrutinised by priests. Those selected for ceremonial honours would be led away to one of the capital's many temples whilst the remainder would proceed to market. The captives were split, by age and gender, into groups which were confined in separate smaller enclosures, where they sat with hands tied behind them to stakes firmly embedded in the ground. There was no shelter in the stockade and the ground could sometimes become quite muddy during the occasional mid-year storms. The facility was not used in winter as the Aztecs generally conducted their Imperial expansion only in the summer months.

Tezozo found himself bound to a stake in an enclosure shared with about 200 other boys, from several different vanquished peoples and whose ages ranged from four to sixteen. Some had been here for a few days. Tezozo had been allowed to toilet in a hole in the ground and wash himself with water from one of several tubs placed around the enclosure before being tied and given some water and porridge, which he had to consume as if he was a dog. Gradually darkness came and Tezozo fell asleep, despite the coolness that descended, for he was now accustomed to spending nights in such demeaning and uncomfortable circumstances.

Tezozo woke at first light. As was now usual, his body was stiff from the awkward posture that he had had to adopt in order to gain his rest and he manoeuvred his limbs as best he could to eliminate the cramps. The boy wanted to urinate but was determined not to soil himself and therefore hoped that he would soon be released to use the hole in the ground. Fortunately, the guards complied as they unbound the boys individually for their dawn toilet and ablutions. However, no food would be wasted on the young prisoners as the High Priest himself would be visiting today, alerted by a report of a fair-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy captive. His appearance with accomplices should result in the emptying of the enclosure as the lads were moved on to face their destinies.

The High Priest, dressed in his distinctive garb, arrived with an entourage mid-morning, by which time Tezozo was very warm and thirsty, the temperature having soared in the hot sun. Whilst other priests inspected the rest of the young male stock, the High Priest, accompanied by four handsome boy acolytes attired in tiny red loincloths with small gold sunbursts embroidered on both flaps, was guided to Tezozo by the guard commander, who untied the lad from the stake and, because their languages were different, signalled to the youngster to stand. The commander then shocked and humiliated Tezozo, whose hands were still bound behind him, by removing the boy's tattered loincloth. The High Priest carefully appraised the beautiful form presented before him, walking slowly round the delicious young nude. He stopped half-way and gently forced the boy to bend over, with his legs apart, so that a check could be made of the lad's anal virginity. When the High Priest returned to the boy's front, he smiled as he observed that his intimate attentions to the lads' pink sphincter, combined with his close visual examination, had caused the youngster to become aroused. However, the expressions on the faces of the four acolytes, one aged 12, one 13 and the other two 14, were of sadness for they had been reminded that they were incapable of such a feat. In fact, their undercloths displayed no bulges at all for their genitalia had been presented to the previous incarnated sungod at the vernal equinox so that they would be ready to be the servants of his successor. They knew that their hearts would be the next organs to be removed from their bodies, on the next midsummer's day, so that they could follow their sacred master to serve him in the afterworld. They would first place the sungod's seed and organs in the container of snow in the main pyramid before proceeding to the adjacent temple, the largest and most important in the city, for the rite to be performed on the plinth before the sacred altar.

Tezozo blushed in shame when he too noticed his excitement. His face turned even redder when the High Priest delicately gripped the 13 years old penis between his right thumb and forefinger and began to rub. Tezozo was desperate for sexual relief as he had been unable to masturbate, his favourite pastime, since he had been captured. He far preferred this form of release to having sex with his young wife because he did not particularly like girls. He preferred boys of his own age and he and his best friend had frequently played with each other's cocks. The High Priest's ministrations therefore brought quick reward and a convulsing Tezozo soon impregnated the ground of the enclosure with copious amounts of overdue white liquid.

Having satisfied himself that the boy could produce semen, the High Priest again surprised Tezozo by kneeling before the naked lad and uttering a loud invocation, incomprehensible to the shamed youngster, and then placing his forehead on the ground. He was followed in these actions by the four acolytes, the guard commander and the other priests, the latter having gathered round after hearing their leader's pronouncement. After they had all regained their feet, one of the acolytes stepped forward. He had been holding a bag of red cloth emblazoned with the gold sunburst emblem. He extracted from within a white loincloth, of the finest material and marked with a similar but larger symbol, and handed it to the High Priest, who redressed the newly reincarnated sungod in the sparse attire. Two of the acolytes then held Tezozo gently by the arms and escorted him out of the stockade, accompanied by their two companions and the High Priest. The other priests, who remained behind to select sacrificial victims for certain imminent ceremonies, bowed as the sungod passed them, as did the guards and the many people the small party encountered on the way to the main temple. However, this new respect for the bewildered young captive did not extend to untying his hands.

Chapter 4
Installations

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire)

Juan was the son of a prostitute in the Spanish port of Cadiz, fathered by an unknown sailor. His mother had brought him up reasonably well within her bordello, given the circumstances, but at the age of 12 it was time for him to embark on a career. The boy chose the sea and his mother arranged for him to become the cabinboy of one of her regular clients, who happened to be the captain of a galleon that was engaged in the rather one-way trade with the newly discovered Americas. The man was strongly heterosexual and had promised not to be tempted by the pretty youngster or to allow his molestation by any of his crew. The man had been as good as his word for one year later the boy remained a virgin.

Cortes and some of his men had been passengers during one of the voyages of Juan’s ship, which the lad now left in Central America to become groom to the Conquistador, who was as strongly disinterested in boys as sex objects as the captain had been. The 13 years old had been lured by the promise of adventure and riches. None of Cortes’ men would dare attempt to violate their stern leader’s young staff, despite temptation, and anyway there were plenty of pretty native youngsters to rape in compensation. Juan therefore continued to maintain his purity. However, unlike most of the men who had horses, the now 14 years old boy only rode a pony and so was an easy target for the Aztec throng to attack during the break-out. He was dragged from the animal and would have been beaten to death but for the timely intervention of a Priest who had seen his capture and recognised his worth if he could be saved for use in one of the temples.

The terrified and dishevelled Juan was taken to the main temple, where the High Priest also realised his value. The boy was imprisoned amongst the many clean but cool and gloomy chambers in the temple’s basements, illuminated only by oil lamps on the walls. Half of Juan’s chamber comprised two cells separated by strong ceiling-high wooden bars. The boy occupied one of these cells, which were empty apart from some bedding straw, changed daily. The other half of the chamber contained a sunken bath, which would be filled by large pots of warm water brought from elsewhere, and a small but deep hole that comprised the toilet. The shamed lad had been stripped of his detested foreign clothing by four young temple acolytes, supervised by a Priest, carefully bathed and redressed in a skimpy red loincloth with small gold sunbursts on each flap, identical to what his youthful attendants wore. His hands were bound behind his back with rope and this was attached to another rope round his neck so that his hands were held at waist level. He would be released from this bondage only during his daily ablutions so he was humiliatingly forced to kneel to lick up his rations. He would be allocated a clean loincloth after each bodily cleansing.

The apprehensive and lonely Juan remained on his own in the chamber for a few weeks until another boy, wearing a white loincloth, arrived to occupy an adjacent cell. The two lads were as astonished as the High Priest had been earlier, in the compound for new captives, for their youthful appearances were very similar. No-one gave a thought to the notion that they were half-brothers, let alone themselves, but, in fact, that was what they were for they shared the same unknown father.

Juan, grateful for company, and Tezozo found communication difficult at first because of their different languages but both, particularly the former, had picked up some Aztec. With Juan acting as patient tutor to Tezozo, the boys gradually began to develop longer and longer conversations as their lonely confinement continued. As the lads became more fluent, they were both amazed to learn about each other’s lives and peoples. Their acquaintance became friendship, which helped them overcome their shy embarrassment at being bathed together daily by the acolytes and some of their trepidation at what was to come. Their intimacy was eventually manually consummated when they overcame their inhibitions to discuss sex for, as time went by, both boys became desperate for sexual relief, their cocks constantly hard within the tight confines of their loincloths. The solution they arrived at, to overcome the problem of their bondage, entailed one of the boys standing face-forward against the wooden bars separating their cells whilst the other backed towards him. Hands, despite being tied, would soon work themselves under the front loincloth flap to rub the hard bulge restricted under the undercloth, which would rapidly be soiled. The Priests would later dismiss the evidence of ejaculation within the garments as being caused by wet dreams.

The boys were imprisoned for two months until one day their daily cleansing took much longer than usual, being conducted with extra care and precision. They were then led unbound out of the chamber by the four nullified acolytes and four Priestly escorts. The worried Juan and Tezozo were led up a wide flight of stone stairs to emerge at a doorway to the side of the temple altar. It was the first time that the captives had seen the vast innards of the main basilica and they were astounded by its menacing magnificence, which was filled with hundreds of waiting Aztecs. The now very scared boys were led to the altar, which consisted of a sacrificial plinth on top of a tall stepped stone platform, with a diagonal wooden cross, close to the wall, about ten paces behind. The cross, currently resting on the floor, was linked to a pulley system so that it could be hauled into the air.

Juan and Tezozo were first taken to the cross. The latter was tightly bound by leather straps spreadeagled face-forward to the contraption, which was hauled upwards so that the deity could look down at the sacrifice to be made in honour of his installation as the reincarnated sungod at this autumnal equinox. Juan was then escorted towards the High Priest who was standing, sacrificial knife in hand, at the rear of the plinth. The horrified boy knew what took place on such edifices and began to resist, but his opposition was easily overcome by the four escorting Priests, who dragged him up the steps. Holding a limb apiece, the Priests splayed the young sacrificial victim face-up on the cold stone surface, stained with the blood of many thousands of previous offerings. The four acolytes followed up the stairs, all quivering slightly at the sight of where they had lost their genitalia and where, in nine months, they would lose their lives. Three of the acolytes now carried small bowls.

The High Priest cut through both side straps of Juan’s loincloth with the sacrificial knife and pulled the garment off the boy, giving it to the acolyte not carrying a dish. A substantial erection for a 14 years old popped into sight. The man then held the boy’s vertical penis in his left hand whilst he rested the knife against the base of the lad’s lower scrotum with the other. A splendidly attired man, wearing a feathered head-dress even more exotic than that of the High Priest and standing at the front of the watching crowd, knelt and placed his forehead on the ground. He was quickly followed by the hundreds of other worshippers. Cuauhtemou had just replaced Cuitlahuac as Emperor. The latter had succeeded Montezuma but lasted only eighty days before succumbing to disease. Cuauhtemou eventually stood again, for this was also his own formal installation as Emperor, whilst the others remained prostrate. The High Priest looked down at the screaming and sobbing Juan to begin his work and, as he lowered his head, sperm unexpectedly splattered him in the face.

Chapter 5
Temples

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, September 1520)

The second similarly aged boy was a pretty dark-haired Tlaxcalan captive who was being kept for sacrifice on another day. However, he had now been swiftly bathed and re-attired to meet an earlier death. This time, Tezozo could do little to intervene for the cross had been lowered temporarily so that he could be gagged. The High Priest wished to help the sungod avoid further distressful interruptions.

The struggling new sacrifice was rapidly splayed on the plinth and the High Priest cut off the boy’s loincloth. Another hardening penis was held by the High Priest’s left hand whilst the knife was again presented to the underside of a young ball sac. Some rapid jerking with the left hand swiftly produced the sacred product required for the now changed bowl and no intervention came to stop the youngster’s subsequent nullification. The High Priest was soon dangling the severed genitalia by the cockhead high above the screaming boy’s bloody loins. A mixture of blood and spilt semen dripped onto the agonised lad’s body. However, the victim’s torment did not last too long as the High Priest, after placing the genitalia in another bowl proffered by one of the acolytes, proceeded to extract the young Tlaxcalan’s heart.

Tezozo was appalled as his people did not practise sacrifice. The boy had observed criminals and prisoners executed by spear but had never experienced anything as awfully cruel as what he had just seen. He did not know that he was due to suffer the same fate in nine months and would see far worse in the interim. Tezozo was deeply saddened by the spectacle but also grateful that he had managed to save his friend, at least for now.

The hundreds of worshippers regained their feet whilst the three bowls containing the sacrificial victim’s semen, genitalia and heart were placed on top of his bloodied chest and stomach. The Priests and acolytes left the plinth and Cuauhtemou walked forward to climb up the front steps. From the other side of the dead Tlaxcalan, the High Priest lifted the bowl containing the sperm and handed it to his new Emperor, who proceeded to lick the dish dry before returning it to the boy’s body. The High Priest now picked up the genitalia and heart, placing the two organs respectively in Cuauhtemou’s left and right hands. The Emperor turned to face the watching crowd and raised his hands, now dripping blood, in the air. There was a huge cheer as the last man to occupy the Aztec Imperial throne was confirmed in his position.

Cuauhtemou replaced the organs in their appropriate bowls, which the acolytes, returned to the plinth, collected and took away. The four Priests removed the dead body before lowering and releasing Tezozo from his bondgage and his gag. The petrified boy was himself now dragged to and, after his loincloth was removed, spreadeagled naked on the plinth. His horror, enhanced by feeling congealing blood under his back, caused the lad to shiver uncontrollably. This intensified further when the acolytes returned with a tiny red urn, emblazoned with a yellow sunburst, and two similarly painted pottery boxes. The latter were opened and the genitalia and heart of the previous sungod, extracted three months earlier and very cool because of their cold storage, were taken out and placed respectively on the splayed boy’s stomach and chest. The urn was then presented to his lips for the contents to be consumed. The High Priest had to pinch the lad’s nose before he would comply. The 13 years old now tasted semen for the first time.

Tezozo’s shivering decreased when he felt the Emperor’s lips encase his cock and he was soon vibrating instead through orgasm. Having been anointed with the sungod’s sacred fertility elixir, Cuauhtemou descended from the plinth, passed through the crowd, again prostrate, and left the temple, quickly followed by the assemblage. The previous sungod’s genitalia and heart were now returned to their boxes and Tezozo was removed from the plinth. After one of the acolytes had wiped the blood from the 13 years old’s body, he was redressed to rejoin Juan.

The 14 years old Spaniard thanked Tezozo profusely for his salvation, especially when he heard what happened to the boy who had replaced him. However, the unknowing half-brothers remained rather sombre as they talked about what the future held for them. Nevertheless, this did not adversely affect their appetites and that evening Tezozo’s food was different to normal, a spicy mince. He was never to know that he had eaten his predecessor’s sexual and cardiovascular organs.

The next morning, after bathing, Tezozo was taken unbound in procession by his now customary escort of four Priests and four acolytes to another smaller temple. Passers-by bowed to the sungod as he passed. The temple to the firegod had no sacrificial plinth but instead possessed a small central hearth full of blazing wood. The sungod was sat on an elevated throne nearby and a handsome youth of about 16 was brought in by four local priests to the temple nave. The youth was attired in a red loincloth but, instead of the sunburst emblem, the flaps displayed a golden flame. The 16 years old was disorientated because he had been forced to drink strong pulque, a fermented drink produced from the sap of agave. The priests splayed the youth face-up on the floor. Holding a limb apiece, they then lifted him and introduced his body to the flames in the hearth. The resultant screams were blood curdling and Tezozo closed his eyes in horror. When the 13 years old opened them again after quiet had been restored, he saw that the youth’s body had now been left in the fire.

The traumatised Tezozo was eventually returned to his cell but Juan did not await him. The young Spaniard had been taken to Cuauhtemou’s palace and would not return to the main temple for some time.

Chapter 6
Sacrifices

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, September 1520)

After several more lonely nights and days, Tezozo was taken one afternoon to the temple of the mother god, Coatlicue. She was represented by a huge stone headless statue, with two serpents emerging from the torso. Many human skulls, perforated for stringing, were displayed on rack poles at the foot of the edifice. A crystal skull was located at the centre of the gruesome display. The sungod was forced to watch as twenty young men, wearing red loincloths with gold skulls embroidered on the flaps, were brought in, one after the other, knelt before the idol and briskly beheaded by a bloody axe wielded by the local high priest.

A few days later, Tezozo was enthroned at the top of a minor pyramid, looking down at a sanguine plinth, as numerous boys and youths, all dressed in quetzal plumes with jade bracelets and paper wings, lost their hearts in celebration of the Emperor’s birthday.

Over the ensuing months, Tezozo was to be the sacred guest of honour at a number of other horrible ceremonies, in the many temples and atop the various pyramids of the Aztec capital, when he was compelled to observe a multitude of sacrifices. Youths were despatched by arrows for the hunting god. A boy was boiled alive in a large pot for the merchant god. Young maidens, called ‘cenotes, were thrown into a deep well to act as messengers to the gods.

Seven temples specialised in sacrifices to the rain gods. Each displayed green poles, indicative of fertility, with white paper displaying large and small drops of rubber, symbolic of rain, fixed to the top. Children, called ‘human banners’, wearing headbands with sprays and sprigs of quetzal feathers, greenstone necklaces and bracelets, and paper finery of various colours, were carried along the capital’s spacious thoroughfares to the temples in litters, also covered with quetzal feathers. Some of the children were adorned with stripes of liquid rubber, others with strange vestments covered with mussel shells. Most went crying, tears coursing down and bathing their pretty faces. It was said that such a tearful display guaranteed rain and so all who saw it were joyful, their minds at rest.

The ends the youngsters encountered depended on the temple to which they were destined. Most lost their hearts in the customary manner but some, sent to temples set next to some of the capital’s lagoons, were ritualistically drowned. Other children, festooned in paper ornaments, were borne off to be exposed in the mountains, the abode of the rain gods.

When Tezozo was introduced to the top of the main pyramid, where he was unknowingly scheduled to meet his own end, it was to observe the extraction of the hearts of many prisoners to appease the war god. They were brought by their captors to the sacrificial plinth individually and naked, their bodies covered in painted red stripes. The victors wore red loincloths with gold eagle motifs and were also painted with red stripes. Additionally, their torsos were covered with feather down and their hands and feet with white turkey feathers. They had already removed locks of hair from their captives as mementoes and made personal offerings of blood from the victims’ ears. The extracted hearts, called ‘precious cactus fruit’, were held aloft to the sungod before being cast into a large golden vessel in the shape of an eagle.

The bodies of the victims, or ‘eagle men’, were rolled down the steps of the pyramid and carried off to various temples. There they were cut to pieces, a thigh of each being set aside for the Emperor, whilst the captors’ heads were covered in feather down. The latter would later summon their blood relations to their houses so that they could enjoy together a meal of tlacatlaolli, which literally means dried maize with human flesh.

Meanwhile, Juan spent a lot of time in a golden cage suspended from the ceiling of a large ornate chamber in Cuauhtemou’s palace. He now wore a white loincloth, displaying a yellow snake symbol, and was garlanded with sweet-smelling flowers. The boy’s body was adorned with the finest jewels, including golden bracelets on his arms and bells on his legs. The 13 years old sungod’s action in the main temple had clearly shown that the 14 years old was the reincarnated Smoking Mirror god, the second most important divinity in the Aztec pantheon. The boy chosen to be this deity’s earthly embodiment had, like his sungod equivalent, to be physically without blemish. The relevant Aztec codex took a full page to describe the bodily perfection required, starting with "He was like something smoothed, like a tomato, or like a pebble, as if hewn of wood. He did not have curly hair, but straight long hair; he had no scabs, pustules or boils on his forehead nor was he large-headed." It finished with the stipulation that the boy’s buttocks were to be neither hatched-shaped nor flabby and recommended regular drinking of brine to keep the god’s flesh firm. When the time came for the deity to return to his spiritual form at the temple of Tlacochcalco, Juan would be expected to ascend the steps to the sacrificial plinth of his own free will.

Chapter 7
Gods

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, December 1520)

The 14 years old Spaniard was kept, hands chained behind him, in the gilded cage for most of the day, being released only for scrupulous bathing, and humiliating dance practice. The former included careful attention to his genitalia for the first signs of blonde pubic hair had sprouted, which had to be shaved away, with future growth discouraged by application of rather efficient herbal lotion. Dance practice was necessary because the boy was to give a performance at a ceremonial feast on mid-winter’s day. He was told that the true reincarnated Smoking Mirror god always acquitted himself well and a poor show would indicate an impostor, who would be immediately sacrificed in the most horrible of manners. Despite an attitude that considered dancing shamefully unmasculine, Juan was sufficiently motivated by this information to try his best.

Juan’s sexual desperation was such that he was often reduced, when not observed, to rubbing the protuberance at the front of his loincloth up and down the bars of the cage in order to achieve an orgasm that would spoil his undercloth. Sometimes, wet dreams or accidents when being washed would help to alleviate his needs.

Tezozo and Juan were to attend quite different ceremonials on the winter solstice. The sungod was taken first to the main pyramid where he and an absent colleague, the god of fertility, had to be assuaged at this time of least daylight and fruitfulness to encourage the return of brighter more bountiful days. As usual, there was a massive throng all round the edifice, enjoying the spectacle in warm winter sunshine.

Tezozo found himself attached again to the diagonal cross looking down as forty pretty youths, aged about sixteen, universally lithe and smooth and attired in green loincloths bearing a yellow symbol representing maize, were brought individually to the top of the huge structure by priests. Some came quietly, having accepted the dreadful inevitable, whereas others struggled mightily, but to no avail as their escorts were well accustomed to such displays of reluctance. Most of the offerings were tearful.

On reaching the summit, the youths’ loincloths were removed, often revealing semi or full erections, and they were splayed on the bloody sacrificial plinth. The High Priest proceeded to do to them what he would do to Tezozo in exactly six months time, although the 13 years old did not know that. The High Priest first unmanned the shrieking youths, usually to accompanying spurts of semen as well as blood, before holding up the severed genitalia for the cheering crowds to see and then placing the male reproductive equipment in proffered bowls. The youths’ hearts also soon rested in the dishes, which would be whisked away to various temples and shrines around the Aztec capital for use in other rituals. The victims’ bodies joined the rotting corpses of their predecessors in the voluminous pit within the pyramid.

Tezozo, now becoming convinced that perhaps he was the true reincarnated sungod, had gradually acquired immunity from the shock of seeing such appalling scenes and, in fact, experienced a full hard-on during the whole awful ceremony. The boy also did not flinch during the second rite that he had to attend in the main temple, at which Cuauhtemou was present. Tezozo found himself attached again to the temple cross looking down on a lovely nude 10 years old boy spreadeagled on the temple plinth. Two Priests held a long saw, with side handles, against the screaming lad’s belly and, at a signal from the High Priest, began to use the implement in the way for which it had been designed.

Blood spurted copiously as the body-wide cutting began and the boy’s innards were exposed. The sound of metal sawing bone could clearly be perceived above the victim’s yells until the latter ended and only the former was heard. Both Priests had conducted this very sacrifice at this place and time for a decade in honour of the sungod, with the exception of the previous year when the evil, strangely dressed, white men from the east had persuaded Montezuma to cancel the ceremony. They therefore used the associated tool expertly and the lad was mercifully quickly cut in two, with the cleanly incised edges of the two halves of his body cauterised to stem the blood flow and prevent the insides from spilling out. The upper half would be sent to the new Emperor’s kitchens for conversion into appropriate delicacies for a feast that evening in the palace whilst the lower half, with the important pre-pubescent genitalia, would be the centrepiece of dinner in the temple.

Juan was present at the palace dinner as it was where he had to perform his dance. Garlanded with sweet-smelling flowers and wearing the white loincloth, displaying a yellow snake symbol, and fine jewellery, including golden bracelets on his arms and bells on his legs, of the reincarnated Smoking Mirror god, the young Spaniard honoured the mid-winter feast.

Cuauhtemou, wearing a sprawling green cape, was sat on a throne, which was covered with ocelot and wolf skins, whilst servants stood nearby to proffer plates holding various titbits of food, some with spicy concoctions that included young human organs, and cups of juices and the alcoholic drink pulque. The Emperor thought that the taste of the course in which the main ingredient was young human brain was the best. The forty or so principal guests, served by an army of slaves, eat whilst squatting on the floor behind low tables, set out in a U-formation before the throne and at the centre of which the 14 years old white boy discharged his ritualistic function.

Juan, initially blushing with embarrassment and quaking with nervousness, started awkwardly but eventually managed to achieve decent energetic movements in line with the accompanying pipe music. The flaps of his loincloth regularly rose to give the spectators a view of his thong-like undercloth, displaying the clear outline of excitement underneath, and the sumptuous curvature of his bare bottom. The bells attached to his smooth lithe legs tingled constantly. The boy concluded with a spectacular front somersault, the landing of which he just about managed to control.

Juan thought that his part at the feast was now ended and that he would be returned to his cage, where the guests could come to view him later, as many had done previously. However, he was to be swiftly disillusioned. Four servants approached the surprised boy and, whilst two held him firmly by the arms, a third deprived him of his loincloth, a full hairless 14 years old erection popping into view. The deeply shamed young nude, still firmly held, was then escorted towards the throne.

Cuauhtemou stood at Juan’s approach. They were just a pace apart when the naked boy was turned round to face the guests and forcibly bent over, legs wide apart. The shocked young Spaniard, now immovably pinioned by the four servants, each kneeling to hold a limb, felt the Emperor’s cape engulf the sides of his delicious young body. The appalled lad realised what was about to happen when he then experienced the touch of a large cockhead on his virgin sphincter. However, he knew that he could do nothing to prevent his imminent deflowerment for to spoil one of the barbaric rites of these cruel people by struggling or shouting could mean his end, undoubtedly by horrible means.

Cuauhtemou grasped the Smoking Mirror god by his young reincarnated hips and slowly pressed forward in order to fulfil his duty. It was customary that the Emperor and the god joined in this way every winter solstice, and regularly thereafter, so that the deity could take a plentiful supply of Imperial seed back with him to paradise when he returned to his spiritual form at the spring equinox. The provision would also be frequently topped up orally.

The crimson-faced Juan could not help uttering an audible moan as Cuauhtemou’s engorged member overcame the virgin 14 years old sphincter’s resistance to enter the young Spaniard’s tight anus. All of the guests were captivated by the sight of the union between their earthly leader and their paramount heavenly being, not that they could see much of the action. The robe was to hide the Emperor’s privates, which were not to be publicly seen whist he sodomised the god, whose nudity did not matter. The spectators had instead to satisfy themselves with the view they had of the front of the naked reincarnated deity as he was deflowered. They noticed that the beautiful face became redder, as it was distorted by pain and muffled groans, whilst at the same time the excited sacred genitalia, dangling nicely underneath the superb young frame, displayed a penis oozing precum and pointing rigidly at the floor.

Juan’s will finally gave way and he screamed loudly when the large invading phallus extended fully to his prostrate for the first time, the young Spaniard feeling Cuauhtemou’s hairy balls against his lustrous buttocks. The Emperor withdrew before thrusting forward again, eliciting another shriek, this time accompanied by a jangling of bells as the boy’s legs shook. However, the noises emanating from the lad gradually became more muted as his violator gained a steady pumping rhythm and the deflowered rectum became more accustomed to the size of the intruder. The tearful reincarnated Smoking Mirror god was reduced to almost imperceptible groans by the time he felt his insides being flooded by thick creamy liquid in several rapid gushes. The deity blushed from head to toe and his whole earthly form vibrated as his own sacred seed poured onto the frescoed floor in neat tandem.

Cuauhtemou, after allowing time for his body to recover from its wonderful ecstasy, eventually withdrew his softening cock from Juan’s sore debauched anus, creating a noticeable popping sound as he did so. The Emperor accepted a cloth from one of the servants to wipe bloodied sperm from his penis, still hidden by his robe, before returning to his throne. The young Spaniard was released from the hold of the four servants but took a while to regain a standing position as his bum hurt so much. When he finally managed the feat, one of the servants humbly invited him to lick up the product of his deified loins. Such sacred substance could not be left to waste but was only for the likes of the Emperor or High Priest to absorb orally, and they could not be expected to kneel to do so. The agonised traumatised lad was then redressed in his loincloth and led away to incarceration in his golden cage.

The reincarnated Smoking Mirror god was one of the few permitted to see Cuauhtemou’s Imperial member and he gained a good private view several days later at another feast at which the Emperor was attired in another voluminous robe. Juan, having danced again, was engulfed by the garment when he knelt immediately before the throne and bent his head forward in order to perform his first act of fellatio. The young Spaniard found the operation very distasteful in all senses of the word, despite his own hard cock suggesting otherwise, but he was helped to accomplish his task successfully, including swallowing the result of his oral ministrations, by two factors. Cuauhtemou had recently been bathed and so his groin was immaculately clean and did not smell unpleasant, the pervading odour being of perfume. The boy also only had to suck the cockhead, this being a ritualistic not sexual act, thereby avoiding the grief that would have been caused if he had been required to accommodate the penis’ full length and the nasty taste that would have been induced by the hairy mass beneath.

Juan, exhibiting some spilt Imperial semen on his chin, was being returned to his cage by a lone servant when he did something unprecedented for a reincarnated deity. The boy made use of the fact that he had not yet been rechained and punched his escort in the stomach and face, before running down the magnificently adorned passageway, bells jingling. The 14 years old knew that he had now proved that he was not the Smoking Mirror god and what the likely horrific consequences of a failed attempt to escape would be.

Chapter 8
Flight

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, December 1520)

Juan, having torn the infernal bells off his legs to leave them behind in the palace grounds, found himself on the wide external roadway. Left would take him into the centre of Tenochtitlan and right towards Tlaxcala and hopeful safety. As he contemplated his choice, he heard the commotion in the magnificent building behind him as the alarm relating to his unprecedented action reverberated. The 14 years old actually already knew which direction to take. He turned left.

The thoroughfare was illuminated by full moonlight and Juan’s destination by the large fire lit every night at the top of the city’s main pyramid. The boy ran most of the way to the adjacent main temple, taking great care to disguise his identity in shadows from the occasional passer-by. The temple was as unguarded as the palace and the young Spaniard soon found himself with astonishing ease at the gate of Tezozo’s cell. He paused for a while, taking in the superlative beauty of the sleeping form before logistical urgency finally overcame artistic appreciation.

The sleepy Tezozo was naturally delighted to observe that the friend whom he had not seen for three months was standing beside him. Juan had noticed that the crude wooden key that opened the entrance gate was kept on a wall hook just outside the cellar chamber when he had also been a resident. The 13 years old stood and would have hugged the 14 years old if his hands had not been bound behind him. The young Spaniard therefore obliged. However, after their brief embrace, Juan found Tezozo strangely reluctant to make his escape.

Tezozo had begun to believe the indoctrination to which he had been subjected, that he was the reincarnated sungod, and had become resigned to his unknown eventual fate. "I sungod," he announced in faltering, heavily accented Aztec, "must stay, here I belong!" Juan was astonished at his friend’s announcement but knew that he did not have time for gentle dissuasion. He had to be cruel to be kind. He therefore slapped the 13 years old across the face and made his own declaration in better Aztec. "You’re no more a god than I am," he declared, "you’re just a boy like me who’s going to meet a horrible end if he stays here amongst these barbaric people!" It took several slaps and several more sentences before his younger friend was convinced that the argument was correct and accepted the unbinding of his hands.

The two boys, unknowing half-brothers, ran from the temple heading west. It was Juan’s correct assumption that this direction of attempted escape would be the last that the Aztecs, furious to discover that the reincarnated deities were impostors, would expect the evil ones to take. Both Tezozo’s people and his own were to the east. The boy also realised that it was important to make use of the cover of darkness for as long as possible to facilitate their flight as their appearances and dress made them stand out so much from the general population. Discarding attire in favour of nudity would not help, even if his inherent prudery permitted such action, and, in any case, the valuable ornaments both wore could prove useful later.

The boys made their way in the moonlight to the side of a nearby tree-lined canal and walked alongside the waterway in the shadows of the trees for a while before discovering a highly convenient tiny boat, its almost round wooden frame covered with animal hide. Inside was a single oar.

The boat formed the escapees’ nightly transport for two days as they followed the westward canal. Daytime was spent sleeping in adjacent woodland or scrub. Food was limited to any raw fish they managed to catch manually, which were few. Having left the Aztec capital far behind, the boys then headed north in daylight across lonely hilly countryside, with the intention of eventually turning east, hopefully to return to their peoples. Their first night after abandoning the boat and canal was spent besides a shallow narrow stream where catching dinner was easier. Neither knew that, by the Christian calendar of the time, it was New Year’s Eve. Dawn would bring the first dawn of the year 1521.

Meanwhile, in Tenochtitlan, the embarrassment of losing the two most important gods was being covered up. Certain ceremonies had to proceed without their main guests whilst the High Priest conducted an urgent search for the true reincarnations. The army was on the alert to find the evil impostors, for whom suitably penal and horrific sacrificial rites had been planned after their undoubted recapture.

The bedraggled Juan and Tezozo took the opportunity of the availability of the stream to bathe and clean their loincloths. The water was chilly but the boys felt fresher and invigorated by the exercise. As dusk gave way to night, they engaged in their usual platonic embrace, required in order to keep warm. The only difference to previous occasions was that they were now both naked, their loincloths still drying. Both boys initially tried to pretend not to notice the erections both had displayed since they had started washing themselves, stimulated by recent chaste abstinence and the sight of the gorgeous nude form of their friend. However, such pretension did not last long as intense lust overcame reticence.

Juan took the lead by beginning to stroke Tezozo’s hard cock. Emboldened by a lack of resistance, the young Spaniard joined his rosy lips to those of his friend and soon all inhibition was lost. The lovemaking between the lustful 14 and 13 years old boys lasted many hours, interspersed with several periods of quiet refection before desire returned. Aztec herbal aphrodisiacs, still raging through the lads’ young bodies, shame modern counterparts.

It was appropriate that midnight passed just as Juan flooded his half-brother’s anus with his seed for the first time. The former sungod had been a virgin for less than a minute of the New Year.

Unfortunately, the first daylight of 1521 heralded much less pleasant experiences for the two young boy lovers.

Chapter 9
Dawn

(Aztec Empire, New Year’s Day 1521)

Their route took the boys towards dense woodland, which they would have to traverse in order to reach their destinations. The going through the compact trees and shrubbery was slow and difficult, especially in the warm humidity prevalent at this clime despite the fact that it was winter. The bodies of both lads quickly displayed a number of scratches as a result of contact with branches that formed the main barrier to their progress. However, at about noon, the two friends eventually emerged into a large clearing, through the centre of which ran a stream. They sat at the water’s edge to drink and rest their weary limbs. Both soon succumbed to slumber, which was to prove a potentially fatal mistake.

Juan and Tezozo were reawakened by the indelicate prod of feet in their sides. When the boys opened their eyes, they found that they were surrounded by twenty Aztec soldiers. Several pressed spears against the lads’ beautiful bodies.

Communications within the Aztec Empire were quick and efficient, often using relays of fast runners to pass important messages, and it had not taken too long to place the whole army on the alert for the evil impostor deities, easily recognised from their dress and unusual features. This particular company of warriors was not looking for the fugitives as it was considered that the boys would be much further east. They were instead scouring the forest for runaway slaves from their local permanent army encampment. The slaves were now quickly forgotten as far more important miscreants had been located.

Juan and Tezozo were hauled to their feet by their hair and quickly found their hands tied behind them and their necks linked by rope, about two paces in length, with the young Spaniard in front. Another similar length of rope was held by the officer leading the company of soldiers, who was to lead the impostor gods through the forest to the army camp, closely attended by the others. All expected to be lent the boys’ gorgeous bodies sometime in the near future to play with as a customary reward for their recapture. They were not to be disappointed.

It was late afternoon when the party emerged from the forest to see the big encampment stockade nearby, located here to intimidate the conquered local non-Aztec populace. The commander was delighted at the detainment of the false deities and immediately despatched a messenger to the capital to appraise the Emperor and High Priest of the good news. Meanwhile, the young prisoners were stripped of the sacred clothing and adornments that were no longer justified and tied naked, in a sitting position, to stakes in the centre of a large piece of open ground in the middle of the camp, where they were to remain, heavily guarded, overnight. The boys received no food but were allowed some water as they had to be kept alive to enjoy the delights of being subjected to horrific penal sacrifice in Tenochtitlan.

A substantial column of soldiers, including the twenty who had come across the sleeping youngsters, left for the capital at dawn the next day, charged with escorting Juan and Tezozo safely to the capital. The necks of the bound boys were now connected by a heavy wooden pole, which added greater stress to the journey, already very demeaning, given their inherent prudery, because of their nudity. The military formation passed through a number of villages with people lining the through roads to watch. The fact that the boys frequently exhibited erections at such times during the two-day trip caused them further shame, especially when their plight induced much titillation amongst the bystanders, the giggles from the young girls being the most humiliating.

The Aztecs were undoubtedly world record holders for human sacrifices, not only in number but also in variety. The greatest volume had been killed in 1487, in the reign of Ahuitzotl, to inaugurate the main temple. The Emperor, with two allied rulers and leading officials, and accompanied by many priests, led an interminably long parade of captives, duly painted and feathered. The line of victims stretched along the principal causeways into Tenochtitlan, watched by huge throngs, boosted by the people of neighbouring communities invited to attend or die, with no-one exempt. The sacrifices took four days to complete. When the Emperor and his royal colleagues eventually tired of gashing open the offerings’ breasts to extract their hearts, the priests assumed the duty.

The Aztecs counted in units of twenty, with their largest unit of quantity being a ‘xiquipilli’, illustrated by a little bag of cacao beans and representing 20x20x20 or 8000. This was the number of human hearts secured for the gods during the bloodbath in honour of the temple’s opening.

Nevertheless, the Aztecs did not particularly want to cause suffering by dragging out the deaths of their sacrificial victims. Instead, they were usually despatched to paradise with well-practised swift efficiency. However, a rare exception was to be made for Juan and Tezozo.

It had been many years since some penal sacrifices had occurred, when a few rebellious chieftains had suffered the terrible fate, and the High Priest had to study the relevant sacred codex to reacquaint himself with what should happen. Having secured approval from Cuauhtemou for his proposals, the High Priest initiated the necessary preparations, which included locating an elderly priest who had officiated at the chieftains’ successful demise and who was given the responsibility of ensuring that the latest victims were kept alive until their scheduled ends.

Juan and Tezozo were to take ten days to die. On the first day of formal ceremonial, the naked boys would be taken to a specially constructed platform in the middle of the huge square in front of the main temple. The stage had three wooden stakes. The older Juan would be bound spreadeagled between the left and middle posts and his younger companion between the middle and right, both facing the temple. Many hide buckets would be placed around the platform and the capital’s populace would be invited to bring containers of their own urine to fill the pails, which priests would then use to swill the people’s displeasure over the young friends’ nude bodies.

The first real agony was planned for the second day when Juan and Tezozo would be returned to the platform, from which they would not now be removed until they died eight days later, to be comprehensively flogged all over their bodies, including their genitalia. They would then have their ball sacs bound extremely tightly with leather cord to cut off the blood supply. Over several excruciating hours, their scrotums would discolour darkly and their testicles would finally expire.

Day three would see the castrated boys have their tongues and all of their teeth extracted. Day four would bring the loss of their fingers and toes and day five their ears and noses. On day six, their emasculated genitalia would be cut off whilst the next two days would see the same happen to their legs and arms, after which their torsos would be suspended from the outer stakes by their hair. The victims would be allowed to keep their eyes up to this point so that they could see the horrors being inflicted on them but this generous allowance would be terminated on the penultimate day of their lives. All wounds, except those to the insides of the mouth, would be carefully cauterised to prevent too much blood loss.

Juan and Tezozo’s deaths would come on day ten after their agonised torsos were flayed, the wooden frame of the drums, for which their skin was to be used, having already been constructed. The exposed hearts would then be removed from the barely recognisable shapes that represented still-living young male humans to end their dreadful torments.

Many people lined the thoroughfares of Tenochtitlan to see the nude evil demons return just before dusk to the capital. Most booed or shouted insults. It was therefore something of a relief when the boys found themselves sitting, backs against a wall, in a cold damp cell in the bowels of the main temple, their hands chained to the stone above and ankles bound tightly. The terrified youngsters had not eaten since their recapture and were famished but no-one was going to waste food on them.

The four young nullified acolytes, who had tended to the boys when they had been considered divine, arrived in the cell next morning. Carefully supervised by several priests, the eunuchs washed the chilled starving impostor gods, bodies covered in goosepimples, with water from buckets so that they would be clean to pay their dues to their twenty captors. The two friends were then led to a larger nearby cell where the soldiers, themselves naked, awaited their arrival, as did two waist-high fence-like structures, each consisting of two vertical posts connected by short horizontal poles. The lads were bent over the poles and their hands and feet bound to the bottom of the posts, presenting their anal and oral orifices nicely to provide the warriors with their dividends.

Both boys soon felt the first eager erections press against their tight sphincters. 14 years old Juan had already had his rectum invaded by Cuauhtemou’s large rampant member. The pain that he was about to experience through being sodomised by another adult was therefore not quite as intense as that endured by 13 years old Tezozo, who had only felt his friend’s smaller penis inside him. However, both lads wanted to cry aloud when the soldiers’ pushed hard to overcome the natural resistance of the anal openings to gain entrance but their efforts were muted by outflanking military cockheads that simultaneously attacked their mouths.

The twenty soldiers had fortified their sexual desires with strong aphrodisiacs so that they could gain maximum pleasure from their reward, being determined to enjoy both orifices of both boys. Their objective was achieved within a few hours, by which time their sobbing agonised victims displayed copious amounts of semen on their chins and inside legs, the latter mixed with blood. The traumatised tearful lads, mouths and anuses bruised and hurting acutely, were then released and returned to their prison to await the first sacrificial rite, scheduled for the next day.

The four carefully supervised young nullified acolytes arrived in the cell next morning to wash the false deities again so that they would be clean to receive further evidence of the people’s disgust. The evil boys, orifices still very sore, were subsequently escorted out of the temple and through huge crowds in the main square to the platform to be soaked in urine continuously for several hours. They were then left displayed to receive more of the populace’s verbal opprobrium until dusk, when they were returned for the last time to their cell.

The four young nullified eunuchs arrived at the following dawn. The two young demons were to be re-cleansed yet again before leaving the cell and temple, never to return, to enjoy instead public flagellation and castration, followed over subsequent days by slow bodily dismemberment. It was the 6th of January by the Christian calendar.

Chapter 10
Epiphany

(Florida, U.S.A., 6 January 2002, Epiphany according to the Christian calendar)

The pretty fair-haired blue-eyed young friends had completed their chores for the day, helping each other to take down the Christmas trees and decorations in their respective houses before deciding that it was time to play. They were alone, as the host’s mother and sister were out visiting and would not be back for several hours. The lads first surfed the internet, ending up as usual at sites that had sexy tales involving boys. The youngsters particularly liked eunuch.org, castration or at least genital endangerment turning them on, causing erections to develop inside their designer jeans.

The two young friends had especially appreciated ‘Aztecs’ by Pueros. They liked the blood and gore, but what had particularly intrigued them was the fact that the story’s heroes possessed physical and other attributes that matched their own. Both had wondered at first whether the author might somehow know them and had based the characters on them. However, the 14 years old had eventually dismissed the idea, suggesting coincidence instead, as he was sure that the writer must be British because of the way he spelt certain words, such as ‘colour’ rather than ‘color’, and they knew no Britons. The 13 years old agreed with this supposition.

It had been traditional in both boys’ families for generations to call their first sons by certain respective names. No-one really knew why or for precisely how long the practice had been followed. The lads did not mind carrying on the nomenclative custom. The younger was actually quite proud of his particularly strange name, which his friends invariably shortened. Their families had taken the precaution of giving the lads more common second names but neither elected to use them.

The two families had known and liked each other for as long as anyone could remember, occasionally inter-marrying. They were proud that their lineage appeared to go back hundreds of years to the original Spanish founders of their eastern Florida community. Ancestors had played major but unheralded roles in the development of their township and the eastern part of the peninsula, including encouraging its eventual purchase from Spain by the United States in 1819. Family members were also influential in securing statehood, as the 27th state, for Florida in 1845. They were against secession from the Union in 1861, having always been, for as long as anyone could remember, against slavery. However, their views were unpopular and many fled north for the duration of the Civil War, a number of the men joining the Union army, apparently starting the families’ proud military traditions, although that had actually occurred 340 years earlier.

All later returned to Florida to be of enormous help in post-war reconciliation and rebuilding, and were influential in seeing that the state was readmitted to the Union in 1868. Men of the family fought with distinction with Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘Rough Riders’ in Cuba in 1898, in the 1st and 2nd World Wars and in Korea and Vietnam, some sacrificing their lives for their country.

Having been thoroughly stimulated by chapter 9 of Aztecs, the two young friends decided to play their new game, re-enacting events described in an earlier episode. They tossed to see who would initially be the reincarnated sungod, masturbated by the evil High Priest before the man severed the boy’s genitals. Rope tied to bedposts had to substitute for the restraining hands of four Aztec priests. The boys had made rather neat erotically skimpy loincloths for the performance and a knife was at hand, although for sexual titillation by pressing against the supposedly endangered genitalia rather than actual use. The feel of the blade combined with their friend’s manual manipulations invariably quickly induced the desired climax to their play. The stimulating game, which had been filmed throughout using a digital camera placed on a tripod, was thoroughly enjoyed by both participants. It was as if the imminent threat of being unmanned ran excitedly in their blood.

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, 6 January 1521, Epiphany according to the Christian calendar)

The nullified foursome had decided, not unreasonably, that they did not want to have their hearts cut out at the summer solstice. They had mutually agreed to follow the former two reincarnated paramount deities in the Aztec pantheon in attempting to flee, despite the dangers and awful consequences of failure. However, they had also deemed it appropriate to take the recaptured false divinities with them. Despite the fact that the latter had floundered in their own first attempt, the eunuchs appreciated that the duo had been very unlucky, their bid for freedom showing bravery and guile, qualities the quartet needed to supplement its own effort.

The young nullified acolytes had, as usual, entertained their overseer priests sexually overnight, the men also enjoying much pulque in celebration of the evil ones’ imminent horrific demise. The eunuchs had encouraged the priests to over-indulge in the strong alcoholic beverage and, as a result, could reach the condemned boys’ cell at dawn without them, the men sleeping off acute hangovers.

Juan and Tezozo were swiftly dried and redressed in spare loincloths provided by the acolytes before the sextet set off to try to escape the temple via the rear entrance.

(Florida, U.S.A., 6 January 2002)

Chapter 11 – Settlements

(Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, 6 January 1521)

The boys emerged from the unguarded rear entrance of the temple and were soon advancing purposefully and, bravely in the circumstances, unhurriedly along the causeway that led north, holding the sacred pole equidistantly. Juan and Tezozo were purposely placed third and fifth in line so that they would be partially hidden, being flanked in front and behind by others.

The road was busy with many people entering Tenochtitlan from the opposite direction to see Juan and Tezozo flogged and castrated but they were to be disappointed, at least for now, as the sextet successfully made their escape. They found woodland just outside the capital in which to dump the pole and its impedimenta, with the exception of the bags because they contained food for sustenance and knives, stolen from the drunken priests, for protection. The starving Juan and Tezozo were particularly grateful to assuage their hunger without delay. The six boys then located a stream to wash off their body paint and used the knives to cut off the red flaps of their loincloths, emblazoned with the give-away yellow sunburst symbol, leaving them wearing just the sparse thong-like undercloths. No-one mentioned anything about the fact that the former gods’ remaining meagre tight garments displayed clear genital outlines whereas those of their companions did not.

The sextet debated precisely what to do as they readied themselves to further their escape. It was agreed to stick together and head north-east towards Tezozo’s people, carefully keeping to barren countryside. East towards Juan’s would be too dangerous as they would come across many Aztec troops guarding the border with Tlaxcala. West towards the conquered lands of the nullified acolytes might be equally dangerous as it was now obvious to all that Juan’s and Tezozo’s earlier attempt to escape had started in that direction and it might be where their undoubted pursuers started looking first.

Many days later, the sextet were peering down from their hiding place on an adjacent hillside observing the goings-on in Tezozo’s hometown, which was actually more a large village. The journey to the former sungod’s homeland had been tough but uneventful, apart from nocturnal activities. The boys had paired off to sleep together for warmth. Juan and Tezozo naturally wanted to resume their sexual acquaintance with each other’s bodies, a situation that did not go unnoticed by the others.

On their fifth night, the oldest of the pretty nullified acolytes approached the duo and sheepishly asked if the pairings could be mixed, eventually confessing to the reason for the request. The embarrassed blushing eunuch explained that he and his three friends now only gained sexual satisfaction through the tickling of their prostrates and could Juan and Tezozo oblige them. The two whole youngsters did and they found that sodomising the eunuchs was not an unpleasant experience, especially as the wounds in their groins were hidden by little, carefully developed, sprays of pubic hair, making them very girl-like in appearance in that area.

No Aztecs could be discerned in Tezozo’s home settlement, so it was decided to try to reach the boy’s house, a large one-storey structure of red mud brick at twilight, hoping that some of his family might have felt safe enough to return there after the conquest. The lads were not to be disappointed and Tezozo’s lachrymose reunion with his mother and younger siblings also brought tears to the eyes of his five companions. A welcome home feast was somehow quickly conjured up, over which much news was exchanged, including the revelation from his mother that Tezozo had just passed his 14th birthday.

The six escapees learned with sadness of the pillaging and raping that had taken place within the town after the Aztecs had won the battle in which Tezozo’s father had died. However, Tezozo’s family had escaped because his father had had the wisdom to pack them off to safety elsewhere. They had returned only once order had been restored to the subjugated land. Their father’s body had been burnt along with all of his slain comrades and, although the conquerors had established a nearby military encampment, the victorious Aztecs left the vassal populace largely alone as long as regular tribute, in terms of agricultural and husbandry produce, was paid. Tezozo, who had had to translate all this into Aztec for his five friends to understand what was being said, now conveyed his own experiences to his appalled and deeply concerned but nevertheless intrigued family.

It was eventually time for all to sleep but Tezozo did not do so with either his best friend or any of his other four companions for his young similarly aged wife, now a member of his family, was present. He had to spend the night with her and, despite his natural tendencies, he managed to perform his conjugal duties. Accommodation within the household was found for all the visitors, who spent their first comfortable nights for many a day.

The next morning saw the four nullified former acolytes set off, after many hugs, on their way back to their own homelands, freshly attired in more substantial and warmer clothing and appropriately re-provisioned. They would aim to head west then south to achieve their destination. Juan, in particular, never heard of them again and therefore presumed that they had reached safety for he would have come to learn of their horrible demise if they had been recaptured.

Juan decided to stay with Tezozo and his family for a few days before making his own departure, wanting to experience his friend’s beautiful body a few more times before presumably having to give its delights up for ever. He succeeded in this aim and a sad Tezozo was guiding an equally sad Juan to the southern perimeter of his hometown at dawn, intending to show him a route that would lead him safely past the military encampment, when the community was invaded on all sides by Aztec soldiers.

The Emperor and High Priest had been furious at Juan’s and Tezozo’s second disappearance, this time apparently with four acolytes. After horribly sacrificing some priests given blame for allowing the escape, they identified Tezozo’s origin and sent a message to order the local Aztec commander to raid the evil one’s hometown to see if he had fled there. The boys were taken by surprise and spotted, their identities immediately recognisable by their blonde hair and fair complexions. However, Tezozo knew his town better than their pursuers and by judicious use of narrow alleys and scrambling over walls to cross some back yards, the two friends found themselves in open countryside.

Nevertheless, the numerous Aztecs were on both their flanks and at their rear, making only one route of escape possible. This led up a sharp escarpment on the other side of which, as Tezozo well knew, was a steep gorge, with only one navigable path. The boys were fast runners but some of the chasing soldiers were quicker and they began to gain on the impostor gods.

Juan and Tezozo were almost at the top of the incline when the latter tripped. The former did not know his friend’s fate until he had reached the summit and glanced back to see Tezozo overwhelmed by warriors. Juan hesitated, not knowing what to do. His delay was almost fatal as an approaching Aztec hurled a spear at him, hoping to slow not kill the boy. However, the impact of the weapon, as it struck the lad’s right thigh, caused him to topple over the edge into the deep gorge. When the soldiers reached the summit themselves, Juan was nowhere to be seen, presumably falling to his death. They therefore had to content themselves with the recapture of one evildoer.

Whilst his family fled, being in great danger for harbouring the false deity, Tezozo was stripped naked and suspended face-up from a horizontal pole, which would be carried by a relay of heavily guarded soldiers on the long journey back to Tenochtitlan. By the time of the boy’s return to the capital for settlement of his evil account, his wrists and ankles had been badly bitten into by the twine enforcing his unrelenting bondage. However, this did not matter as surely now he would not escape the horrific penal sacrifice due.

The day after Tezozo’s recapture, with the reappearance of normality, some of his compatriots decided to try to find Juan’s body, wanting to give an enemy of their enemy appropriate funereal rites. They knew the gorge well and carefully scoured the area for the dead boy but no trace of him was found. They therefore turned their eyes to the cliff-face, close inspection revealing a young body on a high ledge, seemingly prevented from falling further by some shrubbery that grew all over the tall sides of the gorge. Expert climbers were later sent to recover the corpse, only to find that they were rescuing someone miraculously still alive, although breathing very shallowly. After the spear had been pulled from the lad’s thigh and the resultant flow of blood stemmed, twine ropes were lowered to help bring the badly hurt young Spaniard back to the summit, from where he was smuggled into the sanctuary of one of his saviour’s townhouses.

It would be over a week before Juan regained consciousness and the fever caused by his wounds did not relent for another week. He emerged from his delirium to find that he could not go in pursuit of his friend because he could not walk. The thigh injury and a broken bone in his leg would need a further six weeks’ convalescence before he could regain his feet, by which time news of Tezozo’s fate had reached his hometown. It was another week before Juan was composed enough to leave to seek revenge.

The naked bound and distraught Tezozo had been led by many priests through the jeering crowds in the main square of Tenochtitlan to the sacrificial platform, now only furnished with two stakes. The boy, whose mouth and anus were very sore after again accommodating the cocks of those who had recaptured him, was bound by his red-raw wrists and ankles between the posts, spreadeagled and facing the temple whence he had just emerged. However, he would not have to endure the buckets of urine again. Instead, the 14 years old was to embark on day one of a now nine day sacrificial process.

To loud cheering from the assembled throng, a young heavily built priest mounted the platform holding three whips. He placed all but one on the floor and, at a signal from the High Priest, standing adjacent to the Emperor on the temple steps, he began to flog the impostor god’s back. This produced much screaming from the penal sacrificial victim, whose soft cock increased in size and became first horizontal and then vertical as the flagellation gradually proceeded with great deliberation, the recipient being required to appreciate fully every blow.

After turning Tezozo’s back into a mishmash of bloody stripes, the priest moved to concentrate on duplicating the same pattern on the boy’s buttocks and rear legs before moving to the front. He then changed to a lighter whip, as he did not want to cause fatal damage to the lad’s bone structure. He reverted to a leather crop when, all other areas except the head having been attended to, it was eventually time to give the false deity’s genitals some focus. A stream of white fluid spurted from the hard ivory-like penis, which had been drooling precum for a while, as the first stroke of the leather hit the cockhead.

Tezozo had to be awakened from faints on three occasions during his two-hour ordeal. He was then left to enjoy his agony and the crowd’s insults for another hour until his red-striped ball sac was tied extremely tightly round the base with thin leather cord, cutting off the blood supply. The death of the boy’s testicles would take several excruciating hours, during which time the colour of his scrotum would pass through several dark hues until attaining a deep blackness. The cord would not be removed from the castrated lad until he was completely emasculated four days later, by which time he had also lost his tongue, teeth, fingers, toes, ears and nose.

The aged priest, appointed to oversee Juan’s and Tezozo’s survival to the very end on the previous unexpectedly cancelled penal sacrificial occasion, had been happy to return to perform the same duty to the evil one who remained alive, albeit not for long. The old man carefully supervised every facet of the boy’s dismemberment and was very good at his work.

Tezozo’s constant agony had become an almost natural feeling within his mind as, on his final day of life, the now blind and limb-less lad’s almost unrecognisable torso was flayed, although the skin would not make a very good cover for its drum as it had so many bloody whip-marks. The boy’s penultimate thought, as he felt his ribcage being parted to gain access to his barely beating heart, was of standing next to his father in the battle that had led to his original capture. His last thought was of looking forward to standing next to his father again soon but in paradise and hoped that his friend Juan, whom he thought dead, would be there too.

Juan managed to rejoin Cortes and the Conquistadors in Tlaxcala and was very active, now as a 15 years old, when the Spaniards and their allies triumphantly entered Tenochtitlan in May 1521, effectively bringing the Aztec civilisation to an end. Mounted on a horse, rather than his previous pony, the boy fought like a demon alongside the men, gaining sanguine revenge for his friend by killing many enemy soldiers. He was helped by the warriors’ terror of his horse as none had ever seen such an animal before the arrival of the Spaniards the previous year. When the Aztecs had first observed mounted horsemen, they had considered human and creature to be one horrible two-headed beast and they had never lost their dread.

Juan had deliberately been one of the first invaders to arrive at the main temple. He found the High Priest about to kill another young Tlaxcalan captive on the altar plinth in a desperate sacrificial effort to encourage the gods to stave off the white men from the east. The priests restraining the victim fled on seeing the heavily bloodstained young demon holding a sword, its long blade red rather than silver in colour. It would be the High Priest’s heart that would now stop beating and not that of the designated offering.

Juan subsequently became rich through helping his comrades plunder the many temples of the capital and elsewhere, considering it further appropriate retribution and ultimately final settlement for what the religious order had done to Tezozo. He later returned to Tezono’s hometown to give further thanks for his own survival and deliver substantial and very appropriate associated largesse. He discovered that, after the flight of the Aztecs, Tezozo’s family had felt safe enough to reoccupy their house, where his friend’s young widow had given birth to a son. The young Spaniard immediately proposed marriage to the girl.

Juan eventually became deeply disillusioned with the Conquistadors and all their works. He was especially galled at the sight of many Aztecs being burnt at the stake, under the supervision of priests from his own Church, for refusing to convert to Christianity. He believed that the actions of his fellow Catholics were even more morally repugnant than those of the original rulers of this land. The Aztec liturgy had, after all, truly believed in the sanctity of sacrifice as a passageway to paradise whereas the awful actions of the Christian priests went completely against Jesus’ teachings.

Juan, his wife, toddler Tezozo and baby Juan, both children bearing their respective fathers’ fair features, therefore boarded a ship ferrying a group of more humanistic pioneers north to develop a new peaceful Spanish settlement in eastern Florida.

(Florida, U.S.A., 7 January 2002)

"Dear Juan,

I was very surprised to receive your e-mail as I assure you that I did not know of your existence or that of Tez. I'm sure that no-one will find out your surnames or where precisely you live and I promise not to refer to you again after Aztecs is concluded. I just thought that I was using a smart literary device when bringing my story forward to 2002 in chapter 10 and describing some boys having fun. I’m astonished that what I depicted actually happened. I also believed that I had invented, in your 16th century namesakes, fictional characters to set against a true historical background. I’m now forced to reappraise my view, wondering instead whether your e-mail actually confirms that the whole tale was planted in my mind by two friends, together in paradise, who wanted their histories recorded!

The End