Not just the keep which had become a mountain of rubble. But the city behind it, which was little better. Fire had raged through the entire city, and after it was finished, little had been left. Certainly nothing was intact. But while the keep had been destroyed by the explosion, Heri was pleased to find that his private sanctum had survived very much intact. He was relieved too. He had always intended that it should survive even such a catastrophe as the destruction of the keep. So he had built his sanctum to the rear of the keep and had buried it underground. In fact it was accessible only through a secret passageway beneath the gardeners' hall. But he had still not known for certain that it would survive. Not until just then. And it had survived even better than he had expected. The gardeners' hall itself had been burnt out and suffered a partial collapse. That was no great loss considering that there were no gardens and no gardeners left anymore.
