BreadCrumb Trail (The Yellow Hoods, #2): Steampunk meets Fairy Tale by Adam Dreece Page A

moment, Pierre corrected his balance, but the blanket fell open.
    “Where’s her right arm?!” Richy shrieked.
    “Wow—she doesn’t have one,” said Elly, astonished.
    “Look at her feet,” said Tee, pointing at Mounira’s red and blackened skin.
    Pierre examined her feet. “She burned them… but how? Why would it have been so bad? Surely she would have felt the pain and done something,” said Pierre as he motioned for Tee and Elly to lay the blankets on the stretcher.
    They quickly and quietly made sure Mounira was bundled up and tied properly to the sled, which they attached to one of the sail-carts.
    Tee climbed into the alcove and looked at the smoldering remains of a fire. “I found some flint. There’s got to be some steel around here.” Tee carefully searched through the leaves and twigs in the far corner. “Found it!”
    Elly walked over. “So, wait… she made a fire with one arm, and her feet?”
    “We’ve got to go,” said Pierre. “The sheep bladders aren’t going to keep her warm forever. We have to get moving.”
    “A fire with her feet and one arm,” said Richy, trying to imagine how Mounira had created the fire as he climbed into his sail-cart.
    “That would have deserved a La la ,” said Elly, thinking of Tee’s trademark victory sound that she’d seemed to have outgrown.
    “You got that right,” said Tee, pulling up her mast and setting sail. “Mounira’s got some Yellow Hood in her.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Difficult Decisions
     
    Nikolas had returned to the café after having got the search party together. He’d had to bang on the door to be let in, and wasn’t sure why Jerome had a strange look of relief when he saw Nikolas again. 
    He knew the best thing he could do at this point was make preparations for when the search party returned with Mounira. He quickly convinced Anna and Alman to come with him to his town home, a couple of blocks away. 
    Nikolas had had the town home built nearly twenty years ago. It was a beautiful, simple two-story place where Isabella and Nikolas would stay in Mineau now and then, as a mini vacation away from the kids. Isabella loved the shopping and bistros in Mineau, and he loved the bookstores and random merchants who would come by. He occasionally made the second home available to the Tub for whatever needs they had.
    Finally, there was a knock at the door, and Nikolas answered it. Alman sprang up to see Pierre standing there, carrying a huge bundle in his hands.
    “We need to get her into some dry clothes, and get hot water for the sheep bladders!” said Pierre. “I don’t know how she’s doing, but I know it’s not good.”
    “I’ll take care of boiling some water,” said Anna.
    Nikolas led the way to the bedrooms upstairs.
    Alman waited for the Yellow Hoods to step in and remove their boots and coats before approaching. “I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart. You have—”
    “Thank you, but go,” Elly interrupted. “We know where you need to be.” Tee and Richy nodded in agreement.
    Alman smiled with tears in his eyes. “I don’t know how to repay you all,” he said, and then he ran upstairs.
    “I’ll see if there’s anything left for us to help with,” said Tee, following. A couple of minutes later, she came back down. “We should head home. Grandpapa said he’ll let us know when we can visit her. ”
    Pierre came down the stairs behind her. “I’m heading out, too. I’ll make sure you get back to Minette safely,” he said. “You three made me proud. And, Richy, you have a keen eye and a trustworthy gut. That’s two lives you’ve saved, now.”
    Richy smiled awkwardly.
    Pierre gave each of the Yellow Hoods a rub on the head, and then headed out the door. “Come on! Nothing we can do in here except get in the way.”
    “Do you think she’ll be okay?” asked Richy to Anna. She was heading for the stairs with a hot kettle.
    “She will be fine,” said Anna, with fake empathy. She looked at