I was taken to my bed to rest and after a while I was fully awake. "What happened" I asked not having a clue as to what had happened. "You tried to kill us. You sabotaged us, you sold us out to Liah and Qarinah, you...."Aurora spoke without caring about my feelings but Kahlan shunned her "Aurora!, that wasn't her, you said it yourself". "Well yes but then it was her weakness. You need to be stronger than this Diana" Aurora said again.
"She's right. I put our lives in danger because of my weakness, I always do" I lamented.
"Where's Sir Magnus?" I asked.
"You sent them off to get killed in the temple of elvara. Lucky enough, we sent out search parties but only one person returned with sir Magnus, Owen and Leone. The rest are dead" Aurora said, Kahlan gave her a warning look. "It wasn't you Diana, it was Qarinah, it's not your fault"
"I think you better say it's not entirely her fault cause it's her fault to an extent" Aurora started again.
"I think we should leave her to rest Aurora" Kahlan said in order to send Aurora out of the room. Before Aurora left she handed a cup over to me "here, drink this. It'll help you get over whatever you went through back there.
Qarinah and Liah were now working together without king Stephan. He had nothing to pitch in except his men when they finally decide to attack Darca. Freya worked for them as their evil conduit. "That girl has destroyed everything" Qarinah said to Liah in anger. "At least we got some of what we wanted. You're immortal now Qarinah, I'm sure we'll still get hold of Darca" Liah responded.
"Get hold of Darca?, Liah can't you see, we have to act fast. Torren is not in Darca so it'll be easier for us" Qarinah said.
"Easy Qarinah, I know your plans. Once you have your coven, you'll vanguish me. You have all the power now, just your bare hands sucks life out of a mortal but believe me, you don't have the power to vanguish me. Before we attack Darca, I want a fair deal with you"
"You'll never seize to amaze me Liah. What's the deal"
"Good. You want to be the keeper of all evil. I want to become a goddess. A goddess of all dark forces., and I can't be that without the chalcedony orb in me, and without a touch of your magic. you'll hand over the orb to me, you've used it for quite a while, I'll be needing it alongside the cryx, and with that, I'll be one of the most powerful goddesses in ancient history, even more powerful than Athena herself and You'll bow to me and I'll make you the keeper and controller of evil, you need me to be that"
"Why do you want to be a goddess?" Qarinah asked.
"The same reason you want to be a keeper. Listen Qarinah, we might need each other for this but you need me more than I need you. I can always find another sorceress as powerful as you are but you can never find a dangerous and powerful vampire born of a human like me. Now do we have a deal?".
"This isn't about helping me Liah. It's about using my powers to get what you want"
"Well, I've always been nothing more than a tool to you Qarinah".
Oh no. Now these powerful women have a greater evil agenda. King Stephan has no magic but he has all the warriors they will be needing to conquer darker.
While Qarinah and Liah were planning to attack us, we were planning to defend ourselves.
"Now that we have our little queen back on our side, the Liah I've dealt with in the past will strike physically before she uses her magic again. We have to gather your men...." As Aurora was speaking Kahlan cut in "you're not in charge Aurora. Let the knights do their job".
Aurora smiled "very well".
"King Luther agreed to help us. Why isn't he showing up?" I asked.
"I think healing your husband and igniting your sister's powers are part of the help. He won't be here until Liah strikes. Don't worry, he keeps to his words". We were still talking when sir Leone rushed into the palace "my lady, there are men heading towards our kingdom. They seem to bring war". Sir Magnus who was initially with us responded "gather our army, we'll meet them before they get to the bothers. My lady, I have to leave" he said and bowed.
"I just wish Torren was here. He'd know what to do" I said.
"He's getting cured. Get a grip of yourself,you have a war to fight" Aurora said and left.
"I honestly don't like her" Kahlan said. "Neither do I" I added. Our men fought the warriors at the bother. A lot of our men were killed but the other ones managed to drive back the warriors. A lot were injured including Owen. When they retreated and came back to the castle, Kahlan was worried about Owen. She gave him more attention than any other injured knight. I could obviously see that they were in love. Aurora was also quite helpful. She helped nurse the injured knights. She was nursing a knight lying close to Owen when Kahlan was nursing Owen. "You must really like him. I wonder why you know" Aurora said to Kahlan.
"Stop wondering, you'll never understand love Aurora".
"Love does nothing but destroy you"
"I don't think so. If it destroys you, you won't be here helping Torren. I know you want a chance to make things up to him"
"You think I'm the one at fault? Look I'm the victim here".
"If you're the victim believe me Aurora, you'll never want to help him even when he's dying. I think there's more to your story".
Aurora ignored Kahlan this time and moved over to another knight then after some time she spoke "I'm here because Luther wants me to be here. My loyalty is with him".
Darca was in chaos. I had every citizen of Darca move to a certain area and Aurora protected them with magic so that no physical creature would hurt them. Liah and Qarinah had plans of coming to Darca themselves. King Stephan had already realized he was being used by these two women but he couldn't do anything. He only wanted the crown but those two wanted something more. And about Freya?, she was still being used by evil. Aurora had already told us that she was under the influence of shadow magic and if the magic is not vanguished, Freya can never be free.