This is the story of Aeden, a young boy who lives in a small farming village. He has a best friend named Kalry who was the daughter of the local noble. Aeden is incredibly smart and observent about what is going on around him, and is always looking for pranks and adventure to get into. The story really starts when a slaver arrives in town pretending to be a soldier. He tricks everyone to gather into one building for protection and then tries to kidnap all of them with a group of slavers. Aeden guesses who he is and goes to get help before they are kidnapped. When they get back all of the villagers are gone and they have to chase down the slavers. With Aeden's help they are able to track them down and recover everyone, but a couple of the slavers get away. One of them sneaks by and kidnaps Kalry again. Aeden and the Sheriff chase after them but aren't able to get them back. In the process Aeden gets severely hurt and the Sheriff dies trying to leap off the edge of a cliff to get them back. They discover that Kalry was taken to be sacrificed because she was noble born.
When Aeden wakes up he finds out the slaver had sent a message saying that Aeden was working with them and the local villagers believe him. Him and his family end up having to flee the village in the middle of the night while Aeden is still recovering from a mostly broken body. After a while of traveling they come upon a cottage out in the middle of nowhere and spend a few weeks with an old couple that lives there. In the end they all decide to keep going together and go through some forbidden mountains. In the mountains is a fortress from a long destroy empire. No one goes near it because it is cursed. Fleeing wolves the family ends up needing to go in it and they come across some giant beast that breathes clouds of poison and eats their horses. After hiding they end up leaving and arrive in the city of Castath.
After arriving in the city, they keep their heads down for a while. After a while Aeden's father starts beating him and the other family step in and his father ends up leaving and not coming back. A few days later the inn they are staying at catches fire and Aeden gets horribly burned in the process. After recovering somewhat, he ends up running into General Osric and convincing him to sponsor Aeden for Marshall training. Aeden trials for a covetted spot in the Academy and gets in. Over the next several years he trains to become a skilled fighter, as well as how to survive in the forest, speak neighboring languages, and know the local laws and customs inside and out. In this time he becomes close friends with most of his classmates, and makes an enemy of Malik. Malik hated Aeden because he took his spot and was an outsider. He also grows close to a girl named Liru is training to be a nurse type spy girl (forgot what they called it).
During this time there are several reports of weird storms. Giant creatures start appearing that eat everyone but noone is able to find them. One of the neighboring kingdoms, the Fenns, are also gearing up to invade them. Everything is on military alert and there are several skirmishes with them. During one of them Aeden helps reveal an ambush the Fenn had planned to capture a bunch of Marshalls that were going to investigate reports of a giant creature killing people. Aeden is generally courageous, but whenever someone like his father approaches he falls apart. He goes numb and cowers and can't fight back. One of the bullies in the Academy reveals this weakness for everyone to see and he is generally shunned for a while.
While sneaking around, Aeden overhears the Prince talking to his chancellor about sending off Fergal to have him killed on a mission to see what was causing the city to tremble and strange storms to appear. The Prince didn't want anyone to be scared so was trying to cover up all of the weird stuff that was happening. Because Aeden has been to the fortress before, he is going with them. After Aeden tells Osric, Osric plans to meet them a few days out. While out it becomes clear the soldiers are there to kill them. After Osric meets up with them, they are being chased by Fenn soldiers. They end up defeating the Fenn and the soldiers don't go through with their plan because Osric is with them. They continue onto the Fortress. Fergal teaches Aeden various skills to resume his Marshall training.
They are able to slip into the fortress and discover huge creatures inside of it that appear to be dead. One of them is a giant snake that can blow clouds of poison that is thought to be the reason that everyone abondoned the place. During the chaos some of the soldiers decide to try to kill them after all. During a fight with some of the renegade soldiers, Aeden gets struck by a weird lightning. He has a vivid experience where he talks to a divine being and it gives him courage to overcome his fear of fighting bullies. He ends up defeating one of the renegade soldiers he was cowering before. After one of the smaller (but still huge) snakes sees Aeden but doesn't attack him. Aeden thinks it is smart like a human, but the snake runs away when someone else comes near them. They go back telling the Prince that everything is OK and he doesn't try to have them killed anymore.
After getting back, Aeden takes it upon himself to patrol the city. As more of the soldiers were moved outside the city to patrol against Fenn invasions, crime goes way up in the city. They are succesful in killing or jailing a number of local gangs. During the process Aeden runs into his father and discovers he was a local crime lord. Aeden gets most of his crew killed, but his father escapes. After following Aeden for a while, there was a confrontation and his father basically disowns him. Aeden is able to stand up to him and doesn't cower from him for once.
In the aftermath Aeden gets weirdly tingly at times and started having weird dreams. One of them is that he should read a Fenn book. In it he discovers that the Fenn don't sacrifice their captured women until 18 so Karly is still alive. Aeden vows to go after her and gets support from Fergal and General Osric. A few of his friends agree to go with him. Near the end Aeden also gets one of his tingly moments and leaps off a 4 story building without any harm coming to him. I am guessing because of the lightning that struck him earlier he will get some sort of magical power.