The Isles of Ice Book Two: A Frozen Heart

Hopeful

Six months had passed. Six long, agonizing, months. Xavier had spent six months chasing dead ends, and trying to put together any sort of plan after everything went wrong.

When she was taken from him, he had raced back to Caros. The pirate was relieved to find that it was now freed from Kingston's control.

The rest of it was a blur. He spent so much time trying to track down any lead he could for how to save Atlas, and how to find the elusive eighth Guardian.

Arvirdi explained to him that the Indigo Jewel seemed to function similarly to the Spirit Pearls on Marok. They could absorb lost souls, and were mainly used to deal with Shades. If they were broken into fragments, the shade would be contained in one of the fragments of the Pearl until it was smashed. Then they would be fully freed.

But to do that would require facing Astraeus and the other Guardians. And they were nowhere to be seen until three months ago.

Fleets upon fleets of ships appeared from nowhere, claiming to be part of a faraway nation that immediately allied with Kingston. It didn't take long before Xavier discovered that these ships were a complicated ploy by Astraeus to gain access to Kingston and the missing pieces of the Indigo Jewel.

From what the pirate had been able to discern from the grapevine, Kingston was keeping what remained of the Indigo Jewel that they had under lock and key. Guarded with some of the tightest security on the islands.

Astraeus's newest plot called themselves the Great Tradton Nation. Kingston were so eager to have another ally, that they didn't even question Tradton's offer to station a fleet in Heau as 'oversight.'

Tradton made sure to establish itself as an even bigger and even more annoying version of the Scalliers. The disdain the islands had for them was palpable.

At the very least, all the security that had gone into fortifying Caros against Clamerates during Kingston's control over it now allowed an independent Caros to safely thrive.

The nation was becoming a hub for independent trade. It allowed Clamerates and Marok to freely and safely trade products at a neutral port.

It also hindered the power that Kingston held over trade exponentially, which had the side effect of making Kingston want its foreign allies more than ever.

All of that had unfolded while the pirate had been chasing every lead he could find about the Eighth Guardian.

There wasn't much to find, and most of Xavier's time was spent interfering with the Tradton ships. The occasional skirmish with the Guardians. Doing recon on the ships and figuring out who each Guardian was. Up until two weeks ago when he had received word of a girl on Heau who used mysterious dark magic that nobody recognized.

The dark magic part was what set the desperate pirate off on an expedition to Heau that had lasted two whole weeks. Given he was a Centrixian, as well as a wanted pirate, Xavier had to take care to hide his face. He also had to craft a persona as a traveling merchant, who had come from afar upon hearing news that traveled back to Tradton's home continent.

The Heauans weren't exactly scrutinizing him when he was offering such good deals on Marok fruits in winter. This had allowed the undercover pirate to go undetected.

Xavier stood aboard Marius's ship and took stock of his wears. He was running out of supplies to sell and to eat. The pirate had sent out word that he had a job for the mysterious girl, but there was no telling if the rumor was even true.

I can last one more week. Tops. The pirate told himself. Though he wasn't sure what he would do if it came to that. Leaving and then returning could be detrimental, because his cover would fall under suspicion the longer he stayed.