Page 109 of The Dragon King's Assassin

“Only a little, but don't worry; I'm persistent. Give me another hour and I won't be able to stand.”

“Gods damn it!” He grabbed my glass when I tried to lift it to my mouth. He started to set it down, then got a whiff of it and lifted it to his lips instead. After shooting it back, he muttered, “Damn, I never get served rum this good.”

“Have you ever given the waitress a silver?”

“No rum's worth a silver.” Teng slammed the glass down. “Lock, I know who hired you.”

“What?” I sat up straight.

“I sent someone to investigate Crushei, and they found a witness who works across the street from him. That person swears that they saw the Captain of the Royal Guard at Crushei's house the day he was arrested.”

“Yes, I know.” I slumped back into my seat. “He was sent to arrest Crushei and then returned later to search his house.”

“Alone?”

“What?”

“The witness saw Vettan arrive hours after Crushei was arrested but several minutes before a group of knights.”

“Hold on. You're saying that Vettan went ahead of his team to search the house?”

“Yes.”

“That's a little suspicious but it's not proof of anything. I heard him talking to another guard last night. He's an asshole, and he's definitely the one who told Taroc that I stole the medicine, but he doesn't sound as if he wants the King dead.”

“I'm not finished.” Teng poured himself another drink and shot it back. “I thought that was odd, so I started asking around about the Captain. That's when I found another witness, this one connected to Yusef.”

“Yusef?”

“Yeah, one of Yusef's servants.”

“What did this servant say?”

“That he heard a sound in the early morning, long before it was time for him to wake up. He got up and crept downstairs to check on Yusef.”

“Holy fuck. Did he see the murderer?”

“Yes, but he didn't recognize the man.”

“Fuck.”

“Not at first.”

“Gods damn you, Teng, just get to it already! Who murdered Yusef?”

“He said the man was wearing a coat with gold buttons, that's all he remembered because he was so horrified by the murder. He snuck back to his bed and stayed there until he heard shouting several hours later. He went downstairs, and that's when the servant saw the murderer again.”

Shouting. Shouting hadn't happened until Vettan sent a servant up to check on Yusef. And the murderer wore a coat with gold buttons. Fuck me. The image of a gold button bloomed in my mind. A button, according to the King, that was drenched in Vettan's scent.

“No fucking way,” I whispered.

“It's Captain Vettan. The servant swears to it. And he couldn't report it because—”

“Vettan was the one who interviewed the servants.”

“Exactly. The poor man had to sit there and tell his master's murderer that he had no idea what happened and had heard nothing.”

Captain Vettan. CV. It had been staring me in the face. Literally smirking at me. Yes, I had overheard him saying that he didn't know who was behind the assassination attempts, but he'd been speaking to one of the palace knights. Of course, he'd play innocent with them. What a fool I'd been.

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