by Adam Dreece
Just as she was turning to leave, a reply came. “Come in!” yelled a distant, muffled voice.
With her hand on the doorknob, Tee hesitated. It didn’t sound right. “Grandpapa? Is that you?”
“Come in my dear!” yelled the faint voice again.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up. She backed down the steps and then along the path a couple of yards. She donned her hood, pulled out her shock-sticks, and gave one of the handles a few quick turns.
“Are you coming in?” called the muffled voice, closer now.
She glanced around, waiting nervously, and started winding up her second shock-stick.
The door creaked open.
“I said come in,” growled the voice.
“I win!” yelled Elly, pulling her brake and popping out of her sail-cart. “I beat you! I beat you!” she taunted Richy while jumping up and down in the middle of the road. It had been an exciting race home.
“Fine, I was beaten,” said Richy. Noticing something behind Elly, he pointed and said, “Hey—”
Elly glared at him and interrupted, “Don’t rob me of my victory!”
“But—” said Richy, still pointing, now waving his finger.
“No buts!” said Elly.
“But us!” said Captain Archambault as he, Nikolas, and a contingent of ten armed guardsmen ran up to them.
The kids sprang to attention and saluted the captain.
“Don’t do that,” he replied, waving them to stop. “Save that for the Magistrate or someone whose ego needs it.” He hated that the kids were taught to do this. He understood the tradition, and had done it himself as a child, but it bothered him now that he was the one being saluted all the time.
“You know, my friend,” said Nikolas, trying to catch his breath, “you are in remarkably good shape for—”
Gabriel started to laugh. “For a fat man? Ha! I’m running on anger. I’m sure I’ll drop dead when this is over.”
Towering over Richy and Elly, the captain said, “We need to find your friend Tee. Have you seen her?” His voice was clear and commanding.
“We just left her… at his house,” said Richy looking at Nikolas, confused. “If you’re here, then …”
“LeLoup!” said Richy and Elly in unison.
“Do your parents have any horses?” the captain asked Elly. “LeLoup and his men made our horses sick. We ran here. We believe that Tee and others are in danger.”
Elly replied, “My parents have two horses, but Richy and I can get to Monsieur Klaus’ fast on our sail-carts. It doesn’t take long, especially with the wind today.”
“What’s a—” started Gabriel. He then turned to Nikolas. “One of your inventions?”
Nikolas nodded. He was looking somewhat recovered.
Richy ran off. “I’ll be back in a second!” he said to Elly. He came back a moment later with their yellow cloaks, which they had left by her front door.
Captain Archambault turned to two of his men. “Inform this young lady’s parents we’ll need to borrow their horses, and then get to Klaus’ house as fast as possible.”
He turned to Elly and Richy. “You kids go now. Go as fast as you can. Your friend’s life is in danger. If you see any of LeLoup’s men, don’t do anything—just wait for us. But if you see her, quietly get her to come to you.
“The rest of you, let’s go! Nikolas, what’s the fastest way by foot?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Of Hood and Wolf
“I said come in,” repeated LeLoup, with sinister playfulness. He emerged from the house, into daylight, and walked down the front steps. Like his men, he wore dark red, leather armor. He sported both a sword and a gleaming pistol in his belt.
“Things never go according to plan, now do they?” said LeLoup, disappointed. “Here I was, waiting for you to come in, and you so rudely decided to stay outside. Mind you… it is such a nice afternoon.” He looked at the leaves and trees for a moment. “The forest seems almost in conflict between yellow and red, don’t you think? You, obviously, representing yellow— which is fine with me, as I do so love red,” he said, grinning menacingly.
Getting no reaction out of the yellow hood-covered figure, he continued, “Last time, when my men were working so hard to capture you, you Yellow Hoods pulled a deceitful switch on me. That was rude—clever and well executed, but rude.
“That sort of cleverness could lead to something. With the right guidance and tutelage you could become a force to be reckoned with. I’ve seen it before. The old me would have maybe made you an offer, but now? I’m not interested in letting you go any further.”
Tee took a couple steps back. She wasn’t sure what to do, or what to expect. Her heart was racing and she was sweating.
LeLoup kept trying to peek under the hood, but to no avail. “Now, the question on the top of my mind is—with whom am I dealing? Do I actually have the granddaughter of the great Monsieur Klaus in front of me—or do I have one of her two friends? Oh, are you wondering how I know there are three of you? Those jail guards are talkative. Dangerously so—for you.”
All of a sudden, LeLoup leapt forward and tried to grab the hood, but Tee matched him with a quick leap backward. Her hood remained in place, continuing to obscure her scared face.
“Well done,” he said with genuine appreciation. “You have good reflexes. But, I’m running out of time. Time, time, time.” He sighed and drew his pistol, pointing it at Tee.
“This,” he said, showing off his pistol, “is a mature cousin of the ones still popular in these parts. It has better balance, better accuracy, and far less recoil. Next time I’m home, my multi-shot pistol should be ready. Oh, if only I had it now… I’d love to show it to you. It is a marvel of modern technology—like the new rifles, but small and elegant.” LeLoup flexed his fingers for a moment to make sure he had a good grip.
Tee went from nervous to panicky. LeLoup noticed her shock-sticks shaking.
“Not so brave now, are you? I’ll have you know this pistol is loaded and ready. A shot from this distance will go clean through you and leave a hole the size of… well—best I not panic you too much.” LeLoup savored the moment.
That afternoon, he’d spent a half-hour in the glowing library downstairs and an additional hour going through the rest of the house, book by book, note by note. He had found nothing of value. The only drawings he’d found that he could make sense of were for a ridiculous, four-wheeled, small cart-like contraption that had a mast and sail.
It boiled LeLoup’s blood to think that Klaus had outsmarted him by hiding out in the open, but it enraged him even more to think that he’d wasted his time pursuing someone whom he wanted to believe was really just a clever fraud. He would be humiliated if he returned with nothing.
LeLoup took a step forward. “I’ll make this simple, child. Show me where Monsieur Klaus has built the steam engine, or find me that missing crown molding from the kitchen—I know it has something to do with all of this. It has to. Why else would it be gone? I won’t ask again!” His jaw visibly clenched.
Just as Tee thought she might pass out from fear, a wave of confidence and calmness washed over her, and a response bubbled up from the back of her mind. Making her voice lower than usual, she replied, “Moldy crowns? Well, I can offer you an old princess dress, but I don’t think it’s your size!”
LeLoup was completely taken aback. “Are you mocking me?” With his free hand, he unsheathed his sword. “Mocking me—the great LeLoup?! Do you have any idea who you are dealing with?”
“I thought you were the okay LeLoup, or was it the adequate LeLoup? It doesn’t matter… now that you’ve tangled with the Yellow Hoods, your name is mud!” said Tee with biting confidence. She felt like the words were saying themselves, and she was just listening to them.
LeLoup started twitching. The machine that was his mind had lost another bolt. He tried to compose himself, but his arms started to shake. He tightened his grip on his sword and tried to steady his
pistol arm. “Enough! Give me what I want or I will shoot you. Then I’ll shoot the Captain’s daughter,” he said, gesturing to the house. “Then Cochon. And then I’ll shoot”—he paused, trying to muster up the calmness to lie confidently—“your grandfather.”
At first, when LeLoup mentioned hostages, Tee felt her courage start to dissolve, but then she realized—something didn’t sound right. She remembered the rock under the steps, and the open shed.
“Well, since you don’t have my grandfather, are you planning on shooting any other imaginary figures? Fairies, perhaps?” Tee paused to measure the effect of what she’d said.
She knew that he might very well have some hostages, but resisted the urge to trade her surrender for their freedom. She didn’t believe he’d really let them go. She didn’t even know if her grandfather had what LeLoup was looking for in the first place. So she pressed on. “You’re a fraud, LeLoup. Your reputation, your sense of superiority—it’s all a sham.” She crouched down, like a spring being coiled.
LeLoup was having trouble thinking straight. He was incensed and struggling with his emotions. How dare an impudent child mock him? How could his great career come down to a standoff with a child?
His desire to win by superior intellect was losing ground to his need to prevail by any means necessary. In his rage, he could no longer remember why he’d avoided bloodshed on his earlier missions. It must have been weakness, he thought to himself.
One of LeLoup’s horsemen galloped by, yelling, “We have company!”
LeLoup—his mind on fire, and face red with rage—glared at the Yellow Hood
From behind the house, a gunshot rang out. LeLoup instinctively turned to look.
Tee seized the moment. Pressing the hidden button on one of her shock-sticks, she sprang forward. With one stick she knocked the sword out of LeLoup’s hand. The other she jabbed into his chest. A few sparks flew, but he seemed unaffected. She immediately regretted not having practiced more with them.
He laughed, and sprang back. “I knew this armor would work!” He fired his pistol.
“Tee!” screamed the other two Yellow Hoods as they careened around the corner in their sail-carts.
LeLoup smiled from ear to ear, feeling in control again. “So I do have the granddaughter.” Looking down at the crumpled yellow heap, he said, “If you aren’t dead yet, give me what I want or you will be!” He picked up his sword.
Elly brought her sail-cart to a quick stop and sprang out, while Richy picked up more speed in his.
LeLoup looked up, confused, as Richy’s sail-cart rapidly approached.
“Aaah!!” screamed Richy. He yanked down the sail and telescoping mast, swerved, and pulled hard on the brake. Still moving very fast, his sail cart flipped into the air.
“Richy!” screamed Elly, frozen in place.
The sail-cart soared higher than ever before and crashed into LeLoup’s chest, sending him flying backward.
Richy landed his cart expertly on all four wheels and brought it to a sudden stop. He hopped out, wanting to help Tee, but stumbled to the ground, dizzy and trying to catch his breath.
Elly, meanwhile, helped Tee to her feet.
“I’m okay,” said Tee. “The cloak absorbed the bullet! It scared me, but mostly it just knocked me off balance.”
“That’s amazing,” said Elly, looking at the cloak.
“You’re not hurt!” said Richy and Tee, to each other.
“Look out!” screamed Elly as LeLoup rose and staggered over to retrieve his fallen pistol.
Tee sprang forward and unleashed a battle cry from deep within, “Aaaaaaaaaah!” With both hands around her remaining charged shock-stick, she ran at LeLoup and forcefully struck him right in the chest. More sparks flew and this time LeLoup flailed and dropped to the ground.
Elly let out a big sigh and collapsed gently to the ground. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” she said, laughing nervously.
Tee picked up LeLoup’s pistol and tossed it toward the shed, followed by his sword.
Richy chuckled and looked at Tee. “By the way, we came to tell you… LeLoup escaped from jail.”
“Really? Thanks for the heads up,” replied Tee sarcastically, but with a smile. She picked up her other shock-stick, which had fallen when she’d been shot. “Why didn’t this one work properly?”
Elly took it, cranked it furiously until she couldn’t anymore, armed it with a quick press of the hidden button, and then struck the ground with it. It released a shower of sparks, and left a black scorch mark. “Maybe you didn’t wind it up enough?”
“Tee?” yelled a voice from behind the house.
“Here!” Tee replied, her nerves calming at the sound of her grandfather’s voice.
The sound of a shot from the doorway shattered the moment. The Yellow Hoods turned to see a horseman pointing his rifle at them.
“Don’t move!” he commanded. “I’ve got a second shot in this, so don’t move a muscle. Now—”
Just then, the horseman who had raced by earlier came galloping back. Upon seeing the three Yellow Hoods, he charged his horse directly at them.
“Run!” screamed Tee.
“No—sail!” corrected Richy. He grabbed his sail-cart, giving it a running push before leaping in.
Unmoving, Elly locked steely eyes with the rapidly approaching horseman, pulled one of her fully charged shock-sticks from her cloak, armed it, and threw it at him.
His eyes widened as he recognized the object just before it made contact. A moment later, he was on the ground, flailing about—for a second time, thanks to Elly.
Elly and Tee grabbed their sail-carts and followed Richy toward the main road.
In all the confusion, the horseman at the doorway fumbled his rifle and accidentally fired into the trees. Out of shots, he started running toward his fallen colleague.
“Forget him! Help me!” barked LeLoup. Quickly, the horseman got LeLoup to his feet and hastily led him away.
“Tee?” yelled Nikolas as he arrived on the scene, only to see a downed horseman, and the three Yellow Hoods in their sail-carts heading down the road. He bent over to catch his breath, sweat beading down his face.
Captain Archambault arrived a minute later. He put his hand on Nikolas’ shoulder to reassure him, and was about to say everything was going to be fine, when LeLoup and his last remaining horseman came galloping through in pursuit of the Yellow Hoods.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
To the Ends of the Earth
Elly, Richy, and Tee raced past two dismounted and wounded guardsmen who must have tangled with a horseman earlier. The astonished guards didn’t understand what the kids were yelling as they raced by. A moment later, LeLoup and his last horseman bolted by in pursuit. The guards looked at each other, not sure what to do.
As the Yellow Hoods zoomed down the road, Elly hollered, “Richy, I’ve got to say, that thing you did with launching your sail-cart at LeLoup—”
“That was crazy,” interrupted Tee.
“Insane, that was just insane,” finished Elly.
Richy smiled. It hadn’t been the plan—it was just instinct, as if his sail-cart was an extension of himself. He would have done anything to protect his friends.
He suddenly had a bad feeling. Wanting to get a good look at the road behind them, he gave a quick jerk of the steering wheel and a pull of the brake for a second, before letting it go. His sail-cart spun around so he was now facing backward. Richy felt one of the wheels start wobbling.
“You can do that?” exclaimed Elly.
“LeLoup!” yelled Richy, deftly spinning his sail-cart back around.
Tee and Elly glanced over their shoulders. Their stomachs tightened with fear as they saw LeLoup and his horseman galloping after them.
“They’re gaining on us!” yelled Elly.
“Richy, any idea how we can charge our sticks and not crash?” asked Elly. “I’ve never sailed this fast.”
He looked at the simple contr
ols of the sail-cart. “Um, um… okay, I’ve got it! Bring your sail down, and use your knees on the steering wheel—like this!” Richy started to furiously wind up his shock-sticks. Elly copied him.
Recognizing a distinctive gnarled tree and large rock, Tee realized they were near where she and Elly had tested out their first homemade sail-cart, weeks ago.
Glancing over her shoulder, Tee confirmed LeLoup and his horseman were only a dozen yards behind. She shot a quick look at her friends. Their weapons were ready, and sails back up. Taking a deep breath, Tee made her decision.
She pulled her hood back, revealing herself, and turned to lock eyes with LeLoup. His face became red with rage as he recognized her. Tee turned her sail-cart off the road and into the forest. LeLoup immediately followed.
“Where’s she going?” screamed Elly. “What’s she doing?”
The horseman still pursuing Richy and Elly fired his pistol— but missed both of them.
Richy glanced back and threw his first shock-stick at the horseman. While his throw missed, it caused the horseman to drop his pistol.
The horseman was almost on top of them now. He pulled out his sword. Reaching down, he swung the blade in a wide arc, cutting Richy’s sail in half. As Richy tried to maneuver, two of his wheels fell off and the sail-cart spun out.
Elly looked at her remaining shock-stick. Recognizing she was almost in front of her own house, and knowing the next section of road like the back of her hand, she took a chance and stood up in the sail-cart. She turned backward to face the grinning horseman as he prepared another swipe—and then expertly threw her shock-stick at him.
“Bull’s-eye!” yelled Richy as he saw the horseman flail and fall off his horse, rolling into the bushes.
Elly sat back down, yanked down the sail, and pulled hard on the brake, bringing her cart to an abrupt stop.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Elly looked up to see her parents standing outside—staring in awe at what they had just witnessed.