seized the stirrup of his saddle and turned to
as if to dislodge the intrusions.
stare at Teo. Sammi had nocked another arrow.
“I’ll try the solution of acid from Murray’s At-
“Three yellows!” he told the hillman.
tic,” Reff Wang told his assistant, and sparing a
“Now!”
contemptuous glance at Teo and Sammi, added,
Reff Wang said, “There’s a breeze freshen-
“Don’t worry. It’s too dilute to harm you.”
ing over to the west. I can see the dust cloud.”
Teo, who had not been worried at all,
“Yah,” said Teo. “And so could Fleeing
sneered at the effete greenie. As if Teodorq
Woman when she looked back and was
sunna Nagarajan the Ironhand would fear a lit-
turned to a pillar of sand. It’s the Ill Wind!
tle jar of liquid! His hand fell to his knife hilt.
Sammi, three yellows, now!”
THE JOURNEYMAN: THROUGH MADNESS GAP
83
ANALOG
Sammi glared at him and said, “Hillmen
turning stiff as the sand coated them. Ahead of
don’t run.”
him was the boulder wall, and he wondered
“You will if you don’t want to become a
now if this hadn’t been raised by the greenies
mummy inside a statue.”
themselves as protection from the Ill Wind and
Sammi cocked his head as if listening.
not as an accidental byproduct of their efforts
“Ghosts lie. All men know this. Where Tunny
to plug the gap. Sammi’s horse leapt over an
and Dancing Deer?”
obstacle—the fallen Madrez, Teo saw—and
Reff Wang pointed. “I believe that is one of
elsewhere he saw Bome Tillisin throw himself
your scouts now.”
off his staggering mount and shelter against
A horse was staggering down-gap from the
the animal’s leeward side. The horse whinnied
west. Its hindquarters were encrusted with
and shrieked in incomprehension and tried to
sand. Tunny Xhozeyof barely kept to his seat,
rear; but its lower quarters were already immo-
his back being coated with sand. “It blows
bile, and Bome’s unsheltered feet were becom-
from arch on wall,” he declared. “Where’s
ing blocks of sandstone. He unstoppered a
Jimjim?”
flask he carried and poured more acid on his
“Second cloud blowen from the aist,” said
feet; and the sandstone fizzed and crumbled,
Madrez. “Dancing Deer riden ahaid on’it.”
and his feet were freed. Yet he dared not ex-
Reff Wang seized the bottle of acid. “Bome,
pose himself from this meager shelter.
grab the reserve bottle from the mule pack.”
Sammi’s mount went down, and the hillman
He moistened a gauze pad with the acid and
vanished into a swale of land.
dabbed his face, wincing. “This will sting, but
Teo had no time for mourning. He looked at
we haven’t time to dilute it more!” He moist-
the wall looming before him and understood
ened more pads and passed them on to the
now the zigzag path to get past it. Winds could
others. “Protect your faces and arms.”
eddy, but they could not switchback. A stone
Sammi waved the bannerstaff until he saw
face peered over the parapet: Nestor Up-
both his scouts veer off and head directly to-
stream, who had come all the way from the
ward the boulder wall where Bepelo waited.
shortgrass prairie to die in a strange and haunt-
Then he too leapt to his mount and kicked her
ed land. He hoped Bepelo and Bourse had shel-
into action. The others were also scrambling a-
tered behind the granite blocks. Granite, at
horseback. Each man rode past Reff Wang and
least, seemed an ally.
secured an acid pad, and Teo admired the
Jerry reached the ramp before him, and Teo
Chief’s grit at holding his station until every-
saw that he too had draped a horse blanket
one had secured what little protection he
over his back and over his horse. But one of his
could offer.
arms hung down from the weight of the sand
“It won’t save our horses,” Teo told him.
that caked it.
“Nor us, likely,” the cartographer admitted.
No one rides faster than the plainsmen of
Only Jerry and Teodorq made it back behind
the Great Grass; but not even they ride faster
the wall, where Bepelo and Bourse Changov
than the wind. Though he fled faster than the
waited. Teo told them to pull Nestor off his
greenie refugees had f led from dying Iabran,
sentry post. The man’s mouth was wide open
Teo felt the gritty breeze overtake him, felt the
in amazement, and Teo supposed that even if
grains of sand adhere and join into a crust atop
he had the acid with him to uncase the man,
his clothing, though they slid off his burned
he must have smothered by now.
arms and neck. To his right he saw Dancing
The howling wind suddenly died, and sand
Deer go down, his horse little more than a
fell from the air like snow. They heard once
block of stone. The wind swept over him, and
more the keening sound of the sand crystals,
he was gone beneath the sand.
enough to wring a tear from an enemy’s eye.
Teo pulled a blanket from his bedroll and
Shading his eyes, Teo risked a peep over the
threw it over his shoulders to take the brunt of
parapet.
the sand, and another over his horse’s
The sandstorm had abated, and down the
hindquarters to offer some protection there as
gap, straight as the barrel of a thundertube,
well. But the legs remained exposed, and his
Teo saw three white plumes of smoke arch-
mount began to stumble. Teo’s leggings were
ing from over the southeast horizon. They
84
MICHAEL F. FLYNN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
converged over Madness Gap and burst in the
“Aw, I wouldn’t worry much about knock-
air above it, and it rained on Stoney Mountain
ing him in the head,” Jerry said. “Rock is rock.”
for the first time in thousands of years. It was
When they had loosened it up, Jerry and
an acid rain, and the sandstone softened and
Teo lifted the cap like a lid, and the hillman
ran as the matrix that held it together dissolved.
slithered out. He sat cross-legged on the
Bepelo and Jerry had joined him at the wall.
ground and looked up the gap, where the John
“What was that?” Jerry asked. “Those three
Darms had dissolved and ancient corpses had
white streaks?”
tumbled out from their prisons.
“Varucciyamen,” Teo whispered and he
“We win?”
pounded the Puma on his stony shoulder.
“Varucciyamen won
.”
“Varucciyamen lives!”
Sammi grunted. “Some friends. Took their
good old time about lending a hand.”
The acid rain came too late for Dancing
“I don’t think they knew what was here.
Deer and Jehu Madrez, but they were able to
The People were keeping a low prof ile, but
free Tunny from his sarcophagus in time and
they taken one look at us and f igured there
Bome Tillisin had been liberal in his use of the
weren’t nothing left of the old Commonwealth
reserve flask of muriatic acid. That and the lee-
that they needed to fear. So when they realized
ward shelter of his horse had kept him from
we knew about the acid test, they called for
his doom. Reff Wang was a statue, but he had
help without worrying about alerting Com-
thrown his hood up over his head and had
monwealth forces.”
used his pipe as a breathing tube while his
“Too bad,” said Sammi.
cloak had stiffened around him. The acid rain
“Why’s that?”
had freed him, and he and Tillisin were already
“Sandmen fall from heaven, too. Like us.
excavating Madrez when Teo and the others
They forget most of what they once knew. We
emerged from shelter. Teo tried to remember
in same vale of tears here.”
where he had seen Sammi go down. The hill-
“So why can’t we be friends?” asked Jerry
man deserved a decent immolation.
skeptically.
“Hey, Teo,” Jerry said as they walked the
“Like hillman and plainsman.” Sammi served
killing f ield. “I don’t much like hillmen, but
him a keen grin that might mean anything.
Sammi was okay. I don’t know why I charged
Jerry shrugged. “Yah, but they never given us
him like that, ’cept that he was about to pin-
the chance. That trust thing goes both ways.”
cushion me with his bow.”
“I think the memory was fresher for them,”
“The way I see it,” Teo answered, “is that if
Teo mused. “I think they live longer, so it has-
the People of Sand and Iron could wriggle into
n’t been as many generations for them, and the
our minds and drive us mad, they could roll
original quarrel—whatever it was—was still
over a few mental rocks and unloose our inhi-
on their minds.”
bitions.”
Sammi looked about Madness Gap, where
“Good thing we was already crazy to come
the underlying granite was beginning to show
up the gap in the f irst place.” Teo looked at
through the dissolving sandstone. “Don’t look
him, and he explained. “Can’t drive a man mad
like Varucciyamen forgot much, either.”
if he already is. Hey, Teddy. This here rock is
talking.”
A plainsman riding heavy
“What’s it saying?”
Teo and Lar Rigo sat together in the com-
“Saying, ‘Get me out of here, stupid plains-
mand tent drinking water while the latter re-
man.’”
ported that the maneuvers had gone as well as
When he had been thrown from his horse,
they had expected, which was “not very,” but
Sammi had rolled into a depression in the
not a disaster, either. Teodorq was prodigiously
ground and thrown his blanket over top. The
thirsty.
sand had formed a caprock over his shelter and
“You took ten men up the Gap,” Lar Rigo
though the acid rain had softened it, he had
pointed out, “and you brought seven back.”
been unable to break out on his own. Reff
“I can count,” Teo told him. “We run into
brought his rock hammer over and chipped
something I never expected. It coulda been
carefully away at the edges.
worse.”
THE JOURNEYMAN: THROUGH MADNESS GAP
85
ANALOG
Lar Rigo shrugged. “It can always be worse.
party. Then Jerry joined them and added his
You had best learn that, kemal-ji. No matter
own resume, f inishing with his recent def i-
how bad it was, it could always have been
ance of the gods of the gap, “together with yer
worse. Sometimes . . .” He looked away. “Some-
fellow tribesman here at my side.” And be-
times it’s all that gets you through it, afterward.
cause it was expected, he and Teo gripped
I tell you, Teodorq, when those explosions
each other’s arms.
rocked the mountain, we didn’t expect any of
“We missed yuh back at yer cantonment,”
you to come out. In fact, we didn’t know what
Srinivas said, “so we come down to say Hi.” He
would come out of the Gap.”
raised his hand palm out, prairie style, and said,
“Is that why everyone cheered when Jesta-
“Hi.”
pul led us out?”
Teo frowned. “The captain back there
“That, and relief. All of B Company and half
should have sent a courier ahead to announce
of C volunteered to go up the Gap to rescue
you.”
you.”
“He did. We passed him a day back. He’ll be
“And the others?”
along soon. He’s a good rider, but he ain’t no
“They had already started in. I admit I had
plainsman. Hey, they got what they call a ‘gen-
doubts about the king giving command of the
eral officer’ organizing a horde to invade Yaval
regiment to a savage from the westlands. To
. . . Yaval-something. Should be some good
form the regiment, yes. To train it, certainly.
fighting, hey?”
But to lead it? Yet these men would have fol-
“You’re lame,” Teo pointed out.
lowed you into the face of madness. That’s
“Not on horseback!”
something. We expect the men to follow us to
“And your sobriquet is, well . . .”
death—To Death or Glory! Isn’t that what we
“Lame?”
say?—but next to losing your mind, losing your
“Yeah.”
life is a small thing.”
“Got a better one?”
“But you stopped them from going in.”
“Yer a boyer, you said? How’re yer bows?”
“What would you have done?”
Srinivas pulled one from his bowcase. It was
“Stopped them. Yuh don’t go charging in
already strung, and Teo tested the draw. The
when yuh don’t know how things stand. I
wood groaned. Teo handed it back. “Not bad.”
think if I’d had more men with me, I would
Srinivas looked toward the sky. “‘Not bad,’
have had a panic. But I had just enough that
the man says.”
we could think our way through it. What’s all
“My regiment needs a good boyer more than
that hoorah out there?”
it needs a lame horseman. You’re hired if you
“We sent word b
ack up the line to head-
want it. Srinivas the Boyer. You were traveling
quarters that Madness Gap was now open.
heavy?”
We’re expecting a courier with word on the in-
“Not that heavy.” He wagged a thumb at the
vasion. It won’t be long before the ’Prawns fig-
second horseman, who threw back the hood
ure out the Gap is open, too, and we need to
on her travel cloak.
act while we still got the advantage.”
“I height Morningstar dorra Rain and Na-
But that was not the reason for the tumult.
garajan.” She made a fist to highlight the scor-
Two horses had cantered into the encamp-
pion tattoos.
ment and atop the first a plainsman hollered in
Teodorq grinned. “Hi, Sis.”
the sprock, “I hight Srinivas sunna Deodorq
She looked him up and down. “Little brother
the Lame! Boyer to the Sidewinders of the Gu-
grown big, I see. Nice tiger tat on the breast. You
dawan Adyawan! I need a steak and a beer!”
got that in the Legion, didn’t yuh? I can see
Then, in a quieter voice, he added, “Can any-
where General Grigio will be lucky to have you.”
one help me down from here, on account of
Lar Rigo had come out to welcome the new-
my bum leg?”
comers. “General Grigio?”
Teo grinned. The Sidewinders were broth-
“Yah,” said Morningstar. “Lar Grigio
ers to the Serpentines and the Scorpions. He
Haddafahm is the general officer for the inva-
threw back the tent flap and greeted the new-
sion of Yavalprawns.”
comer by bragging on his mighty stunts, start-
Teodorq sunna Nagarajan pursed his lips.
ing with his evasion of the Scorpion hunting
“That can’t be good.” ■
86
MICHAEL F. FLYNN
Hobson’s
Choices
Mary A. Turzillo
harlize was waiting for Jerry in the
And there are three screens of repair guys on
kitchen with a glass of Lapsang Sou-
Home Web Helper Select, depending on loca-
chong iced tea, their mutual favorite.
tion, cost, terms of ser vice, how many
CShe was wearing her exercise outfit, AAAAAs they use to spell A-one—”
which tonight consisted of Jerry’s cast-off
His eye was caught by the colored
brown sweatpants with paint splotches, a
brochure. He snagged her hand playfully and
black tee from Platypus Milk, the garage band
unfolded it. It was a promotion for a gated
that their daughter Lorilee and her boyfriend
community, Goodenough Estates, about f if-
Analog Science Fiction and Fact Page 24