King of the Woods, or Trivial Pursuit

Part 58 - Cestus

A tapestry of shining eyes guided Ray through darkness to the grove where the King of the Woods awaited. He walked among mountain lions and goats, coyotes and turtles, serpents and herons, touching fur and scale and feather. Cardinals and kingfishers heralded his arrival, joined by butterflies whose wings awed like cathedral windows.

Roosevelt bowed his head as Ray passed. Wilson doffed his trilby. Audubon offered him a cigarette and a smile; he returned the former. The silent audience made him feel less like a challenger making his way to the ring and more like a corpse peering through the windows of a hearse at all the commuters his death had inconvenienced. Except he had made Trivia laugh at the last funeral he'd gone to, and this time she wouldn't even look at him.

At the edge of the grove he said, "I'm ready," but no one responded. He looked back; they had not forbidden him from looking back. No beast or bird or crawling thing remained in the unforgiving forest, nor did any folk. He recognized it as a trick, a glamour, like one-way glass for all the senses; they still watched, but he could not perceive them, even when he cocked his head sideways. No interference meant no warnings or encouragement.

Frazer paced around the white fringetree, wide-eyed, gripping his wide leather belt. He had wrapped it, buckle facing out, around his fist like a cestus. So much for fighting unarmed. Then again, if the rule against weapons applied too broadly, Ray would have had to fight Frazer naked, and nobody wanted that.

He made it to the circle of standing stones without being seen; he had not intended to be sneaky, but his footsteps barely disturbed the grass. "Jim," he said.

Frazer jumped at the sound and raised his fists like a boxer. "Ray? What happened to your face?"

"I punched myself shaving. Is Byron alright?" Ray kept his arms at his sides, but he squeezed the bottle hard enough to hurt his fingers.

Frazer lowered his fists. "He's fine. I checked on him after that cop ran after you. Made sure he wasn't hurt too bad."

Ray released a breath he had held unknowingly. He couldn't afford to trust Frazer, but Huntsman had said the same thing about Byron.

"Ray, you have to help me. That girl and her friends are crazy. They said I killed their friends."

Children. He killed children too young to walk or crawl, but not to scream. But anger wouldn't accomplish anything. Ray tried for a calm tone of voice and settled for flat affect. "Their friends lived in the forests you burned down. They have every reason to want you dead."

He pointed to the assembled folk, whom neither he nor Frazer could see. Frazer looked at the empty forest and at him like he was crazy. He was beginning to wonder himself.

"I know what you did, Jim. I saw you buy gas at the Kangaroo station, and I found the salvage forms from your office. You left fingerprints on the bottle of lighter fluid at the last arson site." Probably.

Frazer lowered his voice and walked closer. "Ok, I set some fires, but no one died. No one even got hurt. My Rangers would have told me."

"Listen to me carefully," Ray said. "The people that kidnapped you are all around us, right now, watching and listening. You just can't see them."

"Bullshit." Frazer stole a glance at the forest's edge.

"I'm a terrible liar. You said so yourself."

Frazer studied the trees. "Are they wearing camo? What do they want with me?"

"You are the King of the Woods, but you don't care what happens out here. Everything goes to shit if the King isn't connected to the land. That's why the people that kidnapped you want you gone, and it's why Tallahassee installed you; they want the forest to suffer."