"Lord Kaidu." "Welcome to Cambulac." "Kaidu!" "She needs you!" "Get it out!" "Get it out, please!" " What is that?" " It will calm her." "Take away the pain." "Prepare her." " Prepare?" "It's the baby or her." "No." "Come on." "You have to push." "You have to get it out." "Please." " Tell Orus..." " I love him." "No, no, no." "You can do this." "Push." "You can push." "Listen to your mother." " No!" " They'll both die." "Kaidu... do it." "Do it." "Kaidu..." "Not an exact fit." "But it will do, for now." "You look good!" "Genghis executed anyone who betrayed their masters in hopes of reward." "That's what I think about every time I look at the Vice Regent." "This is a means to an end, son." "Vice Regent." "Where is the Khan?" "What is that?" "Gift." "Blessed wine from His Holiness, Pope Gregory." "Where is the Khan?" "Why'd he send it here?" "He seeks an end to our westward expansion." "Where is the Khan?" "He's not here." "Xanadu." "You could have sent word when I alerted you to my arrival." "I never told the Khan you were coming." "How did you think he would receive this message from His Holiness?" "Did you think the Khan would halt his troops?" "Stop the expansion on the pope's mere suggestion?" " No." " Exactly." "You came to ask a question and you already knew the answer." "He would cast you out." "You and your people... and your wine." "He's going west." "Nothing will stop him." "Kublai is a man of vision." "He will see a way." "There is another question you should be asking yourself." "Can you make your own way?" "With he who wishes to remain exclusively Mongol." "He who wishes to quell all expansion." "He who despises my pope, Christianity." "The chasm between myself and Kaidu is vast, and I don't like him." "You turned on your Khan." "Not so much turned... as come around." "Xanadu." "Something, is it not?" "It is." "How far?" "We're not going to the city." "Come." "Gerel, have a drink." " Oh!" " Here's to our ride to Xanadu." " Xanadu!" "In the morning we ride." "Off to Xanadu!" "Welcome to the royal hunting grounds." "Let's get back to our roots." "Yes." "A horse of the wind, indeed." "A hundred more are being delivered as we speak, my Khan." "A thank you... for your great hospitality towards your chieftains." "I didn't know you could finish a sentence without your western twin breathing in your ear." "Gerel wouldn't miss a trip to Xanadu, and he was eager to pay tribute." "I'm certain there's good reason for his delay." "Hmm." "I accept this gift, Arban." "A fine surprise." "One day, my child will welcome your grandson to Xanadu." "Just as the Khan now welcomes you." "One day, my child will welcome your grandson" "No need for pageantry with me." "Chulun is a close friend." "He served as Kublai's General for many years." " Sacrificed my looks for him." "May I?" "Nergüi..." "Princess?" "Princess." "My tribute, Great Khan." "Procured from the distant edges of your empire." "She's breathtaking." "Destiny is strange, isn't it?" "Thousands of miles, dissenting ambitions, and the pope does our work for us." "A vote for Kublai is a vote against his God and Savior." "His Holiness has presented us with an exceptional advantage... in changing Nayan's mind about him." "Who says I've changed my mind about Nayan?" "Or you?" "I believe that was your mother." "Do you feel no shame for what you've done to your sworn lord?" "Shame is for the weak and the bored, Kaidu." "Is this what it's come to?" "Making deals with gutless savages of all and every kind?" "Losing my credibility, my power!" "You have no power to give." "And what power does the Great Khan have?" "All of this is an illusion of power!" "Real power comes from being true to one's self." "Hmm." "Sukh." "Sukh came to us from the jungles of Burma." "Greatly skilled in the warrior art of Bando." "Take my blade." "Now... stab yourself." "Where?" "Anywhere you like." "Go see the healer." "That is real power, Kaidu." "And I can give it to you." "I didn't know being married would change me." "Jingim, you've been married four times since you were 17." "This time it's different." "Kokachin is different." "She seems exceptional." "Well, she is." "In every way, but..." "It's... it's not just that." "Something you cannot name." "Yes." "It's like looking up at the sky and seeing only one" "Hey." "This is what happens when stable boys fall asleep." "Hey." "Whoa." "Easy now." "Shh." "How did you get away from home?" "Jingim." "Perhaps it was an accident." "The horse ran through the camelthorn weeds." "There were no other marks on its body." "It was a unique attack, directed at a symbol of allegiance from an eminent chieftain." "Or a child's prank." "We invite these men into our royal home." "If one of them turns out to be a traitor" "Don't get overly excited, son." "Look at all that you've done." "Bringing my chieftains together." "Don't assume the worst." "It's only a horse." "I've got 99 more." "And if it's Kaidu?" "Kaidu?" "Kaidu running around my paddock, blinding horses?" "Someone call me so I can watch." "Mother." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "Did you sleep out here?" "Something's happened." "Something terrible." "Let's take you back, have you bathed and changed." "No, Mother." "I must tell you now." "I was wrong not to do so before." "What, child?" "The Blue Princess." "The real one." "The one that I told you before." "Yes?" "She found me." "She's here." "How can that be?" "I don't know, but she is." "She wants it back." "All of it." "All of what?" "Her life." "Our heir apparent decides to grace us with her presence." "Where's Father?" "Where is Father?" "What do you care?" "He left." "Orus." "For Cambulac... with Grandmother." "Why?" "To meet Ahmad." "Where are you going?" "Where are you going?" "What's inside these?" "Black powder." "Been loading them for weeks." "Where are they headed?" "I just lift what and when I'm told to." "Okay, let's go!" "Come on, hurry up!" "Hurry up!" "Those barrels of black powder." "What's their destination?" "The capital." "Back to work." "What now?" "I saw wagons filled with those barrels on a road that doesn't lead to Cambulac." "And you know every road to Cambulac?" "It's my home." "Of course I do." "This is not your concern." "You should find out where they're headed." "Get back to work." "Now!" "Come on!" "Move it!" "I saw you staring earlier." "Everyone was staring." "And you wish to be just like everyone?" "They're Thessalians." "Like Alexander's horse." "Bucephalus." "They are born one color and gradually change coats." "By the time they're four or five, the mares can barely recognize their offspring." "How do you know all of that?" "I consider myself a student." "Of horses?" "Of all of it." "I've been traveling the world since I was 16." "Mmm-hmm, as have I." "Come to think of it, perhaps I was 15." "One day, I will go to your lands and I will dance as a European." "They will love you." "Would I love Venice?" "It is magnificent." "The City of Bridges." "Instead of roads, we travel on canals." "In wooden boats." "That's absurd." "You wouldn't think that if you saw it." "If it is so magnificent... why are you here and not there?" "You must have summoned me." "I did no such thing." "I'm afraid." " Don't be." "I'm afraid you will fall in love with me." "All men fall in love with me because I always leave." "And there's nothing men love more than the thing they cannot have." "Understood?" "What's your hurry?" "The sun will rise." "Ah." "There." "Now, you'll never know the time of day." "That's a lovely necklace." "I have one, too." "Want to see?" "It's beautiful." "You're a prince." "I've met you." "You wore a pale green dress." "With a peacock feather on the sash." "Don't be sad." "Ling Ling." " I found the prince." " Yes, well done." "Well done." "Will you give us a moment alone?" "Thank you." "Like many, that little girl never had a chance." "Her mother, a concubine." "Her father's dead." "Abused by her family, ripped from her home by the Khan." "He bound her feet." "What?" "The Khan." "To make a mockery of the Chinese, he bound her feet." "If you look at her ankles just close enough, you can see the marks." "You sent her to me." "What reason would I have to do that?" "Because you know of my sin." "Your sin?" "She's mine to give." "Her mother is one of my subjects..." "desperate to get her away from this place." "The Khan has been cruel to her?" "Oh, yes." "Very." "Is she on the way to Xanadu?" "Chabi cannot know that Ling Ling is missing... until after the Kurultai." "So it's done?" "Almost." "The Christian prince needs one final nudge." "The kind only a mother could provide." "Should have known." "Running back to daddy before blood is spilled?" "Pretend you never saw me." "Might be the smartest thing you ever did." "When you were handed command of a tumen based on the merit of nothing... you were aware of what happens to deserters, yes?" "Death." "And to that coward's brave brothers..." "guilty of nothing but proximity?" "Death." "I'm going to follow those barrels." "Get back to your gravel patch." "Slumber well... knowing you are going to be whipped tomorrow at my command." "What can I say to make you turn around and walk away?" "Tell them I did this to you." "They may just pardon you." " You told her." " What?" "About me." "I didn't!" "Do you think I'm a fool, Nergüi?" "There's nothing you can do that I don't know." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "The empress is not on our side." "She is." "I swear." "She's my mother now." "Your mother?" "Your mother's dead." "She was killed by Kublai and Chabi's army when they took you." "She is my friend." "Was she your friend when she made you lay under the stable boy?" "You've only ever had one friend in this court." "Master Marco!" "Couldn't block the light for you forever." "Master Marco!" "Easy now... easy now." "It's going to be all right." "Only two men keeping watch." "Heads up each other's asses." "Get rid of them." "Yes, Great Khan." "If not Kaidu, then who?" "Shh." "He's been brave long enough." "There are people under this very roof who despise you." "Would rather you dead than be forced to bow to you as Khan." "Why should I care?" "Hmm?" "You're afraid, Kublai." "Afraid, because you can't steal it this time." "You have to win, fair and square." "I've devoted my life to them." "And it's never enough." "Because, for them... eating themselves sick, fucking themselves raw, that's the most they could ever aspire to." "Words like "expansion" and "empire" mean nothing." "They need to see the future." "Feel it." "Hold it in their hands." "My family requires your help." "I'm not in Cambulac of my own will." "I'm a prisoner of the Khan's." "A vile animal who ruts atop me as he pleases." "If my daughter is kept here... he will one day do the same to her." "Turn her into a whore." "You were a much-revered courtesan." "I began in the streets of Wuhan..." "as a girl no more than seven or eight." "Please." "The men were all different." "Some were sadistic... would force me onto my knees." "Call me names, make me beg for mercy." "Others cried the entire time." "Called me by their daughters' or their wives' names." "But there is one man..." "I always remember best." "He'd tuck me into bed before leaving... sing to me... kiss my eyelids to sleep." "How will you treat my daughter?" "Like an angel." "She will want for nothing." "And she will be safe?" "I control the most revered army in all this land." "She'll be protected and feared." "And where is this heaven?" "North of here." "In the lush valley where the twin rivers meet." "I hope... you will visit us one day." "I intend to." "This is what comes of an empress absent royal blood." "Garish displays of opulence... more befitting concubine than queen." "We have a chance to restore honor to the empire." "My head is heavy with the weight of this decision." "When Kublai's mother, Sorkaktani, stole the Khanate from our house... anyone who sided with us was decimated in the cruelest of fashions." "A wicked bunch they were." "A wicked bunch they are." "Sorkaktani demanded that my sister, Oghul Qaimish... pledge her fealty to the House of Tolui." "She would not." "So they stripped her and bathed her in boiling oil... before knifing her skin loose... and peeling it like hide from her bones." "But still... she lived." "And still she would not deny our house... or our claim to the throne." "So Sorkaktani took her to a river... rolled her in a weighted carpet... and as they prepared to toss her in, I screamed..." ""Long live Sorkaktani." "Long live her many heirs." "Long live the House of Tolui."" "They threw her in anyway." "She sank and I stood there watching... until her final breath bubbled to the surface." "Those were the final words she heard in this life." "And it has haunted me." "Wake up." "The decision has already been made." "Orus, you half-wit." "Put down your knife." "Or what?" "We're going home." "You wanted to be a hunter, you hunted." "You wanted to be a wrestler, you wrestled!" "You wanted to be a warrior... you fought!" "Yeah, well..." " I didn't want to be the Khan." "Well, I did." "It's all I ever wanted." "It's the way it should be." "I know you want to go home, Orus, but he needs us by his side." "When has Grandmother ever done right by our father?" "Now Ahmad?" "If this is the way it is, whatever it is, Orus, we have to be there for him." "We have grown too accustomed to amazing things." "We, whose feet lost form from walking the steppe, whose noses grew flat from punishing winds." "We now have more food than our stomachs need." "More warmth than our skin can bear." "And so if you ask, "Why, then?" "Why do we need more?"" "I will tell you..." "because that is what comes next." "Temujin crawled from the wolf's womb and conquered the Merkit people." "He united our tribesmen and, as a nation, they took North China." "He birthed robust sons..." "and those sons sired sons, and together they sacked the Ilkhan," "Persia, Hungary..." "and the Caspian Sea." "And we are still not done." "More Mongolia." "That is my gift to you." "One day, each of you will see our nation at its fullest." "Until then..." "I present a small notion of what our world has to offer." "What are you doing here?" "I need you." "You're my only friend." "What's wrong?" "She wants my life." "My child." "My husband." "I cannot give it to her." "But she'll tell them I'm a peasant." "And the baby, she'll say about him and his poor wife..." "Wife?" "What baby?" "No father for them because of me." "Because I wanted to survive." "I leave tonight." "I came to say goodbye to my one true friend." "You can't leave." "They'll find you." "They'll send the army after you." "No." "No, they won't." "They cannot." "The Blue Princess blinded the Khan's best horses." "Who blinded the horses?" "The Blue Princess." "Who?" "The Blue Princess." "You were correct to bring her to me." "You will make her well?" "Of course." "She seemed quite... mad." "Her mind is... temporarily unsound." "Only a mother can understand what she suffers for her future child." "Marco." "Yes, Empress?" "You have done what few before have ever managed of me." "What's that?" "You've changed my opinion of you." "It would be best, for her sake... to act as if this never happened." "And the horses?" "I will see to my husband." "A gesture of good faith." "You need me." "What?" "This time, I will hear you say it." "Hmm." "I need you, Kaidu." "It will take more than just your votes." "If we take the Kurultai, Kublai will come at us to take it back." "We will need your army." "There are ways to break the Khan... between now and then." "Ways to weaken his credibility... and ensure that our dear Nayan's armies are never called upon." "You leave all of that to me." "And the Lord said, "I will fill with drunkenness, all who live in this land." "I will smash them one against the other, parents and children alike." "I'll allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them."" "You never cease to impress me." "And I never will." "What happened in there?" "What did you do?" "Watch your tongue." "She's your elder." "What did you do?" "I am the future Khan of Mongolia." "Do not question me... ever again."