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

smell all that fresh—and was relieved when a warm breeze touched her cheeks. Finally.
    They turned around a bend, and the blackness faded to gray, the bumpy green walls growing visible. The end of a tunnel came into view beyond a grid of rusted iron bars. The alarm gongs were audible again, and Cas wondered how many guards would be out there, searching for the escaped prisoners.
    “You have any more of that metal-burning goo?” she murmured as they walked toward the bars.
    “No, but I already applied it.” Tolemek strode toward the grate. “Last night, when I was hoping I could get into the ruins without having to deal with the dungeon or its guards.”
    That meant Cas never would have met him—and would still be in her cell—if not for a thousand-year-old latrine. Fate was a capricious spirit.
    Tolemek lifted a hand to stop her and dropped into a crouch near the wall. They were still twenty feet from the bars but close enough that she could see hinges, identifying it as a gate, and a shiny new steel lock securing it.
    “Looks like someone noticed your sabotage,” Cas said.
    “Annoyingly efficient of them.”
    The sounds of foliage being snapped and trampled drifted in from outside. Someone in a uniform jogged past the entrance. The figure glanced in their direction, but continued on without pausing to peer more closely. Glad for the shadows, Cas reached in her pouch for another throwing star. She still had the rifle as well, but if they could slip past the guards without making any noise, they would have more time to escape into the jungle. Then again, if they were forced to engage in a skirmish out there, that might be her opportunity to slip away from her pirate, especially if the guards, considering him more dangerous, focused on him. Once she was on the other side of those bars, she could find her own way home.
    “Anything left in your little pouch that can handle locks? Or iron bars?” Cas asked.
    “Unfortunately not. We’ll have to try another exit. There are others.”
    Cas shifted from foot to foot. The jungle called to her. Out there, in the night, she could hide. Here, they were simply waiting to be discovered. “I can shoot the lock off.”
    The lock was shiny and new, but so were her bullets.
    “Guns don’t solve every problem,” Tolemek said, heading for the interior again. “And making noise will tell them where we are.”
    It would tell them where he was. If the guards spotted him, they might forget to worry about her, at least for a few moments. That was all she needed.
    Tolemek had no more than stepped past her when Cas lifted the rifle. She fired three rounds at the lock shank from far enough away that the bullets shouldn’t hit her if they ricocheted off. But the lock lost the war early on and clanked to the ground. Cas walked up to the gate, gave it a shove, and it squealed open.
    “Guns do solve a lot of problems.” She smiled at Tolemek as he ran back to join her.
    “The guards will have heard that.”
    Cas loaded bullets to replace those she had used. “I expected another fight before getting out of here.” With the guards... or with him. One or the other.
    She started forward, intending to use the mouth of the tunnel for cover and to shoot anyone who ran their way. But Tolemek gripped her arm, stopping her.
    Shouts of, “Over there,” and, “The drainage tunnel,” accompanied the crashing of foliage.
    “What’re you doing?” Cas demanded.
    “I have one more tool to use.” Tolemek opened his palm, revealing a leather-wrapped ball.
    “Uh?”
    He pulled her back through the gate and into the shadows of the tunnel. She was tempted to yank free and fight her own battle—the jungle foliage wasn’t more than a hundred meters away, so if she could subdue the guards in sight, she ought to be able to sprint out there to it... but Tolemek’s grip was firm, and he could probably sling her over his shoulder without much trouble. She went along with him. She could shoot from