Balanced on the Blades Edge #2 Deathmaker by Lindsay Buroker Read Free Book Online

back against the wall, and keep it from falling. She thought about waiting long enough for him to climb down the entire eighty feet, so that if she fell—or dropped the rifle—she wouldn’t knock him loose, but there had to be guards searching in the ruins by now. She imagined one running in, looking down, and shooting her while she was helpless. She didn’t want to die in some latrine drainage shaft.
    With that cheery thought, she lowered herself into the hole, pressing her back against one side and her legs against the other. She lowered one hand, then the other, from the rim of the hole and placed them on the walls to either side.
    “A promising start,” she murmured when she didn’t slip, then inched her way downward.
    It didn’t take long for her to find the slick spots Tolemek had mentioned. When that happened, she slipped inches—or feet—before catching herself on coarser material. Each time, her heart tried to leap out of her chest, doubtlessly searching for a less insane place to reside. She almost lost the rifle a couple of times too. Tolemek would not be pleased if it cracked him on the head, but maybe those thick ropes of hair would offer padding.
    Without being able to see a thing in the blackness, it was hard to judge how far she had gone, but she guessed she was halfway down when her butt bumped into something. That gave her heart another jolt. It turned out to be a bend in the shaft. The passage curved in one direction before returning to vertical, and maneuvering past the hump, which was slick of course, was scarier than her first time upside down in a flier had been. At least she didn’t pee on herself—a couple of her classmates at the academy had done that on some of their early flights. Although, if one were to have such an accident, this would be the natural place for it, she supposed.
    “Ahn?” a soft call came from below.
    She had lost track of time, so it surprised her. “Yeah?” she asked around the pouch of throwing stars, her voice as tense as the rest of her body.
    “I’m on the ground. We made it.” Tolemek sounded like he was about ten feet down and standing right under the hole. Lucky for him that she had managed to keep bodily functions under control.
    “Are your bracers out of the way?” she asked.
    “Yes.” He sounded amused. Maybe deep down, pirates knew their wardrobes were silly.
    Cas’s heart got one more jolt when she ran out of wall to brace herself against, and one of her feet slipped, dangling into emptiness. Her hands pressed against the side walls like immovable anchors. She didn’t say anything, but Tolemek must have heard her suck in an alarmed breath, for his hand came up to touch her leg. “You’ve got a seven- or eight-foot drop, and then it’s flat down here.”
    She didn’t want to admit that his touch reassured her, but since she couldn’t see a thing, it did. She let herself drop, twisting in the air to land facing him and grabbing him as she fell—just in case he was on a ledge and there happened to be another hundred-foot drop for the foolish girl who missed it. Her feet landed on solid stone. She released a long, relieved breath.
    “Are you trying to undress me?” Tolemek asked mildly. She had a death grip on his vest, her fingers clenched in the thick hide, and he was probably missing a few chest hairs too. “Or just admiring the feel of my clothing?”
    As soon as he spoke, Cas released him and took a step back, glad for the darkness. An embarrassed blush heated her cheeks. She pulled the pouch out of her mouth and strove for a nonchalant response. “It is an upgrade to what they gave me to wear.”
    Fortunately, he didn’t make any more jokes about her grabbing him—or mention that he’d noticed that the climb down had scared her. “Getting out should be easy from here,” he said, turning away from her. “This way.”
    Cas followed him down a new passage, this one with water trickling down the middle—water that didn’t