"Interesting." Syssi arrived with two cappuccino cups and placed them in front of Tamira and Eluheed. "For us, the number five is also significant. The five elements, the five senses, and so on."
"It makes sense," Kian said. "After all, we have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot."
"Five is a sacred number where I come from," Eluheed said. "It represents balance and harmony." He held up the drawing. "So, this is a very special gift. Thank you."
Allegra beamed and clapped her hands together before running off to make another drawing.
Syssi returned with two more cappuccinos for her and Kian and sat down. "Allegra's development is fascinating. She keeps surprising me."
"Naturally." Kian lifted his cappuccino cup to his lips. "Our daughter is exceptional."
"She's adorable," Tamira said. "And I agree that those stars were remarkably well-formed for a child her age."
"She's obsessed with stars lately." Syssi took a sip from her cappuccino. "She draws them on everything. Yesterday I found a red star on the bathroom mirror, courtesy of my lipstick."
"She had to climb onto the counter to reach it," Kian added with more pride than exasperation. "We're still not sure how she managed that and when."
"Children," Tamira said, admiring the foam art Syssi had created. It was a delicate leaf pattern that she felt bad about disturbing while drinking.
"Allegra's drawing reminds me of Cyra's." Syssi leaned forward. "Yasmin's little girl drew a picture for Annani a while ago. She's only four, but she's showing signs of having the gift of prophecy."
"What did she draw?" Eluheed asked.
"She drew five stick figures lying on sand and called them pretty doll men. Annani was convinced that Cyra drew Khiann. She thought the other four might be immortals who were with him in the caravan. The reason I remembered this is that the number five seems to keep popping up."
Something stirred in Tamira's mind. A thread, faint but persistent, tugging at her attention. Something about the number five. Allegra's stars. Cyra's drawing. And something else, something that tickled her memory but couldn't coalesce into anything tangible.
"It's most likely a coincidence," Kian said.
The thread in Tamira's mind pulled tighter.
Five figures beneath the sand.
She set down her cappuccino as a memory surfaced, sharp and sudden.
"The chests," she said.
Everyone turned to look at her.
"What chests?" Kian asked.
Tamira's pulse quickened. "During the flooding on the island, when the harem was being evacuated, Navuh sent guards to help. But they didn't help evacuate people. They came out carrying large chests instead. We were all livid that they prioritized saving things over saving people. We thought that thechests contained treasures that Navuh had hidden beneath the harem." She turned to look at Eluheed. "Remember I told you about that?"
He nodded.
"There were five chests." She turned to Syssi. "Five chests that were big enough for each to carry a person inside."
"Five men beneath the sand," Syssi murmured.
"We all assumed they contained treasure," Tamira continued. "Gold, jewels, something valuable enough for Navuh to risk lives protecting. But what if the treasures were people in stasis?"
The room had gone very quiet. Tamira could hear the distant hum of the air conditioning and the faint sounds of Allegra's voice from somewhere deeper in the house.
"It's most likely a coincidence," Kian said again. "No offense, but I don't like to assign too much importance to lucky numbers, whether it's five, seven, or three."
"There's more." Tamira met Kian's gaze. "After the flooding, Navuh built a strange glass enclosure in the basement of his mansion and filled it with sand. It was completely sealed off, and the construction was done in secret. We all wondered about it."
"It had its own climate control," Eluheed said. "The glass was really thick. Looked like the bulletproof kind. We assumed it was to protect valuable artifacts."
