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THE LEAFLET SHOOK IN my hands, betraying my confusion and fear. “The riders ... are they still around?”
Ravon shook his head. “No. They stopped here to eat, but they were eager to press on. They just gave me this poster and asked me to post it by the door, especially since the fair starts soon, so many people would see it and word would spread. I stuck it in my apron pocket and forgot all about it. Until I saw your companion’s face.”
My mind, spinning with questions, refused to focus. I grabbed on to the last thing Ravon said. “So you recognized Delphine from this picture. But you didn’t post this paper yet, and I didn’t see any other leaflets posted around the town yesterday. So it might be safe to say no one else knows about this, yet?”
“Not here in Meira, to the best of my knowledge. The riders left town right after they finished eating.”
“Where were they headed, do you know?”
“Rothschan. I overheard them talking while they were eating, and they mentioned wanting to reach Rothschan within two days, but they weren’t sure if they wanted to go beyond Rothschan or return to Orchwell.”
I frowned, thinking. The riders were already well ahead of us, and would probably reach Rothschan today. There was no way we could overtake them, and we could very well be riding into the kingdom only to be met with Delphine’s face plastered on every wall and post.
And then, of course, there was the other thing. The most important thing ...
“Is she?” Ravon’s voice was barely above a whisper.
I looked down again at the leaflet. Delphine’s face, unusually serene and grave, looked back at me. I nearly didn’t recognize her; I was so used to her smiling, laughing countenance. I guessed the picture on the leaflet must have been copied from a formal family portrait.
“I don’t know,” I finally said. “It’s hard to believe it, from what I know of her. But ... this commission is for her mother, not for her. I didn’t even know she was coming on the trip until the day we left. If she really did kill someone ... then it makes sense that she would come along. It’s a convenient excuse to leave Orchwell.”
Convenient in more ways than one, I realized. Instead of fleeing into the night and having to fend for herself as a lone traveler, she could take advantage of the protection traveling with a Seeker’s trained team would give. We’d see her safely to her destination and she would blend into a foreign land, with no one the wiser.
Now that I had this information, what should I do? Should I confront Delphine and Adallia? Perhaps confer with Farrah and Rhyss first? Or stay quiet but observant? I racked my brain, trying to remember if there had been any important news or splashy gossip that had people buzzing before I had left town on this commission. Orchwell could be a little gritty at times, but a supposed murder would definitely have been the talk of the kingdom.
But my own troubles had occupied most of my days, and I had been a recluse for several weeks, not wanting to go out and run into anyone I might know. My sister, who would normally be the most well-informed person in our family, had been away on her own commission for weeks, and would have been behind on kingdom news. And my parents weren’t the type to gossip.
For now, I decided, I would keep the news to myself. If Delphine truly was a murderer, then it would be unwise to let her know I knew her secret. And I obviously couldn’t bring it up to Adallia without Delphine becoming aware. Adallia was fiercely protective of her daughter; it wasn’t hard to conclude that Adallia probably had known of the situation and was trying to save her daughter from it.
So was this commission a front, then? Was this whole journey nothing more than a sham, a plausible excuse to escape justice? Or did Adallia truly desire to find her man, this Baxley, and the timing just happened to work out perfectly? If it was the latter, I was in luck. If the two women were planning on harming me or my team in any way, they wouldn’t be able to do it until after Baxley was found. They needed our skills to find him safely.
But after the commission was completed, what then?
I folded the paper up and carefully placed it in the inside pocket of my jacket. It weighed heavily on me, like I had just put a bunch of rocks in my coat pocket instead of a feather-light piece of paper.
“What are you going to do, Kaernan?” Ravon’s eyes searched my face anxiously.
“I don’t know, Ravon. I really don’t know.”