The Warded Man - Book Summary, Info & Review

The Warded Man
Peter V. Brett
The Demon Cycle #1

The Warded Man Summary

Arlen Bales is a 12 year old boy in the hamlet of Tibbet’s Brook, in the year 318 AR (After Return). Him and his parents, Silvy and Jeph, head to help out a part of the town that is burning after a Coreling attack. Corelings are little demons that come in different forms (Wood demon, Fire Demon, Wind Demon, Etc.), and can only be stopped with magical wards, symbols that must be painted or etched clearly and not obscured. The Corelings rise every night and attack the humans, with no real way to fight back against them.

Selia, an old leader of the hamlet, is helping to organize the recovery efforts from the attack when a messenger arrives. Messengers are some of the few people who travel between the warded hamlets and free cities, carrying goods and letters. Most travel with a Jongleur, a trained jester and bard person. Arlen is sent with the messenger to the town store / inn to help show him the way around. The messenger, Regan, negotiates with Rusco Hog, the owner of the store. The hamlets provide goods such as rice and timber, and Regan trades them for salt, metal, and other goods.

While returning to the town square with Regan, Arlen finds his Uncle Cholie dead after hanging himself, he could not handle the trauma from the demon attack. A couple days later Arlen’s mother gets caught outside their family wards at night trying to help another lady and is attacked by demons. Arlen runs out and knocks a fire demon off her before hiding with her in the warded pig pen. The demon hurt his mother pretty badly though so he and Jeph load her on a cart and set off to find a herb gatherer with the knowledge to heal her. Regan already left so they have no way to travel in the night, and Jeph forces them to turn around despite Silvy’s worsening condition. Arlen is already mad at his father for not leaving the wards the night before to help his mother and is even more disgusted by this cowardice.

They spend the night with Harl, the furthest out farmer who lives with his daughters. Harl and Jeph negotiate a deal to promise Arlen with Harl’s daughter Renna, without consulting either child. Harl also does weird stuff with his eldest daughter who begs Jeph to take her away with them. The next morning they set off but Silvy dies early in the morning. Arlen is furious and blames his father’s cowardice and runs off into the forest. He hopes to find the road and catch up to Regan the messenger but gets lost. He is forced to spend the night alone in the woods, so he makes a warded circle in the dirt. Arlen is great at wards since he practices them all the time, but writing in dirt is not safe since many things can interfere with the wards.

That night Arlen accidentally scuffs a ward and is attacked by a rock demon, but he manages to redraw another ward right as the beast claws him, severing the demon’s arm from its body. Arlen is badly injured and continues to travel forward, eventually meeting up with Regan at an old fort right as he passes out from injury and infection. Regan saves his life and takes him back with him to Fort Miln, the nearest free city and Regan’s home. Regan’s wife, Elissa, is desperate for children and decides to basically adopt Arlen and care for him as a mother. Arlen wants to become a messenger but is too young, so first Regan takes him to an old friend, Cob, to apprentice as a warder. Arlen agrees to the 7 year apprenticeship with the hope of learning new wards and sharing the ones he knows. Apparently the wards from his hamlet are somehow unknown in the city?

Leesha is a 13 year old girl living in the hamlet Cutter’s Hollow and very excited to “flower” since she is promised to Gared, and is very excited to marry him. Her father Ernal is the town papermaker and very wealthy, and her mother Elona is a beautiful woman, but very annoying and only married him for his money. She does not like Leesha because she always wanted a son. They also are helping repair the village after a Coreling attack, and Leesha ends up helping the ancient herb gatherer Bruna care for the injured and sick after Bruna chases off her other apprentice Darcy for being an idiot. Gared and his burly father Steve stay with Leesha’s family since their house burned down in the attack, and Leesha realizes her mother is cheating on her father and sleeping with Steve. Gared wants to have sex with Leesha but she rebuffs him.

The next day one of her friends tells Leesha she heard the rumor that she slept with Gared. Leesha is incredibly upset and confronts Gared who admits he lied but won’t tell the truth. People in this town are horrible so Leesha runs to Bruna because people are basically calling her a whore. She witnesses Bruna throw fire at a wood demon using her herb gatherer knowledge and decides to become her apprentice, which will take 7 years.

Jessum and Kally run the inn in the hamlet of River Bridge, and spend most of their time caring for their 3 year old son Rojer. They have spent the last few days trying to get the town warder, Pietr, to fix up their wards but he is focused on a bridge to impress a duke coming soon. A messenger and Jongleur arrive to precede the duke and stay at the inn. That night demons break through their wards and attack, and the messenger, Geral, and Jessum try to hold them off so the others can escape. Arrick pushes past Kally and runs to the bolt hole, but Kally is slowed carrying Rojer and a demon gets her, biting off a few of Rojer’s fingers in the process. Kally makes Arrick agree to care for Rojer with her last breath, and Arrick escapes with the boy to Geral’s portable warding circle where they are safe for the night.

Arlen is now a couple years into his apprenticeship with Cob and becoming a very talented warder. Together he and Cob have worked to share all the wards they know with others in exchange for all the ones they know. The one armed rock demon from years before still hunts Arlen and circles the walls of Fort Miln every night, until one night it makes a gap into the city. Arlen and Cob go to help the defenses and Arlen acquits himself very well, boosting his name and Cob’s business drastically. As a result the duke offers them the job of warding his library, which Cob is going to turn down but Arlen talks to the scholar in charge and says he will do it, Cob gets the money, and Arlen gets to read any books whenever he wants. Everyone agrees, and Arlen also meets Mary, the daughter of the lead scholar, who is also obsessed with books and learning like Arlen.

Arlen spends a bunch of time reading, learning, and training on his own and with Regan to become a messenger, practicing the spear, fighting, and riding. He also begins to spend more time with Mery, and they have a romantic interest in each other. Elissa and Regan have their own daughter, Marya, prompting Regan to retire to stay home and safe with his family. Arlen and Mery get into a big fight because she says she will not marry a messenger, she needs someone to be here for her. Arlen has already fought with Elissa a ton about this, once she stopped Regan from taking Arlen on a trip because she thought it was too dangerous.

Arlen is distraught and decides to leave everyone he knows and set out on his own. Meanwhile, Mery talks to Elissa and decides she loves Arlen enough to want to be with him when possible, even if he is traveling most of the time, but her and Elissa are too late and he has already left.

Leesha is now almost 20 years old and the most beautiful woman in Cutter’s Hollow. Gared still waits for her since he thinks she will forgive him someday but she does not plan to. Under Bruna’s tutelage she has become a very talented herb gatherer, and the village is grateful for her help although they still judge her. Bruna receives a letter from an old apprentice in Fort Angiers, and they plan to swap Leesha for another apprentice she is training so they can both learn something new. Leesha is sad to leave but promises to come back to take care of her home. She leaves with Messenger Marick, who tries to rape her on the trip but she keeps drugging him to prevent it. She arrives at For Angiers and takes up her new apprenticeship with Jizell.

Rojer is a teenager and Arrick has trained him to be a Jongleur as well, although Rojer is limited in some activities like juggling by his missing fingers. Arrick has become an alcoholic and is losing the voice that got him named Arrick Sweetsong, so they are struggling for money. Despite it being against guild rules Rojer does a show by himself and everyone is very impressed by his fiddling. Rojer is able to get Arrick out to perform again and when people are excited to hear Rojer play, Arrick gives him the moniker Halfgrip. They are having success again but then get attacked and run out of town by a jealous rival Jongleur and his apprentices. On the road Arrick sacrifices himself to save Rojer from demons. That night Rojer learns his fiddle playing can affect the demons, either drawing them to him and making them peaceful or scaring them away. He is forced to play all night to save himself.

Arlen is now a successful messenger some years down the road. He has traveled most everywhere and is currently in the desert kingdom of Krasia, exploring ancient ruins. In Anoch Sun, an ancient abandoned city, he finds a spear made of mysterious metal covered in wards he does not recognize. When he uses the spear he finds it can kill demons, meaning he has found the lost attack wards humans have been missing for centuries. Arlen travels back to Fort Krasia, killing his one armed rock demon on the way.

Arlen likes the Krasian people since they are the only others who actively fight back against the Corelings, like Arlen wants everyone to do. However as a society they are pretty terrible, making women little better than slaves and any man who does not fight is a Khaffit, a coward with no honor. Arlen is friends with a khaffit merchant, Abban, who has helped him become ingratiated into the secluded Krasian society, and he is now known as Par’chin, a brave outsider. Arlen takes the spear to show his friend Jardir, the first spear (best warrior). After seeing the spear’s power, Jardir has his men throw Arlen in a demon pit, but Arlen bests the beast and escapes, so Jardir has him left in the desert with few supplies.

Arlen manages to make it to the Oasis of Dawn, where he spends time recovering and gathering supplies. Eventually he tries tattooing some of the runes from the spear on his hands, and discovers he can kill demons that way. He prepares himself and once again sets out for the ruins of Anoch Sun, killing sand demons while he travels. He reaches the ruins and has a well, but his food is going to run out, so he tries eating demon meat to survive.

Rojer has spent time traveling the hamlets, practicing his skills and earning a name for himself but decides it is time to return home. He goes back to Fort Angiers and is having success, until the same Jongleur who chased him and Arrick out of the city years before beats him nearly to death, killing Jacob, his elderly friend and patron, in the process.

Leesha is in her late twenties now and has nothing more to learn about the art of herb gathering. She is second in command at Jizell’s hospital and helps train younger girls. One day some guards come running up after dark carrying some bodies, and Leesha runs out to help them despite wind demons nearby. One of the people is Rojer, who she helps tend to and heal all his injuries. Rojer spends a couple months there, playing his fiddle to entertain the patients and healers, and clearly likes Leesha. One day Leesha receives a letter saying a flux (plague thing) has swept through Cutters Hollow and Bruna is dead, and her father and many others are very sick. She tries to find passage home but can’t find anything fast enough so Rojer agrees to escort her.

They have Geral’s old warding circle that Rojer inherited from Arrick, but try to stay in towns whenever possible. At one town they meet a few men and Rojer reveals their travel plans. The next day those same men attack them, rape Leesha, and take their horse and warding circle, leaving them for dead. Rojer has his fiddle but no bow to play it, and tries to get Leesha into the woods to save her, but she is kind of dead to the world. Suddenly, a man in a cloak shows up to save them. He fights demons and we see every inch of his skin is covered in tattoos of wards, and when they get near his camp his horse uses armor horns to spear a rock demon. This is the warded man Rojer has heard stories of.

They convince the warded man to travel with them to Cutters Hollow, which will take a few days. He reveals his name used to be Arlen, but now he just kills demons (and for some reason has not shared these attack wards with the cities or other warders? Kind of confusing). Leesha likes him and they make love one morning but get attacked by a wood demon that almost pulls Arlen down into the core with it. He is greatly disturbed and fears he has become half demon himself.

They reach Cutters Hollow to find it in bad shape. Most people are sick and almost all the houses have been burned down. Leesha gets to work curing people while Arlen prepares better defenses and arms the people to fight back against the Corelings. They survive the night with relatively few losses, and people start claiming the warded man is the deliverer, a mythical figure meant to lead the fight against the Corelings. He refuses this title but the people ignore him and rename the hamlet Deliverer’s Hollow as they begin rebuilding. Rojer wants to travel with him and learn to fight and Arlen wants to learn the fiddle so he can charm demons, and Leesha still likes him but Arlen keeps distance because he fears his children would be demonspawn. Leesha shows him she has been dissecting demons to learn more about them, which Arlen respects.

Ahmann Jardir, now called Shar’Dama Ka, or the Krasian version of the deliverer, leads a huge army up out of the desert into the more fertile lands. THE END.