Song Of The Willow

Alara was born to drive the darkness back - though she is only beginning to understand what that means.At fifteen, she alone can finish a song older than the kingdom: a melody hidden in three keys and guarded by a willow that remembers everything. As the dark spreads out of the fallen east and closes over her home, she sets out to gather what the song has scattered - aided by the unlikeliest band of guardians, and shadowed by a boy who has spent his whole life unseen.But every key carries her closer to a truth the keepers buried long ago: the last verse cannot be sung without a price. And the deeper Alara goes, the more certain she becomes that the darkness she was raised to fear is not the enemy she was promised.When the shadow reaches for her hand, she will have to decide whether to take it. When shadow takes her hand, the dark grows kind.