Hutch set his hands on the table. "I'm not playing games. What kind of specifics do you want to know?"
"Where you crossed, would be a good start," Ensaso replied, dropping his arms on the table as he leaned forward.
"We arrived, south of here. We started on a trail on the southeast side of Lake Moegat, and we followed a river back up into the mountains."
"Could you show me on a map?" Ensaso interrupted him.
"Yeah, I suppose, that would be easiest."
"Bragah, map!" Ensaso shouted, his grin widening, "and the murchas. While we wait, tell me more about your adventure."
"It took more than a week to cross," Hutch began to elaborate, detailing what he could about the trip up into the mountains, and down the other side, as Val'Bragah delivered a map, two saucer shaped dishes made of stone, the size of Hutch's palm, and a bottle of dark purple liquid wrapped in a layer of braided grasses to protect it.
"Sit," Ensaso ordered Val'Bragah, and without hesitation, he joined them as well, pulling a third saucer from the pouch at his waist.
Val'Bragah then took the bottle, and filled the three saucers, as Ensaso unrolled the map, which was a hand drawn sketch of Cheph and its boundaries, on a piece of thinned animal hide.
With the saucers filled, Val'Bragah placed one down in front of Hutch, and handed the other directly to Ensaso, not touching his own until his hand was empty.
"This is murchas from the southern continent. Cheph is the only nation in the north where you can find it," Ensaso bragged before lifting the saucer to his lips and downing the contents of the dish, Val'Bragah following suit. "Ah! Now that hit's the spot!"
Hutch hadn't seen a drink that color since arriving to Illimev and it reminded him of a dark grape juice, with a slight redder hue. Picking up the dish, he drank it back, finding it far sweeter than he had suspected it to be, tasting of loganberry mixed with tequila, the following burn at the back of the throat remarkably mild.
"No kidding, that's fantastic," Hutch commented, licking at his lips, before pouring the last drop from the saucer into his mouth. "Thanks for sharing."
Ensaso chuckled. "You're a bit of a strange one, aren't you?"
"That's what I'm told," Hutch replied, setting his saucer aside as he looked down at the map to orient himself. "Now, where we ended up was somewhere around here," he pointed to a place on the map, south of Blue Rock along the edge of the mountains. "There was a whitewater river, coming down from a lake higher up, that slowed when it widened. We were on the north bank until we got into the thicker part of the forest and had to turn north, until it thinned out."
"Could you retrace your path? Ensaso questioned.
Hutch let out a sigh and rubbed at his chin. "I'd like to say yes, but there are no guarantees. It's been months and I only traveled it once, in the opposite direction. It might just be easier to find and mark a new trail. Like I said, we were working blind, and it took us more than a week. It's rugged terrain and we were more interested in getting here than making sure we were on the safest route."
"I see," Ensaso remarked, motioning to Val'Bragah to pour another round. "And what do you think it would take to find that safer route?"
"That's tough to say. I don't know the mountains well enough, and it's possible that there isn't a safer way, at least not without excavating. I suppose it all depends on what your intensions are."
"You let me worry about my intensions, Hutch," Ensaso replied, picking up his saucer and shooting it back.
Val'Bragah motioned to the saucer he'd refilled for Hutch, before picking up his own and drinking it. Hutch took the drink and swallowed it back, despite having reservations on how quickly it might get him drunk, considering the temperatures and the small size of his breakfast from far earlier in the day.
"So, considering the wares you and that old man were peddling, I'm guessing you could use a new job," Ensaso remarked once Hutch had set his saucer back on the table.
"Depends on the job, since I'm not good at all that much."
"Well, as it turns out, I need someone to find me a way through those mountains, and since you made it here, I'm betting you can find your way back. So, what do you say? And before you say no, I want you to consider how well it pays. My starting offer begins with you just saying yes and doing a good job, and I let you come back into Cheph and keep whatever life you have left, living the way that you want to. My second offer begins with you saying no, and me persuading you to reconsider. Something tells me when you don't have to be concerned with that old man anymore, you'll be a lot more willing to do what I want. And for my final offer, I'm going to kill your eranth, and then torture that old man, and if you still refuse, I'll start cutting my way through every useless person in this town until you cave, and you will spend the rest of your days bound in chains."
Hutch wasn't amused by Ensaso's offers, and inadvertently, let a small chuff escape from his lips.
"Next time you should hear a person out before you start throwing offers around. You're like a toddler throwing a tantrum to get his way," Hutch snickered, slapping his hand over his mouth before wiping it away. "I take it that drinks pretty strong then?"
"What did you say?" Ensaso looked at him slightly confused.
"You heard me, you big gorilla. I already told you, I'm not good at much. I would have worked for actual pay. Why the hell do you think I'm in this crappy little town anyways? I need money, to buy food, so my family can survive the winter. You pay me, I will find you a way through the mountains, but you leave that old man alone. He's been through enough because of me. You have any idea how hard it's been on him having to leave his tribe in the middle of the night?"
Ensaso hummed. "And what tribe was he from?"
"Moahaba. We are Moahaba. It's how we knew about the trail south of the lake," Hutch responded, his head feeling a bit woozy.
Ensaso's expression sunk into something far more serious. "Get the kid some water, and bring me that latest report. I take back what I said, kid. I won't be touching a hair on your old man. What I have to show you is going to be torture enough on you both."
"What are you talking about?" Hutch asked as Val'Bragah got up from his seat and headed off in the direction of the diazhuam.
"I suspect that most of the Moahaba, if not all of them, are now dead."
Hutch shot up straight, the pounding of his heart, instantly clearing his head and sobering him up.
"Say that again?"
"I said they are probably all dead," Ensaso replied, taking an envelope from Val'Bragah as he returned to the table, and set a water bladder down before Hutch.
Opening the envelope, Ensaso pulled out a small stack of papers and spread them out, before pulling one specific paper from the pile and turning it towards Hutch.
Taking the paper in hand, Hutch instantly recognized the crest at the top of the page. This was a piece of King Salvador's stationary, and at the bottom, next to his seal, was his signature. It was an order to find Hutch at all costs, by any method necessary, giving full autonomy to Captain Levim of the King's Guard Third Division.
"This can't be…" Hutch gasped as he set down the paper, tears swelling into the corners of his eyes.
"I'm sorry kid, but this is the report one of my spies sent along with that paper. It's coded, so you won't be able to read it, but it says that the village was burning. They found no fresh graves. And saw no survivors. They were possibly taken as prisoner's but there's no way for me to have that confirmed."
"You don't have to. I know Salvador, he doesn't take prisoners," Hutch whispered between clenched teeth, his hands balling into fists, as the tears began to fall.
"And how would you know that?"
"Because the Salvador on the throne isn't Salvador at all. He's a decoy. The true King travels with the first division of the King's Guard under the name Cascel, bearing the title of Strategist."
Ensaso tilted his head, crossed his arms, and leaned back from the table, a skeptical look in his eye.
"And again, how would someone like you, know something like that?"
Hutch looked up into the black and orange eyes of Ensaso, and grinned, blinded by the rage his was feeling, wanting nothing more than to hurt Casimir Salvador the way he had hurt him, as vengeance for the people of his tribe.
"Because for the past eight years, I've held the eleventh seat in the first division of the King's Guard, right next to the great strategist, Cascel, also known as Casimir Salvador. Why do you think he wants to find me, a man only accused of assaulting an officer, so bad, that he would go to these lengths? It's because I escaped from the executioner, and I, know all of his secrets."