said nothing, and merely glared at Thalia. She felt his disapproving stare between her shoulder blades as she walked away from him toward Ryker’s Pierce-Arrow. When that doorman looked at a person, she reflected, a person stayed looked at. She felt as if she were being watched by a small crowd, not just one tall man in a uniform. She wondered if he might secretly be Sylvestri too.
To Thalia’s surprise, Aristides was missing from the front passenger seat. “Where is Aristides?” As Thalia put her hand on the door, the overwhelming sense of something wrong descended upon her. The hand that was touching the door had gone pins and needles. Thalia felt herself watched. This was no disapproving doorman. This was far stronger. She felt as if someone were gloating over her discomfort.
“He said he smelled something.” Ryker opened the door and beckoned her inside. “Shall we leave without him?”
Something moved behind her. Thalia ducked her head, preparing to throw herself into the relative shelter of the car, just as Aristides’ voice called out sharply, “Get down.”
A shotgun fired, both barrels. Thalia distinctly felt something brush at her skirts. She wasn’t sure if it was shotgun pellets or something even worse. Through the ringing in Thalia’s ears there came a sound like someone dropping an extremely large sack of potatoes.
In the struggle to join Ryker in the car, Thalia’s hat had come askew, blocking her vision entirely. She clawed it aside and looked.
On the pavement beside the car lay the manticore. This one had been in a different stage of transformation. Its body was shaped like a lion, if lions had claws like razors front and back. It had the head and shoulders of a man, so hairy it was almost furred. It smelled bad in exactly the same way her first dead manticore had.
Tycho Aristides, the Skinner of Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs, stood over the dead manticore and put fresh cartridges in his shotgun with finicking care.
Thalia felt dizzy with relief. This time there had been no accompanying compulsion to Trade. Maybe she was actually making progress in controlling her Trades. “Where were you?”
“Right where I was meant to be, watching for you to come out.” Aristides slung the shotgun over his shoulder and rolled the carcass on its side to go after the gallbladder.
“Thank you.” Thalia took her place in the backseat, glad to sit quietly while her knees felt so watery. Belatedly, she remembered the pistol in her reticule. On the whole, she was glad she’d left it there. They’d caused enough stir without her shooting holes in something. Or someone. As things stood, Aristides had all the fuss well in hand. “Thanks for the help.”
“You have to admit.” Aristides looked up from his gory work with a crooked smile. “I get results.”
* * *
Once Aristides had consigned the manticore to the authorities and returned to his seat in the motorcar, Ryker finally started the engine and turned for home. Thalia leaned forward to speak in his ear. “I have another errand. This one is downtown.”
After emitting a wordless hoot of exasperation, Ryker set their course southward. “Of course you have. Where to, madame?”
Thalia gave him the Sixth Avenue address of the Ostrova Magic Company, and as she’d expected, Ryker recognized it without her adding the name of the business. “What are you planning to do?”
“Take me there and find out,” Thalia countered.
“Where are we going?” Aristides demanded. “I still need to go collect my reward, you know.”
“Nutall gave me an idea. I have some questions to ask at the Ostrova Magic Company.”
“That makes sense.” Aristides settled down in the front passenger seat. He looked entirely relaxed, but Thalia noticed he kept a sharp eye on their surroundings as Ryker exploited every gap in the traffic.
“You aren’t going to order anything for your stage act, are you?” Ryker inquired.
“If I have to, I will.”
“Try to restrain yourself. Nell is already sorry to miss this little promenade. If she misses a chance to meet and do business with Madame Ostrova as well, she will certainly feel hurt that we left her out.”
“You never took her there?” Thalia answered her own question. “Of course you didn’t.” Given that Ryker had done his level best to discourage his sister’s interest in the stage, he would never risk letting her make Madame Ostrova’s acquaintance.
Thalia could understand his reasoning. Nell would adore Madame Ostrova. It was likely that Madame Ostrova would take to Nell in return. Ryker was probably wise to