Such an outcome was not at all to the vampire's liking, so the first thing he did was to limit the possible moves of the guards.
- Sotnik (Captain of hundred)! No soldiers are to do anything without my orders," Alexander almost shouted the order, and then turned to the prisoners, "I have been informed of your desire to speak with me.
The response was the expected clamor of the crowd as a dozen people tried to answer. Smiling mentally, the vampire stoically endured the chaos without even trying to make sense of it. Let the most active ones speak up, it wouldn't be any worse.
Waiting for the emotions to subside, Alexander threw his hand into the sky and a small but bright ball exploded from it, which flew up just half a meter and crumbled with a strong pop and bright sparks. Everyone immediately fell silent and stared warily at the man. Mages could be loved or hated, they could have any emotion, but one feeling was common to all of them. Caution. Even the mages themselves were wary of each other, let alone ordinary people.
- My name is Alex Blood. And I'm not going to play bazaar with you! - The vampire added a note of anger to his words, though of course he didn't feel it at all, - You quickly determined among yourselves who speaks for all of you. I'm only going to talk to her! I'll give you a minute!
But it didn't take a minute. As soon as the knight announced the choice of a representative, the convicts simply looked among themselves and a woman of about forty-five came forward. She was the one the vampire had originally hoped to negotiate with. The thirty-three-year-old convict, convicted of murdering her rapist, had been here since she was fourteen and was the absolute leader of all the prisoners. And most importantly, she was on the list of those Alexander had selected for ransom.
- Lucy Levron, Your Excellency," the woman bowed awkwardly.
- What did you wake me up for, Lucy? - The vampire said quietly but threateningly, which made his companion turn pale.
- Have mercy, Your Excellency! - The convict fell to her knees and crawled to him on the ground. - Don't ruin her!
Alexander grimaced. Either he had overdone the austerity and portrayal of anger, or the woman was overplaying it. The last way to quickly deal with the situation remained and the convict who approached the knight was roughly grabbed by the neck and forcefully lifted to his feet. Everything turned out to be trivial.
The evening acquaintance of the prisoners with the strange man and his manipulations, of course, left a lasting impression and naturally raised questions, but the mine is not a place where there is time to indulge in idle thoughts. All would have been quickly forgotten if it had not been for the conversation between the two warders, which quickly became the property of all the convicts.
The small-minded chatterers were sure that the girls had been chosen for execution. To reduce the number of eaters. Therefore, when in the morning the prisoners saw the yard drenched in blood and the remains of people on it, no one doubted the veracity of what the guards had said. The part of the prisoners who were not on the lists supported their comrades, not out of the best feelings.
After all, according to the version of the two idiots, they were to be sent to the main silver mine, and there worked more than four thousand convicts, and it was not difficult to guess what fate would await there three hundred women. Nobody wanted to die fucked to death. Knowing exactly what to ask and where to talk, the vampire quickly extracted all this information from the woman and hurried to calm the crowd, amazed at the calmness with which they all accepted the thought of their imminent demise.
Others in their place would have slaughtered all the guards and employees of the mine and gone to the forests. Also death, but at least not like lambs in a slaughterhouse.
- There will be no executions among the prisoners! - The manager and his deputy were executed yesterday for selling prisoners to Zalon. The mine is closing for the winter! All of you will be transferred to Savoyardi, if you don't know the nearest town!
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