"It's the Saturnalia, Marcus, you have to dance." "Who's she?" "SHE SCREAMS IN FRUSTRATION" "Any challenge we have to face, the trials can help us." "A flower for the composer." "I am undeserving." "Come!" "The sailor...where is he?" "SHE GASPS" "In these woods, there is a monster!" "I'm armed." "Sort of." "No!" "If you would kill, I am here." "Not him." "Take me instead." "Why did you do that?" "You could have been killed." "I don't know." "Let's go." "Marry?" "!" "Me?" "To who?" "Some fat old Senator?" "No!" "No, of course not." "Flavia, it's time to grow up." "All this mystery solving..." "I shouldn't have gone to her house." "She had all kinds of potions and beetles and frogs." "She likes cooking." "You're confused." "And her last husband?" "He died at sea." "It nearly happened to me!" "And she mourned him, as I mourned your mother." "In fact..." "I think that helped us understand each other." "You will grow to like her." "At least try." "In the meantime, Saturnalia or not, you're confined to the house." "I'm sorry, but other fathers would have punished you harder." "We need proof, Lupus." "We need it now, or it could be too late." "Hmm, it might sting a bit." "They'll heal soon enough." "Not every pain heals." "You just rest." "My father's been eating mushrooms for weeks now." "He doesn't even like mushrooms!" "They're from Cartilia." "Then it truly must be love." "Nubia, don't you see?" "Flavia... please, may I be alone?" "Try Lusca again." "I want to know the truth about Cartilia's husband." "How many were there and how did they die?" "What if she didn't kill anyone?" "She's a witch, that's what they do." "Ah, salutations, all-seeing Wise Woman of Ostia." "Oh, never mind all that." "What do you want?" "There's a woman, I think she called Cartilia Poplicola." "I sent you to her house?" "Hmm, husband?" "We think he might have been poisoned." "Well, I don't, Flavia does." "The boar." "Hello?" "The boar." "The boar!" "What boar?" "I have spoken." "Right, well, thank you very much(!" ")" "Aren't you forgetting something?" "I thought you didn't take money for information." "I don't." "But inspiration costs." "Well, that's a fat lot of use!" "All right, so Hercules fought a boar." "It's in the fresco, wonderful(!" ")" "It's still a fat lot of use." "I thought we were supposed to looking for a... boar." "What is that smell?" "Gladiators?" "Beast fighters?" "For the games - in Rome." "FOOTSTEPS APPROACH" "Lupus, Lupus." "I think we should..." "Right!" "I've brought you something to eat." "Are you angry with me?" "Flavia, in the woods," "I saw an animal." "An animal I know from home - a lion." "Like in the fresco?" "I think it might be a clue." "My father is losing his mind to a scheming witch." "I really need your help." "We've got some news for you." "Very artistic." "It's the ship." "I can see that." "But I told you, I'm not interested." "Lusca told us to look for a boar, like in the fresco." "It was painted on the side of a boat." "It was transporting animals for the games in Rome." "The crew abandoned ship." "Why?" "The animals got out." "That's what they said." "You spoke to them?" "You could say that." "Who are you, thieves?" "I happen to be the daughter of Pollius Felix." "I trust that rings a bell." "What are you here?" "According to my father, there are pirates in these waters and he asked me to keep an eye out." "I'm glad you're his kid, not mine." "Now get lost, both of you." "It seems you're going hunting." "I said get lost." "Monsters by any chance?" "Hey, Proculus!" "Aristocracy this one, so drown her gently." "Captain Poplicolus?" "It seems your documents are in order." "Captain who?" "Poplicolus!" "But that is quite a common name." "Not that common." "Cartilia, she's here?" "In Ostia, my ex-wife?" "What happened, she got tired of Roman Senators?" "What are YOU doing?" "I think he's testing." "You're supposed to be dead." "Do I look dead?" "Poisonous little witch." "I tell you what..." "I feel sorry for whoever it is she's got her beady eyes on now." "My poor father." "It's too terrible." "We have to tell him." "He won't believe us." "Even if he saw him with his own... ..eyes." "Listen, I haven't traipsed him round every arena from here to Parthia only to lose him now." "This is what I've been waiting for." "The Emperor wants to see what he's got." "So all we've got to do is find him, before he..." "FOOTSTEPS APPROACH" "..he finds us." "I don't want him hurt." "Yes really, that's not bad at all." "Listen, I've been having a go at Atlas holding the world up on his head, but it's tricky getting the expression right." "Lupus, stop messing around with that." "Did you deliver the letters?" "Both of them?" "He's here, he just arrived." "This way." "In the garden." "A gentleman about some business." "Good." "Business!" "I'm always happy to talk business." "How may I help?" "Me?" "You asked me to come and see you." "Father, may I introduce Captain Caldus Poplicolus." "Captain Poplicolus, this is Captain Marcus Geminus, my father." "Poplicolus?" "Is that a problem?" "I think it might be." "Marcus, you wanted to see me?" "You!" "Hang on!" "You poor fool." "What's doing here?" "Who is he?" "I'm her dead husband." "I thought you should know." "So this is your doing, is it?" "Maybe the witch is right for you." "She's always up to no good, a bit like your little brat." "Don't talk about my daughter like that." "Or your betrothed." "If you were thinking of inviting me to the wedding, I'm busy that day." "Just leave me alone for a while." "Father..." "Please." "I thought he'd be pleased." "Perhaps you don't understand love." "That's not love, it's bewitchment." "The Hydra, the boar, Diana, the fresco, it's all there!" "Caudex saw the bird." "I saw the lion in the woods." "Maybe I need to see him for myself." "We know what Cartilia is, but how can we stop her?" "Your father says you are not to leave." "I'm doing this for my father." "It's too dangerous." "If I live or die doing this, he will thank me." "Flavia!" "Cartilia, perhaps it's just the Saturnalia." "Everything is a little mad." "It isn't the Saturnalia." "It's you." "You and your lies!" "KNOCK ON DOOR" "Just what we need!" "Bait." "Flavia!" "You're not a lion." "Maybe the legend's wrong, maybe it's Hercules and the rabbit." "I can smell it." "Flavia, we must go, now." "No." "No, not till I've found out what it can tell us." "LION ROARS" "Flavia, Flavia!" "Oh, no." "Please!" "Could somebody help us?" "LION ROARS" "Now, quick!" "Hold him!" "Come on." "Got him!" "Have you come to cause more pain?" "Only to share mine." "Captain Geminus, I have an apology to make." "You have the monster." "Now help us!" "Monster?" "!" "That's just a pussycat." "That's the monster." "Taurus, the Cretan Bull." "The famous beast fighter." "Where is he?" "Set him free." "He's going to Rome." "Unless you've got other ideas." "What are you going to do?" "We've got all the animals now." "Please, could somebody help us?" "Come on." "I'll get him, Captain." "Not here." "Let him come for his friends, we'll get him when there's more of us." "Please, you must help us!" "Please!" "Please, do not harm her." "Where is her home?" "Ostia." "Show me." "The lion... he was your friend?" "And you have lost him." "I have lost many friends." "She fell as she ran." "The lion did not hurt her." "Caudex, can you take her to her room, please?" "Mordecai is on his way." "Thank you, Nubia." "Sir, could you tell me who you are?" "A man who is far from home." "I am grateful beyond measure." "There is a sadness in her that I cannot fathom." "She is gravely ill." "The Cretan Bull." "The beast-fighter?" "And I do the best gates in the business." "Hades, realm of the dead." "Flavia..." "And what lies beyond these gates?" "What we most dread." "Is it a wedding?" "Whose?" "Yours." "Time to grow up." "No." "No!" "Mother!" "I'm so afraid." "There is no cause." "Of being alone." "Why should you be alone?" "Because I've lost my father and my friends." "I was so terrible to them, to all of them." "They trusted me." "Ssh!" "If they are your friends, how can you ever lose them?" "And your father's love, how can it ever change?" "I forgot." "I forgot that he loved me and I forgot they were my friends." "Mother..." "Ssh." "Mother!" "She will not die." "Doctor Mordecai is very good." "I've seen him." "Please, sit." "You saved my daughter." "Whatever I can do for you, I will do it." "I came here on a slave ship, chained... but I broke free." "I freed the animals and... the crewmen were afraid and leapt from the ship." "We were too close to shore... ..but I am not a man who knows ships." "I seek my liberty." "That is all." "And where are you from?" "I was caught near a town known as Vescera, though we have our own names for these places." "I have fought for my life ever since, but now wish only to return." "Freedom and home - the dreams of a slave." "Flavia!" "Doctor Mordecai said you'd be feeling better today." "What is SHE doing here?" "Father, she lied to you." "Yes, I did, and I'm sorry." "Flavia, my husband divorced me when I was very young." "He said I was too strong-willed." "I never married again, so these have been lonely years, years I wouldn't wish on anyone, especially not my own daughter." "When saw your father, she asked me to do the introductions." "It was foolish of me, but I lied." "I said Caldus was dead." "So did she!" "What else could she say?" "Flavia, I'm sorry, I didn't know what to do." "And you, you believe her?" "Throughout your fever," "Cartilia stayed with you day and night, tirelessly." "I thought you were my mother!" "I said things... things that were only for her!" "Flavia, you told your friends you thought the fresco would help us find out the truth." "You found the lion, he led you to Taurus." "And now..." "I think you should listen to him." "I am called Taurus, the Cretan Bull." "I am a champion beast fighter, though the honour gives me no joy." "Caldus Poplicolus, her husband, was as cruel a master as ever there was to men and animals." "But this woman... tried to ease our pain with kindness." "And, when she failed, she left him." "She is the most honourable woman I have ever met." "Flavia... when people are in love, it's going to sound odd, but they don't always tell the truth." "Even I lied a little." "I really don't like mushrooms." "You didn't eat them?" "But there was love potion on them, wasn't there?" "Mother!" "I'm sorry, I..." "We use it for other people." "It pays our way." "What did you do with them?" "I gave them to Aristo." "The ship is ready." "We bought him a passage home." "Everyone, let's go!" "They go to dance." "It's the end of the Saturnalia." "When the madness leaves us." "They say, if we let the dance take us, we return to our senses." "Release him." "He's not chained." "He will be." "Not while I breathe." "That's your choice." "I've killed so many, one more's not gonna make much difference." "You...put the chains on." "I let her go." "No!" "All right, boys." "That's enough." "It's all right." "Come on!" "An ostrich!" "That must be Caudex's stymphalian bird." "Caldus Poplicolus, you're under arrest." "The animals shall go free, as they were meant to be." "Come on!" "May the gods go with you." "That was the money for the painter." "Do you think we'll mind an unfinished fresco?" "Whatever will people say?" "They can say what they like!" "Will you join us?" "Yes, when I visit." "You're almost as good at solving mysteries as me." "That's...quite a compliment." "TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS" "'I think not every pain heals.'" "'They say if we let the dance take us, we return to our senses.'" "She lied to you." "I am her dead husband." "And does the love remain?" "It has gone." "And you, Nubia?" "Has it gone?" "Then it is love indeed." "Perhaps..." "Perhaps we should wait before going any further." "A little love, a little madness." "Thank you." "So it is love!" "Master, Mistress, come!" "There's something wonderful." "Caudex, what is it?" "Come on!" "You have to see this." "Lupus, you've finished it!" "I think you've found your calling." "Don't they all seem rather familiar?" "SOME LAUGHTER" "LAUGHTER CONTINUES" "Where am I?" "Lupus, wow!" "I don't carry the world on my shoulders!" "Well, I am a mystery-solver." "You certainly are."