The Warded Man

A messenger teaches young Arlen that fear, more than the demons, has crippled humanity. Leesha finds her perfect life destroyed by a simple lie, and is reduced to gathering herbs for an old woman more fearsome than the demons at night. And Rojer's life is changed forever when a traveling minstrel comes to his town and plays his fiddle. But these three children all have something in common. They are all stubborn, and know that there is more to the world than what they've been told, if only they can risk leaving their safe wards to find it.