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

emotion—with rage —that he could barely speak. “Were you flying with him last summer, girl?”
    Cas doubted he would believe her if she lied—he didn’t look like a man ready to believe anything that would interrupt his right to rage—but she kept her mouth shut. Wasn’t there a quotation about silence never getting a man in trouble?
    The captain slowly pulled out his pistol—every eye there was riveted by it, by him—and stepped toward her. “Answer me, girl. Were you with him last summer?” Between one word and the next, he shifted from a whisper to a yell. “Did you help take down my ship?”
    The pirate holding Cas stepped forward, forcing her closer to the captain. She tried to squirm free, to kick him or find an arm she could bite, but the man was no amateur at restraining prisoners.
    The captain stalked closer, his face burning as hot and red as a furnace.
    Cas didn’t notice Tolemek move, but he was suddenly there beside the captain, pressing his forearm—and the pistol—toward the ground. Several of the surrounding pirates drew in startled breaths. The tension was thicker in the air than the humidity.
    “She’s nothing compared to Zirkander,” Tolemek said. “And she’s worth even less dead. We can use her to get to him. Set a trap, make her the bait.”
    Even though Cas had suspected Tolemek had something like that in mind all along, she felt an overpowering urge to shoot him. If only these louts hadn’t taken her gun. She had to settle for hurling daggers with her eyes.
    The captain looked down at the hand on his arm, then lifted his gaze to Tolemek’s. He was hurling a few blades with his eyes, too, but he finally stuffed his pistol back in its holster and muttered, “It must be nice to be able to see everything so logically all the time.”
    “A boon and a bane,” Tolemek said. He glanced at Cas, but must not have liked what he saw on her face, for he soon looked away. “My errand won’t take long. Put her in my cabin, and treat her well,” he said again, then added, “She’ll make poor bait if Zirkander can’t recognize her.”
    The captain walked with him several paces away from the group, and they exchanged a few words. Tolemek must have soothed the older man’s anger, for their discussion ended with the captain slapping him on the back and waving. Once again, Cas feared she had made a mistake in not bolting in those first few seconds in the jungle. A big mistake.

Chapter 4
    T he airship’s hull was painted black, the deck was painted black, and the balloon above was dyed black, so Cas was surprised when the wooden bulkheads and floors below had merely been treated with a clear varnish. Her pirate escort had dwindled to two, but there were guards at the railing next to the sophisticated disembarkation device: a rope leading down to the beach. There were also numerous people walking about on the main deck, all of them armed. It seemed against pirate law to carry less than three weapons about, even when engaged in repairs or polishing cannons. Even if Cas somehow subdued her escort, her odds of getting off the airship weren’t good.
    The guards pushed her below decks and down a narrow corridor. She could stand up straight, but the bigger men had to duck their heads. They stopped before a side door. They looked at it, then at her, then at each other.
    “Deathmaker said to put her in his cabin, right?” one whispered.
    “I think so. But maybe we could put her in one of the cells until he gets back.”
    “He said to put her inside.”
    “He doesn’t usually... I mean nobody goes in his cabin except the captain. If he does girls, he doesn’t do them here.”
    “Maybe she’s special.”
    “Maybe the door’s locked.”
    If Cas’s predicament had been less dire, she might have rolled her eyes at this waffling. Why did she get the feeling that neither of them wanted to go through that door?
    “Try it.”
    One of the men grabbed the latch. It turned freely, and he pushed