Edgar listened to Crow with growing impatience.  The creature was too flighty in general, but now things were worse.  He looked around and about and clacked and shuffled and hopped and in general drove Edgar a little crazy.  He finally shut his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at Crow; sadly it did nothing for listening to his speech or hearing him hop about in the tree. Edgar didn't blame Crow; things were all askew in the Tangle now, but that didn't stop him from wincing.  It only got worse when the Lily added on.  Edgar felt this way about most things that flew, they had no solidity or grounding.  Their speech, their thought patterns, even their movement was, to him, too unsettled to actually accomplish anything.  Lily was a prime example, flying about like a maniac and ranting at a woman who likely didn't give a mouse fart about the Farie's righteous indignation.    

“Yes lets all squabble like human children.  That always proves effective.” he grumbled to no one in particular and then proceeded to pay no attention to whatever else was being said.  

He walked around talking absently to the small pebble on his shoulder as he did so.   For those who couldn't hear the rock reply it was a very odd sort of conversation...   

“Yes I can see that for myself”
“Of course I can see it's not there, what do you think we are here to do?”
“No,  Others are missing too.”

He walked around Gobblydegook a little more looking closer at her and the ground around and then peering intently into the cavity that once held her heart.  Indeed he held his eye so close it was a wonder he could actually see anything inside.  He suddenly grabbed his stone staff in both hands, lifted it over his head, and swung it hard toward Gobbldygook, looking for all the world like he intended to shatter the petrified queen.  He stopped a hair's breadth away and shook his head. 

“Well if that had been true that should have done it.”
“No I can't”
“Well take a look for yourself!”

His tone had gotten more and more annoyed and irritated he picked the pebble up and set it on the lip of the hole, looking for all the world like he was holding the pebble there so it could see too. 

He suddenly turned towards Lily and Leaza interrupting them before Leaza could respond to the little fairie's tirade.  

“Shut up!” he snapped.  “I can barely hear George speak, and that is quite a feat since he's talking directly into my mind.” 

He snapped around on his heel to look at the others, a lecture already forming on the tip of his tongue.

“It is stupid not to suspect someone because you don't want to suspect them, and it is stupid to suspect someone just because you don't like them.  Anyone here could be the culprit, particularly me since few can understand the stone.  And even I can't fully imagine what it would be like to have the power to meld another with stone, I suppose I would try to meld myself first since I'm the only one who really enjoys talking with the rock these days.  Of course if any one of you bothered to listen it's not a difficult feat to understand the rock around you.  At least not for anyone who has a brain not made of feathers and air.  You live in a world of stone, above beside and below you, yet you cannot be bothered to learn about it or how it lives with you. There is so much understanding to be had if anyone would bothered to work for it.  But just like the youth these days no one wants to put for the effort.   You don't even care who you damage as you clump about, you break rocks willy-nilly when they are in your way to carve the damn tunnels when a simple request and the rocks would likely move out of your way.  You track dirt over everything like it doesn't have any feelings, you might as well pour raw sewage on a person, see how they enjoy it.  Nobody cares for the stone these days, wouldn't surprise me one bit if soon the stone does not care for you.”

He stopped abruptly and realized he had been going off on a tangent lecture.  

“Bah, I forgot what I was going to say.”

He started to stomp off and then turned back and grabbed George from the cavity in Gobblydegook's chest.  He didn't want to leave his friend behind.  It was that movement that reminded him of what he wanted to ask.

“We shall of course go speak with Blue Hare and Jackdaw, and in the most expedient manner.  But I wonder....tell me Crow...is it at all possible that the queen's heart simply ran off?”  He pointed at the hole in the ground as he asked.  “You have mentioned what you have seen, what about what you haven't seen?  Namely is there such a similar lack of dirt and earth below the other petrified denizens?”