Jafar al-Sharif continued to look at Nusair ibn Samman, this once -proud man now broken in spirit by the loss of his child. And Jafar remembered his own feelings when he’d learned of Selima’s fate. For a father to lose a child was a terrible thing, a negation of his manhood and all the love he had put into raising the baby to near-adulthood. Jafar’s heart went out to this other father faced with the loss of his daughter, and knew there’d been too much death and tragedy surrounding this quest. A line had to be drawn somewhere, a stand had to be taken.
“Nothing is hopeless,” Jafar al-Sharif said aloud. “In Oromasd’s grace there’s always hope. Give me but some time to dwell on the matter and let me see what solution occurs to me.”
“Not too much time, I hope,” said Nusair ibn Samman. “Murrah
