The historical adventure novel “The Codex” tells the adventures of the famous English pirate Richie Shallow Rider, or “Last Prank.” As it happened, part of the treasures of the legendary gentleman of fortune Barbarossa (Arudja) ended up with him. Richie’s fate—what he called himself in Lithuania, the Codex (from “Sword” in English: sword, sabre)—drives him into a whirlwind of incredible adventures. In the novel, death and love, betrayal and honor are interwoven. Providence sends him a cruel outcome, but the latest events, and the hidden thread linking Richmond with the otherworldly, seem to weigh the essence of Last Prank on jeweler’s scales. And in the difficult choice of life or death—something he desires equally—he stops somewhere in the middle…