"Wuchang has fallen." "As expected." "Wise to withdraw our troops when we did." "What else?" "My apologies, Empress, for taking so long to come and visit." "I trust your accommodations have been to your liking?" "A cell is a cell, no matter the decor." "I could put you in a real cell, Empress, and prove that assumption so very wrong." "I feel as if I may have sprained my wrist." "That's what your champion took out of me." "The blind man was more agile, truth be told." "Interesting choice for an assassin." "I would have selected someone with... eyes." "Even Fang Zhen seemed surprised by him." "Someone had to allow him inside." "I wish to see the Emperor." "I wish to see Ling." "Ling is dancing her days away, and the Emperor is occupied with complicated matters of state." "I will send them your regards." "In the meantime, we will continue to detain you so as to protect you from murderers and assassins who could strike at any moment." "Father!" "How fared you at Wuchang?" "We saw victory, daughter." "The sight of you pleases me more." "The Khan awaits you." "He will wait a moment more." "You have represented me well in the Khan's court." "Word is you are as formidable as ever." "On this... word is not as true as it was even yesterday." "I was bested, Father." "He must be a formidable wrestler." "The Khan's warrior son, Byamba." "Do not be displeased, Father." "Did you surrender your honor?" "I surrendered mine to serve yours." "You wanted me closer to the Khan's court, yes?" "I approve, daughter." "You should pursue the warrior." "House of Ögödei..." "Your Golden Horde took Wuchang." "As planned, Xiangyang will not be resupplied." "Mmm." "Jingim's assault there was bloody." "We fared well, Great Khan." "But we had the men and horses necessary." "Their numbers seemed reduced, but those who remained fought well." "We marched the captured here as slaves for your service." "Your Khan is honored, offers his welcome." "Come." "Let us raise a cup in your honor." "War is on." "We need to escape now." "I begged you to leave, Tulga, to save us." "And you said you prayed to join me in this life or the next." "I give you that choice now!" "I am to leave with the ladies of the court." "They will know I am gone!" "I cannot go with you." "I do not want to!" "Then we shall live together in the Blue Sky." "Get away from her!" "Kokachin!" "Za Bing, no!" "The skulking is over." "There is no love with the Blue Princess." "She harbors no feelings for you." "Leave!" "Now!" "Ahh!" "Za Bing!" "Nergüi?" "What have you done?" "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "Barbarians." "I must break the bones again to make them right." "Do it." "Heal her." "Will you come out?" "Or just cling to the shadows like a snake?" "Snakes are not attracted to shadows." "A rat then." "Have the Great Khan's troops reached my home yet?" "They would slow their march as they approach." "Let your people suffer the horror of anticipation." "Wuchang first?" "As you tried before." "Kaidu of the Golden Horde has led the assault." "And succeeded where my brother Jingim failed." "I have a place in the royal family." "Are you a whore's son?" "That would explain your interest in me." "My interest in you is self-interest." "I have nothing to offer you now." "You called for me?" "I thought you would have left for the war camp." "I want to know of the assassin's condition before I depart." " Will she recover?" " Still uncertain." "Has she offered anything of worth?" "No, Empress." "Nothing of note." "Just mumbled worry for her daughter." "Binding linen." "Her daughter resides with us." "Or perhaps a resolution we seek with something altogether different." "You speak of amnesty?" "No, Empress." "Her daughter survives." "We now possess the same leverage once held over her by Jia Sidao." "When we need her, she will do our bidding." "Yes." "Make sure she recovers." "Have news for me when I return." "This is an accurate rendering, Master Polo?" "It is." "I saw the construction." "The outer wall is a shell." "There is no fortification." "Crush the foot and the body will fall." "We take the city." "Sidao will dirty his knees before me." "The Chancellor is aware he was infiltrated weeks ago." "Surely, he does everything in his power to bolster his defenses, rectify his weaknesses." "Our scouts report they have been repairing the wall night and day, but it is still incomplete." "We must strike immediately." "Prince Jingim's words are worthy of consideration." "I can wait no longer." "Polo is right." "If action is to be taken, now is the time." "Go as my envoy to Sidao." "Extend an invitation for parley on the eve of his defeat." "If he bows to me, he can avoid Mongol steel." "Propose a peace, patience to him, see what it gets you." "Sidao will never be a subject under the Khanate." "And this offer will enrage him, but I've shown his council, army and people that I'm a diplomat until the bitter end." "You are the military emissary to the Great Kublai Khan?" "I have that honor, Chancellor." "I am Vice Regent of the Secretariat." "And a foreigner." "You must be as wise as you're ugly and odd." "Have you ever seen an image of the Roman emperor Claudius?" "Or the Hunnic ruler Attila?" "No." "But you're now going to tell me of the accomplishments of ugly men who were underestimated." "I would not presume to educate you on the wiles of political men, comely or otherwise, Chancellor." "We had heard talk of Fang Zhen, the Red Lotus, taking a role in your empire." "There was an assassination attempt in the fortress." "Some tragedies were averted, some were not." "I was so deeply troubled to hear of Kublai's own tragedy." "Wives should not be taken in such a fashion." "It is a violation, yes." "So... as fletchers stockpile arrows and your blacksmiths sharpen steel, you come with a bidding from your adopted master?" "The Great Khan offers a parley to avert further tragedy and discuss peaceful arbitration." "Surely you mean my subjugation?" "It is not for me to interpret my liege's intent." "As his minister, isn't that exactly what you do, if not sculpt his intent yourself?" "I offer counsel." "The Khan's decisions are his own." "And do you agree with his decisions?" "Kublai Khan is my leader, my guide." "I serve God through serving him." "The Khan is your divine conduit?" "No." "He is merely a man with a vision." "A hard place, Vice Regent, serving a will you do not endorse." "Tell your master I will meet him to hear his gracious offerings." "Limp away now, messenger." "My father has joined the war camp." "Has Kaidu come for the enemy's head or mine?" "He holds his oppositions for Sidao, not us." "What tactics do you devise?" "We ride as one tumen along the bank." "When the archer fires a whistler, we disband." "Wolf and crow." "I take wolf, you take crow." "Because you bested me?" "You think you will always ride wolf, make me ride crow." "I ride wolf because I have more lancers." "You have archers from the steppe." "This is my father's tent." "I don't care." "Do you strategize for the coming assault?" "Wolf rides crow?" "We'll resume our war plans later." "My Lady." "Kaidu asked about you." "How many horses in your herd, how able a warrior." "Now, I understand." "He must check tooth and hoof before settling terms." "The union will please our father." "And I will prove myself to Kaidu in the shadow of the wall." " All will soon be settled." " No doubt." "Unless the war undoes us." "Xiangyang will bow to our Khan." "We have the secret and the strategy." "Why do you doubt?" "Our strategy turns on a foreigner's secret." "I do not trust the Latin and neither does Ahmad." "What does Ahmad know?" "Marco saved me when he needn't have." "He returned to Cambulac when he could have fled." "Byamba, we do not know what bargain was struck in your saving, nor what motivated his return." "Honor." "Friendship." "Perhaps." "Would you offer evidence to support your doubts?" "Better." "My confidence." "Hey, blond man." "Blond." "Come here." "Do I look blond to you?" "Blonder than me." "Do you have any food, Blond?" "Thank you." "Are you a fair-skinned bastard son of the Khan?" "No, I am his servant." "I, too, will become his servant, given the chance." "You wish to be?" "I wish nothing more." "What skill do you have?" "I'm a weaver." "The Khan is fond of artisans of every type." "I'm sure you will fare well." "What if the Mongols lose?" "Would you still wish to serve?" "Men follow leaders." "Sidao is half the man the Khan is." "Kublai Khan will win." "He will rule." "Had you no knife to your throat, would you feel the same?" "I see no threat." "Merely fence." "Kublai!" "Kublai!" "They say the Khan welcomes anyone if they pledge loyalty." "Is it true, Blond?" "It is true." "Will you come back, Blond?" "Bring me more of that delicious meat?" "What is the state of power within the fortress walls?" "I saw no sign of the Empress, nor the Boy Emperor." "We parleyed in the Song throne room as though Jia Sidao were the emperor." "Killed Red Lotus and caged the boy." "Conspiracies abound." "He did imply one thing." "I believe he's under the impression that his sister was successful." "He thinks Lady Chabi is dead." "This misinformation could be useful in distressing his state of mind at the parley." "The more unstable his mind, the more unstable his choices." "Kaidu, welcome to the war." "I have already fought one battle." "It seems as if you have as well." "Of all the warriors my daughter wrestled, she settled on you." "Why is that?" "She didn't settle." "I won." "And I have personality." "I swear." "I have my thoughts in battle now." "You can denounce me and call me pig if you like, but wait for tomorrow." " And if you fall in battle?" " I am not that lucky." "Yes." "I know of your prowess on the field." "Khutulun would never look your way unless you were formidable." "There's a reason she leads one of my tumens." "She knows strength and noble character when she sees it." "One wonders whether the kingdom of Cambulac or its Khan have the same foresight." "Fare well tomorrow, Byamba." "A fine horse." "I am most pleased it was not added to my herd." "Our men suffer in furs and metal under the South China sun." "I had the armorer replace all neck guards with hide." "Jingim believes the Song Chancellor will never himself appear on the field of battle." "Of that, Sidao is wise." "My son would cut him from gut to mouth in front of his own men." "But hiding will not save his life." "My Khan, my son, they will have what is due them." "You suspected me when the young concubine died." "Why not accuse me of the crime?" "You were too precious to the Khan." "And I sense promise in you." "What promise?" "I do not yet know." "Am I precious to you?" "Your brother... made you into a whore for his ambition." "Did that bother you?" "I made myself a whore." "And I used him long before he learned to use me." "When he was a boy and I a little girl living in the shadow of Xiangyang." "I stared at the Walled City, dreaming what life might be like there." "What did you dream as a boy?" "I suffered dreamless sleep." "Did you come to the Khan's service by choice?" "No." "By chance?" "As chattel?" "Born of Persia?" "My people were the Fanākatī." "I'm from Upper Asia, not Persia." "And brought to China to serve your conqueror." "I was too young then to know him as a conqueror." "He was my... my patron, my benefactor." "He became as a father to me, and the Empress, a mother." "What happened to your real mother, your true father?" "Was the Khan their benefactor, too?" "How do you serve the monster who slew your brethren and call him father?" "You worship his whores, concubine and queen." "And you are left here as nursemaid while war is waged." "You attempt to crawl under my skin?" "I could get under your skin, carve it free and wear it as a cloak." "Better..." "I could walk next door and do the same thing to your daughter." "What do you mean?" "Please, what are you..." "What are you saying?" "War is waged on many fronts, Mei Lin." "Please..." "What..." "What are you saying?" "I once saw an ink portrait of your grandfather." "You are a more striking figure, I must say." "My mother was more beautiful than his." "She was a Christian, was she not?" "She was daughter and mother to Khans." "She could choose whichever God suited her." "You ask for parley as you stand with an army outside my city walls." "How am I to take this?" "On bended knee, if you're wise." "I have a wall." "I will obliterate your wall." "I will take your fraudulent crown and I will spike your corpse to the gates of my new palace." "Or I will walk through the wall after it is freely opened, accept your surrender and offer gracious terms for the deposed Chancellor of Xiangyang and his rebel army." "You have power yet to save your people, Sidao." "It's unfortunate that it has come to this." "So deep into war that we make attempts on each other's lives and those most sacred to us." "I've heard of your favored wife's beauty." "Such luminescence should not be taken from us this way." "So repugnant." "Even your own Vice Regent is against this war." "This tactics." "When an honest man says nothing, you see his heart." "I don't question his loyalty to you, but an absence of words speaks loudly." "Perhaps he sees something we do not." "I trust I'll find you on the field, Jia Sidao." "May I introduce my luminescent wife, the Empress Chabi." "I'm greatly pleased to see you well, Empress." "The Chancellor has declined my offer." "There will be no peace this day." "I will rip away his land as I would a weak heart from a coward's chest." "Your people make better slaves than soldiers, Sidao." "Fear not, I will reform them!" "I couldn't look away when I first saw you." "I tried." "I tried to look away." "I told myself, "She is nothing but a whore, like the others." "Like my sister." "Meant to be used and discarded to make room for another."" "I tried to find logic... only to realize what I feel for you defies such reasoning." "I loved you." "You lied to me." "You see?" "I don't." "It's right here." "The horse." "This is the horse, this is the camel." "That's the sheep and that's the goat." "You see now?" "Roll." "I'll show you." " Where do you live?" " That's the sheep..." "Inside the Imperial City." " An honor." " It has become one." "It wasn't always?" "I, like you, was once a prisoner." "Within a slightly more gilded cage." "I've never left home." "Well... that's about to change." "Yes." "Wheeled away in a celled wagon." "Only until you arrive in Cambulac." "Will I live in the Imperial City?" "Doubtful." "But it will be a step up from your current station." "What will you miss most of all?" "Of my home?" "Can't think of anything." "What do you miss of your home, Blond?" "It's a horse." "What is it, friend?" "Jingim Khan has much to say on the subject of Marco Polo." "He has high regard for my political acumen, no doubt." "He suspects you and your father plot against the Khan." "Ahmad has fueled his jealousy." "They believe you have seduced my father." "Where do you stand, Byamba?" "You are not of this place, Marco." "Jingim is my brother." "And what recourse does your brother propose?" "In battle, arrows fly from all directions." "Heed the advice you should have taken long ago." "As we advance south, you ride west, towards your home." "Where you belong." "They are to be rendered into a weapon to rain fire upon Xiangyang." "It is the Khan's strategy." "He uses Sidao's citizens against him." "I pledge my life to the Great Khan!" "I pledge my life to the Great Khan!" " No." " Blond!" "Blond!" "If you cannot bear what you see, avert your eyes." "They are our captives." "This is sin!" "It is war." "Your Khan's war." "Blond!" "Blond, help me!" "I want to go home!" "I want to go home!" "Where are you going?" "What are you doing here?" "What happened?" "Are you hurt?" "Za Bing was killed." "This is a dark time." "There are eyes on me, doubts directed." "If anyone finds you here..." "You must go." "I will return you to your ger." "There will be eyes on me, as well." "I am no royal." "When the Khan's men attacked the Bayaut..." "I was a peasant girl... serving in the palace." "When they left, I went with them to Cambulac... as Kokachin." "You took her name?" "She took her life." "I took her name." "I must hold it forever." "Her name is yours." "Kokachin." "I will protect that name." "And you." "Does my husband require assistance?" "Warm air constricts the metal, leather... armor shrinks." "No need." "My soldiers with sturdy backs will surround me." "They will take stray arrows for their Khan." "My fierce Mongol warriors... so many will perish tomorrow." "Yes." " You must rest, Kublai." " Mmm." "Genghis said..." ""There's no good in anything until it's finished."" "Tomorrow... the wall that turned back the Mongols for 80 years... will fall." "Your men are prepared." "And behind them, Mongol women ready to fight if needed." "You do this and our house is whole, your legacy secured for yourself and our son." "Mmm." "One Khanate, one Khan." "One China, one Emperor." "Indeed." "You will destroy the wall, my husband." "You will have the Chancellor's head." "Hmm." "I wish my astrologers had such hopeful foretellings." "But there is no good in anything until it is finished." "Let this war earn your peace." "Let it be your final conquest, my Khan Kublai." "Let it be finished." "Let our horses be swift and our arrows true." "This day will be ours, Father." "Hmm." "Polo, I bid you watch the battle with me from the crest." "I ride with my Mongol brothers, Sire." "So be it." "I'll see you on the field." "Do not lose your mount." "We advanced, slaughtering every rebel who crossed our path." "We reached the wall and pushed towards the weakness, the one the Latin described." "We breached the wall with little more than battering rams." "But our men were wedged into a dead end." "Death rained down upon us." "Oil, fire, arrows..." "Men died." "Mongols died... because Master Marco pointed our army into a trap." "It was bait, Sire, the weakness in the wall." "Jia Sidao drew us into a trap." " I am sorry, Great Khan..." " Why do you feign contrition, Latin?" "Why are you not at the breast of your master, Jia Sidao?" "Huh?" "You delivered us to the devil!" "You betrayed us!" "You brought us to our knees at the wall!" "Father... he has brought us nothing but ruin." "You can see it." "You can all see it!" "I devote myself to you, Great Khan." "Enough of your twisted talk!" "You would protect him?" "He is not one of us, brother." "He is the rot within our bones." "He reported what he saw... as he was asked to do." "Father... what shall we do?" "Retreat."