- I said a live line, not a mob! Come on, clean up the mess! Zhenya (Eugene), sort it out!
And paying no more attention to the people, he went to the prisoner lying on the ground and drew his dagger.
- You," he called to the nearest unfamiliar man, "come here.
He made a small cut on the captive's ear, took the man firmly by the wrist, touched his hand to the blood, and then abruptly pulled his hand away. The man fell to the ground next to the prisoner.
- Semyon, Gennady! Pull those who are unconscious. Next and quick!
The matter was put on a stream. Eugene put the line in order, Konstantin ran around the camp to make sure that everyone had come. Semyon and Gennady quickly dragged the vampires who had fallen into unconsciousness aside and carefully laid them on the ground. Soon Olga and Maria came to their aid and were able to leave the wounded. Slowly but surely the terrible wound was healing and even the burned spine was beginning to recover.
By the time the first in line woke up, absolutely everyone in the camp had already gone through the procedure and was passed out, digesting the man's memories.
Having finished, Alexander looked at the prisoner. The soldier was still alive, but extremely pale.
"Won't survive, too much blood loss, even if only a little, but three hundred men are three hundred men. We should have used the second one," and gingerly touched the wound. After making sure the soldier didn't have any knowledge or skills new to his friends, he dried him completely, then began to remove the corpse's clothes.
- We have to share the goodies, - Semyon stood next to him and smiled.
Realizing that his friend was joking, he also smiled, though it didn't look like a sincere smile.
- There will be more delicious, don't worry. We'll be up to our eyeballs in goodies.
Emotions were overflowing. Nerves could not withstand the load. At least some activity was required, but all we had to do was wait. The camp was gathering, if that was what the vampires were doing. Alexander himself wandered aimlessly between the tents and dugouts, and occasionally just cheered people up.
Dawn came. It began to lighten rapidly, but there was still no news from those who had been left to watch. He even began to worry about their fate. It was one thing to reassure himself that vampires with such excellent hearing and sense of smell could not be approached unnoticed, but it was another thing to worry about his friends. It defied logic.
Another two hours passed. Alexander was about to make up his mind to give up and go check the situation himself. It was at that moment that Sergei appeared.
- Everything seems to be normal, - instead of greeting he rejoiced, - The soldiers searched the forest, but did not go deeper. They didn't see our footprints, it seems.
- "Sort of", "seems". Sergei, we're not in the game here. Is the stake - the lives of all, or are the dead not enough for you?
The interlocutor remained silent.
- What else can you say?
- The soldiers searched the forest, the very edge. They didn't even go twenty meters deep. I got the impression that they were very afraid. Then the magician came up with the fifty men. They were shown the tracks - what we had left behind and Gennadievich. They were surprised that the tracks were from both bare feet and boots. They decided they weren't Elurians. We found no more footprints. Then they left the forest. We didn't run to the report at once, we decided to wait. Soon a trio of soldiers came out of the camp, towards the second camp. Probably with a report. Then I ran to you, and Oleg said he'd stay a while longer.
- Good. Well done.
The immediate escape was postponed. But was it canceled? The vanguard of the Orodian army obviously did not come here to run through the forests in search of strange creatures. By the way, Alexander did not understand why the Orodians had come to the north of Elur, making a difficult crossing of mountain passes, where only mountain sheep and goblins roamed. Yes, the border between the two countries was very long, but for the most part it ran through impassable mountains, which only almost to the very north had a few passes, through which it was possible to pass if one wished, but which no one ever used, because both on one side and on the other side of the mountains people did not live.
Far to the north, the Orodians, as well as the Elurians, had rich mines, except that the Orodians did not have the Cursed Forest and its fiends, and they were not forced to huddle in the mountains, so their road to the northern mines lay quite far from the mountains and was quite populated, goblins never appeared on it.
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