Glen Cook - The Tower Of Fear

Epilog Two: A Longer View The Dartar Kings of Qushmarrah were five: Fa'tad, who ruled eighteen years; Joab, who reigned six months; Moamar, who lived three years; Faruk, whosurvived nine; and Juba. Juba ruled for twenty-nine years and was at war everyminute of the final twenty-eight.

Aaron Habid remained a shipbuilder all his days. From his yard came the swiftgalleys that held Herod's fleets at bay. His son Arif followed in hisfootsteps. But his son Stafa became a famous privateer, one of those fearlessshipmasters whose predations so incensed Herod that the Imperial Senatedeclared the Third Qushmarrahan War. His sister-in-law, Tamisa, dedicatedherself to Aram and so died childless.

Naszif bar bel-Abek pursued a distinguished career in Hero-dian service, attaining the proconsular rank and governing three different eastern provincesbefore his retirement to a villa in Carenia. His son, Zouki (Succo), became afamous jurist and philosopher. A grandson, Probio, elevated the family tosenatorial rank.

Lentello Cado died an old and bitter man, still in exile on the nether shore.

None of his magnificent efforts to illustrate the Herodian name earned theforgiveness of his enemies in Herod.

The brothers Nogah, Medjhah, and Yoseh inherited the wild mantle of Fa'tad al- Akla. On land and sea they harried the Herodian lion wherever it appeared.

In the fourth year of the Third Qushmarrahan War, Yoseh led a fleet into theharbor of Utium, the port of Herod. He burned the city and the unpreparedHerodian fleet, then ravaged the suburbs of Herod itself but failed topenetrate the city wall.

In the eleventh year of the war the brothers landed an army in Edria, north ofHerod, and sustained it there fourteen years, devouring everything Herod sentagainst them, twice besieging Herod itself. They fought boldly and valiantlybut in the end the superior stubbornness and vaster resources of Herodprevailed.

The Third Qushmarrahan War lasted twenty-eight years. Qushmarrah won everymajor battle but the last, before the city wall.

Herod's legions razed Qushmarrah to the last stone. Two centuries later theemperor Petia Magna ordered a new city built upon the site. It took the nameQushmarrah but was Herodian to the bone.

Qushmarrah fell in Yoseh's seventy-fourth year. He survived thirteen more, anactive pirate till the day he succumbed to a stray arrow sped by a Herodianmarine.

An old hermit in the sinkhole country lived nearly as long, hunting andfishing and occasionally visiting one of the nearer villages to amuse himselfwith news of the latest foibles of the world. He never looked back, never had any regrets.