Chapter Eleven

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Adair and Riada were a snoring heap just outside the fire's glow. The cracked, bloody skeletons of two whole chickens lay next to them, stuck with feathers.  Sara and Felix remained awake, sharing a bottle of blood from Sara's bag.  Its taste was nearly unrecognizable after preservation and storage in the cellar below the granaries.  Felix sloshed it around in his mouth before swallowing, knowing he should drink, but feeling nauseous.

After hearing the tale of the vicious madwoman who deserted the Templars and absconded with a noble maiden, the villagers offered the hunting party all the help they could give. Columer rode ahead, hoping that he could reach the next town ahead of their quarry to put them on alert.

"If all goes to plan," Sara said as she corked the bottle.  She took another chicken from the villagers' bag and tossed a leg at the dogs, who devoured it and clamoured for another piece, whining and wagging their tails. "We should find them by tomorrow evening."

Felix nodded, tearing a leg off the chicken. He got up and left the ring of orange firelight to where the twins slept entangled, Riada's ribs rising as Adair exhaled.

"Hey," Felix knelt carefully beside them, out of arms reach.

There was a pause, and then Riada stirred. She detached her brother's arm from around her shoulders, and pushed herself up onto her knees, curiously watching Felix with one tired amber eye through mats of dirty hair.  She moved, and the Templar jerked away reflexively, dropping the leg on the moss between them.

Riada froze.  Felix felt embarrassed when he saw that she had lifted her hand to take it. 

She picked up the breast off the ground and sat back on her haunches, starting to eat.  Her unsettling eyes did not leave his. 

"Did you think I would bite you?" she asked after a moment.

Felix's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He had forgotten the twins were capable of putting together  sentences, let alone in such a civilized tone. Riada broke the meat in half, almost tenderly laying the uneaten part in front of Adair's face. She chewed the rest of her half, flicking the bone aside and looking back at Felix.

"You would have bitten Sara earlier today," Felix said.

"She hurt Adair."

"But he would have bitten Columer, when he tried to take the towel."

"And does it never occur to Templars that one can ask for things?" Riada wrapped her arms around her knees.

Felix struggled to find an answer, and then changed the subject.

"You can talk to me like this. But earlier today, when tracking, you were..." He searched for a polite way to say it, and then gave up. "Wilder than the hounds."

"The speaking comes and goes, if you asked me which way to go earlier today I could not have told you, only howled and led." She flicked hair out of her eyes, to no avail. "I was a well-read little girl once."

The surprise must have shown on his face.  Riada tilted her head.

"They tried to wipe our memories after they cursed us, like you. But the spells must not have worked together."

"Were you once to be a Templar?" Felix realized. "Why did they do- do this instead?"

"The witches,"  Riada finally grinned with her broken, rotting teeth, again the cruel experiment Felix had met with Marius in the cave beneath the castle.  "Very hard to track."

"Felix?" Sara called from the fire.

Felix got to his feet, and then looked down at Riada.

"One more question," He began. "What are you going to do with Shal when you catch her? And why was Marius so afraid of you hurting Ella?"

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