"Quiet." "Expecting the Khan?" "I'll reunite you soon enough." "It is good to see you, son." "Can we stop soon?" "We need to widen the distance between us and the bad men." "You said if we stay off the trails, they won't find us." "Mei Lin:" "We can't take any chances." "I'm hungry." "Mei Lin:" "Tonight, I'll catch us something." "Ling Ling:" "Do we have to eat it raw?" "Mei Lin:" "Fire draws attention, baby." "Where were you?" "I was trying to get to you." "Ever since I was taken away." "But where were you?" "I was in Cambulac." "Always watching." "Always close to you." "All this time?" "Yes." "What were you doing?" "I was made to dance... for the Khan." "I know what that means now." "I've seen many things." "Met many wives... many concubines... of the prince... of the Khan." "I wanted to tell you myself." "When the time was right..." "I wanted to explain it to you." "You've grown..." "in such a short time." "I'm meant to be a wife to a prince all my own." "You're meant to be wife to the man you love." "Did you love my father?" "It's not so simple." "Tell me." "I didn't love him." "But he gave me you, and I love you." "What harm can a whore and a little girl cause?" "That whore knows everything!" "True." "I'll find her myself." "No." "They're headed south." "Give it to Bai." "If anyone can ferret out a whore and a little girl, it's that fucking ching-ching." "Wait." "Jingim?" "They have not checked in at way station or checkpoint." "What will you tell the Khan?" "The counter-raids are a resounding success." "Jingim does us proud once again." "My son." "Kaidu will think twice about further treason." "No, he won't." "Which is why we must get ahead of him." "Forget the rebellion in the south." "I want my army close by my side as soon as possible." "Sire." "One small thing." "The Chancellor's sister." "She's gone missing." "How?" "We are, at this very moment, giving chase." "That's not what I asked." "She gained access to her daughter, and... she ran." "You brought her here?" "She was supposed to stay in Cambulac." "Chabi's orders." "Does she know?" "I wish you wouldn't have told me that." "And now I'm in collusion with you." "Why run?" "A whore's thinking does not make itself readily available to the lay-person's imaginings." "Perhaps that's just me." "We will find her." "Do you have affection for her?" "Affection?" "She's a whore." "One among many." "But she's the only one that resides under your roof." "Well, the circumstances of her arrival in Cambulac required special attention." "Circumstances required she be executed for her crimes." "A sentence that should've been meted out the moment she returned with that boy." "Lie to me once, shame upon you." "Lie to me twice, shame upon me." "In another time... under any other circumstances..." "I might have made her a wife." "I used her in ways that probably didn't sit well with you." "I own nothing in this life." "Nothing which you cannot take from me, whenever you wish." "You'll find her." "Until then, let's..." "keep this our little secret, huh?" "Do you want to eat dinner with me tonight?" "I've been dining alone quite a bit lately." "Certainly, Sire." "Mmm." "Good morning." "So many uses for silks." "To bed you down or tie you up." "The restraints are for your own good." "See?" "It wasn't me." "So you don't hurt yourself." "Or, heaven forbid, your baby." "My son." "Yes." "Your son." "It was her." "She tied you up, not me." "She did it, she did it, she did it, she did it, she did it, she did it..." "Please!" "Go away, please." "She is here?" "Where's Polo?" "Not in here." "I can see that, barbarian." "Watch your tone, General." "You're speaking to a prince." "Title's only as important as the group who bestows it." "Niccolò Polo is gone." "Nayan:" "What do you mean, "gone"?" "As I was saying." "A betrayal, for certain." "Betrayal by who?" "Polo wouldn't leave." "Something's happened to him." " You blame us?" " By process of elimination." "What possible rationale could we have to drag an entire Crusade army all this distance only to turn on them now, when we need them the most?" "I've long questioned how your minds work, or even if you have them." "I am a prince, General, on a mission from our Pope." "Assigned by His Holiness directly." "You will address me as such." "If we do not find him alive and well, you will be blamed, and then slaughtered." "Good day, Prince Mongol." "You swore for the Latin." "You vouched for Polo." "He didn't leave us here." "Not willingly, at least." "They're looking for me." "Where is your target?" "Xanadu?" "Cambulac?" "When do you attack?" "They find me, I can't protect you." "Why start now?" "Where is your target?" "When do you attack?" "You sat beside the Khan." " Don't talk to him." " Are you his bastard?" "What of it?" "I can see the resemblance." "Marco:" "Does it make him less of a man?" "Experience makes a man." "Not his bloodline." "Don't talk to him." "You are making the rules?" "I have the sword, you're tied down." "You have the sword, but you won't use it." "I will." "And you'll let him?" "Where is your target?" "You look well." "Answer the question." "How have you fared, son?" "Answer my question." "If you want to do it that way, Marco..." "I can do it all night." " Can you?" " Answer my question!" "You don't want to hit me too many times, though." "I might cry out, draw attention." "Then you'll never get the answers you want." "How have you fared?" "Pick him up, Byamba." "Where are we going?" "Someplace where they can't hear him cry." "How many men did you bring with you?" "Enough." "I figured I'd give you the chance to come quietly." "Ling Ling, cover your ears, close your eyes." "Don't open them till I tell you." "Or we could do it this way." "Under any other circumstances, this would be..." "Ling Ling..." "I'm sorry." "He was trying to take you from me." "Your master wants you back." "He's not my master." "Sukh!" "Yes?" "The Khan wants his army recalled from the south." "Recall it, we will." "All right." "Start bringing back the troops." "Where shall we send them?" "Cambulac." "It's time to go home." "Khutulun:" "Do you want me to tell him we failed?" "I have nothing to hide." "Khutulun:" "But you butchered a family of innocents." "And you didn't." "Unbelievable." "I would've proven my devotion to you, to our family, through sheer stupidity?" "Yes." "Sizing up our enemy before acting isn't a fault in my character." "Except that isn't what happened and you know it." "You weren't waiting to see who rounded that bend." "You couldn't do it because you thought you knew who was rounding that bend." "And that is your fault." "One Latin not found, I take it?" "Not yet." "We have search parties scouring the hills." "You're welcome to join us, if you wish." "I wouldn't trade one of my men for 500 of your herd." " We're heading out ourselves." " Gentlemen." "Father..." "Nayan." "Speak, what of Jingim?" "Speak." "Jingim lives." "We waited for days, he and his party never arrived." "So Marco lives." "We received word he and Jingim rode together." "And now his father is also gone." "Perhaps the Vice Regent's been discovered." "Or perhaps he's betrayed you." "Did it ever occur to you that this Vice Regent's been working for the Khan the entire time?" "Gather his enemies and obliterate them all at once." "Niccolò's disappearance isn't a coincidence." "Father and son must be together." ""And Elihud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob..."" "Where is your target?" "When are you attacking?" ""And Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah."" "Again?" "I've fared just fine." "Are you in the Khan's service?" "I am." "Has he treated you well?" "Better than others." "Have you found a purpose?" " Love, happiness?" " You're playing for time." "I found a man whose greatness exceeds his faults." "And for all those faults, I always know where I stand with him." "I suppose you feel like you don't know where you stand with me." "I would need to know you to know where I stand." "I'd like to tell you... everything." "Begin by telling me what your target is." "Xanadu?" "Cambulac?" "I won't speak more so long as he's listening." "I send him away." "When I'm finished with you, I'll tell him everything." "And that's your choice." "My mouth will not betray my men." "But it certainly is eager to indict your son." "My last concession." "I don't like this." " It's the only way." " He'll try to turn you." "And he'll fail." "He's your family." "By blood only." "Say you'll be loyal." "Say you'll be strong, but don't say "only."" "I will remain loyal." "I will remain strong." "And I'll be watching." "Thank you, my friend." "I was having the most wonderful dream." "I was riding, at night." "There was a tree in the grassland." "A sad and lonely tree." "It spoke to me." "What did this tree say?" "It led me there." "Led me to... him." "Why him?" "Why Kublai?" "I have no poetry for you, child." "My marriage was arranged." "Of course." "You don't know my name." "My real name." "No." "Nergüi." "Nergüi." "No name." "My family was traditional." "On the day I was born, they wrote names on slips of paper and placed them in the millet bowl." "And the paper that rose to the top, it was blank." "They tried again." "Again... the paper rose to the top." "What does Nergüi have to do with Marco Polo?" "He saw me." "He knew me." "And I could never pretend." "He only ever saw Nergüi." "You have come a long way, Princess No-Name." "Is... she here?" "No, Mother." "Good." "Yes?" "We were to have dinner." "Oh..." "I was hungry." "Sit." "Eat." "Eat!" "What if I don't win?" "The Kurultai." "What if I don't win?" "Why even ask?" "Well, certainly you've considered the possibility." "I haven't." "It's something to think about." "Not being Khan." "And oftentimes, the ponderance is less terrible than you'd imagine." "What would a day be, to think of one's self only?" "To bend and blow with the breeze?" "To savor your food." "Savor your wine." "Savor flesh." "Not to be always thinking, thinking, thinking." "Wouldn't there be some measure of relief if it all just... ended?" "It would be tedium for you." "A mind such as yours would not be content with the life of a mere man." "You were meant for the life of a king." "And you, Ahmad?" "Could you be content?" "What life were you meant for, living in that squalid little slum?" "I don't look back." "Yes?" "Allow me, Sire." "Yes?" "The lookout on Arban's camp sends word that Prince Jingim never arrived." "Never arrived?" "His party was spotted heading west." "What's west?" "The twin rivers." "Nayan's land?" "Why would they go to Nayan's land?" "I will find out immediately." "You told me the raids were a success." "I don't understand." "That was the report I received." "Something's wrong, Vice Regent." "You lose a prisoner and my son in the same day?" " I don't know, the scout assured me..." " That's your problem right there." "All your life, even as a boy, as long as I've known you, you've always had the answer." "And we both know why you don't have one now." "You trust too much." "Find out what happened." "Now." "Yes, Sire." "Royal Mother." "Oh, Ahmad." "Whatever it is, can it wait?" "Of course." "Apologies." "I'm exhausted from caring for the Princess and beyond place of sentiment." "I understand completely." "I'll see you later." "Don't suppose you'd share." "Remove these?" "Feeling generous?" "I stopped being generous to you when I last saved your life." "I told you then there were other ways back into the Imperial Kingdom." "Is that what this is?" "Vengeance?" "You planned this from that day forward?" "Long before that day." "And it isn't vengeance." "It's preservation of a way of life." "Our way of life." "I couldn't be candid with you before." "I serve a master greater than yours." "Your pride." "You had pride on your face after searing my palm." "I saw it." "As you turned and retreated with the Khan." "You want answers?" "Shut your mouth and listen." "Before I left Venice, I swore to your mother" "I'd return in a few years, my ship filled with treasure." "She didn't care, she wanted me to stay." "Her father's coffers were glutted." "We could take any coin we wished." "Why didn't you?" "I had to earn it on my own." "So I set off, 21 years ago." "I traded throughout the Orient." " I established a reputation..." " I know all this." "And then I happened to cross paths with Pope Innocent at a fortuitous time." "He'd been struggling to forge a peace with the Khan for years." "What he received in return were demands for the dissolution of the Papacy and the surrender of all Christian lands to the Mongol Empire." "Pope Innocent was the first to teach me the Mongol blight can never be trusted." "It can only be exterminated, at any cost." "And he recruited me to take up his banner." "Clandestinely, I've borne that banner for five pontiffs." "Everything I've done was for this moment, right here." "Those are my men, son." "That is my life's work." "You're welcome to join us." "Where?" "In the underground." "We could always use more warriors." "That was my brother's cause." "Not my own." "So what is your cause?" "Finding someplace safe to disappear." "I spent months moving my Emperor from one hiding place to the next, and you still found us." "You're fooling yourself if you think those Mongol soldiers are the last ones to come your way." "Our protection is your best bet." "And if you want it, you have to earn your keep." "There's a cache not too far from here." "Food, water." "And we can rest." "For how long?" "We have sympathizers throughout the south." "We can survive for years, if need be." "Come." "So this is what I'm meant to believe?" "Not the wayward, greedy merchant of Venice, but the warrior of God?" "Don't be such a child." "If this is true, why didn't you tell me?" "You were never part of my plan." "You hid away in my boat." "Yes." "And then I spent the next three years traveling by your side." "Right up until you abandoned me." "What was your plan then?" "I simply saw an opportunity to gain favor with the Khan and I took it." "I almost died." "But you didn't, Marco, you survived." "And you've grown more powerful than I ever could have foreseen." "I only hope that you will join me... beneath the banner of your Pope and God and King." "For what purpose?" "To destroy the Khan from within." "You're alive!" "Where is Ahmad?" "Kublai?" "What is it?" "Ahmad... our son... is a traitor." "He betrayed us." "To who?" "Kaidu." "Pope." "All of them." "You're wrong." "You're wrong." "Wife... he made me kill the boy." "He made me kill the boy." "Kaidu's army has set camp deep within Nayan's land." "At pace, we're a half a day's ride to the twin rivers." "Yes, Father." "How many men do they have?" "Tens of thousands." "And hundreds of barrels of your black powder." "With Ahmad having sent most of our army south... we're heavily outnumbered." "We're going to have to improvise." "I have to go back." "I thought you'd say that." "You're right." "They'll keep coming." "I have to finish this." "What are you going to tell her?" "You're not going to tell her." "I don't have the strength to look her in the eye and leave once again." "Keep her safe?" "I will not be ward to another child." "I lied to you." "I knew we were bringing the Boy Emperor back to his death." "And still I stole him from you." "His death is on my conscience." "Not yours." "What do you want me to tell her?" "I found her this time." "I will find her again." "And then it will be forever." "A kiss for every wife our son will take." "I can feel him kicking!" "Jingim." "Your father is waiting." "Yes, Mother." "I love you, wife." "I love you, son." "Be safe, my love." "Listen to your wife." "Thank you, Mother, for letting me see him." "No." "But you've seemed so well, child." "I am not." "She is here." "Always." "There was this girl." "I used to make deliveries to her family along the canals." "Once a week, same time." "She would come to the balcony..." "smile down at me." "She'd lower her basket, and I'd fill it." "She'd pull it up." "And as I pushed off the wall... each time, she'd say..." ""Until next week."" "I wonder if she's still there." "You can't go back." "It's too late for that." "Even if one day you do return to Venice, nothing will ever be as it was for you." "Where are you attacking?" "When?" "My army stands ready." "Just in case." "In case what?" "Kublai loses the election and refuses to concede." "And if he does concede?" "Exterminated." "The Mongols don't go away with Kaidu's victory." "Very good." "So you'll destroy Kaidu as well?" "And anyone who ascends to the throne after him." "The Mongols are destined to be little more than a vague memory in history." "Whereas you?" "You could be hailed as a hero for generations to come." "Dressed in chainmail and a Crusader cross?" "Why not?" "This is God's will, Marco." "What are the chances we'd find each other here without a divine hand guiding us?" "You assembled an army in the backyard of my Khan." "Your Khan?" "Such loyalty." "Until a time of his choosing, and then... he'll grind your bones to dust." "I know it's hard for you to believe... but should you change your mind... come and find me." "You speak as though I'm letting you go." "I cannot." "Marco!" "Re-sync by wilson0804 Corrections by Caio font color="#4"