Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution Read Online Free PDF

and Moloch took advantage of that craziness to make van Brunt into one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
    At times, he was seriously tempted to tell that story to Reverend Boland so he could use it to illustrate the value of following the Tenth Commandment. Covet your neighbor’s wife, have your best friend turned into one of the harbingers of the apocalypse …
    “You okay, Dad?”
    Irving looked down at his daughter. “I’m fine, Little Bean, just got reminded of some stuff from work.”
    “Well, stop it. You’re out with me,” Macey said primly. “You shouldn’t be thinking about work, just about making your daughter happy. Like letting her ride that awesome elevator again.”
    Irving grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”

THREE
T RENTON , N EW J ERSEY

    DECEMBER 1776
    LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHANN Rall, the commandant of the Hessian regiment that occupied Trenton on behalf of the British Crown, had received two communiqués, both of which filled him with a sense of dread.
    The first had been brought to him by one of his regiment commanders, Lieutenant Colonel Balthasar Brethauer. Rall broke the seal and read over the missive, sighing the entire time.
    “I take it that the news is not good?” Brethauer asked dryly.
    “You surmise correctly, Colonel. Major General von Donop sends his deepest regrets, but General Grant has denied my request for some British troops to supplement our own.”
    Brethauer made a
tch
noise and tugged on his waistcoat. “The Geordies hired us to help them putdown
their
rebels, yet they won’t commit resources to aid us? Typical.”
    Rall shook his head and put the letter down on his desk. “Grant and von Donop are fools.” He snorted and shook his head. “That the latter is a fool is hardly a revelation, of course, but I had hoped for better from General Grant. Trenton is
not
sufficiently defensible with only fifteen hundred troops. It’s a strategically valuable location, one the colonials may well target. If the rebels
do
attack—”
    “May I remind the colonel that our engineers have drawn up plans to physically fortify the town?”
    “You may
not
remind me, Colonel,” Rall said tartly. “I have already rejected those plans, and I’m not in the habit of repeating myself.”
    Bowing his head in a gesture that approached respectful, Brethauer said, “Of course, Colonel, my apologies. Will that be all?”
    “Yes, Colonel, dismissed.”
    Brethauer clicked his heels, bowed, and departed the office.
    Which was good, as the second communiqué was not for Brethauer’s eyes and ears. No, this was a burden that Rall had to bear on his own.
    Tonight was a full moon, which meant that tonight he had to perform the ritual that would bring Abaddon’s power into the world.
    Moloch’s instructions were as final as those of von Donop, and the consequences for disobeying them were far greater. Though ironically, Molochorders served to, in a way, fulfill the request that von Donop and Grant had rejected, for the witch who would be infused with Abaddon’s fury would prove to be a valuable ally to the cause, once Rall performed the ritual.
    He had already instructed his men not to exceed a single celebratory drink on this Christmas night. Everyone had to be sober if the ritual was to be performed properly. Even though they weren’t to participate directly, he needed their life force to help power the spell.
    As the full moon rose, Rall opened a bottle of brandy so he could follow his own orders, and have one drink in celebration of the birth of Christ. The irony of his toast to the son of God preceding his bringing a tool of Satan into the world was not lost on him.
    After finishing his snifter of brandy, he retired to the sitting room and removed the area rug. Retrieving a piece of chalk from the drawer of his desk, he knelt down and painstakingly drew a sigil on the wooden floor.
    In truth, he could have performed the ritual a month ago on the previous full moon, but he had not yet received