Magic Revealed

Dragonlord

"So, it's a room in a box?" Arthur asked as they peered into the box. Merlin nodded, "That explains why it is so heavily reinforced. You can't have a spell like this and not reinforce it."

"So how big is it?" Mordred wondered.

"Let's see." Merlin carefully put his feet on the ladder and stepped down until his head was just outside of the box. "Stay here." Then he dropped to the floor.

They all watched as he stepped toward the dragon eggs and gently ran a hand over them. He looked at something they couldn't see and strode out of view. "Merlin!" Arthur called. Mordred put a hand on his shoulder, "He's fine. Said something about books."

Lancelot rolled his eyes, "It's always the books with him." Then they heard Merlin, "It's safe. I think."

"That's really reassuring coming from you Merlin." Arthur grumbled but went down the ladder first followed quickly by Mordred and then Lancelot. They found Merlin looking at a table that was covered in papers, books, and other various items. It all looked well preserved and like it hadn't been touched in sometime.

Merlin was tracing his fingers over a text that Arthur couldn't read. When they gathered around him he looked up, "This belonged to a dragonlord." He said quietly.

Lancelot started, "I thought that there hasn't been another dragonlord other than you and your father in a long time."

Merlin nodded, "Not since the purge. They were one of the first hunted down. Their command of dragons was too dangerous."

"And the dragon eggs?" Arthur asked. "Are they alright?"

Merlin smiled, "They should be fine. I need to talk to Kilgharrah and Aithusa before hatching them. Goodness knows I can't take care of 1 baby dragon much less 13." He picked up an amulet on the table, "This box survived the purge. There are so many things I never thought I'd see."

Mordred picked up one amulet, "I recognize some druid magic in some of this." Merlin nodded, "I think that one brings the wearer good fortune in their travels." Arthur looked around the room, "Maybe you should keep the majority of this in here. And keep it in your room. I don't think we should leave it laying about."

Lancelot reached for a bottle, "What's-"

"Don't touch that!" Merlin yelped and the bottle flew out of Lancelot's reach. "I was about to get to that. Some of this stuff is very dangerous. This one appears to have some liquid in it that has eaten away at the glass. Touching it may have broken it and spilled it all over you're hand." Lancelot nodded, "Maybe we should let you sort through all this."

"But back at the castle." Arthur finished.

∆∆∆

"Having fun Merlin?" Arthur asked from the doorway. Merlin was sorting things from the box. He was putting many magic books on the shelves but seemed irritated. When the king appeared in the doorway he'd jumped in surprise.

"Arthur!" He sighed, "Sorry, I'm running back and forth getting some stuff out without upsetting the dangerous stuff and it's being a pain. Not to mention I need to get the dragon eggs out but don't want to risk accidentally breaking one. I have a habit of bumping things together with my levitation magic, and it's hard because I can't clearly see what I'm levitating."

He disappeared back into the box and Arthur went to the edge, "Hand them up, I'll put them on the bed."

Merlin blinked then nodded before gently picking up the first egg, which was a silvery color and held it up for Arthur. The king took it and went over to the bed to set it down. By the time he got back Merlin was ready with another. A few minutes later the two looked at their handy work. Thirteen eggs, two silver, two gold, two white, two red, two blue, two green, one black. Arthur pointed to the black egg, "That's really the odd one out isn't it."