Chapter Eight
Kahlan was woken the next morning by being pulled from her nice warm bed and onto the cold stone floor. She glared up at a grinning Alexa.
"What the hell?"
"It's time to get up." Alexa said sweetly. "We have to be assembled to be led into the arena in two hours to fight."
"What? When were we told that?"
"About three hours ago."
"Three hours?" Kahlan stood up from the floor and moved to her back pack, pulling her fighting dress out. "Why didn't you wake me earlier then?"
"Don't mistake me waking you now as us being friends. I had no reason to wake you earlier. I don't owe you anything." It seemed like a sore point to Alexa.
"Okay… you don't owe me anything. Um, are you going to leave? I need to get dressed."
Alexa grinned and took the few steps to her bed. She lay down with her arms folded behind her head.
"No. I think I'll stay in here."
xxxxx
Alexa walked with Kahlan to the room they had been in the day before. They were half an hour early, as were most of the other competitors. Alexa moved to the back of the crowd and Kahlan followed. It wasn't like she had anything better to do. Alexa leaned against a wall and silently watched the other contestants.
"See that man over there? His name is Trimack." Alexa pointed to the man who had conversed with Mistress Hally the day before. "As you can probably guess from his, ah, talk with Mistress Hally yesterday, he doesn't have a lot of respect for Mord-Sith. If you want to get in the Mord-Sith's good graces, make sure he doesn't get into the next round."
"Why don't they like him?"
"He's the reason a quad died. They were under his command, and he made a stupid decision."
"How do you know that?"
"It's the sort of thing you know in my line of work."
"What's that?"
Alexa smirked.
"Get though this round and I might tell you."
xxxxx
It had taken a long time to get everyone into the arena. Contestants had to be searched for weapons, weapons had to be tagged and moved to a safe and hands needed to be wrapped. Rules, though simple, needed to be explained.
Berdine didn't even need to speak up.
"You're all going to fight. Hand to hand combat, the last twenty four will move on to the next round. If you lose you'll be escorted to your rooms to pick up your belongings and then kicked out. If you win, you wait in the arena. The Overlord wants to talk to the winners."
Mistress Berdine moved towards the arena exit. "You'll know when to start."
There was silence in the arena for a second before one of the larger D'Haran men yelled and launched himself at the nearest person. The nearest person happened to be Alexa. She grabbed the man's outstretched arm and used his momentum to throw him over her shoulder and into a wall. He crumpled to the floor. It took half a second for the fighting to start.
Kahlan ducked as a fist flew through the space where her head had been. She planted her hands on the ground and kicked back, hitting her attacker in the groin. She spun and landed at kick to the side of her attacker's head. He slumped to the ground. Kahlan vaguely hoped he didn't get trampled.
As she finished off each opponent, Kahlan found another waiting. She wondered if it had something to do with being a woman. If they thought she'd be easy to take down, they were all going to learn something. Kahlan turned in time to see Alexa simultaneously fighting off two contestants, and a third rushing towards them. Kahlan stuck her foot out, causing the running man to trip and barrel into one of the others attacking Alexa. Alexa punched the last contestant in the face. His head snapped back and he fell to the floor. A loud whistle blew and the arena was flooded with Mord-Sith, agiels drawn. They pulled apart anyone still fighting. The losers were helped up and out of the arena by D'Haran guards. Eventually, when only the twenty four winners remained, the Mord-Sith gestured for everyone to move through a large doorway. And up a large flight of stairs.
The room they were led into overlooked the arena they had been fighting in. Overlord Cara was waiting for them, slouched in a large throne like chair.
"Congratulations. From now on, you will be paired with another fighter. You will all undergo testing against my Mord-Sith using several different fighting techniques. You'll be assessed on each technique individually. You and your partner's scores will be added together and the top five pairs will win. Pick well, you can't change partners."
xxxxx
As they left the room overlooking the arena and headed back to the renovated dungeons they slept in, Alexa grabbed Kahlan by the elbow.
"You're my partner. I've already told Mistress Berdine, so you're stuck with me."
Then Alexa disappeared down a side corridor. Kahlan would have followed if it weren't for the glaring Mord-Sith standing behind her.
xxxxx
"She's the Mother Confessor. I didn't recognize her straight away, but there is no mistaking her fighting style."
Cara didn't even glance up from the report she was reading. It was a stupid report, and Raina would never have let Cara read it. Cara hated that Hally wasn't as efficient as Raina.
"I knew it was her."
"It's a huge security risk. Why did you let her stay if you knew it was her?"
Cara glanced up at the red head. "I know what I'm doing, and I took precautions."
"What precautions?"
"You'll see when you get back to your assigned quarters. Which I suggest you do, before someone notices you're missing."
xxxxx
Once they had been led to their quarters, the competitors were left alone. Kahlan took the time to look around. She managed to wonder for ten minutes before she saw anyone else. Most of the Confessor's Palace had remained the same, at least the dungeons had. It had always amazed Kahlan how large the dungeons were in the palace. A large D'Haran solider stopped her from moving any deeper into the dungeons.
"Sorry little lady. Only the Overlord and Mord-Sith are allowed beyond here."
"Why?"
He shrugged and smiled down at Kahlan, not threatened by her at all.
"I don't know, I just get told to stand here looking as handsome as I do. It's better than stable duty."
"Do you see many people down here?"
"Sorry, can't tell you."
"I understand. I'm sorry too."
Any place that only the Mord-Sith and the Overlord could go was some place that Kahlan should have access to. Her hand snaked out and caught the solider by the neck. She felt the compression of air around her and saw the soldier's eyes shift to black quickly before settling back to normal.
"Command me, Mistress."
"Do you see many people down here?"
"Almost never, Mistress. Only the Mord-Sith that brings food. The Overlord hasn't come down in a week, and before that a month."
Kahlan frowned.
"What was the Overlord doing down here?"
The solider looked franticly at her. "I don't know."
"It's okay. What did she do?"
"The Overlord came down with Mistress Raina and the Sword of Truth. Half an hour later, she came back up and left."
Kahlan spoke through gritted teeth. "Stay here."
She couldn't believe that that cow had Richard's sword. It had disappeared shortly after Richard's death, though it had taken quite a while for Kahlan to notice. Zedd said it was the way of the Sword of Truth, and to not worry. As Kahlan moved down the stone hallway she found herself passing rows of empty cells. It wasn't until she reached the last cells that she found anyone. There were two women in different cells, quite obviously ignoring each other. Kahlan couldn't see either of them very well in the dim light, and could only distinguish that one of the women was blonde and the other brunette. They also ignored Kahlan. It was awkward for a moment before the blonde woman turned to her and stared in mild shock.
"Who are you?"
Kahlan didn't answer straight away. She waited until she had both women's attention.
"That depends. What would you do if I released you?"
The brunette snarled. "Kill the bitch that put me in here!"
"My, how every obvious of you. Like she won't see that coming a mile away." Snapped the blonde.
"Right. Like you wouldn't do the same."
"That's the difference between us. I know how to achieve my goals without being caught."
The brunette snorted and opened her mouth to reply. Kahlan tilted her head to the side and left the two women to bicker. If they were guarded by a D'Haran solider, then they were most certainly prisoners of the Overlord. Anything that was bad for the Overlord was good for Kahlan. She stopped next to the confessed solider.
"There are two women down there, is there anyway you can free them?"
He grinned at her happily. "Yes, Mistress. I can pick locks."
xxxxx
By the time Kahlan made it back to her quarters, Alexa was back, and lying on her bed. Kahlan noticed that all of her belongings had been packed up and placed on her bed.
"Why did you move my stuff?"
Alexa raised an eyebrow. "While we may be partners for this competition, I'm not sharing a room with you while there are plenty of other rooms available."
Kahlan frowned at the venom in Alexa voice. She picked up her backpack.
"Fair enough. I'll find another room then."