Page 79 of Taming Chaos

“Amanhiel, Amanhiel…” There was that infernal chant again, as several Bartharrans converged upon him. What the fuck does that mean? Beyond his circle of enemies, the Plutharans still were fighting to the death.

Suddenly, gravity returned.

They all dropped to the floor, and Torin found himself covered in a pile of writhing bodies. Heavy, muscular, stinking Bartharrans pinned him down.

He lashed out with his claws and the entire mountain shifted, trying to get out of harm’s way.

Torin pushed through, punched through, cut through, trying to follow the ones who had taken Seph, but there were too many cursed bodies blocking his path, and by the time he finally fought his way out and found an opening, she was gone.

“Persephone,” he yelled at the top of his lungs in her language, desperately hoping she could hear him. “I am coming!”

Chapter Twenty-Two

They had her!

Seph screamed and swore and kicked and punched, but it was no use. The Bartharrans were terribly strong, and they moved fast, their massive bulk and powerful bodies helping them generate huge momentum.

After her panic subsided, it took her a few precious seconds to realize that she was actually hanging upside-down over a large male’s shoulder. Her head swayed, her curly hair bouncing up and down to the rhythm of the Bartharran’s steps.

What the hell?

Gravity was back, and the Bartharran was running fast, and she was unarmed. The pirate had curled one huge muscular arm around her waist, trapping her arms as well, and there was nothing she could do to break his iron grip.

She’d been abducted by a seven foot tall barbarian, and she had no idea what the Bartharrans wanted with her.

Torin had let go of her.

He’d wrenched her arms off his body and pushed her away.

Shock and hurt had coursed through her, only to be replaced with terrible understanding as she saw the green plasma fire engulf his body. The heat had touched her for a split-second, and it had been intense. If she’d stayed there just a moment longer, she would have died.

I am coming!

She clung to the memory of those words. How angry he had sounded, how desperate.

These Bartharrans didn’t understand what they’d just done. If anything happened to her, Torin would tear this entire fucking ship apart with his bare hands. He would become death incarnate.

Unable to lift her head up to see, Seph could only stare at the floor, trying to count the pairs of feet on either side of her. Bartharrans didn’t seem to have any need for footwear; their feet were covered in rust-colored scales that faded mid-way up the ankle, turning into smooth, golden skin.

There were perhaps eight or nine of them, all running around her captor in a protective formation. Now and then, they communicated with one another, emitting low grunts and unintelligible snatches of Bartharran.

They broke away from the chaos of battle, gaining speed. The raging Plutharans became a distant memory as Seph was faced with an entirely new problem.

“Woop, woop, woop,” one of the Bartharrans said softly as those strange animals from earlier—nak nak, Torin had called them—emerged from some unseen place to run alongside them. The creatures would occasionaly weave amongst the Bartharrans like darting fish, their glossy red coats shimmering between legs encased in rust-colored armor and dark brown leathers.

“What do you want with me?” Seph groaned, her voice trembling as her head bobbed up and down. The blood went to her head, making her feel dizzy and a little nauseated.

The Bartharran murmured to her in his strange language, his tone surprisingly soft and almost… reverent.

Now why would that be? Seph tried to think, but her head was full of death and destruction and the steady thump thump thump of the Bartharrans’ gait.

There was that crazy goddess theory of Torin’s, but it seemed so ridiculously far-fetched that she had trouble believing it. Besides, if they truly thought she was this so-called star goddess, they wouldn’t be forcibly hauling her off to some unknown location without her consent now, would they?

“Where are you taking me?” she demanded, urgency creeping into her voice. Surely at least one of these warriors spoke Universal. “You know I’m with him, right? Tall, silver, handsome, carries a pair of very sharp swords… you know he’s going to kill you now, don’t you?”

“Bakre og Amanhiel,” the Bartharran grunted, either unwilling or unable to respond to her in a way she could understand.

Seph squirmed under his grip, testing her boundaries, but the Bartharran wouldn’t budge. He just squeezed her tighter, forcing the air out of her lungs.

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