Katrina laughed, and all eyes suddenly turned to her. “You are cursed, Master Crane? You are the reason this past year has been so hard? How ungracious, after all we have done for you. But there is still time to make amends.” Her blue eyes flashed as she pointed one long finger at me. “Capture him. We will burn him, and rid Sleepy Hollow of the pestilence he has wrought upon us!”
My body went icy cold. I was suddenly aware of being surrounded on all sides; even the servants were now blocking the door to the kitchen behind me. I still thought that to be my best option, so I turned and made a mad dash for the kitchen doorway. I was hopelessly too slow. The crowd surged, and my arms were grabbed. My jacket was torn from me in the scuffle, and several blows landed upon my face and my torso, forcing the air from me. I spun, catching myself against the mantle with my forehead. A skull grinned back at me from the decorations there, this one older than the one I remembered from last year, with a slightly twisted front tooth. And then hands were upon me in my dazed state, dragging me away, my heart pounding in my ears, blood trickling from the cut above my eyebrow.
The villagers hauled me outside into the night, the cool air and darkness a sudden shock to my system after the warmth and brightness of the house. Orders were shouted about, but I could hear almost none of it over the sound of my own heartbeat and the blood surging in my ears. I tried to struggle, but my limbs were held fast. I vaguely wondered what time it was. It still had to be several hours until midnight, I thought.
My hands and legs were threaded through a ladder that someone had grabbed, tying them painfully in place so I could not move. I tried to shake the blood from my forehead to at least see what was befalling me. A pile of wood and old furniture was being assembled in the middle of the Van Tassel front yard. I could feel myself shaking as I looked around for a friendly face in the crowd. Someone, anyone, who might be willing to offer me assistance, but I found none, even amongst the children who stared at the whole proceeding from behind their mothers’ skirts. My eyes found Katrina, and she smiled coldly at me. “You might have saved yourself so much suffering, Ichabod Crane,” she said as several men grabbed the ladder with my prostrate form and hauled it to the makeshift pyre, tossing me gracelessly atop of it. My limbs ached and throbbed; I was sure at least one of my left wrist bones was broken.
“The magic that protects Sleepy Hollow demands a blood sacrifice!” Katrina said, her voice rising above the din. “It was denied that sacrifice last year, and, good friends and neighbors, we all suffered for it. But now we may right the wrongs of this past year by spilling the blood that was meant to bless us!”
A cheer rose from the crowd. Several torches were lifted into my vision, and I knew I was white as a ghost, watching their flames sputter and dance. I could not move, only lie atop the pile of kindling, staring above me at the dark sky dotted with endless lines of diamond stars. The first torch was touched to the base, and I heard the crackling of dry wood catching. Several torches flew, landing next to me, one so precariously close to my arm that I could feel its flames licking at my shirtsleeve, threatening to consume it for the meat underneath.
The scream of an angry horse and the thunder of hooves sounded through the night, followed by screams, and a crash. I felt the earth suddenly shift from atop my funeral pyre, and I dropped, the ladder hitting the earth with a thud that made every bone in my body ache. The horse roared again, and I heard the hard, wet thump of steel meeting flesh. Chaos was all around me, a foot catching me in the jaw and knocking me senseless.
Familiar, black boots hit the dirt in front of me, and Reiter was there, pulling a knife from his belt and slicing the ropes that bound me to the ladder. I cried out when my broken wrist came free, and I saw his shoulders stiffen with rage. People were scattering around us, and I could see several figures sprawled upon the ground, though what their condition was, I did not know.
I could see fire starting to lick its way across the grass from where it had been scattered by the pyre’s destruction. Reiter scooped me up and leaped upon Daredevil’s back, holding me to his chest in front of him on the saddle as he gave the horse a kick, and Daredevil sprinted for the woods, scattering villagers left and right in his wake.
Reiter’s head on the pommel addressed me as the hooves carried us further from the Van Tassel farm. “Are you all right, Ichabod?”
“I’ll be fine,” I groaned.
“The skull was not there,” Reiter said, slowing Daredevil a bit as we plunged into the dark foliage of the forest. “I searched the entire cellar, but I could not find it.”
My heart felt heavy in my chest at the words. Our mission was a failure. Reiter had saved me from a fiery death, but in only a few short hours, the last of my soul would be drained from my body by Katrina’s magic, and I would be dead, leaving him alone once more. “I’m so sorry, Ichabod,” he said, holding me close.
I gazed down into his face, studying every line of it. I lifted his head up with my hands, placing a gentle kiss on it. I felt tears on my cheeks, though I did not know if they came from me or him. As we pulled back, my eye caught something. The slightly twisted front tooth of his, and my brain snapped together with renewed vigor. “I know where your skull is!” I gasped.
He stared at me in confusion. “What?”
“It is on the mantle,” I replied firmly. “I saw it before they dragged me out. We have to go back!”
“You’re not safe there,” Reiter said.
“I’m going to die soon if we don’t kill Katrina,” I said. “Please. We have to try.”
Reiter hesitated, then nodded his assent. I kissed him again firmly before placing him back on the pommel, and he wheeled Daredevil around to charge back through the dark forest toward the Van Tassel estate.
We could hear the crowd before we could see it. One of the burning pieces from the pile had caught the barn, full of hay and feed, and it was a blazing inferno now. I saw the horses and cows and other animals gathered around the field as we approached, and villagers were tossing bucket after bucket of water onto the ground between the barn and the house to try to prevent the flames from spreading to the manor. I looked around for Katrina or Brom, but I could not see them in the chaos. The smoke was thick, and my throat and lungs already burned as we reached the edge of the trees.
“I am going in there with you,” Reiter said as we approached the house, and I decided not to argue with him. I was in no shape to fight off anyone. He sprang down from Daredevil’s back and helped me down before muttering something to the horse and then giving his flank a light smack. Daredevil whinnied, and then he was charging into the crowd of villagers, scattering them like ninepins.
Reiter and I dashed through the main door of the house and into the large parlor where the festivities had been occurring. The table still sat there, covered in all of its finery, though a few chairs and other things had been upended in the struggle to drag me outside earlier. I could see the skull still sitting on the mantlepiece amidst its decorations of sunflowers and tiny gourds. I raced for it, then stopped short as Baltus came at me out of the kitchen. He held a long, gleaming blade in his hand, and I realized that it was one of the swords that the American soldiers had used in their fights against English only a few years ago during the war. He swung it at me ferociously, obviously not skilled with it, but it still was plenty dangerous to drive me back and away from the mantle.
Reiter leaped in front of me, his knife out, and I heard the clash of steel as it met Baltus’s sword. I lunged again for the fireplace, just as the monstrous gargoyle form of Brom Bones smashed through the front window and thundered toward me. Smoke poured in through the broken glass, immediately making my eyes water and sting. I braced myself as his bulk slammed into me, and I went flying into the chairs that were lining the room. My back slammed into the stone wall, driving the air from my lungs in a gasp, my body aching in pain. Brom’s drooling mouth dipped and clamped onto the bicep of my right arm, stone fangs sinking deep into the muscle. I screamed as the agony flooded me.
Reiter’s body turned to look at me, and Baltus plunged the sword into Reiter’s chest, all the way to the hilt. I think I screamed again as Reiter staggered a step backward, my vision going blurry from Brom’s jaws around me. Reiter reached up and yanked the sword from his chest, flipping it deftly in his grip before lunging and slashing across Baltus’s throat. The old man’s head tipped back, not completely severed from his body, but blood sprayed across the fancy linens and sumptuous feast. He dropped to his knees, catching the tablecloth as he did. Platters and delicacies tumbled to the ground around him as he fell upon his face and lay still in a spreading puddle of dark red blood.
With a snarl, Brom leaped at Reiter, taking him to the ground. The two scuffled, and I heard the clatter of something metallic. Through my blurred vision and the legs of the bench in front of me, I saw Reiter’s dagger on the ground as he grappled with Brom. I heard the crunch of bone and saw Brom’s jaw close around Reiter’s ribs. Acting on pure adrenaline, I scrambled over the bench, my hands slick with blood. I caught the knife in my right hand and stabbed it at Brom’s unprotected side. The blade glanced off of his stone hide, and he whirled on me, red eyes glowing, fangs bared in a crimson-tinged snarl.
Reiter shoved his gloved hands into Brom’s mouth, behind his fangs, and yanked in opposite directions. Brom gurgled and howled, kicking and thrashing, dragging Reiter around the floor, but the Horseman held firm to his locked position around Brom’s jaw. I looked to see if I could do anything to help, but the smoke was so thick inside now that I was struggling to breathe. I ran for the mantle and snatched up the skull from atop it. It felt lighter than I expected, with only the bones to it, and I turned back again just as Reiter put a burst of supernatural strength into his arms and ripped the lower jaw almost completely off of the gargoyle. Brom screamed, flopping about on the floor. Reiter pushed to his knees, grabbed the sword from where it had fallen, and plunged it straight down into the roof of Brom’s gaping mouth. The creature went completely still, and then crumbled to dust at his feet.
I tried to call out to him, but I started coughing as the smoke permeated the room. I could hear crackling and feel heat nearby. I was sure the flames had spread to the house now. My eyes stung so much I couldn’t even see, and I groped blindly around for anything at all.
Reiter’s arms went around me, his jacket pulled up and over my head, and he quickly led me through the kitchen door. I felt an immediate temperature change when we stepped outside into the cool night. He kept me moving as I coughed and choked until we were some distance from the house, before he laid me on the grass. I sucked in deep lungfuls of night air, swiping at my face with a blood-soaked arm. Reiter hovered over me, his hands examining my wounds. I felt something sharp against my finger, and I realized I was still clutching the skull I had grabbed from the mantle. I held it out to him, still coughing, my eyes stinging.
He reached for it, but something struck him in the back, and his cloak ignited with flame. He reeled off of me, rolling across the grass, and I lifted my head to see Katrina standing nearby. Her blond hair was pulling wildly free from her braid, and her dress was smudged with soot and ash and blood. She opened her mouth to screech, revealing rows of razor-sharp pointed teeth. I saw her collect a ball of flame in her hand, and I braced myself for another fiery ending. She threw the fireball, but not at me as I expected. Instead, it struck the skull I dropped when Reiter had rolled off of me, and the entire thing exploded in a shower of orange flame.
Icy cold fear gripped me as I watched Reiter suddenly go completely limp on the ground, more still than I had ever seen him before. “No!” I knew he was gone before the strangled gasp even left my mouth. I crawled over to him, placing my hand on his chest, as if I expected to feel a heartbeat where there never had been one anyway. Anguish rocked through me, more painful than anything Katrina’s magic had done, until my entire body was melting in agony hotter than the flames that burned behind me.
