Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution Read Online Free PDF Page B

explicit instructions from Moloch.
    His father had tried to anticipate Moloch’s wants and needs absent direct instruction. Joachim Rall did not live long enough to make that mistake a second time.
    When the sigil was complete, Rall got to his feetand called out to his adjutant, a very young lieutenant named Piel, who entered and stood at attention. “Sir?”
    “Bring Fraulein Serilda in, please.”
    “Sir!” He hesitated.
    “What is it, Lieutenant?” Rall asked impatiently.
    “We’ve received a message from one of the informants, sir.” Piel held out a slip of paper.
    Rall’s rebuke died on his lips. His men had standing orders from the British Crown to always take messages from loyalists who served as informants. But no message was more important than the ritual that he had to perform this night, so he took the slip of paper from Piel, nodded his head, said, “Dismissed, Lieutenant,” and shoved the message into his waistcoat pocket.
    A few moments later, the door opened again and the woman walked in. She wore a thick black wool cloak, no doubt to protect her from the cold winter weather.
    She didn’t look like much, this Fraulein Serilda. The woman, who apparently led a coven of witches, had arrived two months earlier, and had spent her entire tenure in Trenton living in a boardinghouse, taking meals at odd hours so she would not have to interact with the other boarders. From what Rall had been told, the other boarders preferred it that way.
    The fraulein had not left the boardinghouse, and indeed this was Rall’s first time seeing her in person.They had communicated solely by messenger these past eight weeks. What he saw now was an unassuming woman of normal height and build. She threw back the hood of her cloak upon entering Rall’s office, revealing herself to have brown hair tied up in a style that he saw every day back home in Stralsund.
    “You are not what I expected, Fraulein.”
    Her eyes, though: they stood out. A deep black, he could get lost in those obsidian pools. Those eyes fixed him now with a penetrating gaze that actually made him take a step back, and he swore his heart skipped a beat.
    She spoke with a honeyed voice, and spoke with the accent that was common to the Gypsies of Rall’s native land. “Do you doubt our master?”
    “Never.” Rall said the word emphatically. “Shall we begin?”
    “Of course.” Serilda removed her cloak, revealing herself to be wearing a simple white shift, with apparently nothing under it.
    Rall immediately averted his eyes.
    “Do not be a fool,” she said with contempt as she pulled the shift over her head, revealing her naked body to him whether he wanted to see it or not. “And do not let false morality interfere with the great work we do.” She pulled off each of her boots, revealing bare feet.
    “There is nothing foolish about—”
    She walked right up to him, forcing him to observeher nakedness directly. “Your priests tell you that the human body is unclean and must remain covered.” She smiled nastily. “Those same priests tell you that if you believe in their absurd deity you will live blessed lives. But we both know that they are wrong about that, do we not?”
    “Of course,” Rall said tightly.
    “Then why believe them about this?” She smiled. “Perhaps I should have you strip off your clothes as well.”
    “That is not necessary for the ritual.” Rall knew that the spell would have a transformative effect on Serilda. Her clothing might interfere with that. For him, however, there was no reason to disrobe, and several reasons not to, the chill in the air being primary among them.
    With a derisive laugh, she turned on her bare heels and walked to the center of the sigil that was written on the floor.
    “Shall we begin?”
    Rall let out a long breath. Serilda spoke the truth, of course. He had violated every other tenet of faith that he was raised with back home in Hesse, so why be bound by the nudity taboo?
    He held out his