The shotgun went off, but Thalia’s attack had spoiled Rogers’ aim. The noise seemed thunderous to her, but Thalia felt no pain, no scatter of buckshot.
Rogers had fired a blank shotgun cartridge, a distant part of Thalia’s mind realized. That bit of good news did nothing to abate her swan fury. Thalia let the instinct to attack run free. She was hissing and striking with her beak even as her wings punished Rogers. He dropped the shotgun and scrambled away from her, fleeing down the back hallway to vanish behind the door to the servants’ quarters.
Thalia remained poised in the center of the hallway. There was no room to fly properly, but although her fear was ebbing, plenty of fight remained. Ready to meet another attack, she held her ground.
From a spot halfway up the staircase, Nell called down. “It’s all right, Thalia. Don’t blame him. It was all my idea. Rogers would never hurt you.”
Thalia hissed to show what she thought of that and waddled back to stand over the abandoned shotgun.
Ryker and half the rest of the household came running. Rogers emerged cautiously and took shelter among them. Ryker adjusted his spectacles. “Nell, what have you done?”
“What needed to be done.” Nell descended a few more stairs and addressed Thalia again. “You can Trade back any time. Just try.”
Thalia’s instincts told her to spread her wings and hiss at Nell again, so she did. Nell went back up the stairs two hasty steps. The swan in Thalia’s nature felt fierce satisfaction.
As both her swan and her human halves calmed, Thalia was better able to distinguish the two. Thalia’s swan was always there, she realized, waiting inside her for a chance to hiss and strike at the threats that filled the world around her. Thalia let her human understanding that she was safe and among friends soothe the swan within. The swan, little by little, calmed down.
When Thalia reached the point where the need to groom her feathers became irresistible, she let her guard drop completely and yielded to the urge.
Nell came the rest of the way down the stairs and stood beside her brother, who had sent the servants away. They watched in silence as Thalia worked. Finally, when the last feather was in place, Thalia let her other half shoulder the swan aside. Slowly, carefully, she Traded back and found herself human, huddled on the hallway carpet three feet away from her forgotten letter.
“Welcome back,” said Nell.
Thalia, yielding to impulse, hissed at them.
“Not funny.” Ryker pointed back the way Thalia had come. “Back to the nursery with you.”
“I Traded.” Thalia sprang to her feet. “I Traded back.”
Ryker shook his head. “Only because you thought you were going to be killed. You need to be able to Trade when you want to, only because you want to do it.”
“Don’t you ever stop giving advice?” Thalia replied tartly.
“Never, so long as your life depends on it. We are all on the same side, remember? You also need to be able to keep from Trading when the circumstances warrant. If we let you go now, you would be easy meat for a manticore. The moment you met one, your fear would drive you to Trade. The manticore would consume your magic and leave you to die.”
“First you won’t let me leave because I can’t Trade. Now that I can, you’ll keep me here because I can’t help Trading.”
“Exactly.” Ryker gestured at the nursery door again. “Believe me, the moment you pass your ordeal, I will let you go. I don’t like giving lectures any more than you like listening to them.”
Thalia found her letter to Nutall on the floor outside the nursery. She retrieved it and held it out to Nell. “Post this for me, please.”
Nell accepted the letter. “I will, gladly.”
Ryker regarded his sister sternly. “Yes, do that. But first, apologize to our guest for your bad behavior. I’m disappointed in you.”
“But it worked,” Nell protested.
Ryker glared at her. Nell put her chin up and glared back. When she had won that staring contest, she dropped her defiant air and turned to Thalia. “I am sorry, truly. I can’t say I didn’t mean to frighten you, because I did. But it was rude of me. I regret it.”
Thalia said, “All right.”
Nell went on. “It wasn’t fair to make Rogers be my cat’s-paw, either. I’ll go apologize to him, too.”
“You’ve left just one thing out of this apology,” Ryker prompted.