Kre could tell that Kersath was holding back a snarky remark for the strange little prayer that he had made over the sergeant’s body. He would have offered to let the dark Ylveryan speak his mind, but he figured that Gnore might not appreciate it. He had no desire to act as a mediator right now, so he let the matter drop.
“All right,” he said finally, getting to his feet. “What’s next?”
Gnore wiped something away from his eyes and sniffled once, as if Kre’s act of compassion towards a fallen foe had stirred something in him. Before he could speak, however, Kersath interjected. “We catch up to the others. They are likely not too far ahead.”
The Dweorvkin closed his mouth and shrugged, not concerned with the interruption. He waved his hand to indicate his agreement with the Ylveryan. Together they made their way back up the passage towards the main part of the under-mountain compound.
As they approached the first guard station at the first set of cells, Kre heard a soft moan coming from a trio of bodies. Two of the bodies had been stripped of their clothes and were clearly dead, but the third was still in uniform and was shifting just slightly, as if slowly waking from a daze.
“Ah,” Kersath said with a cluck of his tongue. “I told Talimar we should kill him else he become one more enemy we might have to deal with later, but the man did prove slightly useful, so Talimar let him live.”
“Is that the nice one?” he asked. He started forward to check but Kersath grabbed his arm to stop him.
“I said he was slightly useful, not nice. He is still an enemy in a place where we can ill afford to misplace our trust.”
Kre paused and, not wanting to argue with Kersath, tried a different tact, “How was he useful?”
“Talimar and I took care of the two guards here fairly quickly. They were not at all good at what they were hired to do and put up no fight at all. As we were dressing in their uniforms, that one came up the passage and saw us.
“He raised no alarm,” Kersath continued, as if answering an unasked question. “He simply surrendered to us and offered some information in return for his life.”
“And yet,” came the low moan, “you still threatened to kill me after.”
The rope-bound man rolled to his side and blinked away the darkness that tried to sweep back over his consciousness. “Glad to see you’re okay,” he said, grimacing slightly as he tried to sit up a bit. “I was… worried about you.”
“Not worried enough to actually do something,” Kersath hissed. “Not worried enough to do the right thing.”
The guard nodded, “It’s true. I…” he faltered there, as if trying to decide if it was worth defending himself to the trio. “I failed.”
“We should hurry,” Gnore rumbled. “Leave’im.”
Kersath slid his knife in and out of its sheath, contemplating whether they should leave him dead or alive.
Before he could come to a final, possibly fatal decision, Kre moved up and knelt down next to the man. “For what it’s worth, I appreciate what you did do.”
The man simply nodded though he kept his gaze downcast.