RADA
People liked to say no one could hide from destiny. Maybe they just hadn’t tried hard enough. I’d dodged my own fate for almost a decade, after all.
And I wasn’t giving up now, not until my last damned breath.
Probablyliterallydamned, if I didn’t get loose soon. And I doubted I’d like the level of hell I’d most likely land in if I died today.
That in mind, I pulled harder against the rough, thin ropes that held my wrists behind me. Still no give. I leaned forward as much as I could with the thicker bindings on my shoulders, hips, and ankles, craning my neck to see my feet.
I’d fought death and won more times than I could count in my nearly thirty years. But this time, I was facing it weaponless, not a single vial of poison or dagger on me. Not one iron hairpin, not even a small file to rub against the ropes that bound me to the tall, dry cedar post in the middle of the city square. I’d been completely stripped the night before while I was unconscious and had woken in chains and a dirt-brown shift dress.
I wiggled my ears.Damnit.They’d even found the wire I kept in my hair.
A fly landed on my nose and walked around in tiny circles, no matter how I twitched, until I thought I’d go mad. Only a puff of smoke from the pyre I was standing on had it buzzing away.
My funeral pyre.
I was a fool. Soon to be a dead one, unless I got desperate.If only I had my cloak…
I scanned the unruly crowd, looking for any hint of the muted gray. But the citizens of the capital of Mirren dressed as brightly as peacocks, with hooped skirts and tall, feathered hats for the ladies and embellished, tight trousers and even taller hats for the men. The richest ones wore their faces powdered with small beauty marks in the shapes of fish or crescent moons on their cheeks. The only redeeming thing about their fashion was the high-heeled shoes they all wore as well. It made them easy to outrun, if you could get a head start.
I wasn’t going to be outrunning anything, if my valet didn’t show up soon. “Alexios,” I muttered, my voice only just louder than the spitting of the flames at my feet. The smoke from the burning kindling piled beneath the larger logs I was balanced on was wrecking my throat. “Anytime now.”
“The accused, known as Ratter of Rimholt,” began the judge, who’d sentenced me to death just that morning.
“TheGreatRatter of Rimholt. Get it right!” I shouted, impressed with myself when my voice came out steady and confident.
He cleared his throat and went on with a sneer. “Also known as the Rat Poisoner, the Rat Thief, the Assassin’s Apprentice, Vermina of the North, and… Rada.”
By Her holy left tit, how did he knowthatname? Myrealname. I eyed the flames a bit more carefully now, suspicious. The only ones who knew that name for me and were stupid enough to use it in public were dead; I’d made sure of that myself.
Except for the ones who knew me when I was born.The flames licked higher, a spark landing on my cheek like a painful kiss.Fuck.
“...has been sentenced to die for the many crimes she has committed against the crown of Mirren. Poisoning, witchcraft, attempted murder of a Beta merchant, murder of twelve Alphas, abduction and possible murder of seven lowborn children…”
Half-listening, I blew on my singed cheek. There was no way they had evidence all these crimes were my doing. I had a feeling he was reading out every unsolved crime that had taken place in the country over the past year. To be fair, I’d definitely done most of them. The kids weren’t dead, though. I would never hurt a child.
Honestly, I was a little proud of how much I’d accomplished in Mirren. Not only the apothecaries I’d started up in the cities, but the waste-of-breath assholes I’d disposed of while I was at it. The vulnerable women and children of my least-favorite country in the world—and I’d visited all of them but one—were safer because of me.
“...the murder of Duke Lukenza, uncle to the King,” the judge announced.
“He earned that death, the pervert!” I shouted over the sudden quiet.
No one jeered at me or disagreed. A few heads nodded, and one woman close to the pyre spat and made a rude gesture toward the castle behind me. Seemed that predator’s nature had been an open secret.
I had no regrets about killing him twelve years ago, though I’d been hunted ever since. The price on my head had been twice my weight in goldani the last time I’d checked.
The judge’s voice rose as he reached the end of the list. “...and tax evasion.”
The crowd actually cried out in disapproval at that one. I rolled my stinging eyes. Apparently, murder was fine. But a foreigner cheating them out of their unreasonable tariffs? Unforgivable.
Almost as unforgivable as being collared by these fools. My boss, the Master Spy of Rimholt, would never let me live this down. If I lived. He’d sent me on a trip around the world to learn everything I could about being a spy. But the most important rule of spying was this: don’t get caught.
Worse, I’d been caught by the fumbling Mirrenese Royal Guard, just outside a temple to the Goddess. Alexios had been inside with the local priests, chanting the evening prayers as usual. I’d been more than a little drunk, celebrating the last of my secret apothecaries on the continent being completed, and I’d finally gotten up the liquid courage to make a move. Those perfect lips, the elegant arch of his nose, and those fathomless eyes. The way his hands moved in his daily meditations, like poetry…
Somehow, the flames didn’t seem quite as hot as I thought of my valet. Alexios was the only Beta I’d ever been attracted to, though he’d never once looked at me with anything but friendship. But I still had hope. After all, he’d given up his priesthood and his home to follow me on the final leg of my journey.
A journey that was about to end, if he didn’t show up soon with some weapons. Or water. I spat on the tiny flames near my feet, though my mouth was growing dry. Where in the hells was he? Could he be locked up somewhere, as I had been?
