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She turned without a word, and we all moved toward the far end of the space, away from the door we’d come in. As we walked, more Omegas crept out, until there were eleven of them. Most of them had wounds, some infected. More than one had missing teeth, and scaly rashes on their limbs. They were scarred and broken, but they helped each other with gentle hands and soft sounds of encouragement. One of them laid a sheet on the ground by the back wall, close to the door that led out to the sea.

None of them would sit until Mirrim did, and I waited for them all to settle while I considered my words. “What do you know of the world outside this island?”

The tattooed woman replied, “We know all that the Alphas have told us, though most of that could be lies.”

“Serak used to tell us things,” one of the older women interrupted.

Mirrim sighed heavily. “Yes, he did. But we all know what he got for that.”

“He didn’t tell you about me?”

She shook her head. “He hasn’t been allowed to visit us without a guard since he went into rut, just after he returned to the island the second time. That was when… Well, when the one who watches took him over.”

My mind spun at her casual comment about Serak’s rut. What would that have been like for him? Going into a sexual frenzy and waking up with an evil fire god possessing him? Of course, that sort of thing was exactly what I’d spent the last decade running from. I had a feeling the Goddess’s desires weren’t as dark as Edan’s.

“He was a child when he first left the island, and when he came back, he shared general things. Geography was one of our favorites.” She waved at a wall, where a crude map of the world was carved into the rough plaster. “He got in trouble, even for that. We make up stories about where we’d go if we could leave here. But none of us still living have been off this cursed island.”

I nodded. “I don’t remember much from when my mother first took me to the continent. I remember a boat, and her singing. We must have crossed Starlak, because my first memory was in an alleyway of Turino, in Rimholt. She was running, and she hid me in a crate of… old fish, I think. It smelled awful. She taught me to be quiet as a mouse.”

Mirrim’s eyes gleamed. “Rada means mouse in Pictish.”

I almost smiled. “When I was very young, I lived on the streets. When I told some of the other street orphans my name, they thought I said Ratter, which means rat hunter in their language. I was known as Ratter for most of my life.”

They listened, rapt, as I told them about my childhood. I shared it all, from the moment the Master Spy of Rimholt, General Vilkurn, had released me from an Alpha’s cage as a child, to the first time the Goddess had taken over my body to help me foil an assassination attempt on the king. I told them how I’d met Serak, and then how Vilkurn had sent me away to learn to be a spy. “And to escape the Mirrenese death threat, of course.” I shrugged, but didn’t explain why I’d killed a pedophile relative of the Mirrenese king. These women had probably been violated in a thousand ways, and I wouldn’t bring up those memories for all the herbs in the world.

“Herbs!” I gasped suddenly, reaching into one of my cloak’s tattered pockets. “I hope the thorns and stickyvine worked.”

“Thorns?” Mirrim asked as I rummaged gently in the pocket that I’d managed to close with a handful of sticky vine and some demon’s claw barbs.

“Yes!” I pulled out a handful of greens. “I wasn’t sure if there would be food here, and I always need herbs. I gathered everything I could on the way across the island. I also have some slow-acting sedative plants in my left slipper that can help with pain and… Yes.” I located the prize I’d found, a handful of narrow, sweet yam roots. I’d had to pretend to fall hard to get them out of the ground. “This will delay the onset of a heat for at least a few days. It needs to be boiled⁠—”

“Rada, what… How…” Mirrim sputtered, holding a hand to her mouth as I unloaded the rest from the two shredded pockets. The women who’d been standing dropped to the ground to see what I laid out.

“Usually, I keep my cloak filled with far more effective poisons and medicines, and at least a half-dozen weapons—some they never seem to notice, though your nosy, no-nose priests stripped me bare this time.”

I looked around with a grin when one of them choked out a laugh and repeated, “Nosy, no-nose.” The devastation was still thick in the air, but there were also traces of curiosity and humor now.

“They thought they took my weapons. But they couldn’t touch the things that make me the deadliest. My knowledge of poisons and herbs, my training as a thief, and my natural sneakiness, of course.” I pulled a handful of sharp obsidian flakes from along the tattered, ruined lining of my cloak, each one as large as a paring knife blade, and set them on the ground. Then I took off the creepy skin slippers and counted out how many doses I could make from what I’d gathered. “Can you believe four guards walked right next to me and didn’t notice me gathering all of this?”

“No, actually,” the tattooed woman murmured, picking up one of the obsidian flakes and staring at it with something like lust. Her face looked like my own must’ve when I’d gotten hold of the first knife I’d used to pick the lock in my cage as a child. “We’re not allowed anything sharp. How did you get these?”

“I fell and stumbled, like the helpless weakling I want them to think I am. It makes them easier to kill later.” I nodded toward her hand. “Keep that. If you like, I can teach you how to use it.”

One corner of her mouth twitched, like she might smile. “I am Adiah.”

“I’m glad to meet you, Adiah.” I picked up the next best shard and pocketed it, then glanced around. “You can take them.” A few others darted forward, and in seconds, all of the shards were gone.

Adiah’s next question was a whisper. “Why are you here? If you are this master spy, and you have all these skills… how did they capture you?”

“I let them. I’m here to get you all out. Ah, and to kill any Alphas who need it.”

Her lips tightened. “Another fool. More than one Omega has tried to escape. The last one who got caught using a knife on the Alpha trying to take her was responsible for five deaths. Five of my friends were thrown into the maw not three months ago, to teach us the cost of resistance.”

Mirrim gasped. “Apologize, Adi! You heard her. She’s the avatar of the Goddess, the answer to all our prayers. She’s not responsible for our sisters’ deaths.”

I sucked in a breath. Three months. I’d spent those months in Mirren, working to save the Omegas there. But had I worked as fast as I could?

I knew better. I’d delayed coming to Pict until Edan had forced me here. I’d been afraid. But I couldn’t show that fear now. And I sure as hells wouldn’t tell them I wasn’t the avatar they’d prayed for.