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“Good day, Iago,” he said, transferring his attention to the boy.

Elis touched his shoulder, and the boy bowed. “Good day, sir. A lady in the marketplace, I . . . I did not get her name . . . She asked me to come.”

Leif had no need of a name or a description. “Very well. What was her message?”

“Cadwgan.”

The air seemed to still. Leif set his hand on the door frame, his grip tight. “That is all?”

“Yes, sir. Just ‘Cadwgan.’”

Elis frowned. “If this is some sort of prank, Iago—”

“Leave him, Elis,” Leif said. “I understand the message well enough.” Too well, in fact. He took a deep breath. Cadwgan. Surely Rhiannon would not have singled out the very man she was to marry unless she was certain. What had she discovered?

“Well then,” Elis said, his cheerful demeanor restored by Leif’s reassurance that the boy had done no wrong. “If that’s everythin’, we shall take our leave.”

Iago nodded and began backing away.

“Wait,” Leif said. “Were you paid for your services, lad?”

“Aye, sir. The lady, she gave me a coin.”

Leif drew another one from the purse at his waist. “Were you to return to her?”

“No, sir.”

So Rhiannon had been at the marketplace but was there no longer. “Did you hear any mention of her destination?”

“No, sir.” He shrugged. “All them people with her, they were from the castle.”

Iago was right. The best place to find Rhiannon and those with her would be at the castle.

Leif handed the boy a coin. “I thank you, Iago.”

His eyes widened. “Gramercy, sir.”

Two coins in one day was likely more than the boy had ever earned before, but his thin arms and legs looked as though he could use a little extra.

“Off with you, then,” Elis said.

Iago needed no second invitation. He sprinted down the passage toward the stairs without looking back.

“Ned and I aim to depart within the hour,” Leif said, taking a few more coins out of his purse and handing them to the innkeeper. “I thank you for your hospitality.”

“’Appy to oblige,” Elis said. “I shall let my boy in the stables know that you’ll be needin’ yer horses. Godspeed to you.”

Leif closed the door and turned to face Knud. “You heard?”

“Cadwgan.” Knud whistled through his teeth. “What did Rhiannon discover?”

“I cannot say. But this much I know: if Cadwgan learns that she has uncovered his deception, he will take her life.”

“And so, we act now.”

“We act now,” Leif said, stuffing his last remaining items into Knud’s sack with an urgency that bordered on panic. If anything happened to Rhiannon because he’d asked her to do this for him, he was not sure that he would recover. It had taken him long enough to come to peace with his role in the events at her home, and that had been before he’d come to know her.

Knud reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Calm yourself, my friend. She has friends at the castle—powerful friends.”