“Uh huh,” Beleg rumbled, after being introduced to Henric. “You know I just killed four of your colleagues here after they jumped us.” He gestured to the dead bodies without taking his steely hard killer eyes off of Henric.
“One o’ems mine,” Gnore chimed with a wide grin underneath his greasy beard.
“Poor Wolv though,” the gladiator sitting against the wall near Beleg added with a shake of his head. He was one of the two fighting in the pit when Kre and his team were in the stands. “Poor guy never saw’em coming.” He was clutching his side, where a guard’s sword had pierced him, trying to wave off Gnore insistent attempts to take a look. “I’ll live,” he muttered.
“Just let him take a look Kirt,” Beleg snapped. “Stop being so damnably prejudiced. He’s one of the best field medics I’ve ever known.”
Kirt glowered a bit but relented quickly after a wave of pain seemed to crash over him, causing him to suck air in sharply to keep from screaming. Gnore was at work immediately, cleaning the wound with some scraps of cloth from the dead guard’s uniforms. His deft hands bound it swiftly, pulling the makeshift bandages tight enough to make Kirt wince a bit, but to the gladiator’s credit, he made no sound.
“Why?” Kre asked, once Gnore had proclaimed that he was done. “Why did they turn on you?”
Beleg shrugged. “They were escorting us back to the waiting area when we rounded the corner and they just turned on us.”
“They must have been ordered to do so,” Kirt added, “but I can’t imagine why. We’re just on a small delay, right?”
“I think it’s all over now,” Kre said. “That’s kind of the purpose of our being here.”
Kirt nodded and pushed himself up while leaning heavily against the wall for support. “I doubt I could continue like this in any case. What about the Champ? I saw them taking him down a different hall.”
“We likely don’t need to worry over him,” Beleg replied. “If the three of us were targeted, I have to believe that he was the one in the Master’s pocket.”
“What do we do about Wolv?” Kirt asked, seemingly without a trace of real concern in his voice.
“He’s gone,” Beleg said matter-of-factly. “And we need to get gone too. I have to believe more guards will be coming around soon once these don’t report in.” He looked Kirt over and frowned, “You doing okay?”
“I’m still good,” Kirt retorted. “I can hold my own.”
Beleg looked to Gnore who simply shook his head. Beleg frowned again and looked over at Henric, “This whole thing is just one complete mess, and you’ve been a willing part of it. If we could trade your life for Wolv’s, I’d do it in a heartbeat, but we can’t.”
“Hey man,” Henric snapped back, “this was just a job. I had nothing to do with what happened to you and your friends here.”
“He did stand up for me,” Kre added, hoping to convince Beleg that Henric was someone they could trust, at least for now. “He tried, Beleg. Honest he did.”
Beleg glared at Henric some more, but finally slowly turned to look at Kre’s sincere face. “Fine. He’s your responsibility though. He turns on us, and his head comes off faster than a wine cork at a garden party.” He looked down at Gnore and nodded once, “What’s next boss?”