- You offer foolishness, knight! The rebels have weighed their chances of success, and since they backed Elos, they have no reason to surrender. And there's no glory without battle!
- That's true, but you're here to put down the rebellion, not to gain glory. That's why the King sent you here. And after all, what have you got to lose, Your Grace, if you just send a messenger to the fort and offer a surrender?
- The time you were so anxious for just now, my good man!
- I think it's a small price to pay to prove my point.
That last remark decided the outcome of the little dispute. The messenger was quickly found and sent to the defenders, who were asked to lay down their arms, and either go over to the side of the royal army, or to pass under guard and unarmed into Zalon. To the amazement of the baron, the terms were instantly accepted.
Whereupon the garrison was quickly divided into two unequal parts. Nearly all the soldiers expressed a desire to return under the royal banners. The officers, with a small group of soldiers, proceeded to Zalon. Which was logical and exactly what Alexander expected when he made his offer.
The soldiers were simply following orders and with no leaders, could not offer organized resistance to the officers and remain loyal to the king. Archmage Elos had carefully made sure that all the commanders were on his side.
A very different approach and fate awaited the direct workers of the mine. The Baron wanted to treat them as a garrison and the vampire had to correct the commander again. The offer of surrender and other conditions applied only to the royal soldiers who had mutinied.
The warders and other employees of the penitentiary had not officially mutinied or supported the rebellious archmage. But in reality, many of them served the rebels faithfully. The same mine manager, tried to leave for Zalon with the garrison officers, but was stopped and returned.
- And now, your grace, my work comes, - Alexander looked at the baron, - Order to gather all the workers in one place and lock the convicts in the barracks. Now we'll quickly find out who is for the rebels and who has nothing to do with it.
The squad leader only played with his jowls and spit on the ground and gave all the necessary orders. The vampire ordered to escort himself to the first barracks he could find, and on the way he discreetly removed the mage's badge from his chest. It wasn't necessary for what he had planned, but he decided to reinsure himself.
Even during the siege of the fortress, having a lot of free time to think about the whole situation, he came up with the idea of the need to have loyal servants of the people. And people who didn't know about their non-human nature. Of course, such could be found not among the convicts, but why not try now to look for a cunning weasel among this contingent of people? Specific skills, if used properly, never hurt anyone.
The barracks was not unlike the one the vampire had seen at his previous execution. Again the rags thrown on the floor, indicating someone's beds, and again the dense odor of dirty human bodies. Of which there were about seventy. All angry and wary. This mine worked differently from the copper mine. Huge shafts, creating spacious caverns underground, in which permanent barracks were built and most of the convicts worked underground on a permanent basis.
Of course they were rotated... sometimes. So the biggest punishment was to get to work underground and the biggest reward was to get a job on the surface. Anything but good was expected from the new government. After all, new is always change, and no one wanted to go underground.
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