25. Frosti And Raven’s-Mane

After the Autumn Sacrifice, toward winter, Colm rode up into the meadow above Helgafeld. Frosti was there with the horses. Raven’s-Mane he kept penned in a stone enclosure.

Colm greeted him. “And how is the champion?” He gestured over toward Raven’s-Mane.

Frosti shook his head. He kept a smile on his lips but his eyes were bleak. “I think he will die after the first snows.”

“How so?”

“He cracked a bone in his foreleg and it hasn’t healed up.”

They walked over to the stone fenced pen and looked at the stallion. People had begun calling the horse Wolf-Tooth instead of Raven’s-Mane. But he looked gentle as he came over to Frosti and rubbed his muzzle against the man’s chest. Colm could see the swelling on his foreleg.

Frosti said, “I have tried all I know. I cannot keep him off that leg. I tied it up, he bit the wrappings in two. I confine the horse, he still gallops in small circles. The bone will not heal. I will keep him alive so long as I can, but I think he will die when it turns cold, as things tend to do.”

“But you will have him down at the farm then.”

“Even so. It will be cold enough.” Frosti shrugged. “And I doubt the farm will belong to Adals for much longer anyway.”

“Thorolf will not turn you out in in the winter.” Colm meant to talk to the godi to insure that.

“No. Thorolf is a decent man. But it is all the same. By the spring, Raven’s-Mane will be dead and Adals will lose the farm.”

“Well, remember what I said: come see me. I need a hand to look after my horses.”

Frosti grinned. “I have not forgotten. I will see you in the spring.” They slapped hands and parted.

It went much as Frosti said. Raven's-Mane died in winter, just before lambing time. Adals spent all that he had won horse-fighting and could not pay his debts. Now he no longer had a good horse that he could fight. Soon, he left the farm at Helgafeld, looking for work somewhere else. Thorolf did not press Braga for payment and she stayed on for a time, along with her daughter, before going to work for Orm Ketilsson and Marta Bjornsdottir. Frosti came by the Trollfarm in the spring. Colm set him to work watching his horses. “Tell me which are good and which are bad. Which should I breed and which should I sacrifice. Keep them healthy as you can.”

Frosti smiled and said that he would do his best. Colm had no doubt that he would.