*
In the yard Karin took care of her own mount before she let a stable hand near it. Sigrid observed this from the steps with the expression of a woman adding a mark to an invisible column labelled acceptable.
"She'll do," Sigrid said when I passed.
"For the trade or for the keep."
"For the trade. The keep is a longer test."
I went up through the inner doors with ridge wind still in my clothes and Astrid's letter still against my ribs. The two facts sat together without competing: one wolf learning boats and false tide-paths under someone else's sky, and a mountain daughter measuring our shale for animals that were not yet ours. Frostfang was not smaller for either. It was simply less sealed.
Evening put Karin at the side table again, this time drawing a rough of the east cut on the back of a grain tally for Anders while Johan pretended not to watch. Magnus ate beside me and read Astrid's letter a second time when I angled it toward him.
"Saga Mikkelsen," he said.
