The vampire personally brought the strange creature blankets, helped him to wrap himself in them, and then, directing a warm stream, heated them to a considerable temperature, and the troll quickly warmed up and fell asleep. Leaving the troll alone again, Alexander returned to the camp and after a modest dinner he went to bed.
Waking up early in the morning, he had time to do all the morning procedures before the messenger from the archmage arrived with an invitation to come for breakfast. This was something new and saddling his humble steed, the vampire rode quickly to the central tents of the main camp.
Dukun did not wait for him, but told him that the residual magical forces were once again preventing a "normal" siege of Zalon, so it was decided to put Knight Blood's plan into action and bring the moon silver mine back under the king's authority. It also turned out that the besieging army suffered this night the first casualties in days. One of the soldiers died of illness.
The meeting held immediately after breakfast turned into a squabble. The Duke, who had been on edge for the last few days, almost openly attacked the archmage, spewing a sea of negativity at the commander. And although there was a reason for such a sharp rebuke - the archmage demanded to march already at lunchtime, the rest of the duke's behavior was inexplicable for others.
Only Alexander understood that the young man did not want to be a scapegoat for the unsuccessful assault on Zalon, but the vampire was in no hurry to tell the others why the duke was walking blacker than a cloud.
In the end, the archmage's dashing plans for the immediate departure of the squad were turned into more reasonable "twenty-four hours for preparation" by the joint efforts of several officers. Which automatically postponed the departure until the day after tomorrow. Alexander, who was not going to go to the mine, as he could not leave the convicts in someone else's care, only once again watched with interest how the local military were doing things.
And the comparison between hereditary officers and a purely civilian archmage was not in favor of the former. Dukun, who was a complete novice in strategy and tactics, showed a greater understanding of the situation than the senior officers of his army. It would seem that the first death from illness and the time of year "outside the window", should have spurred the military to more active actions, but they still did everything leisurely and in no hurry, almost sabotaging any urgent orders of the commander.
One could even suspect them of deliberately wanting to disrupt the siege, but the vampire knew for a fact that they were just used to fighting that way and had no idea what to do otherwise.
Alexander woke up near his tent, where a gendarme in full battle dress was standing almost at attention. Not far from him many mercenaries were hanging around, pretending to be busy with important matters and casting envious glances at the gendarme, his armor and weapons. Next to the frozen vampire, guarded by two soldiers, was Lucy Levron, the unspoken leader of all the female convicts.
Jumping down from his horse and entrusting him to the care of one of the mercenaries, Alexander nodded and directed the gendarme to enter the tent. This vampire was not one of Leonid's ten, so he was a messenger from the village. Having found himself alone, the boy stopped playing the tin soldier and smiled, nodded to his commander and extended his hand to the triumvir.
Alexander did not play the whole ritual, which required a wound and the appearance of real blood, and quickly dispensed with its magical removal. Nothing had happened in the castle and the messenger had been sent simply to see how one of the Triumvirate was doing.
- Okay. Why don't you settle in, now that everyone's seen you? I'll have you on my guard until the convict caravan arrives.
- Okay, boss," the boy nodded understandingly.
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