Mord-Sith » The Vampire Diaries

Part I: The Drowning Cave

"That way." One of the man pointed, in the direction my sisters had taken the girls. A path I knew well.

"Wait." I called out, stopping the witches. "If they went that way, they took the girls to the Drowning Cave."

"Drowning cave?" Kahlan inquired, looking at me with wide eyes.

"During the rains the river floods it." I explained. "Uncooperative trainees are left there just before a storm."

"Charming." Karin declared sarcastically, with a sour expression on her face.

"In the dry season, you can get in, but only through a high narrow canyon." I continued, ignoring the witch's previous comment. "But once you're in, there's no other way out."

"It's a trap." Karin affirmed and everybody agreed with that marvelous deduction. "Maybe this was their plan all along. Lure us into an ambush Sister, because they knew we would do anything to save the children. "

Kahlan nodded along, before looking at me with a questioning gaze. "If water flows into the cave it has to flow out somewhere."

"There's an aquifer that empties into the marsh." I informed them. "But it's barely big enough to crawl through, and anybody who tried would be greeted by Mord-Sith as soon as they came through the other side."

"We can draw most of the Mord-Sith out of the cave if we stage an attack through the canyon." The Regent said, with a thoughtful look in her face.

"Sister, that's exactly what they want." Karin growled out, looking at her sister has if she was mad.

"That's what we'll give them, while you go through the aquifer and rescue the girls." Kahlan replied. "I'll conjure shadows to fight the Mord-Sith." Karin shot a dark look at Kahlan when she mentioned shadows but kept quiet. 

"You'll show her the way." The witch said, looking at me and I found myself agreeing.

---

"Give me your hand." I demanded as I helped the witch climb through the aquifer. Why I had even agreed to help the witches was beyond me. Well, maybe I just wanted to beat some of my sisters into the ground. As they had done to me.

Karin grabbed my hand, somewhat reluctantly, and I pulled the small dark woman up. She stared at me quietly before her hand clashed my throat.

"I don't know exactly what you did to make Kahlan trust you." The witch spit out. "But if this is some sort of trick, I will kill you."

I didn't bother with a reply and continued on my way. We climbed a few more minutes until we could hear the quiet cries of the girls, who were most likely shaking in fear. There were only two Mord-sith with the children, so Kahlan's part had gone as planed.

"Hello Sisters." I greeted, giving them a small smile. 

"I've brought you a prize." I declared, slowly turning towards the witch that stood behind me. "A powerful witch."

Karin took a step back, and when one of me sister approached I swiftly punched her in the face. The witch took but a moment to trow a sword at the other Mord-Sith, impaling her quickly. I punched my opponent again, before cracking her neck and throwing her like trash into the ground.

"Karin." One of the girls called out. "I knew you'd come."

"We have to go." Karin exclaimed. 

I ignored the chatting, and the happy cries of the children, as I picked one of the agiels, of my now dead sisters, from the ground.  Oh, how I had missed it's painful hums in my hands. Yet, this was not my agiel .

 "Fast." Karin pleaded. "Help me get them out of here, and look for my sister."

"If you're sister is not with the children then she's not here." I tell her, before leaving the cave in search of the one that stole my agiel, Denna. "I didn't come for the children."

---

I search through the unconscious bodies of my sisters in the canyon. Whatever magic Kahlan had used had been powerful and destructive. And Dark, very very Dark. I was impressed really. While I had to finish of some the Mord-Sith, as they still breathed, many of them we're thorn to pieces. Literally. 

My search resulted in nothing, as Denna was not among the dead. Seeing as the Kahlan and Karin's sister too had been missing, my best bet was that she was Denna's new shiny toy. With that in mind, I returned to the village.

I quickly found the witch sisters talking near the entrance. When Karin saw me their conversation quickly died.

"A Mord-Sith keeps her pledges." I said, as I walked towards them. "I said I would help you find my sisters, we have yet to find them all. And you're own sister for that matter."

"You don't strike me as a type of person who likes to help anybody." Karin said, arching her brow at me.

"If you're foolish enough to turn down my help, then you need me all the more." I said, looking at Kahlan instead. I had seen the results of her spell first hand, this one was not to be messed with. 

"Alright." Kahlan agreed, as she looked me in the eye. "Where could the Mord-Sith have taken my sister then?"

"The Palace of Blood, in the snowy mountains up north." I informed, as the palace was the nearest temple and the temple I had been at before venturing to the South. 

"Kahlan, you can't possibly be thinking of taking her with us." Karin demanded, as she looked at me in disgust. I wondered if the witch had a death wish or something.

"She's proven herself to me. I can use her." The Regent said, replying to her sister but while glancing at me. "We best say our goodbyes, this may take a while. I'm leaving the Covens in Karmelia's hands since you are coming as well."

"Karmelia?" Karin asked, amused. "She's neither knowledgeable nor powerful. We will return to find the village destroyed."

"Cara." Kahlan called out, ignoring her sister's comments. "How well do you know this Palace of Blood?"

"As the back of my hand." I declared, truthfully. The Palace had been one of the first Temples to be built, in the beginning when there we're only a handful of Mord-Sith. It had even been named by Lord Markos and Thalia after one of my first battles, when I had returned to it covered in witch's blood.

"To the palace of blood it is then."