Merlina, a 14-year-old raven and one of the Tower of London's permanent residents, has gone missing and is feared dead!

A spokeswoman for Historic Royal Palaces told CNN that Merlina had flown off and not returned, which "indicates to us that she may have sadly passed away."

Ravens have been a mainstay at the Tower of London -- England's most famous execution site -- for centuries.

It was built in the 1070s by William the Conqueror as a castle and fortress and later became a place for royalty to store arms and jewels. To this day, the Crown Jewels are kept on site, protected by a garrison of soldiers.

But it also has a dark and bloody past, having been a prison for many hundreds of people, including Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn and Guy Fawkes, and the execution place of Henry VI.

In the 1600s, Charles II decreed that six of the birds must live at the tower at all times, otherwise the kingdom and the tower would fall. The tower will now be left with seven of the intelligent birds -- Jubilee, Harris, Gripp, Rocky, Erin, Poppy and George -- as they keep one spare for safekeeping.

The spokewoman told CNN that Merlina was a "unique" bird who had a "close bond" with Ravenmaster Christopher Skaife -- whose job it is to look after the birds.

One of the iconic ravens that resides in the Tower of London is missing, and officials fear the worst. Will the tower fall, as legend warns? (Probably not.)

Merlina, a female raven (Corvus corax), joined the corvid community at the tower in 2007, and has reigned since then as "the ruler of the roost," tower representatives tweeted in a thread on Jan. 13.

Merlina was "a free-spirited raven," and she went missing around Christmastime, Skaife told BBC News on Jan. 14. Feathers in the wings of Tower ravens are regularly trimmed to keep the birds close to home, though the birds are still able to fly short distances. Despite these precautions, some of the more adventurous ravens still manage to stray too far, HRP representatives said.

"There is a long and storied history of the ravens being spotted out and about around the local area, including a pair who used to nest at St Paul's Cathedral," HRP representatives told Live Science in an email. "In 2011, one of the current ravens — Munin — reached as far as Greenwich [5 miles or 8 kilometers from London], before being returned a week later. However, the ravens generally choose to stay at the Tower, where they are incredibly well-fed and cared for by the Ravenmaster and his team," they said.

Sadly, Merlina's prolonged absence suggests that the long-standing "queen" will return home nevermore.

"She will be greatly missed by her fellow ravens, the Ravenmaster and all of us in the Tower community," tower representatives tweeted.