Tanis clapped him on the shoulder. “See how easy it is to slip up when you want to plant your foot in his guts?”
Ryper winced. He set the man down, then yanked the horn from his grasp. “This wasneveryours!”
The man had the good sense to look contrite. “I’m sorry. It weren’t my idea. I was just doing what Bink told me to.”
“Bink?” Tanis asked. “Your partner?”
“The imp I fell in with. We been collecting things for a bit now. Such as?—”
Realizing this was the dragon slayer she’d been after, Tanis cut his words off as she ran right into him and tackled him to the ground. “You rotten piece of...”
Instead of Ryper, it was Dove who pulled her off him. “Everyone calm down.”
“He helped kill my brother!”
Eyes wide, the smelly human held his hands up and shook his head. “Whoa, whoa, whoa... I don’t kill nobody.”
Tanis snorted. “You’re not the one who’s been bragging he’s a great dragon slayer?”
“I don’t kill nobody,” he repeated. “But I did take credit for some folks I didn’t kill.” Realizing that he’d just confessed to being a fraud, he glanced around at everyone present. He cursed under his breath, then he raked his hand through his greasy hair.“I didn’t slay a dragon. Bink made a deal with another dragon that we’d take the head and help her spread a lie so that none of the other dragons would know she killed him. She said that she couldn’t let the dragons know she’d done the killing.”
Ragna... But she had to be absolutely sure. “What dragon?”
“I don’t remember her name. Rena. Reba...”
No... Shock filled her as she realized Reva hadn’t been an accomplice to Ragna. She had actually done the deed herself. “Reva?”
“Yeah, that was her name. Reva.”
Tanis staggered from the full weight of that news. While she’d suspected Reva had followed along with Ragna’s plans as she always did, she’d never once thought that Reva would have done the actual killing.
Not of Davin.
How could you, Reva?
Stay focused...
Right now, they needed to get information from this... vermin.
He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and held it out for her. “If it helps, Bink didn’t give the centaur queen the right spell to kill the king, either. He was afraid she’d double cross him, so he double crossed her. This is the right spell to kill the High King. It’s yours if you spare me life.”
Before she had a chance to reach for it, Naomi came out of nowhere and seized it.
She read over it, then handed it to Marthen. “Is this right, or is he lying?”
Tanis ignored them. “Where are your accomplices?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. Bink gave me the wand to hold when the queen started to run him down... it was horrible. I hid to where they couldn’t find me. As soon as they were gone, I came here through the elf portal.”
Dove arched a brow. “And you thought you’d be safer with us?”
“I brung the wand and spell for the High King. Isn’t there a reward for it?”
Ryper went for him again, but Dove held the human while Ronan grabbed Ryper.
“Stop it!” Ronan snapped at Ryper as he held him in one giant fist. “Think of your brother. We need the wand.”
That finally succeeded in calming him.
