When the lady’s eyes opened again, the soft pale blue of her eyes conveyed a level of sadness that Kre could not believe possible for anyone to feel without having their heart stop completely from despair. Later on, Kre could only describe that the lady wore that emotion like a radiant aura. He could feel that sadness pouring out of her like an overflowing cup, filling up his heart and spilling further out into every fiber of his being.
He found his hand already resting on the small knife at his belt, but he knew it would be much too ineffective and far too cruel to use as a mercy killing tool on any living creature. Looking at the small crossbow, Kre wondered briefly if he could use his knife to dig the bolt out of the dead assassin and use that. He wasn’t sure exactly how that was supposed to work though. He had seen Cooter provide a mercy kill to a dying horse, though that was a deep cut across the throat with a long, razor sharp knife wielded by a master rather than a crossbow in the hands of a nervous teen.
Looking up from the crossbow, Kre looked at Cooter’s face and followed the old man’s eyes until he spotted a knife resting a half a pace or so from the assassin’s open hand. Kre crawled over, not trusting his legs to keep him standing, and slowly picked up the blade that just minutes ago was being used to threaten his own life. He could see now that the one edge of the blade had been treated with a sickly green gel, very likely the toxin that had incapacitated Cooter and that the assassin had threatened Kre with unless the older man told him about a roster.
The other side of the blade had a faint reddish patch along its edge. Kre instinctively touched his own cheek, knowing that it was his blood drying on that part of the assassin’s knife. The soft sound of the lady whispering soothing words into Cooter’s ear brought Kre back to the present. He quickly wiped the poison off of the knife using the assassin’s clothes, being extremely careful not to touch any of it. It was an action of exceptional precaution, given that he knew the toxin had already touched his cheek, but with poisons it was always better safe than sorry.
The crawl back to Cooter’s side was at a much slower pace than before. Kre had no stomach for taking a life, especially not of another person. A person that he knew and loved like an uncle at that. ‘Yet,’ he thought grimly to himself with an image of the dead assassin flashing across his vision, ‘I have already taken the life of a human, even if I had some help doing so.’
Apparently, while Kre was retrieving the weapon, the lady had somehow taken the crossbow out of Cooter’s paralyzed hands and was holding both of the older man’s hands in hers. She was resting her forehead against his, both of their eyes closed, and she was whispering something in a voice that was too low for Kre to hear, especially over the sound of the pounding of his heart in his head. While he wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, he knew that he should not disturb them. Waiting patiently, and wishing he could hear the lady’s words, he was surprised that he wasn’t reflecting on what he was about to do and trying to talk himself out of it. In his mind, he knew that his heart had already accepted that this was going to happen and that he was going to be the one to do it.
After a few seconds, or a few minutes, or maybe an hour or two… it was hard to tell how long he had waited… the lady reached up and gently graced Terync’s forehead with a soft kiss. Even though the old man was paralyzed, Kre thought he saw a faint smile growing at the corners of his mouth. Still holding Terync’s hands, the lady pulled him close so that his head rolled back. Kre knew that was his cue.
The young man slid around behind his older friend and placed his free arm around Terync’s chest in an odd sort of rear hug. Though he knew that he should act immediately lest he lose this newfound nerve of his, Kre took a page from the lady’s book. He rose up on his knees, leaned down a bit until his lips were touching the old man’s ear, and through tear-filled eyes he whispered, “Thank you. For being my friend and my family. I love you.” He rose back up and kissed Terync on his forehead. This time, he knew he saw the old man smiling.
Sliding his hugging arm up, Kre brought Cooter’s head to rest securely against his own chest. His other arm rose up, seemingly of its own accord, the knife shining brightly despite the dull greyness of its blade.