Marcus was so intent on playing the role of the fisherman, waiting patiently for the perfect moment to reap the benefits, that he had completely forgotten about the mysterious woman in black and the other terrifying presence still inside the palace: the Dark Arch-Sorcerer, the Double-Headed Raven King.
After triggering the traps in the main hall, the woman had been the first to pass through, arriving swiftly in the inner courtyard where the Spring of Purity once lay.
The moment she laid eyes on the scene, her steps faltered.
'What happened here?'
The spring was gone.
Before her was not the pristine, moonlit pool she knew so well, but a collapsed ruin. Stone slabs lay shattered, the earth torn open, and the heart of the courtyard had been reduced to a deep, dry pit. There was no trace of the treasures Lyanna had supposedly left behind, nor any sign of the Spring of Purity itself, one of the Five Legendary Springs of the Dreamland Continent.
The sight left her stunned.
