Love, Faith and Family

Chapter 90

Miriam being the queen of Camelot was good for many reasons.

For one, the minute she joined the negotiations with the kingdom of Nemeth about the disputed lands of Gedref, they were already inviting the ruling princess to Camelot to sign an agreement.

Uther fought that battle out of pride, refusing to let Nemeth win those lands no matter the cost.

Arthur's reign was about peace.

And as such, together they'd managed to convince the princess Mithian that the land could be split evenly down the middle, the lands plentiful with resources so that the borders should never need to be crossed, but they were welcome to, should the princess agree to the terms.

The princess' visit was eventful as the mapmaker's apprentice was killed and a letter was found on him from Odin's kingdom.

The mapmaker and his apprentice had access to the plans for Camelot's siege tunnels, the only way to breach the citadel without notice, and there was no way for them to defend those tunnels from the inside.

Miriam had an extremely bad feeling about the entire situation, especially when Agravaine offered to inventory the vault where the plans were kept.

Hence why she denied the offer and only had the most trusted knights, the ones of the round table, handle the documents, Arthur not contesting her.

That still didn't stop Agravaine from sneaking in, lying to the knights and saying that Arthur had asked him to help them whilst the feast took place.

He was in and out, taking the plans to Morgana who made a copy before handing it back to him to return to the vaults, assuring the royal couple that nothing was wrong.

But while Miriam, Arthur and Merlin picnicked with Mithian, Merlin being allowed to in this case as he was brother to the queen and technically a lord, Morgana was chasing Guinevere through the forest.

Mithian was rather humbled and in awe of the way the king and queen interacted with their knights, how they treated them as friends rather than subordinates.

Even more so when she and the royals became the ones unknowingly chasing Guinevere who'd been enchanted by Morgana, the girl now a deer.

But when Miriam lined her crossbow to take the shot, her heart told her no.

And so did Merlin when he got the same feeling and used his magic to see through the spell, to see the scared Gwen that had no choice but to run from them all before Mithian shot her in the leg with an arrow.

"He's done it again! Leon said Agravaine was there in the vaults helping them under our orders even though I specifically told him not to," Miriam ranted as she walked into their room later that day.

"We can't arrest him for disobeying orders," Arthur pointed out from where he sat on their bed. "My love, all we have is speculation. He planted the evidence to convince me you'd betray me but we've no proof he did it. We may know he's a traitor but if we banish him, arrest him, kill him, we'll never find out what Morgana is up to."

"Arthur, if he's given someone the plans for the siege tunnels, there is nothing we can do to stop them, it's a direct line into the heart of the citadel."

Arthur stood as he cupped her cheeks.

"Whatever happens, I have absolute faith that we will survive it and that we will win."

His queen sighed.

"We don't even know who or when she could be marching into our kingdom."

"We defeated her immortal army. And we will absolutely be able to bet her mortal one," Arthur reassured her as he rubbed her arms.