The Triumvirate scratched their heads and ordered a special operation to extract the blood of people with professional skills. Sergey's scouts, who had become real fighters of the invisible front, were able to get almost everything interesting to vampires in just a few days, only the blood of the magess could not be extracted. And of course Gennady cried about the Cursed Forest and its alchemical riches, but unfortunately no one knew what those riches looked like, because there was no alchemist in town, only a shop selling finished products. He had not been told about the heads of the goblins, having decided not to stir up trouble while it was still quiet.
The goblins themselves didn't bother the vampires anymore. Though they appeared on the road regularly and caravans suffered from them in the same amount. The caravan that the vampires had met on the way out and were surprised by the horses in it. As it turned out, one of the rich southern merchants, having received a royal license to trade in mithril, had organized a trip to Zalon, intending to take out almost all the stocks that had accumulated there over the winter.
Naturally, he did not listen to the warnings and advice of the locals and only laughed at the naive weirdos who wanted to deceive him and suggested that his wagons loaded with valuable goods should be pushed by people. Having successfully reached the northern mines, he also successfully traded at them, having previously sold his cargo.
On the way back, all of his horses had fallen prey to the goblins. Part of the cargo was still on the road under the reliable protection of mercenaries and porters slowly dragged it in the usual way for these places - pushing the carts themselves. But mifril has already become "golden", and the merchant himself to some extent a legend of these places.
At last the details of his international life became known. King Henry of Orod, upon learning of the defeat of his Northern army, was greatly distressed. Several ministers fell into disgrace, and one lost his head. The King had personally arrived at the army and intended to "show them how to fight" this summer. All three archmages under him were a strong argument and the people were very worried about the future of Elur.
It was almost a classic sword vs. magic situation. A larger Elurian army against an Orodian army with much better magical support. Public opinion was on the side of the mages. So was the history of military conflict. Well, it's not the way it's fought here. Mages have always been pitted against Mages. Archmages did not participate in battles at all, preferring not to risk their valuable lives. One could only wonder what Henry had promised and the mages had changed their principles.
Summer came, and with it the number of clear days decreased. Now, if there was a demur once a week, the locals could rejoice. The vampires rejoiced at its almost complete absence. And this favorable weather would last until autumn. By early summer, Duke Cass had deigned to arrive. Maria's first results on turning convicts into vampires were also ready.
- As you can see from the example of these three individuals, the results of the conversion are there, but they are not as we expected.
The chief scientist and chief vampire mage, made a report to the expanded Council.
- First of all, I'll tell you the news that everyone already knows. No matter how much we drink blood from humans, letting or not letting our saliva into their veins, they do not want to revive after death and become vampires. All four subjects are under constant observation, but their corpses are already well decomposed. And I don't believe the skeletons they will soon become will ever come back to life.
- Why four?
- Two for each of the group - one was injected with saliva into the veins, the others were simply drunk, and further divided by the method of death, one of the group killed by iron, the other by drinking it dry.
- They killed the little men for nothing, - Gennady grumbled, - they could have been more economical, it was clear that without spitting saliva nothing would happen.
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