The Iron Jackal

Vardia is descending into chaos. It's a great time to be a freebooter. The Archduke has evidence that incriminactes the Awakeners, a powerful religious sect, and he's determined to use it to bring them down. If they don't surrender their Imperators - half-confessor, half-inquistor, and just possibly half-daemon as well - then he has threatened to ban their religion, and have their Imperators executed on sight. But that Awakeners won't give up without a fight, half the country is on their side, and there's more than a hint of civil war in the air. Never one to miss an opportunity, Captain Darien Frey has hit on a lucrative plan: robbing Awakener temples, and selling their relics back to them through the feared pirate, and former finacee, Trinica Dracken. Things are finally looking good for the Ketty Jay and her crew! . . . until the Shaklemores, bounty hunters to the artistocracy, catch up with them, anyway. They kidnap Crake, one of Frey's most valued crewmen, and vanish with him. Crake is wanted for murder - he has been for years - but is his kidnapping in the name of justice or is something altogether more sinister going on behind the scenes? If Captain Frey wants his man back, he and the Ketty Jay are going to have to find out - even if the quest leads them into the heart of the civil war, to the treason and invasion threat beyond.