Asking Questions in Third Person Past Tense

Okay, so I have three beta readers, one who, until just recently, had never picked on this in the previous chapters of my novel.

I'm describing a landscape in third person past, and I end this description with: What happened to this land? My beta reader pointed out that asking a question in narrative is a sign of a tense shift to first person, but I have never heard that before. Plus, I've read books with third person past tenses that do that.

But my other two beta readers have not pointed that out, so I'm assuming they see no problem with it. And frankly, I have no problem with it either. So, is there some rule about this? I've read plenty of writing books that state you should rarely ever--or never--use a ! in narrative, but not a ? (well, common sense says use it sparingly).

Maryn said:

Don't tell him or her I said so, but your beta is an idiot.

Tense is the verb's relation to time--past, present, future. Person is entirely different, a matter of whether I ran to dinner, you ran to dinner, or he ran to dinner.

I think it sounds fine as you've written it.

Maryn, who doesn't think this beta has nothing to offer you--just not grammar tips

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Lol. He/she has done a good job with beta reading (mostly with the plot in general), but I just found the comment so odd.

But thanks a lot you guys. That really cleared things up for me.