Page 1 of The Orc's Bride

Chapter 1

Urgan

Urgan raised his axe.

Vulga, the chieftain of the Tokoma clan, was kneeling in front of him, blood gushing from his wounds. Wounds that Urgan had given him. Now, it was time for the last strike that would end the war and mark Urgan’s greatest victory as the general in the Orc Imperator’s army.

The axe fell in a fast, clean strike. Vulga’s head rolled away, blood squirting from the green stump of his neck. Urgan roared, and his men roared with him, a thunder of voices. The victory was theirs.

While the conquered orcs cleaned the battlefield, piling the bodies of the fallen to be burned later, Urgan and his officers went to a victory feast. It had been hastily put together by the humans who lived on Tokoma’s lands, now the Imperator’s lands.

The lands of the Tokoma clan, now claimed by the Empire, were green and fertile. There was an abundance of game, fruit, honey. And mead made by human women from villages on Tokoma’s lands.

And orcs liked nothing better than mead and fire-roasted game. Maybe apart from some pretty females to mate in their post-battle frenzy.

The tables set out in an orchard by the village were laden with food and drink. Young human women had been hard at work preparing the tables, but all save one slinked away as soon as the warriors approached.

Urgan sat at the top of the table, leaning his victorious axe, rusty with Vulga’s blood, next to him. He raised his cup of mead, and his officers and most distinguished warriors gave a roar of triumph.

They threw back their drinks and tore into the meat.

When he satisfied the first hunger, Urgan sat back, watching his men eat their fill.

“A glorious victory,” said Grikh, Urgan’s officer and his closest friend. “You’re becoming a power among orcs, general. And I’m not the only one who can see it. I heard rumors that after your countless victories, the Imperator wants to tie you to his family. You lucky bastard! You will be a power behind the throne.”

Urgan drank his mead and grunted.

“Of course. He doesn’t want me to rise against him,” he snorted. “As if I would. I’m not strong enough.”

“Yet,” said Grikh. “You’re not strong enough yet. But you will be. Every day, more orcs come to join your army. Do you think it’s because they love the Imperator? No. They want to taste the victories YOU will give them. They join for you. Now, say. If you WERE strong enough – would you rebel?”

Urgan laughed, startling the human wench, who was pouring more mead in his cup. Her dark eyes flashed in fear and then anger before she turned on her heel. Urgan’s gaze trailed after her as she walked away.

That anger in a human, anger directed at an orc, was unusual.

“Of course. Don’t they say I am Urgan the Bloodthirsty? When there aren’t any more clans to fight, I will need a new enemy. Humans are not a challenge right now. There will only be the Imperator left for me to kill.”

Grikh smiled, showing rows of large, sharp teeth.

“This is why he’s planning to marry you to Urzulah. If you’re his son-in-law, you won’t rise against him.”

Urgan frowned. That was true – family was everything. If he became the Imperator’s son-in-law, he could never fight him.

If he rose against his kin, he would be shunned. Despised. His warriors would turn their backs on him. Clever, clever Imperator, seeing the danger Urgan posed and trying to prevent it in such an ingenious way.

And maybe he would have been tempted… if his bride-to-be hadn’t been Urzulah.

She was a vile, stupid creature. She treated her servants like scum. Throwing tantrums, maiming and even killing human servants in fits of childish temper. This kind of behavior was a sign of a slow mind. Of no foresight.

Urgan wasn’t a politician, but as a military man, he knew the dangers of underestimating weaker creatures.

Not to mention the risk of insulting those who had access to you when you slept and who prepared your food.

That was why he never mistreated his servants. He knew the risk.

There was another reason Urgan despised Urzulah. When he had been younger and not yet the general, she once used him in a way he couldn’t forgive. He had been weak, then. An orc of inferior status because of his mixed heritage. An easy target.

Urzulah always targeted the weak. She had no courage.

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