Free The Ninth Dominion (The Jared Kimberlain Novels) by Jon Land Page A

accepting Kimberlain’s words. On a nearby counter lay a powerful shortwave radio that was Peet’s only contact with the outside world. Kimberlain figured the batteries would probably last him a lifetime.
    “Leeds came to my house,” he continued. “Walked right up to my door and left me a note.”
    “And how do you feel about that?”
    “Violated.”
    “Yes, Ferryman, but not because he invaded your property as much as your mind. Have you forgotten everything you have learned from me, Ferryman? For Leeds the end is without worth. His essence lies in the means. Not the kill, but the chase leading up to it. Only a game, but no fun unless there is someone to play with.”
    “You’re saying he wants me to go after him again.”
    “More, that he expects you to and he wants you disadvantaged by the illusion of his own superiority.”
    “Maybe it’s not an illusion.”
    “And that’s what this is about, isn’t it? For the first time you, the Ferryman, must face someone getting the better of you. If anyone given a whole sack of advantages finds in it not even one grain of humiliation he cannot help making the worst of a good bargain. Leeds has humbled you not once, but twice.”
    “Twice?”
    “A man like Leeds, once beaten, would never taunt the one who bested him. He would taunt him only if he wanted the other to know he had not been bested at all.”
    “Meaning …”
    “We sit within our web, we spiders, and we can catch nothing at all in it except that which allows itself to be caught.”
    “You’re saying I caught Leeds because he wanted to be caught? So he could end up in The Locks?”
    “And now, Ferryman, he is out of The Locks with eighty-three others.”
    “Then he leaves me a note… .”
    “His way of letting you know he was the better all the time.”
    The sense in Peet’s argument was twisted, perverse, but undeniable.
    “Why?” Kimberlain asked.
    “A purpose we cannot see.”
    “Why me, I mean.”
    “Predictability. A great strength but also a profound weakness. There is more, though. Leeds would never have bothered with his taunting visit unless he feared you. You occupy his thoughts because of that fear. Sometimes one attacks an enemy not only so as to harm or overpower him but perhaps to test how strong he is.”
    “He could have just killed me.”
    Peet smiled. “Just as you could have killed me when given an even better opportunity that lifetime ago. Simple, Ferryman. He who lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in seeing that his enemy stays alive. Leeds needs you. You provide him with an object of hate that drives the madness within him.”
    “How can I make that work for me?”
    “By finding his purpose, the truth behind what brought him into The Locks … and what brought him out. It lies in his past, and it is there you must go.”
    “Alone, Peet?”
    The giant’s expression looked suddenly sad. “I’m sorry I cannot help you.”
    “I understand.”
    “Do you?”
    “Enter that void and maybe you revert to the monster you used to be.”
    “Or simply redefine the monster I am now.”
    “So you could have been Tiny Tim?”
    “As easily as you could have.”
    Kimberlain started for the door.
    “You could stay for breakfast,” Peet called after him.
    “I’d better get started,” Kimberlain said, looking back at him.
    “But you’ll come back.”
    “I already have. You gave me your answer, and I accept it. It was wrong of me to come here.”
    “I am here because of you.”
    “A payback, Peet. I owed you. We’re even. We can leave it at that.”
    “We can never leave anything, Ferryman. You swore I was your last hunt, but then Leeds came along. Now Leeds is loose again, and you must take up the chase. And after that you will come here seeking my council with another.”
    “Tiny Tim, Winston?”
    Peet came out of the kitchen area, his huge bulk blocking a measure of the light shining from inside. “We are so much the same, Ferryman. Doomed