Faced with Danyla's overwhelming presence, Earl Blackwood dared not entertain even a flicker of resistance and hurriedly agreed with utmost deference.
"Yes, Your Majesty! I will deliver the compensation to High Heart myself."
With his wits finally restored, Earl Blackwood could not help cursing himself inwardly.
Had ravens pecked my brains to pieces lately? How could I have been foolish enough to challenge the Holy Flame Queen's authority?
Earl Blackwood could not understand it, but Danyla already had an inkling after sensing unusual fluctuations of magical energy within Raventree Hall's enormous weirwood, which had stood dead for untold years.
She rode Myracis straight to the weirwood and first burned all the ravens taking flight to ash with a blast of dragonfire.
Then she seared her own mark into the weirwood's trunk, instantly extinguishing the Three-Eyed Crow's soul imprint temporarily lodged within it.
The surging magical energy released by the destruction of the Three-Eyed Crow's projected avatar miraculously caused the weirwood, dead for countless years, to sprout a new branch.
Even the stagnant magical energy around Raventree Hall's weirwood regained its vitality.
Within the dead weirwood's trunk, Danyla actually dug out a strange bird's egg the size of a pineapple.
Danyla surmised that Raventree Hall's weirwood had most likely died to nourish this strange bird's egg.
Yet although the egg was rich in magical energy, the signs of life within it were extremely faint, much like those in a dragon egg fossil. Clearly, hatching it would be no easy task.
So Danyla took it back to High Heart and placed it on the Purple Prince's remains to continue nourishing it. The warm dragonbone truly did cause the life signs within the damaged egg to strengthen gradually.
Her experience at Raventree Hall put Danyla on her guard again. In the days that