The Crow

There is a boy who is Maerad's little brother and his name is Hem.  To find out more about Maerad read the first two books in the books of Pellinor.  They are called The Naming and The Riddle, by Alison Croggon.  Hem is in Turbansk avoiding sweltering hot weather in a very important man's garden stealing his fruit.  He is really mad when he sees that there are a bunch of crows attacking another bird so he saves it with Bard magic.  When he brings it home, he talks to it and finds out that it is a crow but it is white.  He names it Irc and takes it in as a pet.  When his Bard mentor Saliman, tells him that Turbansk is at war.  All the other children leave and go to Car Amanrich or whatever you call it.  When they get to the place where all of the Bards that are staying gather, Hem finds a girl named Zelika.  She is stubborn to stay when Saliman tells her to leave.  Zelika wants to avenge her family when the Black Army attacks the house of Il Amanrad(Zelika's family).  One day, some ugly birds attack the city.  They are shocked when they find out that most of the birds are deformed and just dive down and kill themselves.  Hem plays a big part when he calls out to all the birds in Turbansk.  The birds of Turbansk attack the cloud of birds when they try to attack.  They call this the battle of the birds.  They call Hem the Lios Hlaf, which means The white crow in Speech.  Irc is responsible of that name because in the battle of the birds he is the main messenger and spy.  He locates the ugly birds and knows when they are going to attack.  Saliman takes Hem and Zelika to the underground tunnels and that's where they hide until Hared, the first Bard of the Underground Tunnels asks them to become spies.  Saliman doesn't approve of the idea, but doesn't exactly disapprove  of it either.  So they agree and undergo the training of the spies.  One day when they are deep in Black Army territory, Zelika spots one of her brothers in a child army group.  The children are bewitched by the Hulls(some sorcerers that are evil).  Zelika eventually gets captured and Hem goes and gets captured by the Hulls on purpose.  He does it because he wants to look for Zelika.  He eventually has to escape because he can't stand it anymore, and fled deep into the forest.  He meets Irc there, and Irc gives him a little trinket with runes that are very crucial to Maerad's mission, but Hem doesn't know that.  He eventually finds out because an Elidhu named Naynar tells him that.  He meets Saliman in the forest the next day, and finds out that Zelika is dead.  But in the quest for the treesong, Zelika isn't important.  But to Hem, Zelika is the very first friend he's ever had, beside form Maerad, and Saliman.  Hem understands that he will have to be a strong Bard until the very end.