Years ago, Bedros was the right hand lackey to a cruel prince who became a crueler king. He's not proud of the role he played in that cruelty, but those days are well behind him. All he wants now is to take care of Castle Rehm, and enjoy the peace and quiet that comes from being a despised outcast. That peace is shattered when the very last person he expected to ever see again arrives with dire news: that the king wants a war, and he is going to engineer the slaughter of Bedros and his people in order to get it. Bedros has very little time to prepare to face the royal army and all the force it can bring to bear, but he'll do everything he can—include cooperate with a man who despises him, whose life Bedros once saved at the cost of everything he once thought he held dear.