It remained to decide how to escort the whole company of women to the village. After all, first it was necessary to place them in the camp, and then to bring them along the road at sub-zero temperatures to the goal, and preferably healthy and alive. And that means we have to send a messenger for more people, he can't manage on his own. How bad it is without mobile communication!
Alexander pushed away his plate of porridge and stood up from the table. The security officers and the engineer, who were dining with him, hurriedly jumped up. The uncertain status of the man left by the archmage made everyone nervous. On the one hand, the knight's epaulet on his right shoulder clearly indicated his status and title, but on the other hand, Dukun persistently called the knight "Master," indicating that he was a strong magician.
And then there was the strange selection of female convicts when, according to eyewitness accounts, he forced them to look him in the eye. Mentalists don't seem to do that, and what kind of strange action the knight was doing in the barracks remained a mystery. All of them decided - to avoid unnecessary problems, to behave with the guest as respectfully as possible.
The vampire paid little attention to them. All thoughts were directed to planning of future resettlement of convicts to the camp and then to Savoyardi. And a few more thoughts revolved around how to convince the archmage of the necessity of a simple siege. The situation was getting so annoying that he wanted to do the opposite and push Dukun into a decisive assault, in which he would undoubtedly lose his army. And to hell with the kingdom, but the senseless fuss under the walls of the fortress would be over in no time.
"Anger is a bad counselor."
Alexander made his way to his assigned room and sat on the bed. After watching nearly five hundred human lives in one evening, his head felt heavy, as if cast from lead. Yet there was no pain. I should have slept. Sleep always helped organize the memories he'd gotten with blood and made them as integral to a vampire's essence as his own memories, but for some reason the blood memories didn't transfer to other people's memories, unlike his own.
It would make life easier for vampires, though it seemed that it would be too much to ask for more strength, and it was impossible to use the available ones properly. But a man in any guise is still a man, he wants to have and know more. Otherwise, why live at all?
"I must write to the Baron."
That was the last thought. As soon as his head touched the pillow, the vampire fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.
The morning for Alexander began with a visit from the centurion, who informed him that the convicts were revolting. The remnants of drowsiness were removed like a hand, quickly jumping out of bed, the knight first looked out the window. Dense, low-hanging clouds promised a rainy day. Grabbing his pants, the man began to frantically pull them on.
- Tell me, what happened?
Everything turned out to be not so sad. You could call it a riot only if you wanted to. Rather, the convicts had a female hysteria and could not be calmed down by the usual methods. As soon as the prisoners appeared in the blood-stained and gut-stained courtyard, they had a nervous breakdown.
It was not surprising, the strange events of the evening with the division of the convicts into groups, no doubt supplemented at night by the stories of the warders, of course, ungodly imagined by the storytellers themselves, because there were no eyewitnesses among them, and in the morning the terrible courtyard where the execution took place.
Nerves would give up at anyone, not only at the exhausted by hard labor and eternally hungry women. He had to gather all his will into a fist and go to meet the frantic ladies.
The convict yard met him with silence. The convict women, in spite of their highly agitated state, behaved quietly, and only their tense faces betrayed their condition. The soldiers of the guard stood aside and did not interfere in what was going on, but the armor they wore and their full complement of weapons showed that they were ready to act at the first order of the commander.
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