Showing results for "Raven Lord" in Epic

The realm burns. Vaelin Al Sorna is tired of war. He's fought countless battles in service to the Realm and Faith. His reward was the loss of his love, the death of his friends and a betrayal by his king. After five years in an Alpiran dungeon, he just wants to go home. Reva intends to welcome Vaelin back with a knife between the ribs. He destroyed her family and ruined her life.

Abandoned by the sun, shunned by the Father of the Gods himself, the North is a wild place; a brutally cold land, where ambitious lords keep their followers warm with tales of how they will be the one to claim the prized crown of Alekka. Stories woven on stormy nights, sung around blazing fires over cups of ale, tell of the one who will unite the two halves of the broken land. They whisper of the Bear Stone, where the prophecy of that man’s coming was etched two thousand years ago.

Author's Note: The following story takes place in the same world as my novel Blood Song, the first volume in the Raven's Shadow trilogy. I wrote it because I wanted to more fully explore characters who appear in Blood Song and the sequels Tower Lord and Queen of Fire. Readers familiar with my work are sure to recognize a certain pale-eyed, raspy-voiced Sword Master of the Sixth Order, and those curious as to the origins of the Tower Lord of the Southern Shore will find answers here.

Vaelin Al Sorna, warrior of the Sixth Order, called Darkblade, called Hope Killer. The greatest warrior of his day, and witness to the greatest defeat of his nation: King Janus' vision of a Greater Unified Realm drowned in the blood of brave men fighting for a cause Vaelin alone knows was forged from a lie. Sick at heart, he comes home, determined to kill no more. Named Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches by King Janus's grateful heir, he can perhaps find peace in a colder, more remote land far from the intrigues of a troubled Realm.