Balanced on the Blades Edge #2 Deathmaker (32 page)

I can’t even see how much time is left on the clock. I need a light, Jaxi. Is there anyway—

Something blurred through the doorway, and a clank sounded on the floor beside him. Before he could guess what it was, the soulblade lit up, its glow a brighter yellow this time. He might have asked how she had levitated herself up here, but his eyes were riveted to the now-visible clock.

Sardelle is down there. She threw me.

Tolemek finished opening up the outer casing, but his shoulders were slumped. Two minutes. There wasn’t time, and the fat tip of the screwdriver wouldn’t work for the small, inner casing. He opened the knife blade. He would simply cut the wires holding the ampoules inside. If he lucked out and didn’t trigger the bomb, maybe he could separate the poison from the detonator.

She says she’ll teach your sister if we all survive this.

At another time,
any
other time, Tolemek would have found the news wonderful, but in his heart he knew there was no chance. Not enough time. Sweat dripped down his brow. His fingers kept moving, but they couldn’t move fast enough, not with the clunky multi-tool.

He glanced at the sword. It seemed magic should have some kind of solution for this. Had science surpassed the old ways and become the more powerful? If only—

Tolemek froze. “Jaxi, pyrotechnics.”

Yes...

Thinking of the explosion on the boat, he asked, “How hot of a fire can you make? And can it instantaneously be that hot? Or does it warm up slowly?”

No, I can burn something instantaneously. But the temperature? I don’t know. I’ve never measured it.

“I need hot. The melting point of iron. Can you do that?”

Easy.

Tolemek lifted the canister, the wires and half-removed ampoules threatening to spill out like fish guts. “You’re positive?”

There were only thirty seconds on the timer.

Yes. What do you want me to do?

“Burn these ampoules with as much heat as you can make.”

That won’t... release the toxin?

“Not at the melting point of iron. The gas will be vaporized. Hurry,” he whispered, his eyes like cantaloupes as he watched the clock ticking down.

A strange tickle went through his mind. Jaxi reading his thoughts? He hadn’t sensed her before, but maybe she was tearing through his mind at some deeper level, making sure he wasn’t lying. As if he would lie when he was fifteen seconds from dying too.

Can I just vaporize the whole thing?

“Yes!”

Throw it outside, so I won’t burn you.

Tolemek would gladly take some burns if they succeeded, but he chucked the canister into the storm anyway. It disappeared into the snow and hail, at least to his eyes. Just throwing it from him wouldn’t do anything to save him though. He needed...

“Now, Jaxi.
Please
.”

A small flash of orange lit the sky for a moment, then disappeared. Tolemek held his breath, not that doing so would make an iota of difference if he had been wrong.

Well
, Jaxi said after a moment, during which nothing happened and Tolemek’s heart remembered to start beating again.
That was anticlimactic.

Tolemek flopped back onto the floor and laughed. Magic trumped science after all.

The cabin lurched and started moving. His humor faded. He was about to be delivered to a pack of soldiers. After what he had just gone through, he supposed it didn’t matter much.

Sardelle was in earnest when she promised to teach my sister?

Yes.

If I am unable to do so, will she find a way to extricate her from the sanitarium too?

A pause followed, Jaxi relaying the message perhaps.
Yes. Sardelle has been lonely for her own kind and had planned to seek out others with dragon blood, regardless. After this, she says she’ll even teach you.

Tolemek snorted.
What would she teach me? I don’t have dragon blood.

Jaxi snorted back—an impressive feat for a soul without lips or a nose.
Blood is hereditary, genius.

But I never—

Please, you think
science
accounts for all of the things you’ve made?

Tolemek found himself gaping at the ceiling in stunned silence when the cabin clanged to a stop.

* * *

Cas had never appreciated the feel of pavement under her feet more than she did after climbing out of her flier. Her landing had been better than expected, with the wind easing up for her, though she had chewed on her nails, watching some of her comrades land. Lieutenant Solk had nearly gone over the edge of the plateau, with one wheel hanging off when the craft came to a complete stop. Her face had been whiter than the snow around her when the ground crew had thrown cables around the craft, pulled it fully upright, and hauled her out of the cockpit.

Mishaps notwithstanding, everyone in Wolf Squadron had made it, though there would be drinking later to honor the fallen Tiger Squadron men. She had gotten the names. Both officers had been well-liked.

When Cas, walking beside Captain Blazer, Crash, and Apex, noticed a holdup at the top of the tram, she slowed down, a hint of unease returning to her stomach. Several people were leaning over the edge of the cliff and pointing downward. Had some airship slipped in to do some damage? Or... this couldn’t have anything to do with Tolemek, could it? No, she had left him at the other installation, chatting with Zirkander’s “archaeologist.” Of course, Sardelle had made that appearance to deliver the communications devices. What if Tolemek was around too? Around where people might spot his Cofah skin and pirate garb?

“What’s going on?” came the colonel’s voice from behind them.

“Unknown, sir,” Apex said.

Cas chewed on her lip. Zirkander fell into step beside her, and they soon joined the group.

“It’s moving now.” The tram operator waved an apologetic hand. “Not sure what the delay was, but it’ll be up in a few seconds.”

“Good,” someone said. “There’s drinking to do.”

Cas would settle for a meal and a bunk with lots of warm blankets, though she did want to know what had become of Tolemek. She considered the colonel out of the corner of her eye. Sardelle hadn’t seemed alarmed by the pirate, but she also hadn’t seemed to know who he was. Zirkander would be a different matter. Even if Tolemek was hiding somewhere, Sardelle might have to do nothing more than describe him to the colonel for the recognition to kindle.

The tram cabin came into view over the edge of the cliff. The pilots, noticing Zirkander, stepped aside, offering to let him go first. Thus, since Cas was standing next to him, she had a clear view of the cabin interior when the operator opened the gate.

Tolemek sat on the floor, his arms draped over his knees, his cloak having fallen back to reveal his skin, his hair, and far too much of his face. A rather dazed face, as if he had been struck on the side of the head and was still trying to recover. A sword in a scabbard lay on the floor in front of his feet.

In the first second, Cas hoped nobody would recognize him. By the time the second second was upon them, no less than six people had their pistols out, including Zirkander.

“Wait,” Cas blurted, stepping forward. “That’s...” A retired pirate who isn’t a threat? A man not holding a weapon in his hands? Someone who looks like he needs a stiff shot of vodka? “That’s my prisoner,” she said.

“What?” Zirkander asked. He wasn’t the only one. But he was the only one who mattered, at least for the moment.

“Your
prisoner
is armed,” Crash said, waving to the sword.

Zirkander’s gaze followed that wave, locking onto the weapon. His face grew hard and unreadable as he looked back and forth from it to Tolemek. That wasn’t Sardelle’s soulblade or whatever it was called, was it? Surely he wouldn’t have stolen it, would he have?

Tolemek found her in the crowd, meeting her eyes. He didn’t say anything with so many people looking on, but he gave her a small smile and a shrug that seemed to say, “It’s a long story.”

“Yes,” Cas said, answering Crash’s objection, “because he gave me his parole. He turned on his own people to help me escape from the pirates. I didn’t make him any promises, in light of his past crimes, but I’d appreciate it if no one shot him full of holes until we figure out what’s going on.” She looked at the colonel as she said this, but his face hadn’t grown any more amiable. It was as hard and unfriendly as granite. An unusual expression for him. Cas had only seen it once before, when he had been defending her from that pompous, groping Cofah diplomat. Seeing it again now could not be a good thing.

Zirkander stalked into the cabin, his pistol still pointed at Tolemek, though Tolemek’s hands were clearly empty of weapons, and picked up the sword scabbard. “Get in, Ahn. I have to report to General Ort anyway. You can explain your story—and why you feel this murdering criminal shouldn’t be shot immediately—to him.”

In the minute it took the cabin to reach the base of the cliff? And here she had thought she had faced all of the tough challenges of the day already. She joined the two men inside, relieved when Zirkander didn’t invite anyone else in.

The gate clanged shut, and the cabin started descending. Cas opened her mouth, but she didn’t yet know what she intended to say. She wanted to ask what Tolemek was doing here, but at the same time, she wanted to try to explain everything to the colonel. If they took Tolemek to Ort, it would be all over. He would be in front of a firing squad by dawn, if not before. The colonel... he would be more reasonable. She hoped.

Before she got any words out, Zirkander grabbed Tolemek by his vest, hauled him to his feet, and shoved him against the metal wall. The cabin swayed and groaned.

“Sir,” Cas said, raising a hand, though she could barely see the men in the dark. The only lit lanterns were back on the butte and in the compound at the base of the cliff.

“If you’ve done anything to Sardelle,” Zirkander growled, “I’ll shove you out that gate
right
now.”

At a loss for anything intelligent to say, Cas went for the inane. “Colonel Zirkander, meet Tolemek, retired pirate. Tolemek, this is Colonel Zirkander.”

“Yeah,” Tolemek choked out, his airway restricted, “we’ve met in the air. He’s almost killed me a couple of times.”

A clang sounded—Tolemek being shoved against the wall again? “Sardelle,” Zirkander repeated. “Where—”

“At the bottom of the tram, waiting for you. Or so the sword told me.”

Cas stared at him. The
what
told him?

For a long moment, nothing sounded except the moaning of the wind and the creaking as the cabin swayed, descending slowly toward the bottom. Then Zirkander stepped back. They were the same height, Cas realized—a stupid thing to noticed then, but as the gas lamps of the base approached from below, she could make out their silhouettes as they faced each other.

“We’ll see what she has to say then,” the colonel said, his voice softer now, though the warning hadn’t disappeared from it. For Tolemek’s sake, Cas hoped Sardelle would appear as soon as the men stepped out of the gate.

The cabin clanked down on the landing pad. An operator rushed over to open the gate.

“Welcome back, sir. Great flying up there. You, too, L.T.”

“Thank you, Borscot,” Zirkander said, though his gaze was roving all along the lighted area in front of the tram.

Cas scooted forward, trying to see around the men. There was no sign of—wait.

Sardelle stepped out of the shack, her cloak wrapped around her. “Ridge.” She smiled, the expression full of genuine warmth. “Did the communication devices work?”

“Infallibly, but we have something to discuss.”

Sardelle’s smile turned dry as she nodded at Tolemek. “Yes, I imagine so.”

“Sir, ma’am?” The soldier frowned at Tolemek, not knowing how to address him. “I need to send the cabin back up for the next group.”

The colonel walked toward Sardelle. When she looked toward Tolemek again, he tossed her the sword scabbard. The tram operator jerked his arm up, looking like he meant to intercept the weapon, but it couldn’t do much damage while sheathed. He seemed to realize that, too, and lowered his arm, though he gave Sardelle an odd look when she attached it to her belt and draped her cloak over it. Civilian archaeologists probably weren’t supposed to have swords on base.

Cas stepped out of the cabin with Tolemek and drew him to the opposite side from Sardelle and Zirkander. She dared not drag him far until there was a modicum of resolution with the colonel, but she didn’t want everyone in the squadron coming over to interrogate him—or her—when they walked off the tram.

“Why do I have the feeling you two have had adventures?” she asked, deeming it a more tactful question than the what-by-all-the-gods-in-the-universe-are-you-
doing
-here one that was bubbling up inside of her.

“I hope you never know the details,” Tolemek whispered, then surprised her by drawing her into a hug and burying his face in her neck.

Cas was beginning to think he’d had a worse night than she. “I hope you’ll tell me a few of them at least. Or Zirkander if not me. I’m trying to figure out how to save you from General Ort and a firing squad.”

“You smell like engine oil, guns, and leather,” he said, sounding bemused—and not in the mood to worry about firing squads.

“Not the usual combination you get from women you spend time with?”

“No, but I like it.”

His lips brushed up her neck, to her jaw, and then to her mouth. The kiss he gave her made her earlier one seem chaste and sweet; this one was heated with passion and more... the sort of relief and fire one felt after saving something invaluable that had almost been lost. Cas was breathless by the time he lifted his mouth from hers, and she couldn’t remember where she was, what she was supposed to be doing, and why they weren’t scurrying off to find a bunk to share.

“Lieutenant?” Zirkander asked from a few feet away.