Love, Faith and Family

Chapter 72

However, when they returned, all the knights were passed out. Miriam and Merlin didn't think anything of it until Miriam heard Arthur groaning and gasping for breath and Merlin found a poultice in the empty stew pot.

As Merlin healed them all with a spell, Miriam armed herself before they ran for the tomb.

They watched from the bottom of the staircase as Borden used the triskelion to open a locked door.

"No!" Miriam exclaimed, a heart-sinking bad feeling in her chest.

Borden only smirked at them before walking through the door. And being hit by a plume of white smoke.

They jogged up the first flight, trying to peer through the opaque smoke, before they saw Borden coughing and gagging as he fell to the floor and Merlin pulled his sister behind him.

Covering his face with his coat, he held up his hand as he muttered a spell and the smoke vanished.

"Are you alright?" he asked his sister who had pulled up the sleeve of her tunic to cover her face.

"Fine," she promised as they made it up the rest of the stairs.

Borden's body was unmoving and though Miriam still had a bad feeling, she had more important things to worry about.

As Merlin lit a torch and Miriam held her sword, the warlock led the way up a set of stairs as they came to the highest room in the tower, the pillars that kept it standing etched with the symbols of the old religion.

Miriam smiled, for at the end of the room on a pedestal sat a pale blue dragon's egg that was shaped like a teardrop.

Miriam sheathed her sword as her brother watched as her hands neared the egg, the blue shell cool on her skin as she touched it.

"Give it to me," ordered a voice from behind her and Merlin dropped the torch in shock as he stepped back to Miriam's side.

"It is not yours to take," she said as she faced him, the egg still unmoved.

"You give it to me, and you can both split the half share I grant you," he offered.

"No, it must go free," Merlin answered.

"Don't be a fool," Borden sat as he approached them. "Think of the power it will bring us, the lands we can rule over, the riches."

"We're not interested in that," Miriam spat.

"With this dragon at our command, we will live like royalty. We will have the freedom and power to do as we wish!"

"Dragons cannot be used like that!" Miriam shouted, blood boiling.

"They must be left unshackled and free to roam the earth," Merlin added, thinking of how he'd unshackled Kilgharrah.

"But this is your chance. Your chance to escape your meaningless life, your worthless existence!"

Miriam couldn't help but look at him in disbelief.

All he saw were servants. He had no idea how special the two people standing in front of him were.

"It is not our lives that are pitiable, it's yours," Merlin said when his sister stayed silent.

"Gaius saw so much potential in you and you've done nothing but waste it and all for nothing," Miriam added and she was shoved behind her brother as Borden picked up the fallen torch.

"I pieced together the triskelion. I found the path that led us here. The dragon belongs to me. Now had it over," Borden ordered, voice raspy and deep but loud.