with the contempt of outsiders, but their faces
phers’ duty was to produce a geological sur-
were hard and their eyes narrow. As Sammi
vey of the gap, and they could hardly do so if
rose to mount his horse, he turned to Teo and
they stayed behind.
said, low enough that no one else could hear,
The greenie engineers were less certain of
“You could not just let it go, could you?” When
proceeding, but they were from the west
Teo gave him a puzzled look, he added, “I
coast of the peninsula, and the one thing of
don’t like this, not even one little bit.”
which they were certain was that they did not
“Sammi, nothin’ even happened yet!”
want to be the only ones seen to be hanging
“That’s what Tommi o’ th’ Buzzards say
back.
when he was halfway jumping across Bottom-
Teo carefully explained about the active
less Crevasse.” He clicked to his mare and
hiteq that the Commonwealth had left behind,
turned her head about to join Tunny and Danc-
emphasizing especially the rapid-fire muskets
ing Deer, and the three scouts picked their
used by Jamly to annihilate the Scorpion head-
way down the south side of the landslide.
hunters who had cornered Sammi and him at
“Well, Teodorq,” he told himself, “yuh got it
her shuttle, and the lēsar cannon used by
to do.” And he urged his horse on in Sammi’s
Phanklar Noi to slaughter all those who tried
wake. But he felt Sammi’s unease, too.
to climb his steps.
Bepelo Two Stags and two other life-
Wang pursed his lips. “Do you intend to
guards—Nestor Upstream and Bourse Chang-
hold out the possibility of discovering lost
ov—took up positions at the military crest of
Commonwealth technology as a means to dis-
the rockslide. They each had two muskets.
suade us from accompanying you?”
When Teo reined in briefly and looked at him,
And Jerry slapped his thigh. “I knew it! You
Bepelo shrugged. “Engineers are enough to
want all the glory to yourself!”
take word; Jerry’s enough to ensure training.”
Jestapul said, “All the more reason not to ex-
Though frustrated, Teo knew not a little pride
pose yourself to the danger, kemal.”
in the caliber of his men. They had the bark
Sammi, sitting cross-legged atop the boul-
on them.
ders, said, “You very persuasive speaker, Ted-
dy. This, what we call ‘reverse psychology’ in
Before Teo was halfway to the dunes, the
hill country?”
scouts had ridden on ahead, fanning out to
80
MICHAEL F. FLYNN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
cover the width of the gap, and Jerry had can-
Jerry made a face. “I’d like it even less if the
tered up to ride by his side. Teo looked at him
song went how we run away from something
but said nothing. Jerry chuckled.
we never even seen.”
“Hey, people would ask me, ‘Where was
But when Teo had turned to speak to him
you, Jerry sunna Ranuuj the Implacable, when
he saw Reff Wang and his two lieutenants
Teodorq sunna Nagarajan the Ironhand rode
coming up on them. He sighed and waited
into Madness Gap to face the gods?’ Yuh want
with his arms crossed over his saddle fork. Jer-
I should tell ’em, ‘I was hiding behind the
ry said, “I thought you told them guys to stay
rocks with outlanders’!”
behind.” Teo looked at him but said nothing.
“Yuh could tell ’em yuh was following the or-
Jehu Madrez and Bome Tillisin were both
ders of yer First. Remember: ‘Two great men.
from the far north of Cuff land and regarded
One to range ahead; one to ward the rear.’”
the southern fear of Madness Gap as super-
“Yeah, yeah. Roddorq sunna Deeterq. He
stition. “How can ye losen yair mind?” Madrez
sure had a great mouthful of quotes. But if I’m
was asking as the cartographers caught up.
gonna watch yer butt, I’d rather do it up
“It’s not like ye losen yair locker keys. What,
close.” He cantered on a few more steps.
ye forgetten whair ye putten it?” His accent
“That didn’t come out right, did it?” he added.
was thick enough to support a troop of caval-
“I knew what yuh meant.”
ry.
“Not that yuh don’t got a watchable butt,
“Cha!” said Tillisin. “Tis no-but as you are
yuh understand.”
losing your place in a book.”
“I knew what yuh meant.”
“Than I sticken mine f inger ain my air to
“There’s yer pet hillman.”
keepen mine place?”
Sammi had stopped to examine the first of
Wang and his two men slipped from their
the johns. Teo’s look-glass picked out Dancing
horses and Wang said, “This is a good place to
Deer off to the east and Tunny toward the
pull samples. The change in the geography
southwest.
from basalt to sandstone is most abrupt. Ex-
“I think there’s bandits in the gap here,” Teo
cuse us, Colonel, but we must continue our
suggested. “I get the feeling we’re being
survey. Jehu, take some levels and bearings.
watched.”
Bome, test the rock to see what the matrix
Jerry shrugged. “Yeah, but a bunch of sav-
consists of.” He f lipped open an oversize
ages in wild costumes ain’t the threat their an-
sketch book and began to draw the surround-
cestors were.”
ing topography with his charcoals and gums.
Teo scowled at his side rider. “What ances-
Tillisin pulled a collapsible case from the pack
tors?”
mule and extended its legs. It proved to con-
“The people of smoke and water. Man, that
tain jars of various chemicals, brushes, rock
was one helluva fight, wasn’t it? But they for-
hammers, scales, and other utensils. Madrez
got more.”
set up his tripod and waved a flag and, in the
“What d’yuh expect? More generations,
distance, Nestor held up a pole with a target
more opportunities to forget.” Teo paused.
on it. Madrez sighted on it.
“Jerry, what are we talking about?”
“Chief,” said Teo. “If your men have lost
The Puma rode silently for a time, then
their minds, Jerr y and I may have found
shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe this is the part
some.”
where we lose our minds.”
The cartographer blinked and peered at
“That can’t be good.”
them in puzzlement. Teo thought better of try-
“You ain’t just woof ing. I always was pass-
ing to explain. Besides, Wang wasn’t much
ing fond of my mind. It wasn’t much, but it
more than a savage himself. The gulf between
was mine. Y’know what I’m saying?”
the greenies and him was trivial next to the
“Yah. Besides, why waste our breath on the
gulf between either of them and the star-strid-
likes of them?”
ers their ancestors had been.
“Do we even have the breath for it any-
“Yah,” said Jerry. “So where do they come
more?”
off so high an’ mighty?”
Teo reined in. “Yuh wanna pull everyone
Wang bent over his map. “We see not so far
out of the gap?”
as they did, because we are crushed under the
THE JOURNEYMAN: THROUGH MADNESS GAP
81
ANALOG
feet of giants. They came down hard,” he
widened base hinted at a stride of legs, now
added. “It’s hard to see the old country under
filled in. That bend might be a knee. The pro-
the new.”
trusions along the side could be taken for
Teo pulled his reins around. “C’mon, Puma.
pumping arms. The rounded top might be a
Let’s see what got Sammi so interested.”
head turned about to look over a shoulder.
As he and Jerry progressed up the gap, the
Teo began to wonder if it were a worn stat-
feeling increased that not only were they be-
ue. But why would anyone raise a statue in
ing watched, but that they were not welcome,
this forsaken place?
as if they had interrupted something delicate
Art was supposed to represent things as
and personal.
they really were, but Teo had seen examples
“Yah,” said Jerry. “One time I walked into
in Cuff land of art that only suggested such
my sister’s tent when she was entertaining De-
forms. Suggestivism, it was called by those
odar sunna Pillip the Inexhaustible. It was
who studied it. If this were a suggested human
pretty entertaining, too, until Sis drew her
form, then the sheet of sandstone flaring out
knife and chased me outta the tent.”
before it would be the man’s hair, blown in a
Teo scanned the desolate landscape and
following wind.
brushed the loose sand from his hair that va-
No, the woman’s hair, he saw now.
grant breezes had deposited there. Far off to
Sammi heard him and took a step away.
the left, a flattened arch of stone was embed-
“Hey! Why you sneak up on Sammi?” The
ded in the sheer cliff that bounded the gap.
knife with which he had been scraping at the
Within the half-ellipse were a crisscross of
sandstone was now pointed toward Teo.
rock layers of sundry colors. Wang would
Teodorq sneered. Did a hillman think a
have a field day with that.
plainsman would fear such a nail-parer? But he
“Damn shame,” said Jerry.
gave his companion a wide berth as he
Teo nodded. It would never f ly again. He
stepped around to look at the john from the
sucked in his breath, spat out some grit. “Jer-
other side.
ry,” he said, “something real weird is goin’ on
“I don’t recommend that,” said Sammi.
here.”
Teo saw what Sammi meant. The “face” side
“No shit, genius. If you ain’t thinking this
of the f igure was obscured by an uncarved
stuff, and I ain’t thinking this stuff, then who
mass of sandstone, but the hillman had
the hell is thinking it?”
scraped away at it, and there were two holes
“I really hate it when someone else thinks
now where the eyes would have been.
with my mind. I’m guessing there are ghosts
The statue was hollow and encased within
hereabouts, like Jamly or Phanklar Noi, but dif-
it was the desiccated, baked-black mummy of
ferent.”
what had once been a woman. The eyes were
“I wouldn’t know. I never had the pleasure.
empty sockets. The aspect overall was one of
They never got into your head, hey?”
terror. Teo took an involuntary step back. This
“No, but they were damaged. I can see
was different from the carpet of bones that
where any greenies come up this here gap
had littered the steps to Phanklar Noi. It was
would get spooked, though. They wouldn’t
more personal.
have no experiences to compare it to.”
Looking back the way she had been staring,
“So there are working artifacts left by the
Teo realized that the f ield of scattered John
people of smoke and water?”
Darms and blocks was a column of men and
There was a second half to that thought,
women, most afoot, some riding in wagons
but it wouldn’t come clear. The voices in his
(though without statues of horses attached),
head quieted.
in only loose array. Those in the lead, like this
woman were running. Farther back, one of
An ill wind
the wagons had unlimbered, and hulking
Sammi had dismounted and stood by a
stony f igures were hunched around a device
weatherworn column of sandstone a little
much like the thundertubes of the greenies.
taller than he was. He was scraping at the sand
Though coarsened by its sandstone coating,
with his long-knife. Teo could see where the
the underlying sleekness of the tube was evi-
seeming of the human form came from. The
dent. The artillerymen had been caught in the
82
MICHAEL F. FLYNN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
act of aiming it toward their rear. Teo pulled
Jerry had picked up a brick-sized rock from
out his look glass.
the ground, and after handling it, his face con-
“Don’t bother, plainsman,” said Sammi.
torted in rage, and he leapt to his saddle shout-
“Whatever chase them long gone.”
ing, “Vile hillman!” and kicked his horse into a
Teo looked at the hillman and said, “This
charge. His sword snicked from his shoulder
was the Third Column,” he guessed.
scabbard.
Sammi nodded. “Whatever drove them out
“The sandstone,” Wang told his assistants,
of Iabran, it wasn’t barbarians.”
“is shot through with veins of iron.”
“Fascinating!”
The people of sand and iron, Teo knew.
The voice behind them made both men
And if humans had survived to eke out a life
jump. It was Reff Wang and his two lieu-
on World, so too might have some of the at-
tenants.
tacking host. Stoney Mountain covered one
On catching sight of Fleeing Woman at the
such ship, whose survivors had made of the
head of the column, Wang made the sign of
gap cut by the string a refuge for themselves.
the whe
el across his body: forehead, left
He brushed the sand from his hair with sud-
shoulder, breast, right shoulder, and forehead
den urgency and was startled to find that parts
again. Then he kissed his fingertips. The car-
of it were sticking in place, like in the hair of
tographers meanwhile had slipped from their
Fleeing Woman.
horses to set up their boss’ surveying and
Sammi nocked an arrow and took aim at Jer-
rock-testing equipment.
ry. Just like a treacherous hillman! Teo flipped
Sammi muttered that at this rate they would
his knife, caught it by the blade, and cocked
raise the far side of the gap about double-sum-
his arm for the throw.
mer next sun-cycle.
The sandstone began to f izz and bubble
The savages are of no concern, Teo knew,
where the drops of muriatic acid struck. “Yes,
but the men in formal clothing might pose a
a calcite binder,” said Reff Wang.
threat. They should all be blown away.
The high-pitched whine shot through Teo’s
Jerry had ridden forward, down the line of
brain like a hot needle. His knife went wide,
f leeing refugees. “The squarish things,” Teo
and so did Sammi’s arrow. Jerry dropped his
heard him call, “are carts of some sort. I can
sword to grab both his ears, and it dangled
see mummies inside some of them. Hey, look
from the thong looped to his wrist. The edge
over to the right!”
swung and cut his horse, which reared and
Teo saw a stone arch similar to the one on
threw him to the ground.
the left wall.
They must not escape with this knowledge.
“It was a ship,” Sammi said. “Made hard
Call everyone. Warn them!
landing and was cut in half by ‘cosmic string.’”
But the enemy might hear!
“How do you know that?” Teo demanded,
The enemy is more powerless than we are.
but he heard the answer in the sorrow of his
Look how primitive even the men with the
own mind. Sammi had been riding by himself
chemistry are.
and had no way to realize that some of his
The whine rose in pitch beyond what hu-
thoughts were coming from somewhere else.
man minds could apprehend.
He tried to explain about the intrusive
Teo pulled his bull-roarer from his saddlebag
thoughts he and Jerry had experienced.
and whipped it around his head. The wind-
“That stupid even for stupid plainsman.”
groan drew everyone’s attention. Jerry had
But the hillman scowled and shook his head,
Analog Science Fiction and Fact Page 23