Scarboy
Later called HeroAn orphan branded on the cheek by the Enchanter. He hides his scar with his hand, and he is a hunter at heart.
The Story
“Once upon a time, not long ago and not far away, there was a boy, no longer a child and not yet a man, who lived in the Enchanted City.”
From the opening of the book
In the Enchanted City, day and night are reversed, every tree has been cut down for fuel, and the Enchanter's men brand the children they keep.
The night his mother's body burns on the funeral pyre, the orphan called Scarboy is taken to stoke the furnaces beneath Dagoda, the Enchanter's temple. But in her last fevered days she told him the ancient tales. A true King once ruled the city. He was driven into exile. And those who would find him must hunt for him in the place where trees grow.
No one has seen this King. No one knows the way. With Burners closing in and his little brother in his arms, Scarboy runs into the dark, across the city dump, to an old wrought-iron gate he has never noticed. The stones of its arch read WELCOME ALL WHO HUNT.
Beyond it lies a forest he has only heard of, a war of fire, and a new name: Hero. To gain the thing he wants most, he will have to walk through the thing he fears most.