Chapter Six

Rory the Suit navigated Wonderland City with the ease of someone who had clearly spent a lot of time running through the elevated streets. As Alice followed behind him, hugging the walls as closely as possible, it was oddly reminiscent of her first trip there. Only instead of chasing a battered leather jacket, it was a dark suit. Her heart panged longingly.

Still, she had to be grateful to Rory. He understood the need to keep a low profile, and he'd led her along a series of mostly unpopulated paths straight through the city centre. "Just up here," he said over his shoulder. They went one more block and reached the familiar old phone box. Alice ran a hand along its cracked glass panes affectionately before looking over.

There was nearly nothing left of the old Tea Shoppe. The marquee had long-since vanished and most of the porch had broken clean off the building front. Alice stumbled over the wreckage as Rory led her inside. The sales floor was in even worse shape than the outside. It looked like it had been gutted down to a skeleton; even parts of the walls had been torn off to reveal the framework beneath it. Mud and dust were caked over everything, and there were a few piles of rubbish scattered at intervals around the floor.

"Camps," Rory said when he saw her looking. "Uprooted Wonderlanders find an empty building to set up in for a few nights. Probably hung around the place hoping to stumble on some Tea. Doesn't look like any of these camps are fresh though." Even as he said it, he adjusted his grip on his handgun.

The office was just as bad. The furniture all appeared to have been used for firewood – despite most of it not being wood at all – and everything else had been ransacked. The grass was trampled into mud and the wildflowers had grown into a thick, scrubby forest. "Looks like whatever you wanted was taken a long time ago," Rory said, nudging aside a hunk of melted plastic with the toe of his shoe.

"No, it's still here," she said confidently. She crossed the room to one of the towering support pillars that stood in front of where the desk had once been. "Because if there's one thing that Hatter's really good at, it's protecting the things that are important to him." She reached up and rapped her knuckles on the panel, listening to the echo. Three more knocks at different heights and she suddenly smiled. "There it is."

Alice picked up a broken chair leg and before Rory could finish forming his startled question, she'd swung it at the wall. The plaster cracked. She hit the spot one more time, and then wedged her fingers into the ridge. It peeled free in big, jagged chunks that shattered on the floor where she dropped them. The hole in the wall revealed an enormous black safe box, which she unlocked with her hairpin the way Hatter had taught her one night when they were bored.

The first thing she saw when she opened it was a worse-for-the-wear straw pork pie hat and the violet coat she'd worn on her last trip to Wonderland. The hat was sitting on top of the coat, which was carefully folded on top of everything and looked exactly the way it had when she'd taken it off all those months ago. She pulled it out and fingered the velvety fabric fondly, finding the little tear on the hem where it had caught on a tree while running from the Jabberwock. There was no hesitation when she put it on over her blouse, and then set the slightly too large hat on her head. It slid down to her ears but there was something oddly comforting about it.

Beneath that were the things she'd actually come for; a handgun with a full clip, a handful of gold coins and rings, a sturdy pocket knife with a proper lock-picking tool. She curiously pawed through the other things. Most of them seemed to be odd little trinkets. There was a pair of china teacups, the painted design faded by time, and one of them was chipped. Two leather-bound books were stacked beneath a little wooden box. When she opened it she saw a tarnished golden locket embellished with a lily blossom. She traced the delicate design of the petals with a fingernail, wondering where it had come from. There was something odd about it, something that made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle in anticipation. Whatever it was it must have been important for Hatter to stash it away. She hung it around her neck and tucked the pendant beneath the collar of her shirt for safe-keeping.

Curious, she flicked through the two books. The first was printed and embellished, and seemed to be full of poems or nursery rhymes. She put it back and opened the other. This one was clearly done by hand, and filled with pages of sketches. There were places – both ones that she recognised and plenty she didn't – and figures. Some were people, some monsters, and some so indistinct she couldn't be sure what they were. However she did recognise the cramped handwriting of the little paragraphs squeezed in between the drawings. Hatter.

It felt like an intrusion of his privacy to look at them, and she nearly put it back in the safe. Then she turned a page and found a hand-drawn map of Wonderland city and the lake area. There were several places shaded in, and off to the side he'd written 'Dangerous.' Decided, she tucked the book into her coat's inside pocket.

She had meant to get a change of clothes for him but there weren't any left in the building. They would have to find them later. "Okay, we can go now," she announced.

Rory didn't ask any questions – although she could see them burning in his eyes – and led her from the building. "Sir Charles has relocated back to the Forest of Wabe," he said, offering her a hand to help her over the crumbled remains of the front porch. "He lived in the castle district for a short while after the Collapse, but then the king had him reassigned to defend the ruins of the Ancient Kingdom and the grave of the Fallen. Personally, I think he did it to make Sir Charles happy. It was pretty obvious he didn't like the city much. Either that, or he did it so Sir Charles would stop talking so much."

Alice chuckled at the thought. She could just imagine the senile old knight yammering on until the king's ears bled. Honestly it seemed not only possible but highly probable. She imagined Hatter's response to that – probably some sarcastic ribbing that would leave Charlie huffing indignantly and calling him a lot of insulting names that made no sense. The thought sent a pain through her chest so strong that she had to blink hard to contain her worry.

"Do you know who Gryphon is?" she asked the back of Rory's head.

"Heard of him, but I've never actually met him, at least as far as I know," he responded. "I always thought he was something of a myth. Why?" His brow furrowed as he looked over his shoulder at her. "You said that the Hatter had been taken. Is it the Gryphon who took him?"

Alice nodded and anxiously toyed with the sleeves of her coat. "Do you know anything about him?"

"Well I do know one thing," Rory said and he turned to face her completely. "If he had been hired to kill, he would've done it then and there. Which means whoever wanted the Hatter wants him alive. He's out there, Lady Alice. We'll find him."

The smallest of smiles touched her face at Rory's earnestness. "Thank you."

Rory smiled in silent acknowledgement. "This way," he said. "We're nearly there." Two more blocks and a very tall ladder put them at the top of a wide building. The roof had been cleared and parked along the opposite edge was a line of Flamingos.

"Oh no," Alice moaned, coming to an abrupt stop.

Rory paused, already halfway to the Flamingos. "What is it?" he asked in confusion.

"I just have a thing about heights," she admitted.

"Oh." Rory hesitated and stared at the Flamingos critically. "I'm sorry, milady, but this is the fastest way. The Ancient Kingdom is on the other side of the lake. If we go by foot it'll take at least an extra day, maybe more."

"I know," Alice said. "Just – give me a second."

"Of course," he agreed. "When you're ready." He walked over to one of the Flamingos and gave the mechanics a quick check before boarding. Alice took a deep breath and pulled the coat tighter around herself. She could do this. Anything to get her Hatter back safely.

Before she could lose her nerve, she jogged over and climbed on behind Rory. He seemed startled – there were three more perfectly functional Flamingos parked there – but when she said, "Go," he nodded and hit the red button. The Flamingo took off with a lurch. Alice's false bravado fled as they soared off into the open air above the lake. She fisted one hand in Rory's jacket, clinging on for dear life, and the other she used to stop Hatter's hat from flying off her head.

She wouldn't have heard Rory's laughter if her face hadn't been buried in his back. "You weren't kidding," he teased lightly, steadying the Flamingo over an updraft.

"Shut up," she snapped into his jacket.

Even though the trip was short and much smoother than any of her previous trips, she couldn't help but sigh in relief when they landed on a stretch of beach beside the forest. It took a second to regain control of her legs, and then she looked around. They weren't exactly opposite the city, but she could no longer see the castle district behind the towering city skyline.

"It's straight into the sunset from here," Rory said, fixing his jacket.

"How can you tell?" Alice asked. The beach and the trees all looked the same to her in every direction.

In response, Rory pointed at a large rock sunken into the beach. A few steps further there was another, and then another not far above that. "From down here it just looks like a bunch of rocks, but if you look at it from above, it's an arrow," he explained. "That way you can only find the spot if you're on a Flamingo. If you'd looked around you would've seen it up there. Keeps Sir Charles safer. We know how to find him but no one else does."

Now that he'd said it, she could follow the line of stones up to where it forked into a point. "That's brilliant," she said.

"Thanks," Rory said and grinned.

"It was your idea?" she asked.

"Hidden messages are sort of a specialty of mine," he said and a pleased flush had crossed his cheeks. "It was part of the job working for the Rebellion." He tugged at the knot in his tie and then nodded toward the forest. "We should get going before we start losing light. Don't want to run into a Jabberwock in the dark."

"I don't really want to run into one in the light either, if we can avoid it," Alice added but she followed as he climbed up the slope into the trees.

She couldn't stop herself from musing on how similar this situation was to her last Wonderland visit. Her boyfriend had been kidnapped and she'd chased him here. The first line of hope had fallen through – Dodo the last time, and Jack now. And just like then, she was now wandering through the forest with a charming, if strange, man. She was starting to wonder if this was going to become a pattern; she gets attached to a guy and he gets kidnapped away to Wonderland.

But why did they take Hatter? Jack she could understand; the rebel Prince of Hearts and all. But Hatter? Maybe he was some kind of royalty. She nearly laughed at the absurdity of that but it caught in her throat. There were so many things she didn't know about him, especially about his past. For all she knew, he very well could be some sort of duke or earl.

None of that mattered though. She didn't care why he was here. She was going to find him and they were going home. Anyone who thought otherwise would answer to her.

They had been walking for what Alice figured was about an hour when a loud, harsh cry split the air, making them both jump. Rory had pulled his gun but Alice laughed. "We're getting close," she said.

"You recognise the area?" Rory asked.

"Not at all," she answered. "But you just set off one of Charlie's proximity alarms." She knelt down and fingered the length of twine on the ground at his feet. "It warns him when people are in the area."

"That's clever," Rory said. He was following the twine to where it ran through a tangle of roots and then shot off deeper into the forest. "I always thought he was a bit mad."

Alice chuckled. "He is," she agreed. "But isn't everyone here?" She caught the smirk that flashed on Rory's face. "We should watch our step though. He's probably put in even more traps since he's come back."

She'd no sooner finished the sentence then something closed around her ankle. Her leg was yanked out from beneath her and she collided with Rory before she was hefted into the air by her foot. All of the blood rushed to her head as she dangled there upside-down, her ankle burning painfully.

"Lady Alice!" Rory yelped in alarm, clambering back to his feet. Standing, they were eye-to-eye. "Are you all right?"

Ignoring him as he bobbed around, trying to figure out how to get her down, she raised her voice and hollered. "Charlie!"

A few seconds later she heard the returned bellow of "Intruders!" The clanking of metal armour was intermingled with cries of "Rapscallions! Encroachers! Desecrators! Bug badgers!"

"Charlie!" she yelled again, cupping her hands to make it louder. "It's me!"

"Impossible!" The clanging redoubled and it didn't take long before she spotted the white-and-silver figure darting through the trees toward them. "Alice-of-Legend?"

"It's just Alice," she replied and despite her situation she smiled. "Now could you get me down? My ankle really hurts."

"Just-Alice!" he cheered and approached. He swung his sword at the backside of the nearest tree and Alice felt herself falling. Rory broke her fall – by crumpling beneath her – and they got up gingerly. Her ankle was sore and rope-burnt but didn't feel broken or dislocated when she stood on it. She scooped Hatter's hat from the ground and placed it back on her head before facing the White Knight in front of her.

Charlie was red-faced and puffing from running, but his expression was lit excitedly. He still looked the same, from his battered armour to his whimsical beard, and only the addition of a few more lines showed the passage of time. He surveyed her appraisingly before enveloping her in a hug that she returned enthusiastically.

"Oh dearest Just-Alice," he said gleefully. "It is an alignment of the stars that brings you to me again. I did believe that we would not meet again in my life, but here you are. It is Fate!"

"I've missed you too," she replied. It was only now, looking into his youthfully sharp gaze, that she realised how much she had missed the energetic knight.

"And what of the Harbinger?" he asked and looked around expectantly. His eyes fell on Rory and then frowned. "Did he not accompany you?"

Alice felt her strength waver at the disappointment in Charlie's expression. "That's why I'm here," she said. "I need your help. Hatter's been taken."

Something flashed in Charlie's gaze and he drew himself up, full of righteous indignation. "Someone has stolen the Harbinger? I will not stand for such insolence, not so long as it is my job to defend these lands!" He frowned and looked around suspiciously. "Come, we should retire to safer quarters before speaking further."

Rory trailed just behind him as Charlie led the way through the trees with Alice at his side, holding his arm for balance as her sore ankle panged. "Who is this vassal?" Charlie asked, glancing at Rory.

"Rory Capricorn, sir," the Suit offered. "I was asked by his majesty to accompany Lady Alice."

Charlie looked to Alice pointedly. "You trust him?"

Alice hesitated slightly. Trust wasn't something she handed out readily. In fact, she could count the number of people she completely trusted on one hand with fingers still left over. But there was something about Rory, something about that familiar spark in his eyes... "He's on our side," she said finally.

The old knight nodded and his hand slipped from the hilt of his sword. "What's got you so paranoid?" she asked uncertainly.

"A knight is never paranoid," he huffed. "A knight merely knows when it is best to err to the side of caution, for the safety and protection of all."

"Sorry," she said to assuage him. "So why the extra caution?"

"We don't want to be overheard," he replied. "They're listening. All around us, always with an ear turned toward voice in the hopes of discovering a hidden word."

"Who?" Rory pressed.

"The trees, of course," Charlie said with an overly-dramatic twirl of his hand. "The trees are whispering again; telling secrets on the breeze and loosing our words to the skies. We cannot risk being overheard in case they carry our voices to the enemy."

Rory and Alice exchanged sceptical glances behind the knight's back, but didn't dare argue it with him. She'd learnt before that there was no reasoning with him once he'd put his mind to something, no matter how mad that something was.

Charlie's camp looked radically different than it had before. A huge rectangle of land had been cleared of plants and there were little wooden circles set into the ground at intervals. It didn't take much imagination to figure out what she was seeing. "A graveyard," she breathed in awe.

"The final resting place of the Knights of Wonderland," Charlie said.

"Did you do all of this on your own?" Alice asked.

"It was only right that I carry the burden, since it was I who disturbed their rest," the knight said solemnly. "I gave them the proper burials that they deserved."

"This must have taken you months," Rory said, eyes wide as they swept over the expanse.

"Time well spent," was Charlie's mournful reply. He straightened himself up and gestured them further on. At the far edge of the cemetery was a campsite that looked more similar to the way she remembered. The fire was fuelled by his strange bellows machine and the cages of his proximity alarms were set at the corners of the camp, the crows shifting around inside. "This is a place of safety, we may speak freely," he said and he grunted wearily as he sat down on a stump. "These trees are allies of the King. They will not betray us."

"What do you mean about the trees? Trees can't talk," Rory said in confusion.

"Do you question my integrity?" Charlie rebutted a bit aggressively. "You would not remember; it was in the times long before even the time of your parents. But I remember from when I was just a child. They used to sing, glorious, wonderful songs all day long. The trees, the flowers, the water. The world was polluted after the Queen of Hearts stole the throne, and when the King and his court were taken from this world the magic left with them. But they are waking up, I can hear them. Which means that the magic is coming back."

"Is that even possible?" Alice asked.

Charlie fidgeted his jaw, making his twisted beard sway from side-to-side. "It would seem so." They all fell into silence as they mused over this. Alice couldn't believe what she was hearing. As far as she'd been able to tell, there was no magic to this world. Apart from maybe the Looking Glass, everything that she'd seen was nothing but science. Impossible science, but science none-the-less. Hatter had told her himself that magic had died from the world decades ago. Was Charlie being crazy again? Or was there more to this world than she had known, things that made it more like the world from the books her father had read to her as a child?

"So tell me, Just-Alice," Charlie started and patted her knee, "what is this ill fate that has befallen the Harbinger?"

"He was kidnapped," Alice said. "By someone named Gryphon. He's somewhere here in Wonderland, but we don't know where. You can find anyone, can't you? You even found me when I was inside my own head. Can you find Hatter?"

"Anything for you, Alice-of-Legend," Charlie said firmly. He stood up and touched his temples, shooting her a knowing look from beneath his hectic eyebrows. "After all, as you know, I am most proficient in the Black Arts."