"It is good to see you, my friend." "I'm greatly encouraged by recent talks with His Holiness." "He's most eager for your arrival." "My arrival?" "Oh, yes." "He sees you as much more than a mere ambassador." "Ah!" "The barbarians." "Welcome." "Eight keshig dead." "And ten horses." "My son's horses?" "No sign of Jingim or Ahmad." "How close to Karakorum?" "Close enough." "Kaidu." "Who else?" "To harm my sons..." "An act of war." "We ride for Karakorum." "You believe they're still alive." "If Kaidu were to kill my sons, he would have made a display of it." "Why?" "Why do this?" "Power games of men come hand-in-hand with an election." "You're certain?" "Certain what?" "Certain this is not somehow... our fault?" "Our fault?" "Are we somehow being punished for what we did?" "Does my husband bear the brunt of God's anger" "for sins he doesn't even know?" "You think life is that simple, child?" "We will find them." "You're warm." "Do you bleed?" "No." "Good." "Your female instinct, what does it tell you?" "I don't have one." "Oh..." "Of course you do." "It just wants nurturing." "Get out, take some air." "It will do you good." " Hello?" "Hello?" "What did you do?" "Word from our scouts." "The Khan and his army are traveling to Karakorum." "His sons are missing." "What did you do?" "What you told us to do." "We sent a message." "You made war against my brothers?" "If I'd told you, you would've stopped me." "You're damn right." " What else?" " I killed their horses." "You killed them?" "The Khan's sons aren't capable of walking half a day to a way station?" "Then why, Orus, have they not arrived at a way station?" "The Vice Regent's horse... fell on his leg." "And you left them there." "I thought you'd left me." "Well, I said I was coming back." " You did?" "Yes, you did." "If you'd left me, you could have saved yourself." "We stay together." "They're out there, Ahmad, looking for us." "And they will find us." "If I die... will you forgive my offenses?" "Stop it." "You're not dying." "I'm going to." "We're all going to." "When, where, and how, now they are the questions." " Covered in opium and sweat, maybe." "Good way to go." "But not in a place like this." "Although, it... it would be fitting." "A humble end for a humble beginning." "Just as when you were a boy... your destiny is to be saved." "Fox, anyone?" "Where is Batbayer?" "He is... not here, Miss..." "Uh, Princess." "Look at me." "Take a breath." "Speak plainly." "Where is he?" "He's dead." "They found his body the other night." "Near the river." "The whole of your army can be here within a week." "Unless Kaidu has a death wish, he will surrender Jingim and Ahmad." "Mmm." "The Goyo plant." "It grows heavily in this region." "More enemies have fallen to its poison than any sword." "Pick some for Kaidu." "Where are my sons?" "They are not in the capital." "Search all you like." "Your other son will lead." "Go with him." "If my brothers were here, I'd know." "Did you know they were attacked?" "No." "So perhaps they could be here, and you might not know." "I saw Kaidu's reaction when he received word." "He had no idea Jingim and Ahmad were missing." "And if they were prisoners, would we be foolish enough to keep them within the walls?" ""We"?" "Much has changed." "Has the Khan spoken of me?" "He might have preferred you'd lost that wrestling match with Khutulun." "Do you?" "This is a waste of time." "Yours." "I didn't think bloodshed your aim." "It is not." "Or civil war." "Any more than it was for you... when you sent back those eight heads." "Those heads didn't belong to your sons." "No." "You took those at your war against the wall." "Bow to your Khan." "I take blame for nothing." "Other than raising an idiot." "He acted on his own?" "Entirely." "But you sanctioned the raid?" "Mmm." "I give you my word." "Should your sons not be returned to you, you may take mine to do with as you wish." "Now let's focus on what matters." "Ahmad was injured." "My best guess is they've sought shelter." "You mean your best hope." "You know the likelihood of surviving the steppe, on foot, north of Khantai Gorge." "I do, very well, as do my trackers." "They are preparing to leave tonight." "They will find them." "No." "We will find them." "Thank Tengri he has been devoured so quickly." "I wish there was a way to know when his soul arrived in heaven." "A bell." "A breeze." "Some certain thing." "He rests in the Blue Sky now." "May I ask how you knew my husband?" "Forgive me." "I am Bolormaa." "I am Nergüi." "Do you work in the stables?" "No." "But I pass them frequently." "I didn't know your husband well... but you could tell he was kind." "By his eyes." "Even on the darkest of days." "You look familiar." "Maybe our paths have crossed." "They certainly have now." "And it would be wise to keep them that way." "Another day soon, perhaps?" "I would like that." "Thank you, Nergüi, for paying this respect to him." "They're not here." "You'd take the word of a round eye over blood?" "Sad, isn't it?" "But his words have proven true." " Whereas yours" " Great Khan." "How you've grown greater and greater with each passing year." "And you, Cousin Shabkana... more and more delicate." "Your skin brings to mind fine parchment, or the rose petals I use to clean my ass." "Your words no longer cut me, Kublai." "That is the great gift of age." "Nor yours me." "The great, great gift of sovereignty." "You speak as you rule, like a bull-yak." "Your mother's blood has proven unyielding." "To be mothered by a yak or a nagging witch?" "Which do you prefer?" "Prepare the horses." "We ride tonight." "Tell us why you are here, Nayan." " What ails him?" " Leprosy." "Ah." "As ambassador from the Mongol lands." "Mmm-hmm." "With respect and greetings from the Great Khan himself." "You've told him nothing of our agenda?" "Amongst other matters, your desire to secure a new crusade for recovery of the Holy Land." "What ails him?" "Satan's voices." "Ah." "And do you believe it is our duty to reclaim the Holy Lands?" "I do." "And do you believe it is our Christian duty to spread the gospel?" "There is no greater duty." "To all peoples?" "Even the Saracens and the non-Christians?" "Most importantly, the non-Christians." "Then you believe, as we do, that Kublai Khan must be eradicated." "The Khan?" "Yes, your nephew." "And trusted friend of the Church, of all religions." "It's precisely this inclusiveness we believe to be our greatest threat." "Kublai has pledged time and again to leave the Christians in peace." "So long as all are faithful to him and obey his laws." "They are free to practice whichever religion they choose." "And do you think the peoples of South China feel their souls are free?" "The Khan is your kin." "We understand your loyalty to him, but I abandoned my own blood." "This is the Christian sacrifice." "Kublai harbors no ill will towards our faith." "His own mother" "Yes, his mother was a Christian, but he isn't." "His religion is power." "And now that he's conquered China, there's nothing to stop him from moving west." "Except us, of course." "Unless I'm mistaken." "My father stank of wet goat." "Every time I walk through the slums, I think of him." "But that's all I remember." "Not his face, not his touch." "Just that... stink." "What happened to him?" "My father?" "He's the most powerful man on earth." "Tell me about your mother." "What do you remember of her?" "Everything." "The lines on her face as she smiled." "Her oils." "Lavender." "The cool of her hand as she stroked my cheek when I slept." "And... the lull of her voice." "She hid me." " When the Khan came." "She hid me." "Men burned and... women ravaged." "And the children..." "I watched her die." "I watched her die." "Then... she took me in her arms." "And that... is a feeling I do recall." "One of pure love." "Chabi." "What is that?" "My mother wrote it for me." "She would sing it every night as I lay down to sleep." "It's beautiful." "There's blood, but the trail disappears." "The tracks are covered." "We crossed a dry riverbed just west of here." "They might follow it." "If ever I'm cursed with visiting your homeland, you may guide the way." "Until then... stay quiet." "Cast the raptor out." "Have it favor the north." "How long will that take?" "A day?" "If they've traveled north." "Compass." "This path cuts east." "We'll follow it while the raptor covers all other terrains." "It was the lesser of two evils." "Did you ever even consider saying no?" "No." "You said there would come a time where we could return to normal." "We can." "If your father wins, you will be heir to the throne of the Mongol Empire." "How will that be normal?" "My father told you that?" "Yes." "I know." "Another thing you couldn't tell me." " They say grief is hardest on focus." "But I'd say fear is worse." "Uncertainty of an outcome." "You have borne no children." "You know nothing." "I know of suffering." "What could a child such as yourself know of suffering?" "We measure age not in years but in lifetimes." "And..." "in all your lifetimes... how long has it taken for your karma to catch up with you?" "The nature of karma is that it comes when it comes, at just the right moment, exactly when one is ready to heed its message." "And if one heeds the message... makes recompense... can the karma be changed?" "For every action, there is a ripple sent through time." "One cannot escape one's karma." "If you do not wish to become a eunuch... stop speaking in riddles." "Then again, I suppose one can change it." "How?" "Learn compassion." "Carefully imagine how others feel." "Put yourself in their circumstances and practice kindness from that day forward." "That is it?" "It will change your karma now." "Or many lifetimes from now." "Hello, Empress Chabi." "Oh!" "Hello, my Princess Ling Ling." " Am I still a princess?" " Of course you are." "Master Ahmad says I may marry a prince one day." "Does he now?" "If I'm very lucky." "And what would make you feel very lucky now?" "Are there things you wish for or need?" "Delights or savories" "When can I see my mother again?" "I don't know, but..." "I am your guardian now, your safe-keeper." "I would let no harm befall you." "May I go now, Empress Chabi?" "Yes." "Sit." "That ridgeline." "You remember." "Grandfather's favorite spot for lesson-teaching." "I always thought he was taking us there to kill us." "How we fought as young wolves." "Oh, beating each other's ribs in." "We stopped fighting, you and I, after the arrow teaching." ""If brothers can be picked off and isolated..."" ""...they can be snapped in half."" ""But if they can learn to stand together, like a bundle of arrows," "they're unbreakable..."" "Hmm." ""...undefeatable."" "Genghis can unify wolf and fox with his parables." "That may take more than a parable." "He hasn't breathed a word of this." "Not to me." "I'm supposed to believe that now?" "It's the truth." "You, the first woman Khan." "That's what he said." "What would that make me?" "Keeper of the hearth?" "Maybe." "That's not what I'm meant to be." "And I am?" "So you want it?" "What if I did?" "What if I were heir to the Mongol throne?" "What if I ascended one day?" "Are you man enough to support me?" "Would you do it for me?" "I don't have to answer that." "Because you will never be Khan." "And I will never marry one either." "I was in Tunis with the King." "I was just a deacon on a..." "a crusade." "And one morning, I woke up..." "I couldn't piss." "Not a trickle." "Nothing." "Mmm, so sometime later... very close to here, actually, a few streets away..." "I was delivered of the news that I had been elected pontiff." "Quite a surprise for everyone." "No one more than me." "Now, here I am now, God's voice on earth, and still, still, barely a drip." "All my life..." "I've been challenged by men who believe they've been chosen by a God of one sort or another." "Mmm, and one day, we shall see who is right." "Yes, Your Holiness." "But in the meantime..." "I found forfeiting my beliefs to be in no one's best interest." "But that's a virtue, Nayan." "One God seeks out in his noblest of servants." "Depending on what you believe in, of course." "My Khan and my Creator." "You see... people come in here and they look at the... the silks, the golds, the marble, the manuscripts." "And many want to burn it." "They want us to choke on the ash of our traditions." "And I see you, Nayan, standing there, wobbling between two worlds, wagering your eternal salvation." "I want you to understand something." "If the Mongols come... we will not cower." "We will not capitulate." "We will not negotiate for anything but your Khan's unconditional surrender." "And when the ash clears..." "I'll be looking to see which side you stand on." "As will your Creator." "The horses." "Do you see them?" "So many." "Do you see?" "They are painted true to life." "Ahmad?" "They bring peace." "Ahmad, look at me." "You should see." "I hold his head... in my bloodied hands." "When he didn't make it home for dinner, I got worried, asked my brother to have a look in town." "I can be a jealous wife, even though he has never given me cause to be." "They found him by the river... just a ways up from the pond." "He must have slipped, hit his head on a rock." "The river's current were too strong that day." "I'm so sorry." "I take comfort in knowing his last moments were spent at his favorite place." "There he is." "Mother, this is Nergüi, the friend of Batbayer I spoke of." "And this is Alagh." "He's so beautiful." "He looks like his father." "So tell me, Nayan, how in the vast wastelands of heathenism did you find Jesus Christ?" "To tell that story, I'd have to share my sins." "Oh, let this be your confession." " Temptation was my burden." " Hmm, what kind of temptation?" " Of the flesh." " Uh-huh." "Well, that's not a sin unless you follow through on it." "I did, many times." "I cannot grant you absolution until you speak your transgressions." "I do not seek pardon." "Were it not for those sins, I never would have met him." "I could no longer control my yearnings." "So I cast myself in the desert... knowing that I had no time left on this earth." "He appeared... blanketed me in the shade." "He made me rise, and though we walked for weeks, I never thirsted, nor did I feel hunger." "He filled me with salvation." ""All is not lost."" "You've met the fabled Prester John?" "Yes, we've all heard the stories." "Descended from the Magi, casts shadows in the night, resides by the river of heaven, which imparts everlasting life." "He's cunning, he's merciless." "The hand of God." "His vast army sweeps undetected across the land, leveling faithless villages and cities." "He exterminates" "Prester John is nothing but merciful," "Your Holiness." "He offers mankind the opportunity to open their hearts to Christ." "And what if their hearts remain shuttered?" "Well... then that's the finest example of his mercy." "He returns them... to the warm embrace of their Maker." "You knew of this?" "I wanted you to hear it yourself." "Our Crusaders have long prayed to meet him and his army." "I've sent emissaries in search of him." "But none has ever returned." "He reveals himself to the needy, but only when he sees fit to do so." "You were chosen to do God's work." "And only He knows how I am to do His good work." "Well... we might be able to figure it out..." "together." "Over here." "They were here." "My Khan, it's best that fewer men proceed, to preserve the track." "Go." "Five arrows." "Unified Mongol brothers." "Unbreakable." "And sisters." "And sisters." "A lesson on how to conquer the world." "A lesson in the power of Mongol unity." "Is there any difference?" "A fundamental difference." "Between stability and chaos." "Expansion is chaos?" "It was Genghis and your very own Ögödei who dreamt of the taking of China." "I only succeeded where they failed." "They did not foresee the peril to our nomadic way of life." "What peril?" "Are you not still a nomad living in a fucking ger?" "Empress." "I had occasion today to see your daughter." "It pleases me to tell you that she is quite well." "Happy and safe." "So very gracious of you to bring the news yourself." "As a mother..." "I understand you." "I thought you'd be eager to hear." "It is a great relief." "Good." "I..." "Is there something else, my Empress?" "No." "Genghis did not intend for us to sit in palaces, polishing the treasures of other cultures." "What is it about progress that makes you squeal like a pig in heat?" "Sight of my origins." "Purity of my ancestors' intent." "Lose that and I lose my soul." "Purity is cried by those who follow." "Leading is putting your soul on the line, so others may have the freedom to ponder theirs." "It's an onus like no other." "If you so resent it, why not relinquish it?" "So that you could tear down everything I built?" "You really want to be remembered for ruining an empire on the cusp of ruling over all?" "I want to be the one remembered for saving it." "From you." "Rhetoric is easy." "But it masks envy, lust, greed." "Or is just a desire to finally still your old mother's nagging?" "Spoken by the son of a murderous, thieving bitch." "You curse my mother, you curse a Mongol queen." "Who pushed aside my father's line." "Who schemed to win power for her sons." "Still your tongue, or I'll take it." "The nation's tongue has been stilled long enough." "You stole the Kurultai that named you Khan." "Legacy to a family of thieves." "After I win..." "I'm gonna level your lands and massacre anyone you ever cared for." "Only you could imagine you're in any position to cast a threat." "The moment he cuts my throat, cut him down." "Have at it." "We found them." "Father?" "You'll live, my son." "I'll see you at the Kurultai." "Do you have a family?" "My parents." "I live with them on the other side of the slums." "No husband?" "Just us." "Someday maybe I will." "You are too beautiful not to have a husband." "You're too kind." "You should come to our house, all of you." "I'll make you dinner." "That would be lovely." "It would... wouldn't it?" "Prince Jingim's been found." " And he is well?" " Quite, they say." "He travels back now with the Great Khan." "See?" "Even the most difficult things come to an end." "You were right." "And I cannot wait to tell my husband." "He's going to be a father." "I'm pregnant." "Let God's work begin."