I am not so confident with escaping with many prisoners as it were, let alone the army not getting up to pursue us as a whole. We know they have horses, which we should reasonably steal or let free if we can, but there is no plausible way we could free even a small throng of slaves. They could neither keep up or go unnoticed, let alone it greatly raises our chance we will be discovered taking the monk, even if we manage it before any of the dragon-cult notices. While I too think we would do well to free them, sadly now does not seem opportune; too many enemies.