Veylin shook his head.
"Save it, Ola."
Before his words had faded, hoofbeats were already upon them. Diana pulled the reins tight, and her snorting warhorse came to a steady halt beside Veylin. Alex followed close behind and neatly swung down from his saddle.
They had clearly both heard Ola's booming voice.
"According to my reconnaissance," Alex said, staring at the distant steel behemoth, "Mimic Torpedoes can indeed penetrate magic shields, but their explosive payload is too small. Against a war machine on the scale of the Boundary Stone, an explosion like that wouldn't even breach its partition walls."
He exhaled a cloud of frosty breath. "If we want to kill that monster, we still have to break its magic shield first."
He stared at the steel fortress called the Boundary Stone.
A pale blue magic shield enclosed it like an upturned bowl, keeping out the wind and snow.
Beneath the shield, armor plates fitted seamlessly together. Countless dark gun barrels adjusted their angles as the mechanical legs retracted, like a hedgehog curled up with its spines still exposed.
"Break it?" Ola's eyes widened like brass bells. "That's probably an intermediate magic shield, isn't it? How many Mimic Torpedoes would that take?"
Veylin shook his head. "It isn't worth it. Mimic Torpedoes cost too much to raise. Using them against prey that's already fallen into a pit would be a waste."
He turned and looked toward the western horizon.
At the far end of the swirling snow, several mountain-sized black silhouettes slowly emerged.
"Perfect," Veylin said, smiling at the dark shapes. "They're here."
Everyone turned.
A flag embroidered with a golden sailing ship snapped in the wind.
Caroline sat astride a warhorse, draped in a deep crimson velvet cloak. The sapphire necklace at her throat glittered against the snow.
Behind