Soldier's Letter

Writing to his wife, the soldier reports good health and a recent move to fresh quarters,

then turns to something stranger from his Parlita posting. A travelling merchant he stopped told of a lonely

cottage north of Parlita, near the mountains — a perfect rebel stash, the soldier thought, hoping for promotion.

It was no manumit hideout but something like a smithy: a weird anvil, hammers, and metals of a shine

he had never seen, with a constant quiet ringing in his ears. As he reached for an ore, a large uriash seized

him by the scruff of the neck and flung him out — then, instead of devouring him, spoke: 'Go, and never come back. Next time, I kill.'

He fled, told his captain nothing, and notes the uriash seemed amiss: its horns had vanished,

as if broken off and the stumps burnt. She alone, he writes, will ever hear of it — as promised at their wedding,

no secrets between them.