Episode 5: Taken

By Leigh Barker

Requiem For Eden - Season 1: Episode 5. Taken

A Bitesize 1-hour read following our heroes as they try to get Lady Bony-Ass and her unborn child to the safety of Parvacastellum.

The little band of knights have been joined by the mysterious Bedouin, Bayad Asman, who seems to be one of the good guys and eager to help.

There’s a bit of a saying about appearances being deceiving...

And speaking of deceiving. Our heroes find a desert oasis. Who’d have thought they’d be so lucky?

Hospitable nomads, food, cool water and a rest. Things are finally going their way.

They should enjoy it while it lasts, things are about to go downhill very fast.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leigh Barker
• Release date: May 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311552525

Leigh Barker

Leigh was born in Dudley in the middle of England. He has been a merchant seaman, a (useless) electronics salesman, a programmer, and a business analyst. And now he is a full-time writer, but that doesn't make him a bad person.He is presently writing 4 series:Clan, following the adventures of Calum Maclean as he tries to avoid the Bonnie Prince but still protect his beloved Highlands.The Hellfire Legacy Series follows US Marine Master Sergeant Ethan Gill and his team as they take on the jobs too hot for other special forces. They go where they're sent; South America, Middle East, Korea, but their most dangerous missions are on US soil.Volume #1: A Whisper of ArmageddonVolume #2: The Hellfire LegacyVolume #3: The Orpheus DirectiveEden, a three-volume series -Trinity is at war with Lucid, the son of Lucifer, and he will do whatever it takes to win. The Archangel Gabriel has an army but he needs more. He needs heroes, but they are few and far between. Which is why he gets Dylan and co. Not too much luck in Heaven then.Volume #1: Eden's Last HeroVolume #2: WinterwoodVolume #3: Requiem for Eden.Soldiers is set in 1914 and follows John Regret and his 12-man squad on their suicidal mission to find and destroy the German howitzer nicknamed Big Bertha. Find it before it drops it's thousand-pound shells on the allied army retreating across France. A seemingly hopeless mission that just cannot fail.Other occasional series include:Anarchy, the 'completely true' stories of men doing what men do when there's nobody to keep them in check. Create mayhem and behave like monkeys on speed.Coffee Break Reads - each issue has 5 stories short enough to read while taking a break from life. A mix of adventure, love, disaster, and fun. All with one thing in common; for a moment they transport the reader to another world.Episode 1 of each Season is free and can be picked up with other free books at:https://leighwbarker.com/my-library/Just copy the link above and paste it into your browser and you're there...

Book preview

Requiem For Eden

(Episode 5)

Taken

Copyright 2016 Leigh Barker

Published by Leigh Barker at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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ISBN: 9781311552525

Taken

Bayad Asman watched the Red Dragon adjust its angle of descent a few degrees so its flaming snout was pointing straight at the coach. The beast had arrived earlier than he’d expected, but so be it. It was always going to turn up sooner or later. It was sooner.

He unfastened the silk rope from around his waist, slid his pale blue robe off his shoulders and dropped it onto his saddle, then dropped lightly to the ground. The Red Dragon would complete its approach in a few seconds, at which point it would pull up, level off and spray them with liquid fire. A depressing concept. It took him a second to get things moving, and in that time the dragon had covered twenty feet. There, ready.

What is that smell? Anella said, screwing up her nose and looking back over her shoulder. At Bayad.

He shifted a little under the intense looks from the doomed knights. Then rose above it. If you ate desert radish stew with camel dung dumplings three meals a day, he said, a little tetchily, then you’d know what I have to put up with.

I just hope you don’t get too close to that dragon’s naked flame, Woe said, flinching. God knows what that stink is doing to my insides.

God doesn’t know, Gabriel said, without taking his eyes off the approaching dragon. There is no god.

It was what he said, frequently. And it was getting a little threadbare, but nobody stepped forward to tell him.

Bayad waited for the knights to look away, then put his hands behind him, scooped up the source of the smell and blew and waved the gas towards the dragon, now only fifty feet away and already starting to pull up out of its dive.

Anella saw him out of the corner of her eye, but it was so bizarre she couldn’t assimilate it. She would ask him after they were dead.

Bayad’s gas shouldn’t have moved as fast as it did, nor should it have become visible as a yellow-green mist streaking skywards, but it did. He wasn’t surprised, but he wouldn’t be.

The Red Dragon saw the mist and ignored it, concentrating on the complex calculations necessary to change attitude at maximum speed. She was ready to blow. Now. But just like that, she had to go. Right in the middle of everything. And it wasn’t just a vague find-a-bush type alert, this was a missy-you’re-going full double-siren alert.

One thing dragons of all colours and hues have in common but don’t talk about for reasons of, well, survival. And delicacy. Their dried poop has magical powers. So no wonder they don’t talk about it. Magical poop? Not your everyday topic of conversation around the dinner table. These magical powers endow the burner of said poop with the magic not the dragon. And it gives the burner complete control over the beast, to make it do whatever is commanded. Which, for a dragon who makes her living scorching whatever the contractor pays for, wasn’t something to