"Yes," she turned now. "You and Snake have had the hardest time. Both of you have left your flesh to rot in Aptor. I guess that gives you a closeness to the land." She paused. "You know, he had a great deal more pain than you. Do you know how he lost his tongue? I watched it all from this same screen inside the chapel, and could not help. They jammed their knuckles in his jaws and when the mouth came open, Jordde caught the red flesh with pincers that closed all the way through, and stretched it out as far as it would go. Then he looped the tongue with a thin wire, and then he threw a switch. You do not know what electricity is, do you?"
"I have heard the word."
"Let me just say that when a great deal of it is passed through a thin wire, the wire becomes very hot, white hot. And the white hot loop was tautened until the rope of muscle seared away and just the roasted stump was left. But the child had fainted already. I wonder if the young can really bear more pain than older people."
"Jordde and the blind priestess did that to him?"
"Jordde and some men on the boat that picked up the two of them from the raft on which they had left Aptor."
"Who is Jordde?" Geo asked. "Urson knew him before this as a first mate. But Urson's story told me nothing."
"I know the story," Argo said, "and it tells you something, but something you would perhaps rather not know." She sighed. "Poet, how well do you know yourself?"
"What do you mean?" Geo asked.
"How well do you know the workings of a man, how he manages to function? That is what you will sing of if your songs are to become great."
"I still don't ..."