"What does Baros say?" Amalah asked in a hushed tone.

"He's asking for my help."Amalah's dark brows shot straight into her hairline.

"Your help? You're wanted by the entire Sovran, how can you possibly help him?"

"He says here that he's wrangled a full pardon for me so that I can enter, but he needs my help." Darius stared down at the letter, blindly, as everything he had heard in the past year coalesced into patterns all at once. "Amalah. I told you that because Niotan wrested free of the Sovran, avoided being conquered, that Baros would lose control slowly of the other countries."

"Yes, so you did. Is that happening now? Is that what he wants you to stop?"

"No. Something worse than that. I should have anticipated this, but—" he swallowed the words down because in truth, he had actively not thought about war much in the past year. "The Roran barbarians were the first to break free of the Sovran after last year. And now it seems they've pulled together, at least most of the clans, perhaps all, and they're threatening the northern countries. Baros has battled them to a standstill for now, but he can't find a way to force them back into their territories. If he doesn't do it soon, then they'll overrun him. They'll overrun the Sovran."