I had already guessed at Wolfbrand’s true identity. It just made sense. The other bandits wouldn’t have treated him with such respect if he wasn’t their leader or some other high-ranking member of their group. He had also mentioned Jezebel being his sister, and I had already known that Jezebel was Wolfbrand’s younger sister. I had even suspected that Wolfbrand was a Codexer, mostly because I didn’t see any way that Jezebel would have willingly obeyed her older brother unless he was a stronger Codexer himself.

  The only things that surprised me about Wolfbrand were his Hex Field spell—which appeared to both destabilize enemy spells and absorb mana—and his Codex Bear. It hadn’t occurred to me that there might be another Codexer in the area, even a rogue Codexer, who had a Codex Beast of their own. Granted, there had been Herod and Darkspike, but they were not from here and were long gone at this point anyway.

  Wolfbrand’s self-introduction seemed to snap Ruth out of her shock, because she finally looked up from the bag of bloodied, decapitated heads to stare at Wolfbrand in sheer disbelief. “Wait a minute, you’re the leader of the Wolfbrand Bandits?”

  Wolfbrand nodded, still smirking, revealing his uneven and yellowing teeth. “That’s right, little girl, though I am impressed you have heard of me. Has my reputation preceded me all the way to the Seventh Kingdom already?”

  Ruth took a deep, shuddering breath. “Not exactly. We were just warned about you guys when we arrived in Hebron a few days ago. They told us about bandit activity in the area, but Martha wrote it off as rural nonsense that we didn’t have to worry about and … and …”

  Ruth trailed off, clearly unable to finish her sentence.

  Wolfbrand laughed. “Oh, the irony! Though I sure do love it when you outsiders underestimate us Shinarians. Makes it so much easier to steal your stuff. And sell your portables on the black market for a hefty sum, if I do say so myself. Right, boys?”

  The bandits cheered again, with a few even whooping in response. I shook in anger, but at this point, I knew better than to try to attack Wolfbrand or his men again.

  Though I did notice that the Codex bear was the only member of Wolfbrand’s band that didn’t look or act happy about anything Wolfbrand said. If anything, the bear looked quite sick, though that may have just been because of the green glyphs glowing unnaturally just beneath its fur.

  Wolfbrand pointed at me and Ruth. “And don’t think we’ve forgotten about you two, either. Your portables will undoubtedly fetch a nice sum on the market, just like the portables of those researchers I stole. And that rabbit of yours will be helpful for our other plans.”

  Nimbus did his snort-wheezing sound again, eyes wide with fear. He looked similar to how he had looked during our last encounter with the Wolfbrand Bandits, when Jezebel had trapped him in some kind of hex cage.

  This wasn’t good. I needed to keep Wolfbrand talking. And fast.

  “Nimbus isn’t for sale,” I said, drawing Wolfbrand’s attention back to me. I raised Inkwyrm defensively, even though I knew it wouldn’t do any good as an offensive weapon. My eyes flicked to the Codex bear. “Besides, you’ve already got a Codex Beast of your own. I don’t see why you need Nimbus.”

  Wolfbrand ran a hand along the side of the bear. It involuntarily shuddered under his touch and even flinched, even though Wolfbrand didn’t seem to hurt it. “This old, tired thing? Good for muscle and some extra spells, but it’s not like your rabbit. Which we aren’t interested in buying, anyway. We have higher aspirations than that.”

  I furrowed my brow, but raised my portable to quickly scan the Codex bear while Wolfbrand talked:

  Codex Beast identified! Barlow the Forest Bear.

  Species: Forest Bear

  Synced Partner: Wolfbrand [SYNCED ERROR; Enslavement ProtocolS IN EFFECT]

  Chapter: 2

  Page: 3

  Affiliation: Wolfbrand Bandits [ERROR]

  Unlike most Forest Bears, Barlow is—or was—a gentle soul who only wanted to live his life peacefully in the uninhabited woods of the eastern border of the First Kingdom, occasionally taking Codex Quests to increase the Arcane Codex’s knowledge of the North Forest ecosystem.

  So it’s surprising that Barlow would end up synced with the infamous Wolfbrand, the Codex Bandit. There are no Codex records indicating that any such sync was ever confirmed by the Codex; however, that may hint at what Wolfbrand has done to make Barlow his unwilling servant.

  But just because Barlow may be unwilling does not mean he is to be underestimated. Forest Bears are known as Kings of the Forest for a reason. Combine Barlow’s unique nature as a Codex Beast with access to spells and other Codex abilities and you have a truly frightening force to be reckoned with.

  Codex Note: A partnership between a Codexer and a Codex Beast can be a beautiful thing, but when it is twisted and corrupted by forbidden magic it becomes the stuff of nightmares

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  That was far more information than I’d gotten the last time I scanned a Codex Beast. To be fair, Darkspike was the last Codex Beast I’d scanned and his information had been deliberately redacted by the Obsidian Order, probably so that none of their enemies had an accurate idea of what Darkspike could do. This obviously did not apply to Barlow or the Wolfbrand Bandits.

  But the Codex Beast scan did confirm what I’d been suspecting: That Wolfbrand had forced Barlow to sync with him against his will somehow using ‘Enslavement Protocols,’ whatever those were. That was why Barlow’s glyphs looked unnatural. They probably weren’t his normal glyphs in the first place.

  But how Wolfbrand subdued Barlow at all, I had no idea. Until now, I hadn’t even known it was possible to force a Codex Beast to sync with you. You always needed a Codex Beast’s consent before you synced with it.

  All it did was confirm that Wolfbrand must be a powerful Codexer if he could enslave a Codex Beast—especially one as powerful as Barlow.

  “I see you know about Barlow now.” Wolfbrand slapped Barlow’s shoulder, making the Forest Bear cringe. “Good. Perhaps that means you will not foolishly throw away your lives out of some misguided idea that any of you could possibly escape alive today.”

  I gritted my teeth. I didn’t know how Wolfbrand knew I’d just scanned Barlow, but it didn’t matter. “What did you do to that poor bear?”

  Wolfbrand grinned in a way that made me shiver even though it was quite warm out. “Enslavement Protocols. Not something the big Guilds teach ya about, even though they do it all the time themselves. Hypocrites, the whole lot of them. Especially the Obsidian Order.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Speaking from personal experience?”

  “You could say that.” Wolfbrand folded his arms across his chest. “Though it’s my understanding you had a run-in with one of their enforcers not too long ago now. Hopefully that means you’ve seen the truth about those bastards.”

  “Truth …?” I shook my head. “Look, I don’t care about any of those guild politics. How did you know we were out here? Salome told you to leave me alone.”

  I figured name-dropping Salome was our best chance at getting out of here alive. I recalled how easily she had squashed that entire group of bandits, including Jezebel, without breaking a sweat. I still didn’t know what had happened to Jezebel’s corpse, but surely Wolfbrand had gotten Salome’s message via the one bandit she did spare. Maybe they would even leave us alone.

  But to my disappointment, Wolfbrand laughed. “Salome, eh? That witch? She’s not around anymore. Not since those Obsidian Order idiots came poking around. Don’t ask me where she is, but I know she’s vamoosed.”

  My heart sank into my stomach. “You’re wrong. She’s still hiding. She’s—”

  “I am rarely wrong about anything, boy,” said Wolfbrand. There was a wicked gleam in his eyes. “This time, no one’s coming to save you.”

  I gulped. Something about the way Wolfbrand said that last sentence, about no one coming to save me, hit me harder than I expected. Perhaps a part of me had been thinking that Salome was always watching me and Nimbus in some way, but if Wolfbrand was right, then that had been delusional thinking all along.

  That meant we really were on our own, against an enemy we couldn’t possibly hope to defeat.

  That thought nearly took the wind out of my sails, but at the same time, I felt a strong desire to keep fighting no matter what. No matter how bad our situation was, we were still alive.

  I just needed time. Time to think.

  Fortunately, Wolfbrand appeared to be in talkative mood because he kept going on. “As for how we knew you were out here, I ordered some of my men to keep tabs on you since Salome killed my poor sister and her men. I would have come after you much sooner, but I wanted to wait until I knew for a fact that Salome was gone. It wasn’t until yesterday that I got the confirmation I sought, which is when I decided it was time to get my revenge.”

  Wolfbrand frowned. “But I didn’t want to attack you at either the Codexium, where Isaac is, or your village, where you would have your family to protect you. I wanted you to be as isolated as possible, so when I learned you were leading this group of researchers into the woods to find some plants, I realized this was my best chance to strike back.”

  “Strike back?” I repeated. “I didn’t even touch Jezebel. If it’s revenge you want, then maybe you should go looking for Salome. She sounded like she was in for a second round with you guys.”

  Anger flashed across Wolfbrand’s eyes. He tightened his grip on Barlow’s fur, making the bear wince. “I’m no fool. I couldn’t hope to kill Salome in a straight fight. My Hex Field is powerful, but so was Jezebel’s, and look at what happened to her. Stupid little sister. She should have retreated when she had the chance.”

  Man, Wolfbrand was messed up. He was more mad that Jezebel had knowingly picked a fight with one of the strongest Codexers in the continent than that Salome had killed her. Definitely a messed up family.

  Wolfbrand shook his head and pointed with his hooked hand at me. “But just as Jezebel was near and dear to me, I realized that you were important, too, to Salome. Not quite as close, of course, but killing you should upset her nonetheless.”

  Nimbus raised a skeptical ear. “You are risking her wrath just to avenge your sister? Okay, I can see how you two are related now, aside from the crooked noses.”

  Wolfbrand scowled at Nimbus. “What a big mouth on such a tiny creature. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand defending your family’s honor. As the saying goes, there is honor among thieves and that goes doubly so if those thieves are related. If I’d done nothing, then my men would view me as weak, which would have been a … problem, as you can probably guess.”

  I found it hard to believe that any of Wolfbrand’s men would even think about overthrowing him, but perhaps Wolfbrand’s grip on the bandits was looser than I thought.

  Wolfbrand then gestured at Nimbus. “Regardless of who killed my sister, I still wanted to complete my sister’s quest to capture your rabbit. We still are going to need your special talents if we are going to accomplish our real goals. If I can avenge my sister at the same time, however, then that’s a bonus.”

  I frowned. “You keep talking about your real goals. What are they? Do they involve the North Forest Codexium? I heard you were planning to rob it.”

  Wolfbrand whipped his head toward me and scowled. “You know too much. And that is why you have to die today.”

  Wolfbrand raised his hooked hand, which began glowing and crackling with some kind of spell.

  But before he could fire it at me, Ruth said, “Why?”

  Wolfbrand looked at her in confusion. “Why what?”

  Ruth took a deep breath. She rose to her feet unsteadily, still holding Nimbus in her arms. She didn’t take her eyes away from Wolfbrand as she did so. “Why did you kill Martha and the others?”

  Wolfbrand blinked. “Oh, those healers? Easy. They were in the way. And they had a lot of valuables that we will sell on the black market. It was really only a coincidence that they happened to be here at the same time we chose to strike. Perhaps they would have been safer in a hospital back in your precious Admah.”

  Then Wolfbrand pointed his hooked hand at us again and yelled, “Barlow, kill!”

  With a roar, Barlow launched himself toward us, barreling toward us like a runaway train.

  patreon.com/LucasFlint

  Codex Trial sign up and download page