Balanced on the Blades Edge #2 Deathmaker Read Online Free PDF

a six-inch-thick sandstone wall, that would truly impress her. She could think of a few useful applications for it back home.
    “It doesn’t really have a name.” Tolemek kept dabbing at the wall, trying hard to stretch what little paste he had to complete his circle. They better not get locked up again, because he didn’t look to have enough for another set of hinges.
    “How can it not have a name?” Cas tried to imagine shopping for it in some exotic market by simply describing its properties.
    “The creator didn’t come up with one. Though I hear it’s recorded as Brown Goo Number Three in his journal.”
    Oh, so this was something he had invented. Even though it had proven nothing but handy thus far, the admission, however oblique, chilled her. It was as if, in admitting to creating this little concoction, he had admitted to creating every horrible thing she had heard of the Roaming Curse using on its enemies—its victims .
    “Chastor?” someone called from the hall around the corner, the hall with all the guards locked in cells. “Ponst?”
    “Better hurry,” Cas murmured.
    “The wall is thick. This will take a minute.”
    Cas fingered the rifle, then decided on the throwing star. She bent her knees, readying herself in case a guard ran around the corner.
    An acrid scent lit the air. She had been too busy running out to grab that first guard’s weapon to notice it before, but she knew it was the goop burning. When she glanced back, the wall was charred and smoking, but it was intact. Brown Goo Number Three might not be strong enough to help them escape again this time.
    The guard in the other hall didn’t call out again, but his footsteps echoed ahead of him. He was walking their way.
    A grinding came from behind Cas, followed by a couple of grunts, then a crash as loud as a rifle shot. So much for not warning the whole fortress.
    She started to cuss at Tolemek, but the guard ran around the corner. He halted so quickly he skidded as he gaped at the end of the hall. That didn’t keep him from whipping his rifle butt to his shoulder. Cas was already hurling the throwing star. She trusted her aim and knew it would hit, but ducked anyway—she was the closest to the intersection, and that rifle had been pointing toward her.
    It never went off. The throwing star lodged in his throat, slicing into his jugular. Blood spurted from the severed artery, and the rifle tumbled from his fingers, clacking onto the floor. He crumpled soon after.
    Aware that beige stone dust had flooded the hall, Cas faced her pirate again. He had to have seen her take down the guard—so much for not showing him she was dangerous—but he didn’t say a word. He stood by a circular hole in the wall, the gaping orifice opening into utter blackness, and extended a hand toward it, like a man holding the door open for a woman at a café. So much for her hope that they weren’t going anywhere dark.
    “No, no, you go first.” Cas batted at the dust in the air, almost coughing when she spoke.
    Tolemek slipped through the hole and disappeared. He looked like he had dropped down. She supposed it was too much to hope that he was simply leading her into some nice forgotten tunnels that would deposit them on a beach below the fortress.
    Wishing she had kept the lantern that had been in their cell, Cas walked to the lip of the hole and peered inside. Her estimate of a six-inch wall had been off; it was more like a foot thick. That goo was powerful. The edges of the hole still smoked, and she wouldn’t have touched them if she hadn’t already seen Tolemek do so.
    “How far of a drop is it?” she whispered.
    She didn’t want to stall—someone would have heard that noise, and the dead guard would soon be missed, too—but she couldn’t see more than two feet into the gap. She had the sense of a vertical shaft dropping away and didn’t see any stairs.
    Tolemek didn’t respond. He hadn’t done something stupid like falling to his death, had