Epilogue
Far away, ash floated on a cold breeze, sucked into a forgotten cavern within a chasm feared by orcs and goblins. On the damp floor it fell, coalescing into a black muck, which stirred by unseen and unfelt winds. Here a bone poked up from the filth, there a fingernail. Floating above, transfixed in patient stasis, a soul awaiting a host, shone two crimson eyes.
A note from the Author:
I never set out to write a dark fantasy. I had two characters in my head, troubled half-orcs without home or family and whose decisions would one day bathe a world with war. To tell their story I had to start at the beginning, and the beginning is not kind. Reading some letters and reviews, I’ve seen just how dark I’ve gone.
What you have just read is a slight alteration from my original manuscript. I have not changed the brothers’ actions. Instead, I have tried to show a bit more into their thoughts, their hearts, and their souls. I have had people call Harruq and Qurrah evil. Perhaps you agree. Much of what they have done certainly is evil. I will not sit here and justify the deaths of children, and to do so would paint me a psychopath and my characters sick beings.
I view Velixar as sort of a recruiter, the kind of man who’d be right at home at a Nazi rally filling confused kids with bigotry, anger, and murder. He is gone, for now anyway, and in The Cost of Betrayal these two brothers will get a chance to live on their own. For once Harruq has not only felt regret but done something about it. For once Qurrah has seen that the darkness he follows is not the absolute power it claims to be.
This Half-Orc Series is a story of redemption. I will not tell it in just one book, not even in two or three. People will die, and I will break the hearts of my beloved creations. If you’ve read this far and enjoyed it, I welcome you to continue along with me, as well as thank you for your readership. Your time is precious, dear reader, and I couldn’t be happier knowing you spent it with me.
If you’d like to email me for any reason, ask questions or give suggestions, you can contact me at [email protected]. Also, I’d like to give a quick thank you to Peter Ortiz, who did my stunning cover art. You can view more of his wonderful drawings at http://standalone-complex.deviantart.com/.
Hope you had fun. Hope you were entertained. Most of all, I hope for a brief moment you forgot your own world and got lost in mine.