Syssi grimaced. "I hate frogs." She turned to her brother. "Did you have to get her a frog?"
He shrugged. "Why not? Harold is kind of cute."
"Harl," Evie tried to get the other two girls' attention. "Evie want Harl!"
E.T. remained oblivious to the social dynamics unfolding around him and continued to stuff food into his mouth with single-minded determination.
Toven watched the baby with a smile on his face. "Someone has a healthy appetite."
"He does," Alena said. "He needs it for how fast he's growing."
Mia leaned on Toven's arm with a dreamy expression on her face. "I hope we have a little boy. I'll be ecstatic to have a girl as well, but if it were up to me, I would choose to have a boy first."
"Boys are easier to raise," Carol said. "Or at least that's what I'm told."
Lokan shook his head. "Kalugal told me that Darius was a difficult baby. He's easy now, though."
Kalugal and Jacki had opted to spend the evening with Areana at the keep, and Annani was grateful for that. It got lonely in the penthouse, and spending all of her time in the clinic with Navuh was not good for Areana. She needed outside influence, and there was no one better to provide it than Kalugal. He was worldly and knowledgeable, and he did not shy away from difficult topics that Areana needed to hear about.
"More wine, Clan Mother?" Okidu presented the bottle for her to inspect.
"Thank you, Okidu." She lifted her glass for him to refill.
As the meal wound down and the children had their fill, Amanda rose from her chair. "I think it's time to relocate the little ones to the playroom so we can enjoy coffee with a side of some adult conversation."
"I'm not little!" Phoenix protested. "I'm almost five!"
"That's why you are in charge of keeping your little cousins occupied," Nathalie said. "They need your help."
That changed Phoenix's expression from brooding to excited. "I can teach them games."
"Yes, you can, young mistress." Onidu bowed to her while holding Evie with one arm and E.T. with the other. "I would appreciate your help entertaining the little ones."
Once the children were herded to the playroom, the atmosphere in the dining room shifted. With the playful chaos of their presence gone, and only the adults remaining, the quiet felt almost oppressive.
Kian leaned back with his wine glass in hand. "I know everyone is impatient for updates, so I won't keep you waiting. The excavation is progressing at a slow pace. Losham is following our instructions to be careful with the debris removal, and he's using human laborers for most of the work. He's bringing in immortals only when the humans cannot handle the heavy lifting that's required. They are doing everything by hand."
"How much longer will it take?" Dalhu asked.
"Losham estimates about two weeks until they clear enough debris to get to the chests or to the chamber that Navuh talked about. I'm still not convinced that it exists."
Andrew leaned forward. "I've been thinking about that. If the chests with Khiann and his companions were placed in a chamber underneath the floor of the enclosure, as Navuh claims, they should be well protected. The debris from the collapse would not be crushing them, and therefore, there is no reason to go so slowly."
"Again, that's assuming Navuh is telling the truth," Kian said. "Which he might not be."
"Which part do you think he's lying about?" Amanda asked. "The existence of the chamber or the location of the chests?"
Kian shrugged. "I think Navuh is playing games, but I'm not sure what he hopes to achieve by that. It seems like he's trying to buy himself time, but that doesn't make sense because no one is coming to his rescue, and he knows that."
"Maybe he does not," Annani said. "Perhaps he is fantasizing that Losham will figure out that we have his father and mount a rescue operation."
Kian nodded. "That's possible. Losham figured out that we have Navuh because we knew about the booby traps, but Navuh could not have foreseen that, so it couldn't have been part of his planning. He didn't know that we would contact Losham and try to stop him from triggering them."
"Navuh is always several steps ahead of the game," Annani said. "He must have realized that we would think of having Lokan contact Losham. He also knows that Toven joined our clan." She looked at the god. "I am not sure he knows that you are a powerful compeller, though. I did not tell Areana that you have the ability for the simple reason that it has never come up, so Navuh could not have learned it from her. I doubt Bridget or Gertrude told him."
There was a long moment of silence as everyone around the table contemplated the possibility that Navuh had been playing them all along, never really expecting to be released but hoping for a rescue organized by Losham.
Perhaps the alert had been designed with that outcome in mind.
