Published: 6 May 2021

As the boys began to awaken the next morning, they all felt a new chill in the air. Winter was on its way. In each of the bedrooms, the boys could hear the soft movement in the room as their individual paige boys lit a fire to warm the room for their charges.

As each pair rose from their beds, they noticed the looks of the two paige boys before they both realised they were still naked from their sleep. With embarrassed smiles, they quickly looked around to find some clothes to cover themselves.

The two paige boys noticed their discomfort and, as neither spoke the same language, they pointed to two sets of clothes laid out for their use. As the boys looked at the selection of clean clothes, they began to have their doubts. Finally, neither of them could see any reason not to use what had been put out for them, although they had doubts about wearing the skin hugging tights. They could only hope that not too much of their charms were revealed.

With the help of the paige boys, all the boys managed to get dressed in the clothes of the period, skin hugging tights and all. Next they were offered a small dagger each, but carefully refused them in favour of their own weapons, which, by the looks on the paige boys’ faces, confused them even further.

With everyone dressed and ready for the new day, the paiges led their charges from their new rooms towards the lower floor and the dining room, where they soon saw that a large breakfast had been laid out ready for them. Dmitri was already seated at the head of the table waiting for them all to arrive as today there was much to do.

Everyone took their seats close to where Dmitri sat and the paiges began to bring them silver salvers piled high with freshly cooked food, some of which the boys did not recognise but tried anyway. As they all ate their fill, a discussion of what the day held for them was underway. First on Dmitri’s list was the matter of the assassin and how to go about getting the needed information.

To this end it was Pierre that solved the problem and with Helmut kept busy translating for them, they worked out a plan with Pierre taking the lead and even asked Spider to help with the interrogation although if they could avoid it they would not actually have to injure the man that had been caught.

Pierre was the one that pointed out that this time period would not probably be aware of psychological warfare and they could use this to their own advantage with the assassin without having to resort to brute force as they did in this day and age. From what Peter was able to tell them from his knowledge of history, the brutality of the times often got results even if the person was not actually guilty but just wanted the pain to end so confessed out of desperation.

They all hoped Pierre’s way of approaching the problem would work without the need for bloodshed. With the topic of the assassin out of the way, the next was for Dmitri to find a language tutor for them all. This also turned out to be easier than they thought it would, as they soon found out when the old advisor came in to greet Dmitri and make his report from the night guards.

It appeared there was a teacher down in the village school only an hour away from the citadel and he had a young man who was his apprentice and assistant. The advisor suggested to Dmitri that he ask for the younger man to come to the citadel and teach Dmitri’s friends the local language. With Dmitri’s agreement the advisor said he would send a message immediately and with luck the friends could be having their first lesson after the midday meal and after they had been to the assassin for the information.

Dmitri sent one of the paiges to get the guard captain. When the captain appeared, and after he gave the obligatory bow to the new Baron, Dmitri gave him the orders that he and his companions would interrogate the prisoner.

The look of astonishment on the captain’s face told its own story. He obviously had not thought that the young baron would want to do such a thing. It was usually left to the older and more experienced men who knew how to torture a person for information but, the baron was his ruler and he would do as asked without hesitation.

The captain stepped back to wait for the group of young men to finish their meal and he would then lead them to the dungeon deep below the citadel. When the breakfast was finished, both Spider and Pierre asked the others to wait for a few minutes while they returned to their respective rooms to gather a few things they had discussed for their interrogation.

Once they returned the captain led them from the room and towards one of the doors close to the one that led to the kitchen. The door opened into a dark passage that had stone steps leading downwards. From below they thought they could hear the distant sounds of crying and the occasional rattle of chains. While they were distant sounds the boys now had some idea of the fear a prisoner would have as he was led down these very steps to an uncertain future.

The steps led downward in a left hand corkscrew and it was Peter who told them why that was. It seemed that this deep dungeon may be the last line of defence for the citadel and if it was needed, then the men retreating had a distinct advantage over the attackers from above.

As the defenders retreated, their right sword arm would be clear of the curved walls and better able to kill the attackers who would all be restricted in using their swords in their right hand. As it was notable in the times, anyone who was left handed was believed to be working for the devil and only right handed people were on the side of god.

As a defensible tactic it was well thought out although, just by looking at the formidable defences and tactical position of the citadel, it would be a very difficult castle to take by conventional means of the time.

After a few minutes of descent, the boys arrived, deep underground, into a huge space where many cages of iron bars stood along both left and right walls. The first thing that struck the boys was the acrid smell of despair and the fetid stink of unwashed bodies as well as other smells they did not want to think about.

At this stage there were not many prisoners there, in one cell a haggard looking woman in rags and with unkempt hair crouched in fear in a dark corner of her cage. In another were two men, one quite young and the other who could be any age but his condition was such that it was difficult to tell what his age really was.

At the far end of the large dungeon was another man, he was in better condition than the others but had been beaten badly and was lying on the damp and dirty floor moaning softly. The jailer was a large dirty looking man with bad teeth, a bald head and was wearing rough clothes that could do with a lot of hot water and soap. He did not inspire friendliness.

At the sight of the captain the jailer looked harder in the dim light and then saw the large group of young men. It was the reflection off Dmitri’s rings that finally caught the man’s eyes and with a sudden understanding he realised who the small figure was.

With the usual obsequiousness of the lower class, the man bowed low to Dmitri and shuffled backwards as the small group moved towards him. Dmitri looked around and began to speak angrily at the dirty man with the guard captain glaring at the jailer in silence.

The jailer could only stay on his knees in the centre of the room as he was berated by the new baron for leaving the dungeons in such a disgusting state. The performance Dmitri put on left no doubt in the jailer’s mind that this small, young man was not to be trifled with.

When Dmitri had finished berating the jailer, the man could only nod his head and stay bowed low to the floor while with one hand he indicated where the large keys to the cages were hanging on the wall.

Dmitri turned to the captain and spoke to him for a minute then stepped back to wait for his orders to be carried out. The first was the release of the three other prisoners. It seemed the woman had used some herbs to cure a sick lamb and a jealous neighbour had accused her of witchcraft.

Dmitri had commanded her immediate release along with the other two who in his mind had been falsely accused or in the case of the younger of the two men, had failed to pay a debt that had been made with a huge interest added which he had not been able to pay when asked for the nearly triple amount of the loan. This Dmitri had told the captain would be attended to by him in the near future.

Dmitri’s ire was not yet finished as he stepped past the kneeling jailer but left him in that position without allowing him to stand as he led the way to the last cage. The assassin lying in the cage looked to be in his middle twenty’s.

He had been treated badly by the jailer and those who had captured him. The boys hoped it would not take much more for the man to break so they could get the information they wanted on who wanted the old baron dead. Although the lord in the principality of Rus was their prime suspect, as he was the one the old baron and the advisors had named.

As the captain of the guard unlocked and opened the door, it was Pierre and Spider who stepped inside but Dmitri was close behind as he was the one with the language to question the prisoner. When the prisoner finally turned his head to look up at the new arrivals, the look of surprise was very evident on his face at the youth of his three visitors.

Dmitri turned to the guard captain and gave his orders in an unshaken voice. The order had been worked out with Pierre earlier so Dmitri knew the full plan before going down into the dungeon and it would look more like his doing than that of the others.

The guard Captain stepped forward and, with little care, quickly stripped the man naked seemingly with little effort. He then stepped back to wait for more orders which were not long in coming.

Dmitri gave his orders and the guard Captain lifted the frightened assassin with ease and almost dragged him bodily from the cage out into the main area of the dungeon. Once there the Captain steered the assassin over to the large wooden table that was laid out with iron shackles at both ends and was obviously used as a rack for stretching prisoners until their bones broke apart or the pain they suffered would make them confess to just about anything.

With what appeared to be a practiced ease, the captain soon had the assassin on the table and chained tightly to the table on his back. Dmitri had stood aside and watched dispassionately during it all and now gave a nod to Pierre and Spider.

The fear on the assassin’s face as he spied Pierre for the first time could be seen in the wide staring eyes, it was obvious he had not seen a man with black skin before and this led to even more doubt being cast on his future at the hands of such a strange looking young man.

Pierre looked around until he saw a small desk against one wall where the jailer must have done his work or had his meals. Pierre looked at Dmitri and nodded towards the desk and then waited while Dmitri told the captain to carry the desk close to Pierre. Once the desk was by his side, Pierre began to take instruments and old tools from his bag and lay them out with a certain precision while Spider waited his turn.

With Pierre finished, Spider took his place and began to lay out his barber’s kit, to the people of this time they would be strange instruments with an unknown use and the boys hoped they would go a long way to instil fear into the assassin. Spider began by making a real show of selecting his tools. First he looked at the man spread eagle on the table and a frown came over his face as he carefully selected the rolled up strop from his pack. Next, after fixing the end of the strop to the table he carefully selected an old cutthroat razor, something this time line would not be familiar with and then began to run it back and forth over the strop with a familiar ease of long practice.

The razor was a bright and shiny, highly polished steel with what appeared to be a gold inlaid pattern and the handle looked to be of old fashioned ivory. Just the soft sound of the steady stropping had brought the assassin’s head up from the table and he seemed mesmerized by the glinting instrument in the young boy’s hands. After about five minutes, Spider looked keenly at his handy work and then turned towards the figure on the table.

Although the others knew that Spider did not really mean any harm to the man, his face said something different as he laid the sharpened blade on the top of the man’s thigh and very close to his limp manhood. With what appeared to be a swift and uncontrolled swipe, although the boys knew different, Spider ran the sharp razor down the length of the man’s thigh neatly shaving off all the hair in a broad swath and leaving the skin bare where the razor had touched without so much as a hint of damaged skin.

Spider finished his little demonstration of the blade’s keenness by taking all of the hair from the razor cut and slowly letting it drop before the man’s eyes, as though to tell the assassin that this was just the beginning and that the blade could do far more than just cut hair.

The others had been watching the assassin’s reaction the whole time and noted that he had broken out into a sweat and fear began to show in his eyes as Spider turned with an evil grin and rested the razor far closer to the man’s genitals than was safe for anyone wanting to keep his manhood safe.

Spider began to casually tap the skin close to the pubis of the man and it did not take long for the assassin to realise the blade was moving ever closer to his privates. The sweat on the man’s brow was now running freely and the fear permeated from every pore as the glistening razor moved closer and closer, the evil grin on Spider’s face never wavering for a second. It was a demonstration of Spider’s skill that just as the next touch would have left a definite cut on the assassin’s manhood that Pierre spoke and Spider stopped with the shining blade a bare fraction of an inch from the man’s penis.

Spider held his hand steady as he turned his head to look at Pierre and, as though in frustration, he snapped the razor shut with a flick of his fingers and stepped back as Pierre approached with a pair of narrow tongs that were glowing almost white hot. Spider stepped back as Pierre took his place and stared down at the assassin with no emotion showing at all.

Up until this point not a word had been said by anyone present, even the guard captain did not understand what was going on. This was not how torture was done and he could not work out how it would make the assassin tell all. Little did he know that the man was already quite willing to tell all even as Spider was letting the razor come far too close to his manhood but his own fear had kept him silent just in case the young boy let his hand slip.

It was at this point that Dmitri stepped closer and began to ask his questions in a rapid fire sequence, it was so fast that the assassin barely had time to answer one before the next was fired at him, Dmitri’s voice was a staid monotone and he hoped it would give the impression that he cared little for the man’s health if he was not to answer truthfully.

Dmitri turned and nodded to Spider, who approached again with the same evil smile on his face. That was all it took as the assassin began to babble madly without once taking his eyes off Spider. When he had finished talking, Dmitri again nodded to Spider to step back, which the boy did but with a look of unhappiness just to instil a little more fear into the assassin’s mind.

With all the information gathered to his liking, Dmitri spoke to the guard captain, then turned and left towards the long flight of steps and only once speaking sharply to the jailer as he passed the sorry looking man. It was time to return to the dining room and go over what he had found out about the Rus lord and his future plans once the man had taken the citadel. Dmitri was not happy with those plans and it was now time to start to make a few of his own which he hoped would be with the help of his five friends.

TBC

Critiques, complaints, suggestions or adorations gladly accepted. Arthur at CastleRoland dot Net

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