Arkania was not one place. It was two, stitched together by imperial decree and a great deal of wishful thinking, and it covered more ground than some kingdoms.
The Kane half had been neglected for eight years: roads gone to ruts, villages surviving on stubbornness, a handful of guards who were really just farmers with spears. The Harwick half had the opposite problem. It worked, after a fashion, but it had worked for the wrong master. Every ledger, garrison, and tax collector there had answered to a man who had vanished with half the records and all of the loyalty.
Aldous, who had a gift for understatement, called the first half "somewhat behind" and the second "somewhat leaderless."
Theresa called it two catastrophes sharing a river.
