Hercules in Submission, Chapter three (Patreon)

Chapter Two HERE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/hercules-in-two-17501597

Instead of leading him to the palace, the guards took him to the stables. Hercules could smell the manure and hay. The scents reminded him of home and his own stables, but he suspected this visit would not be as pleasant for him. Given how the others looked at him, Hercules suspected that Hera had infected more than one of these men with an unreasonable hatred for him.

Hercules stumbled when he stepped on a rock, and a half dozen spears jabbed at him hard enough that if it were not for the durability he’d inherited from his father, the points would have broken skin. They were reminders of his own vulnerability—not only because of the chains that bound him but because of the desires of the gods.

Bythios stopped outside a heavy stable door. “Iapetos, tell the stable master I want a heavy harness for an oxen and additional rope.

The soldier disappeared through the stable door, and Hercules glared at Bythios. 

Bythios’s expression grew cruel. “You are the son of a god, so you must be controlled as would any dangerous animal. I will not put you in front of my king until I know I have you leashed.” Bythios moved closer and grabbed Hercules by this cock. "If you think of taking his throne, know this, pretender: No one will follow you. We've heard what you did to your family, how you turned into a mindless beast. I have heard it said that in the place of your own children, you saw the sons of King Eurystheus. You attempted to murder the Crown Prince Alexander and his brothers.”

Hercules widened his eyes. They had heard more than he’d expected. If they had any inkling of the rest of the truth, that Zeus had spirited away his children and left behind pigs for Hercules to slaughter, then all was lost. 

Bythios gave him a cruel smile and tightened his fingers around Hercules’ cock. Perhaps he thought he was causing pain, but it was far worse. He held tightly enough that Hercules could feel enough to gain some pleasure out of it. That was far more humiliating, especially when his cock was held by an enemy.

“The grace of the gods led you to kill your own spawn, and you will suffer torments for that, but I will not soon forget that you wanted to kill our royal family.” Bythios dug his short nails into Hercules’ shaft, and then the pain arrived. Hercules hissed, drool trickling out from the side of his bound mouth, but he was helpless to object. His fear for his children and the gods had condemned him to this, and he could only survive. He had no idea how long Bythios would have continued his torment, but two men appeared with a heavy piece of leather and wood between them.

“Sir, I brought the stable master and his heaviest harness.”

The stable master was a burly man with thick muscles. He looked at the gathered crowd, and especially at Hercules. “Bythios, this is too heavy for any man. You’ll break his neck with it.”

“He’s not a man. He’s the son of Zeus.” Bythios released Hercules cock. “And I won’t let him near the royal family without being chained and broken. You heard the story, what he did to his own family.”

“Ay, and I heard he thought he was killing the king’s children, but he is still a man.”

“He is said to be strong as a bull, so he can bear the harness of one,” Bythios said firmly. “To do anything less is to put not only King Eurystheus and Queen Antimache in danger, but also the royal princes, and I don’t care to think about what he would do to Princess Admete.”

Hercules grunted behind his gag. He would not rape some girl. Even if his interests turned to women, which they did not, he could find willing partners.

Bythios grabbed the stable master’s side of the harness, and he and Iapetos lifted it up. Another solder moved in front of Hercules and grabbed the two sides of his cruel gag, forcing his head to remain still while the others slipped the harness over his shoulders. The thick leather and padding rested against the back of his neck, and the wooden piece curved down, heavy iron rings ready to tie the beast to some equipment.

Hercules pulled on his head, but the warrior had a good hold, and he could only stand as Bythios and his helper used rope the lash the heavy piece into place. They wound rope around his shoulders and under his arms, tying it around his chest and then up the rings intended to attach the ox to a plow. Around and around they threaded the rope until when they backed off, the harness was tightly lashed to Hercules’ shoulders. He could not turn at all without the heavy contraption dragging at him. Even a few minutes was enough for Hercules to begin to sweat under the padded leather, but Bythios was not yet done.

“Hand me some leather strapping,” he ordered. “Put him on his knees.”

A warrior kicked the back of Hercules’ knees, and he crashed to the ground with a heavy grunt. Soon Bythios returned and began to tie the leather around the end of the stick that protruded from the right side of Hercules’ mouth. He then attached that to the ring on the right side of the harness. He repeated the same procedure on the left side, and now Hercules could not even turn his head. 

“This is for the princes, Alexander and Iphimedon and Eurybius. Tell me, in your crazed stupor, did you believe yourself to be killing even young Perimedes? Would your hated go so far as to kill a babe?” Bythios looped a third piece of leather around the gag on either side, and now they functioned like reins. He jerked on them, and Hercules had to lean his whole body back to look up. The heavy harness threatened to tip him backwards, but Bythios had a firm hold on the reins so that Hercules was held up by his head. “Would you have killed a child?”

Hercules could only blink, and that was a mercy. In truth, he remembered seeing Perimedes. He was so young that his face was round, and he had not a hint of a hair on his chin, and yet Hercules remembered driving his sword through the boy’s chest. He remembered the blood. If Zeus had transported the family of King Eurystheus to that place instead of a drove of pigs, he would have slaughtered the child. He felt the shame of that, but the gag saved him from having to admit it.

“Get up,” Bythios ordered.

Hercules tried, but the shortness of his shackles and the weight of the harness proved a challenge, even to his strength. He could not find a place where all was balanced well enough to allow him to rise, and when he seemed close, the harness would shift against his sweat-slicked skin, and it took all his strength to bear the weight.

“When I was in Tenos, l learned how to make a beast move,” a cruel voice called out from the back of the crowd of soldiers that had gathered. Had Hercules not been gagged, he would have suggested that helping the beast to its feet would be enough. “Some get a pepper, one with more heat than sweetness.”

“How will that help?” another asked, but Hercules could see Bythios’ face. The man liked the suggestion, so clearly this would be something unpleasant. Hercules doubled his efforts to get up, but a soldier put his sandal on the back of Hercules’ calf, pinning him to the ground.

“I like this not,” the stable master said. “It’s not good for animals or men.”

Bythios looked down at Hercules. “He’s not a man. He’s a monster that would slaughter us all.”

“And our treatment of him has nothing to do with that?”

“He thought to slaughter our princes before we ever laid a hand on him,” Bythios said, and Hercules could not argue that point, not even if he’d been allowed the freedom to speak. A boy came running into the crowd, a small bundle clutched in front of him. He slid to a stop when he saw Hercules.

“Is that him?” the boy whispered.

“Go on. Back to your chores, this is not for you, child,” Bythios said. He plucked the bundle from the boy’s hands and ushered him back through the crowd of soldiers. He spoke kindly and kept his hands gentle. He was no brute to cuff a servant, yet when he turned, his expression was cold.

“Score the surface of the pepper so the juices can come out,” someone called.  Hercules watched as Bythios took out an overripe pepper. He used his knife to scrape down the sides, and yet he kept his gaze on Hercules. Slowly he turned the pepper, scraping as he went. He finally finished and used his knife to cut off the stem with a flourish, revealing the seeds within. “Put him over the table,” Bythios ordered. 

Hercules struggled to get his feet under him as he was lifted and slammed stomach down onto a rough wooden table. The weight of the harness now rested against the back of his head, pinning him, and he could not even turn his head to the side to see what they had planned. He could only stare at the grain of the wood as the men tied ropes around his knees and pulled them apart. 

Hercules expected rape. Many Greeks felt that to allow oneself to be mounted made a man less of a man. Hercules disagreed. Because of his great strength and size, he feared mounting others and often preferred to take the more passive role. He didn’t fear a rape, and he certainly didn’t believe it had any power to unman him.

Instead of a hard cock, something cold pressed against his ass. Hercules took a deep breath and tried to relax as it pushed farther in. In very little time, Hercules could feel the heat clinging to his insides, and he realized that Bythios had shoved the pepper into him. He struggled to pull his legs closed, and he heard shouts as he had some success, but then more hands must have grabbed the ropes tied to his knees because his legs were forced slowly apart.

“Be good slave or I will find something less pleasant to put up this hole,” Bythios ordered with a slap on Hercules’ ass. Then a second pepper joined the first. Hercules tightened his ass, and suddenly fire shot up his ass and nearly blinded him. He howled with pain, but the solders simply laughed.

“He’s more lively now.”

“I hear they have even stronger peppers to the west. Perhaps we could find him some.”

“That’s a lot of money to waste on a slave’s ass, but it’s almost worth it to see him squirm.”

All the solders had comments now, and Hercules forced his body into stillness as a third pepper joined its companions. His ass felt like he had coals in it, but as long as he didn’t bear down, it was almost tolerable. 

“Get me more rope,” Bythios ordered.

Hercules wondered what else Bythios could figure out to bind. Hercules was helpess. By the time he was brought before the king, he would be unable to so much as defend himself from a butterfly. Hera’s hatred was clear in her choice of which king to gift Hercules’ slavery, and he didn’t for a moment doubt she had her fingers in the oracle’s proclamation. He wondered why he was never important enough for Zeus to intervene. Zeus claimed to care so much for him that he had bragged and wanted to make Hercules a king, but now he could not bother to save his son from being slaved out to an enemy.

Hands jerked Hercules to his feet and dragged him back. Bythios crouched down in front of Hercules, and pulled at two strands of rope. Hercules realized they were attached to his wrist chains, and from there they threated up through Hercules’ crotch. It was not comfortable.

“This will keep the peppers in, but know that for every one that falls out, I’m going to put three more in there, understand?” Bythios demanded. Hercules couldn’t even nod his head, so he wasn’t sure what response Bythios expected. 

With his head tied to face forward, Hercules could only feel Bythios grab his cock roughly. It was a little time before it dawned on him that Bythios had secured the other end of the rope to his cock. If Hercules tried to move his hands and ease the cramping in his shoulders, he would rip off his own genitals. The placement also meant that rope rubbed his most vulnerable skin. He wanted to sarcastically ask if Bythios felt a need to bind anything else before finally allowing Hercules to speak to King Eurystheus.

“Tie him to the wheel and get some work out of him,” Bythios said as he tossed the improvised reins to one of the warriors.

“Yes, sir,” the man said. He wrapped his fist around the leather and gave it a hard yank. Hercules stumbled forward, and tensed as he nearly lost his balance. Tensing made the peppers in his ass burn, and he stumbled again, which earned him another hard yank from the soldier.

This was going to be a difficult day.