"May 1494 Pentecost" "La Bella, you startled me." "The weather startles you, my love?" "I am here to soothe you." "These last several weeks I have not been consistent in my affections." "But Giulia, I do love you." "Al principi dar wa comobo." "Dan perkataan dibuat vlees." "Cuvantul..." " What is he saying?" " Rodrigo?" "Rodrigo?" "Extraordinary." "The Holy Spirit came to me like the rush of a violent wind." "Massimo?" "Massimo, do you not see his medal?" "That is the Captain General you are stealing from." "The dead Captain General." " You leave soon?" " The road to Lyon is long." "God came to take our life last night but with great mercy, spared us, choosing Domenico Doria in our stead." "Word of his death has already spread throughout Rome." "The Holy Spirit then penetrated our body, but only for a moment." " He endowed us with the gift of tongues." " Holiness..." "I bring, newly arrived from Spain, Rodrigo Borgia Lanzol." "Yes." "We have summoned your cousin from Valencia... to act as second-in-command of the Papal Guard." "Like my brother Juan, it is an honor to serve you, Holy Father." " Pleased to finally meet you, cousin." " And I you." "I hear that you are called El Pequegno." ""Little Rodrigo"." "I am proud to carry your father's name." "Cesare is both your cousin and your new commander." "Domenico Dori is dead." "So you will lead our Papal Guard, as you've yearned to do in the past." "I do not walk in the past, father, I run towards the future." "As soon as my train is ready, I depart for France to marry Princess Carlotta." "King Federigo does not want you to marry his daughter, nor does she choose you." "A woman's mind is cleaner than a man's, she changes it more often." "What will Carlotta say of a suitor who leaves Rome while a Borgia child is still missing?" "Doria failed to find the infant." "Does your departure mean that you do not care enough to take up this course?" "Holiness, If I may, in the service of Spain I have unraveled such abductions." "The smallest details can shine a light on the baby's whereabouts." "We must follow the trail with determination." "And you will, as our Captain General." "We will withhold the medal of office until after you've placed the boy in our arms." "Start in Carbognano where Giovanni was stolen from Adriana da Mila." "Bring El Pequegno to the guard's garrison." "Then, with a conscience free of guilt, I will leave for France to claim my bride... and soon the crown of Naples." "My goal is your goal, a unified Italy." "But I must achieve this my way." "Very well." "Go to Lyon under the guise of a papal mission." "Remind King Charles of his promise to wage a crusade against Islam." " A promise he will never fulfill." " Exactly." "The more he equivocates, the more time you have to conquer Carlotta." " And what if..." " Listen." "Was that the fluttering of a wing?" "We must go pray." "Miguel de Corella requests a meeting." "I will not drink from the same shit-covered well, Agapito." "He claims to have information regarding your sister's son." "He knows what happened to the baby." " Alfonso?" "Where are you going?" " To hunt." "You would rather chase wild deer than cuddle with your wife?" "Familiarity kills romance." "I will always leave you wanting more." "What brings you to the Apostolic Palace, Mama?" "I have been granted permission by the Pope to travel to Capodimonte." " Your brother lies near death." " How so?" "The last report from the doctor told of Angelo's improvement." "Yes, well, now there is no hope." "Alessandro... after his passing, you will be the head of our house." " Giulia would argue otherwise." " Your sister has slowed our family's decline." "Only you, my son, can cement our future." "Farewell." "My sole desire is to return to the good grace of Cesare Borgia." "Then speak your message through me." "I was hired by Vannozza Catanei to steal the baby..." " from the home of Adriana da Mila." " The child is safe?" "In a farmhouse thirty leagues outside Rome." " Will you tell Cesare that I..." " Tell him yourself." "Forgive me for deserting you." "There." "All is forgiven." "Now we will rescue the infant." "Take us to this farm." "A word, Herr Burchard." " You are to release the papal scribes from service." " But no." "The church relies upon this office replicating important documents, issuing Papal Bulls..." "The future is not in quills but in typeface." " You may set it down right here." " A printing press?" "Why?" "Because, Herr Burchard, printing will save the Church money." "Or be its downfall." "Giulia..." "I have been lying here for half an hour... waiting for someone to discover me dead." " Then you came in." " But why pretend?" "Last night you almost died for real." "I came to ask if you had seen Alessandro." "When is the last time you came to see me?" " You were once my chosen friend." " I still am." "No." "You are my brother's whore." " Borgia nearly died in last night's storm." " Pity." "A pity that he almost died or that he lives?" "Verbum incarnatum." "His Holiness, Pope Alexander VI of that name... calls to order a meeting of the Consistory." "Primum ordinem." "A report from Cardinal Farnese, Papal Treasurer." "I reviewed the treasury ledgers." "Debt grows while assets decline." "The church must secure new means of income." "I began by dismissing the papal scribes and installing a printing press... under the supervision of renowned artisan Aldus Manutius of Venice." "We are but a few years from the birth of a new century." "And the Church must keep in step." "We will do so with the printed word." "A Holy Bible, made here in the Apostolic Palace." "The printed word is not to be trusted." " Misprints are too rampant." " No, misprints can be corrected." "And many a near-sighted monk has made mistakes copying." "Only priests can interpret the word of God." "Yet with this machine, even the lowest peasant now has a Bible in his hut." "Holiness..." "Holiness, my faith lies with the pen." "Not with the press." "Our face... faith lies with Cardinal Farnese to correct our fiscal misfortune." "Then let his Eminence prove the machine's worth." "In one month scribes produced one Bible." "I will bind ten in two days." "Deinde ordinem, Cardinal Riario- Sansoni, the Commission on Reform." "Holy Father, the Commission has completed our report." "We are excited to hear which pastries you have selected for papal banquets." "The commission wishes to enact reform incrementally so as not to climb a steep hill too quickly." "A sagacious assessment." "Primus: a six-month extension will be granted for continued study and debate." " Go on, Eminence." " Secundus:" "Appointments to the Sacred College of Cardinals will require majority rule." "Tertius: the Sacred College will vote to elect a Vice Chancellor." "Enough." "We alone are the majority." "We alone choose the Vice Chancellor." "The Holy Spirit speaks through us." "No mortal body can..." "Holy Father, Holy Father..." "Heshtje haw hlas, principi..." "The Church needs no reform as long as I possess the spirit of God." "Verbum incarnatum." " Did you see how he convulsed?" " And how he slurs his words?" "The bull grows weak, only his circle remains strong." "The cockroach Gacet and the bastard Cesare." "To counter, we must enlarge our circle." " My new secretary." " Francesco Alidosi, Bishop of Mileto." "You do find the prettiest secretaries, Giuliano." "We must channel his anger towards his most devoted ally, Gacet." "I am acquiring a parchment that will cross Borgia's bug once and for all." "As Camerlengo, you must seek out aggrieved voices working in the Vatican who can corroborate allegations against Gacet." " And what would you have me do?" " Remain silent and on the qui vive." "Your Aunt Adriana has gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land." "She should return in 3 months." "I need your account of the Borgia child's capture." " What do you recall of the thief?" " He spoke few words." "His voice, deep and coarse." "I do not think he had bathed for quite some time." "I will not find him by his smell, wench." " Describe his appearance." " He wore a large slumping hat... with a crude mask, covering only the top half of his face." "With the new papal press we will issue broadsides with a drawing of the man." "Place them in markets and taverns." "And we shall offer a reward upon the criminal's arrest." "Is that the farmer who has baby Giovanni?" "Fire a warning shot." "Cesare Borgia." "I come in peace." "The child is not here." "They took him yesterday." " Who?" " Your mother and your sister." "You place daggers, not flowers at your brother's tomb?" "It's time to leave tombs behind." "I have some troubling news." "There's been a robbery in the Papal Archives." "First the Consistory tries to bound our authority." "And now a conspiracy looms against us." "What was taken?" "Cesare's birth certificate." "Declaring him the son of Domenico Giannozzi d'Arignano." " Forged." "By us." " Yes, we see all too clearly." "Enemies, left and right, striving to end our rule." "We will sit idly by no more." "Holiness, I will discover who stole the birth certificate." "Dump the body in the Tiber." "Alessandro, here you are." "My brother cardinals have applied much pressure on me to prove the worth of this press." "I must aid Manutius if we're ever to finish publishing our first Bible." "I understand that the red hat you wear required much of you." "But so does your family." " My mother is with Angelo." " I worry about your sister." "Giulia drinks poison out of vials." "Her eyes are glazed, her mouth agape." " Giulia fakes illness to attract attention, as she did when we were children." " I believe the danger is real." "Fine, I will meet with her." " When?" " When I can." "Tomorrow." "Now, back to work." "Tell me where you are hiding Giovanni." "Do not deny that you had the child stolen, and hid him in a farmhouse." "The Pope has the entire Papal Guard in pursuit of the Infante Romano." "Soon they will find him." "And you will be exposed." "I could not allow Adriana to raise Lucrezia's baby." " And you did not seek my counsel?" " You were in Florence." "But I am here now." "Cesare, he's your nephew, he must remain safe." "Do not confuse my past actions with my present self." "The boy who left his son to die is gone." "I would never put Lucrezia's son in jeopardy." "If the child is found, he will be sent back into the clutches of Adriana da Mila." "We will solve that problem after the Pope knows the baby is safe." "Now, where is Giovanni, Mama?" "Cardinal Riario-Sansoni possesses an ancient Roman sculpture... called the Sleeping Cupid." "Little does he know that I have the god of love resting right before me." "And he must fly into the night." "Dear brother, you have grown into a stalwart young man." " And I hear you have a son of your own." " I have come to end this farce, before bad sours to worse." "We must move swiftly." "We work in opposition to another Borgia." "El Pequegno has much to gain for finding the infant, and so he will." " What will you have me do?" " Return the child to the farmhouse." "Tomorrow, I will have our cousin "rescue" your son, ending his pursuit." " I will not be separated from Giovanni again." " We have no other choice." "His discovery will give us time to construct a lasting solution." " Who will shoulder the blame?" " De Corella." "He has been dragged to Terra Nuova by your cousin." "El Pequegno is annoyingly diligent." "And now we will learn if De Corella is true to his word." "In either case, trust in me." "The baby belongs in your embrace, comforted by the sound of your heart." "I sit and I sit." "Where is my brother?" "He asked for this rendezvous." "Alessandro will arrive any moment." "He is very strained by his new position." "Alessandro did not want to be Papal Treasurer." "And now he struts around like a shahzadeh." "He's a selfish monello." "Your brother has been by your side countless times, Giulia." " Did he not come to your rescue at Saint Peter's?" " And yet I was still scarred." " I will fetch him." " Tell me why I am here or I will leave." "We both think it best if Alessandro were present before we..." " Get out of my way." " I will." "But first what about Bisentina?" "The island of Capodimonte?" "What does that have to do with anything?" "Do you remember when you were five or six..." "My mother used to go there for retreats, and she would bring Alessandro, Angelo, Girolamo and me." "Yes." "And one time you ran off." "I was so bored." "I escaped the young nun's watch and I climbed up into a giant cypress tree." "I perched in those branches for hours, too scared to come down by myself." "Like a wild animal, you bit and scratched any hand that came to your rescue." "Except Alessandro." " He climbed the cypress so fast." " And reached for you." "He gently took you into his arms and brought you back to safe ground." "The only one I would let do so." " How did you know that story?" " It is among your brother's fondest memories." " We are long past our childhood days." " Tell her." " We are worried about your good health." " Worry about His Holiness, dear cousin." "He is a poor helmsman, he waits for the wind to blow his sails." " De Corella matches the description." " Has he revealed Giovanni's location?" " He will not speak a word." " I need a moment alone with him." "Was this man not, at one time, under your employ?" "No." "My brother, Juan." "Very well, go to him." "Afterwards, we can begin the interrogation." "I have learned much from the Inquisition." " They let you keep your mask?" " They did not like what they saw." "You will be hung for his abduction." "An act of which, in fact, you are guilty." "Will you indict my mother and sister as the noose is slipped around your neck?" "I acted alone to gain a ransom for the child." "How can I believe in a man who set aside his oath of loyalty and ran when I needed him most?" "Why would I have come back if I did not truly intend to renew my oath?" "I pledge to you, Cesare Borgia, my corporal blood and eternal soul." "You once said to me: "Loyalty is a prize paid not to the highest bidder... but the better man." Well, I will remain the better man, Michelotto." "You will live in my service or you will die in the trying." "Smile, you are about to be a hero." "El Pequegno?" "Release him." " Release a guilty man?" " I am sorry, cousin." "Don Miguel de Corella has been working for me, in secret, to uncover whether a much larger plot exists against the Pope." "De Corella was ordered to steal the infant." "He went along in order to discover the full truth." " But the Pope..." " Knows nothing of this mission." "Why do the conspirators want to steal the infant?" "What better way to force the Pope to bend to their will?" "Who then conceived this treachery?" "Your predecessor, the late Captain General, Domenico Doria." "We are here, Holy Spirit, come to us." "Tell us whom we can trust?" "Holy Spirit, come to us..." "Tell us whom we can trust, Holy Spirit." "Come, we are waiting." "If we fail to achieve unparalleled work today, there'll be no second chance." " Giulia." " Indeed." "No, no, no..." "Half a day's work lost." " Come." "We must go to your sister." " Not at this moment." "Giulia is a slave to a potent drug." "You alone can free her." "Be the man your family needs." "All my life I have been pestered to be that man." "My mother, my sister..." "You Borgia have pestered me like ticks on a dog's skin." "Look around, Lanzol." "I am being the man." "Right here, right now." "And you want me to rush to Giulia's side because she whines for attention?" "If I fail here tonight, I will once again be Fregnese." "That cannot happen." "Today, I make history." "History will wait, Alessandro." "Your sister will not." "I was uncertain that you would accept my invitation." " You pique my curiosity, Eminence." " There is much to be curious about." "Like how a mere secretary can control the throne of Saint Peter." "Pope Alexander remains the Vicar of Christ, I only serve His Holiness." "Yet, my cousin Giuliano conspires against you." "He's done so before and failed." "Giuliano is a perfectionist." "His maneuvers only improve." "He even has access to the Papal Archives." "A certain forged birth certificate... and you can no longer rely on your well-addled friend Rodrigo." "Nor, I assume, you, on Della Rovere?" "Why else would I be here?" "Giuliano is a cardinal, yet he puts his pride ahead of the Church." "I have no interest in the feud between the Della Rovere and the Borgia." "All I truly desire is reform." "Have the Pope appoint me as Vice Chancellor and I will put an end to my cousin's current conspiracy against you." "You have 'til tomorrow evening." "I kept the baby's whereabouts hidden, in hope of discovering whether the plot spread beyond Domenico Doria." " I suppose his demise has left the trail cold." " I now believe Doria was working alone." "Still, I charge you, El Pequegno, to protect Pope Alexander in my absence." "I swear to guard his life as if he were my own father." "You will take credit for the return of Giovanni Borgia." "I could never." "You have worked too long to uncover this crime." "Your acclaim will serve as warning to rebellious cardinals." "The new Captain General is not to be tested." "Thank you, signora." " We almost died in this very spot." " God will decide when we die." "'Til that day comes, the Holy Spirit says we must have vitriolo." "Wait, I remember." "I have some..." "Rodrigo, you do not look well, I am afraid." "The more we consume, the more we adjust to its strength." " So many empty vials." " Worry not, Fra Zosimos is prolific." " I am going to Capodimonte." " What?" "My brother Angelo, he wrote me." "He begs me to go." " I want to see his eyes alive, one final time." " You would leave us?" "When we need you the most." "I cannot allow it." "Why?" "Because only your losses reign supreme?" "I love my brother just as much as you loved Juan." "I did not mean it." "Giulia, Giulia..." "Fra Zosimos?" "Fra Zosimos?" "I know you're somewhere near." " Open to me." " Eisai trelos?" " Kleisto, to stoma sou." " Fra Zosimos?" " Ta paidia koimountai." " Shut up, you old bitch." "I am thirsty, I need vitriolo." "Fra Zosimos, where are you?" " What do you want?" " Kleisto, to stoma sou." "One hour to go and we will reclaim the lost time." "How do you like it, Herr Burchard?" "There is dirt everywhere." "Sometimes one must get dirty to accomplish great things." " A young Hebrew man asks for you." " A Jew asks for me?" "A mistake." "He requests your presence in the Judaeorum Borgo." "Something to do with your sister." "He found her amongst the Greeks." "And he keeps saying "khole", which is Hebrew for "sick", or "dead"." "I cannot remember." "Come quickly, she is here." "Giulia?" "Giulia..." "Vitrio..." "Vitriolo be cursed." "You will never drink that foul substance again." "Giulia..." "Giulia, stop it." "Help me." "Grab her, there." "Bring her there." "Water and a damp cloth, now." "Hold her." "Do not fear..." "I will carry you." " Credo in Spiritum Sanctum." " Look at him." "Soon we will meet here to elect a new pontiff." "An Italian pontiff." "remissionem peccatorum... carnis resurrectionem... et vitam aeternam." "Juan Borgia Lanzol... you are hereafter Archbishop of Valencia." "In nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti." "Amen." "Holiness, I have recovered the lost son:" "Giovanni Borgia." " Who is responsible for this villainy?" " Domenico Doria." "Then God has already punished him." "You have proven worthy of your new position, Captain General." "Tomorrow we will invest you with the sacred medal of office." "Your praise is enough, Holiness." "And your kind words must be shared with Cesare, who did much." "What I have done, I did purely out of love, as you love me, Father." "The love for my blood, for my flesh, for my son, Giovanni Borgia." "When his mother died in childbirth, the Holy Father claimed him, in my absence, as his own." "An act of selflessness." "But now, the truth must come to light." "I am Giovanni's true father." "And yet, tomorrow I begin my journey to Lyon." "I wish for my boy to remain in Rome, under the care of my loving sister." "So be it." "I love you, Giovanni." "I will never leave you again." "You smell dreadful." "I was hunting in the deepest woods, tracking the fiercest creatures known to man." "Eating only what nature provided." "And now, I hunger for you, Lucrezia." "Who the fuck is that?" "Have you found Lucre..." "Giulia?" "She has left, Holiness, with Alessandro Farnese for Capodimonte." "I hate her, I hate her." "I do not need her, I need only..." "I need only the Holy Spirit." "I must go, I must find." "Should we stop him, brother?" " I have not seen him like this before." " Tell me." "According to my innkeeper, he came cloaked in a black hood, with a mountain of ducats, and took three women into the back chamber, claiming he was the Spirit of God." "Then there were loud screams." "And then silence." "They came at me." "I had no choice." "The Spirit is gone, Francesc..." "Be not afraid, little one." "I know we are strangers now, but one day I hope to earn a place in your heart." "I hold great plans for you, my son." "But at this moment I do you more good from afar." "You must grow up to be your own man, to live in no one's shadow... so that you may surpass all of us." "Whatever comes, you always have your father's love." "Return him to Fiametta." "I have one final visit to make." "I have one last document for you to sign." "You are now Vice Chancellor." "The evidence to indict you." "I knew you would be here." "I could not sleep last night." "I could not stop thinking about you." "What you have done for me, who you are to me." " You do not have to go." " I am naked without land or title." "And that is when I want you most." "Our family's survival depends on my success in Lyon." "Or we will perish when our father's no longer pope." "There are too many enemies." "We must make new and powerful allies." "You're a good man, Cesare." "No." "No." "Stop." "I must depart." "You told me to bring this as soon as it was finished." "From the blacksmith, Whittaker." "My new sword and scabbard." "The Goddess of Peace." "Created in your image." "I will come back for you one day, as an emperor."