"This is the closest we've come to finding your friend," Ilosovic said to Alice, ignoring the protest evident in her expression at the word "friend." "If we can get more information from our host, we will at least have a clear direction to go."
"Good luck," said Casiphia, draining the last of a large cup of tea—not as good as Tarrant's brew, but warm and strong with refills easy to come by.
"I volunteer Alice," Mallymkun said, resting her chin on the edge of the wooden cup she had been lounging in. "She knows what to ask and she's got a persuasive way about her."
"And I don't?" Casiphia said, injured, but conceding that Alice probably was in fact the best person for the job.
Several moments later they saw Squire Hawthorne enter his tavern, and Tarrant waved him over to their table.
"Will you have a seat with us?" Alice said, moving a bag to the side to make more space on the long wooden bench.
"Fine, and good mornin' to ye," the Squire said, wedging himself between the bench and the table and looking about for someone to bring him breakfast.
"We have found Outland to be most interesting," Alice began, only to be interrupted.
"Lucilda!" the squire shouted across the room. "Breakfast for me, please!"
"One more place setting coming up, sir," Lucilda said, although seeming in no hurry to arrange for that.
"Outland is most interesting," Alice began again. "But we are realizing how very difficult it is to find one person in a country this vast. We would appreciate it greatly if you could tell us more about the red-haired man who absconded with your daughter."
"More likely she absconded with him, to be completely honest," Hawthorne grumbled. "But she wouldn't have done it if he hadn't agreed!"
"He probably didn't realize he had agreed," Alice said.
"What an odd man," the squire observed. "Well then. My wayward daughter has always complained about wanting to see more of Underland. I would expect her to have headed towards Snud or Witzend or even Marmoreal."
"That narrows it down." Ilosovic tapped a knife against the table as if curious to see how far in he could drive it. Casiphia, used to this sort of experiment by now, took the knife neatly away from him and placed it far on her other side.
"When did they leave, do you know?" Alice asked.
"Early mornin', for certain, as she was not here for the morning customers and I had to handle the serving m'self," Hawthorne said, disgruntled. "She's not one for livin' rough, though, so if there's an easy passage back east, they took it."
"The way we came, in other words," Mally said, slumping back down in her cup.
"Now we know there is something at the end of our search," Alice said, betraying the uncertainty she had been keeping to herself about this entire endeavor. "We just need to retrace our steps, and stay alert. He can't be that far away yet, can he?"
"Off we go," Tarrant said, and the travelers said farewell, leaving Squire Hawthorne sitting alone at the table, still waiting on his breakfast.
"We should keep following the river," Stayne said. "Anyone who tried to travel through Outland without that as a guide would be a fool." Alice looked as if she were tempted to say something about her old acquaintance from up above, but did not.
"If they are trying to reach Snud or somesuch," Stayne continued, "they would have to travel upriver. I presume that Hawthorne's daughter, at least, knows which direction she wants to go, even if Hamish does not." Alice looked relieved.
And so the travelers resumed their journey, now reversing their direction. More than once in the past few days Mally had regretted her initial decision to bed down in the Hatter's pack, but now that they were headed back in the general direction of Marmoreal, she was cheered. In her case, "cheered" meant singing drinking songs at the top of her lungs, which were mighty though small. The Hatter was forced before long to stuff her back into his pack and close the flap to dampen the noise.