Cadnan was very patient. "Because they know, and we do not," he said. "Because they tell us, that is all. It is the way things are."
"I will change the way things are," Marvor said. He spoke now more softly still. "Do you want to be a master?"
"I am no master," Cadnan said wearily. "I am a slave."
"That is a bad thing." Cadnan tried to speak, but Marvor went on without stopping. "Dara is with me," he said, "and some of the others. There are not many. Most of the brothers and sisters are cowards."
Then he had to define "coward" for Cadnan—and from "coward" he progressed to another new word, "freedom." That was a big word but Cadnan approached it without fear, and without any preconception.
"It is not good to be free," he said at last, in a reasonable, weary tone. "In the cold there is a bad thing. In the rain there is a bad thing. To be free is to go to these bad things."
"To be free is to do what you want," Marvor said. "To be free is to be your own master."
After some thought Cadnan asked: "Who can be his own master? It is like being your own mate."
Marvor seemed to lose patience all at once. "Very well," he said. "But you will not tell the masters what I say?"
"Does a brother harm a brother?" Cadnan asked. That, too, was in the rules: even Marvor, he thought sleepily, had to accept the rules.