Eve of Destruction (23 page)

“I thought all the temples were abandoned,” Eve said.

“You don’t need to throw on a robe and sit by an altar to heal someone, dear,” Polard scoffed. “Just because the Sisters all ran away scared doesn’t mean I’m going to. Like I said, I’m stubborn.”

“And Simon’s aware of this?” Danev asked. “He hasn’t tried to stop you?”

Polard snorted. “Are you kidding? He’s smarter than he seems from all those insipid pamphlets you find everywhere. He knows he needs to stay on my good side. How many people do you really think he’d get to work for him if they knew how dangerous it was?”

Danev cocked an eyebrow. “So you work for him directly?”

“He pays the bills,” Polard said with a shrug.

Eve clenched her hands together in her lap. “He’s the one who killed my mother.”

The man frowned. “What?”

“He hired assassins to kill her,” Eve told him. “Then he sent them after me. They’ve been chasing us across the country and—”

 “You didn’t fill her head with this nonsense, did you?” Polard asked Danev with a pointed stare. “I know you and Simon had a falling out, but you can’t seriously believe he would do anything to harm Tara or her family.”

“Have you not been paying attention to this campaign the last few months?” Zach countered. “He’s basically advocating blood on the streets.”

“Goddess save us from the young and the ignorant,” Polard grunted breathlessly. “I know you’re hurting right now, but you can’t blame one man for the actions of some lunatics on the other side of the country.”

For a moment Zach wondered if Eve might leap out of her chair at him. Her eyes simmered, and her hands clenched and unclenched in her lap...  

“Look, it’s nice to see you Gregori,” Polard continued, “but I wasn’t expecting an interrogation here.”

“Forgive me, I didn’t mean to throw all this on you,” Danev soothed with a practiced smile. He nodded to Zach and Eve with a look that clearly said
back down
.  “We just came here for information about Tara. You stuck around the area for quite a while after the rest of us moved away.”

“I suppose I did,” Polard replied skeptically. “What are you looking for?”

“Whoever they were, the men who murdered Tara took one of her journals—the one where she wrote down her dreams.”

“She kept on writing those, huh? I thought she gave it all up.”

“Evidently not,” Danev told him. “Do you have any idea what might have been in it? Specifically, I mean.”

Polard frowned and glanced to Eve. “Didn’t she tell you?”

“She rarely spoke about her visions,” Eve said. “Sometimes I could tell that one had shaken her, but she never revealed specifics no matter how much I pressed.”

“I guess that’s not surprising,” he murmured, leaning back in his chair. “But why would you expect me to know anything? I haven’t spoken with Tara in almost thirty years.”

“Yes, but you see Simon much more frequently,” Danev said. “I suspect she knew a lot of things about him the rest of us didn’t. And with him on the verge of the presidency, you have to admit it would be a perfect time to settle old grudges.”

Polard rolled his eyes. “I already told you Simon had nothing to do with that. He moved on with his life, and I’m sure she did the same.”

“So you can’t think of anything she might know that would be a threat to him?”

“How much dirt do your ex-lovers have on you, Gregori?” Polard asked with a snort. “I’d wager quite a bit. But as far as specifics? Sorry, I have no idea. We don’t exactly sit around the table reminiscing very often.”

Eve sighed. “So we’re at a dead end. Again.”

Polard’s eyes shifted back to Eve, and for a moment Zach swore he saw a twinge of sympathy in the man’s face. But then it was gone and he just shook his head.

“Look, I’m very sorry for your loss,” Polard said, “I really am. I always liked Tara, and I respected her even more. All of us did. But if you’ve come here looking for answers, I’m afraid I don’t have any to give.”

Zach tapped a finger on his lips. “You said a moment ago that you weren’t surprised Mrs. DeShane didn’t talk about her visions. What did you mean by that?”

Polard shrugged. “We’ve all done things in the past we aren’t proud of. I know Tara had a lot of regrets.”

“About Chaval?”

“About using her power to help him,” Polard corrected. “The Enclave might never have bought into the whole Prophetess mantra, but anyone who spent time with Tara DeShane knew she was the real deal. Simon even more than the rest of us.”

Eve frowned. “How do you mean?”

Polard cocked an eyebrow at Danev. “Surely you told them.”

“I told them that Tara and Simon were involved,” Danev said. “I told them she was instrumental in his early successes.”

“The understatement of the millennium,” Polard muttered, shaking his head and turning back to Eve. “Simon may get all the credit for this little ‘revolution,’ but without your mother, it never would have been possible. She’s the one who started it all.”

Zach’s mouth suddenly went dry. “You mean Steamworks?”

“I mean everything,” Polard said. “I know it’s hard to understand, but back when we were in college, the world you see outside that window was just a fantasy…except to one woman. Trains, factories, mass production—you name it, and your mother dreamt it up. Simon was just the man who knew how to turn those dreams into reality.”

Danev leaned forward, hand on his moustache. “That wasn’t the story the rest of us heard.”

“Tara liked to deflect praise, you know that. It actually wasn’t until a few years ago that Simon admitted to me how instrumental she’d been in everything. If you want to talk about regrets, the only one he has is letting her go. But he absolutely wouldn’t have hurt her. For Edeh’s sake, I think he would have wanted to share what he had with her.” He swiveled his eyes to Eve. “And probably you, too.”

“I…” Eve breathed, sighing and swallowing heavily. “I just wish she would have told me about that.”

Polard smiled, and for once it actually seemed reasonably genuine. “I wish I had better answers for you, my dear, but I’m afraid I have nothing else to offer. Simon isn’t the villain you’re looking for. He would probably help you in your search if you asked, to be honest. You should go and see him while you’re here.”

“We might drop him a line before we leave,” Danev said. Somehow he managed to sound completely earnest even though Zach knew it was a bold-faced lie. “But in any event, I thank you for the help, Jack. I’m sorry for any inconvenience we might have caused you.”

Polard grunted. “Nonsense. I just wish the reunion were under better circumstances.”

“As do I,” Danev whispered. “I don’t know what Simon is paying you, but I never expect people to give me information for free.” He set a small pouch of coins on the table between them.

 “I guess those rumors about you being a big shot were true, eh?” Polard asked with a crooked odd smirk. “I think you owed me for a case of whiskey or two anyway.”

“Then consider this payback plus interest,” Danev said, standing and shaking the other man’s hand

“I appreciate the help, Mr. Polard,” Eve added. The color had yet to return to her face. 

He nodded. “Do send me a letter if you find out anything. I’d…I’d really like to know.”

Eve nodded. “I will.”

Five minutes and a handful of pleasantries later, the four of them were once again outside the apartment complex. Zach waited until they were back at the street corner waiting for a carriage before breaking the silence.

“At least we have a motive now,” he commented.

Danev nodded. “And several intriguing possibilities.”

Eve frowned and glanced between them. “What are you talking about?”

“Chaval was worried your mother was going to steal the credit for all of his successes,” Zach told her. “That could destroy his entire image in one fell swoop.”

“That’s one option,” Danev agreed. “Though it still doesn’t explain the journal.”

“Unless it included other inventions Steamworks hasn’t produced yet. Maybe he suspected she’d dreamt up something new, or maybe he thought she had old records of something they had talked about back at Valmeri.”

Danev’s face scrunched. “It’s also possible that Tara actively antagonized him.”

 “You think she threatened him?” Eve asked.

“It’s possible. She could have warned him that she’d go public with this information. Like Zach said, it could seriously damage his image among his constituents. The fact he got help from a mage in any form would probably annoy them.”

“And the thought that it was a mage’s vision who started it all would probably break them,” Eve reasoned. She squeezed her arms more tightly about herself then shook her head. “But mom wouldn’t do that. I can’t see her threatening anyone.”

“It does seem out-of-character,” Danev conceded. “But it could have been a reaction to his rising popularity, a sort of last-ditch effort to try and keep him from winning the election. Who knows, she could have even had a vision about it.”

“That’s a lot of speculation,” Aram said, his eyes sweeping the area to make sure they weren’t being watched. “It also doesn’t change your first theory. You already suspected she knew something that was a threat to him.”

“Right, but now we have an educated guess as to what it might be,” Danev said. “But educated or not, it’s still just a guess. We’re missing something important.”

Aram shifted his eyes to his employer. “I’m sure you also noticed that he wasn’t surprised to see us.”

Danev nodded. “He’d been coached.”

Eve blinked and shook her head. “Huh?”

“Chaval knew we would come here,” Zach told her, his mind racing as he tried to put it all together. “And he told Polard what to say, more or less.”

“So you think he was lying, then?”

“At least partially,” Danev said. “I think he was telling the truth about your mother’s early involvement, though.”

Zach rubbed at his temple and unwittingly took a deep breath of the Cadotheian air. He immediately regretted it. “That doesn’t make sense. If this information is dangerous to Chaval, and Chaval was coaching Polard, then why would he tell us about it?”

Danev shrugged. “We don’t have any proof, so there’s nothing we could really do about it. Jack mostly seemed interested in clearing Simon’s name.”

“And he suggested we go see Chaval,” Zach added. “I hope you were lying when you said we would contact him.”

“Naturally,” Danev grunted.

“It all seemed a little too obvious,” Aram said. “Surely with your reputation, Chaval wouldn’t underestimate you that badly. I’m not sure what he hoped to accomplish.”

Danev sighed. “I don’t know, either.”

“So we don’t have any answers,” Eve told them, “and now we’re talking in circles.”

Danev glanced to his bodyguard, then back to Eve. “We have our answer. It’s just one I had hoped to avoid.”

“We need the journal,” Zach murmured. “It’s the only way to find out anything for certain.”

“Right,” Eve said. “Except we don’t even know where it is.”

“Sure we do,” Danev told her, nodding his head over his shoulder towards the center of town. “It’s sitting in Simon’s hands right now.”