Free All The King's-Men (The Yellow Hoods, #3) by Adam Dreece

apologize, so she smiled and said, “I claim big sister privilege, so watch it, buster.”
    “Buster? I’m a buster now. Okay, got it,” said Richy. “What’s a buster?”
    “Someone who is about to get busted up for asking lots of stupid questions,” she answered, nudging him with her shoulder and chuckling.
    Their banter was silenced by the appearance of a dozen soldiers coming towards the entranceway from inside the walled city. Four of them marched behind a cannon that was being pulled by a horse, and all of them had rifles slung over their backs and torches in hand. 
    Richy strained his eyes. “Are those Mineau soldiers or foreign ones like we fought earlier? I can’t tell.” It felt like forever ago that they’d been in the battle with Richelle Pieman and the Red Hoods, never mind the foreign soldiers they’d dealt with afterward. 
    Egelina-Marie shook her head. “I can’t tell. If they are from Mineau, then that means the magistrate and maybe others were in on this. We’ll need to get a closer look,” she said, scanning about.
    Richy nodded. “Do you think our friends are in trouble?” he asked, worried.
    Eg’s face fell as she thought of them, in particular Bore and Squeals, who she and Richy had dropped off in Mineau only a few hours ago. “Trouble? Nah. I’m sure if something happened, they had fun with it. That’s what you Yellow Hoods do, right?”
    “Yeah,” said Richy, trying to convince himself.
    She pressed herself flat to the ground. “Something’s coming up behind the soldiers. They’ve got a convoy of some kind.” 
    Lying flat as well, he noticed something. “Why aren’t they using lanterns?” he asked. “It’s not like they’re a new invention or anything. And if they were Mineau guards, wouldn’t they be using standard issue ones? So why use torches?”
    “Ah, I don’t know,” said Egelina-Marie, thinking. “Too expensive, maybe?”
    “Maybe,” replied Richy.
    They sat quietly, hidden in the brush as the soldiers marched past only ten yards away, followed by a procession of horses pulling wooden cages.
    “They’re mercenaries,” said Egelina-Marie, pointing.
    “Huh?” said Richy.
    “These guys are wearing Mineau colors, but their march isn’t right. No kingdom’s army is going to wear another kingdom’s colors, or another city’s. It’s a macho-ego thing. That means these guys are paying for their own supplies, and if they have torches, it means they’re a bunch of cheap pargos.”
    Richy nudged her with his shoulder jokingly. “Woo, watch the mouth there, Mademoiselle Manners.”
    “Pargos! Pargos! Pargos!” she whispered, making him chuckle.
    The laughter stopped as the cages came close enough for them to see people inside.
     “Are they alive?” squeaked Richy, horrified.
    Egelina-Marie clamped her hand over his mouth as two soldiers walked right up to their position. The soldiers were standing only a few feet away, torches in hand, scanning about.
    Slowly, Egelina-Marie and Richy started to back up.
    “Hey, there’s something shiny in the bushes,” said one of the soldiers, pointing.
    Egelina-Marie glanced around and saw the light bouncing off Richy’s Yellow Hood cloak. They scrambled backward to the path, and took off as fast as they could into the Red Forest.
    A shot fired.
    “They’re chasing us!” yelled Egelina-Marie, grabbing Richy’s hand and running blindly down the dark path.
    Richy felt his hood snap against his face as a rifle shot bounced off of it.
    A minute later, Egelina-Marie skidded to a stop at a fork in the path. She moved back and forth, hoping for something to help her decide which route they should take.
    “What is it?” asked Richy, glancing around, breathing hard. 
    “I can’t figure out which way our stuff is,” she said, a mix of emotions in her voice.
    When they’d left her horse and his sail-cart, they’d marked the path carefully so that they’d be able to find their way back with only the