Gregory's eyes were huge. "Why, what manner of song is this?"
"Aye," Magnus agreed. "There's a scant meter, and little enough of rhyme in it."
"And less of reason," Geoffrey declared, "to say to do naught, for no better reason than that the why of it doth not leap up to strike one in the eye! Do they not see that a man must strive?"
"Wherefore?" Johann said simply.
"Wherefore?" Gregory asked in consternation. "Why— because without it, he has no worth!"
"But there is no virtue in labor by itself," Orin protested. "What purpose doth it serve?"
"But there is virtue in it! Men need labor as a plant needs sun!"
"Why, what a poxy lie is this?" Alno stirred impatiently. "Hast thou not heard but now? There is no worth in toil!"
Gregory persisted. "And who hath told this to thee, with what proof?"
"None need tell me! 'Tis plainly seen!"
"And thou dost believe it?"
"Aye! Wherefore not?"
"Yet wherefore shouldst thou?" Geoffrey said, low.
Because, said Fess's voice, he has heard the song say it. He has heard it time after time without noting the words, though they did register in the back of his mind. Then, once he understood them, he paid attention to them for only a few recitals; after that, each time he hears the song, he does not truly pay attention to it.
"The backs of your minds do heed these words you scarce understand," Geoffrey explained to Alno.
Orin frowned, unsure whether or not to take offense.
Yes, because they do not expect to be targets of persuasion; they only expect to be entertained. Simple repetition by itself would persuade them, when it is perceived at so fundamental a level.
"Yet why should you listen to a song when you cannot understand the words?" Geoffrey wondered.
"Why, for the pleasure of the music," Wenna said, with a sinuous wriggle.
Do not grind your teeth, Geoffrey. The young woman speaks truly—the music has a beat and lilt that elicits the sensations that people of this age wish to feel.
"Sensations," Magnus mused, his gaze on Wenna. "The songs speak of pleasures you wish to enjoy, but have been told you must not—until you are wed."
Wenna flushed, and Alno sat up, annoyed. "Is there nothing to life for thee, save rules and orders?"
"I but spoke of marriage," Magnus said easily, and Alno started to retort, but noticed the women looking at him, and closed his mouth with a snap.
The point is taken, Fess's voice said. Yes—if the words of the song justify the behavior they wish to practice but have been taught not to, they will wish to believe those words. From there, it is only a very small step to persuade oneself that they are true.
"Yet surely," Cordelia protested, "these songs are but entertainment."
Fess was silent.
"The song bade them eat lotus, sister," Geoffrey pointed out.
"Aye." Orin smiled. "I told thee it spake truly."
Yes, Geoffrey, came Fess's voice again, that is the final stage in the persuasive process—the call to action. The song ends with an imperative—and it is heeded.
"Thy lotus," Cordelia said, seized by a sudden notion. "Doth it enhance the music?"
Johann sat up, leaning close to her. "Why, how couldst thou have known?"
Yes, Cordelia—once they have begun to eat lotus, it dulls
their thinking processes, and makes them much more suggestible.
"For that it bids thee do what thou dost wish to be told to do," Geoffrey answered. "Tis simply a matter of telling thee what thou dost want to hear, and mixing into it what someone else doth wish thee to do."
Alno sat bolt upright. "Why, how is this?"
"It is the source of thine 'insight,'" Magnus inferred. " 'Tis given thee in the music, and thou dost make it thine own."
He was met with a full chorus of denials. "Nay, not so!"
"What we believe, we have seen of ourselves!"
"None have taught us—we have learned of our own!"
"Learned, forsooth!" Gregory cried, exasperated. "Thou dost but repeat what the stones tell thee!"
"And is there not truth in the rocks that endures?" Alno challenged.
"Truth in words that have been fed thee like bran in a manger?" Cordelia retorted.
"What need for an army?" Geoffrey said, with a laugh. "I could take a city with but a handful of men, had I music like this to precede me!"
"Conquest! Battle! Rule!" Johann's face darkened. "Canst thou think of naught but strife?"
"Why, if I do not think of it, another will," Geoffrey gibed. " 'Tis sad, but 'tis the way of men, is't not? There will ever be one who will not let others bide in peace, when he could bring them under his sway!"
"Thou shalt not do so to us!" Johann rushed him, hands out to grasp his neck.
Geoffrey twitched aside, and Johann sailed into the river with a huge splash.
"A rescue, a rescue!" Yhrene cried. "He cannot swim!"
Then Orin fell on Geoffrey like a wall.
Magnus leaped to pull him off, but a chance elbow caught him under the jaw. Then the big youth's body heaved as Geoffrey slipped out from beneath, scrambling to his feet; but the wiry Alno seized him, kicking and biting. Frowning, Geoffrey twisted around, catching Alno's collar and wrist in a lock that should have given him unbearable pain; but the lanky lad only whined, his eyes bulging, and tried to swivel the bound thumb into Geoffrey's eye as his knee slammed into Geoffrey's groin. Geoffrey emitted a loud groan, folding but pulling Alno down with him, the two of them holding one another up.
Then Magnus caught the wiry one and threw him aside into the water, and swung back to prop up his brother. "Art thou well?"
"Hurting, but not hurt," Geoffrey groaned again and forced himself to bend and stretch, biting down to stifle the pain. "I must… before I am set…"He rested a moment, panting, leaning on Magnus's shoulder. "What of… Orin?"
"He sleeps, though not entirely willingly."
"Oh, help Alno!" Adele cried. "He too cannot swim!"
"An I must, I must." Gregory sighed, and stared at Alno's thrashing form. Slowly, it rose out of the water and drifted back to the raft.