"Ah!" "What do you have in your hand?" " Nothing." " Nothing, you say?" " Give Father La Stessa back his coin." " Oh, no!" "I've, uh... found you a cottage, more space." "The boy, he's growing up so fast." "Lara, the roof is falling in." "More winds will come." "It's not safe." "Please, Father." "You do too much for us already." "Come on, Tiar." "I'm getting hints of roasted lamb and a honey-based ale." "We're definitely in Malta." "Yeah." "You don't have to do that whole sniffy routine." "You could just ask someone." "We should register with the harbour master, but it appears he's abandoned his post." "Finally!" "Where have you been?" "Making a blanket for our journey?" "I'm not coming with you." "What?" "Oh, come on." "A map to the Land of the Dead" " drawn by some crazy old man?" " Angelico's not crazy." "Gunnar, I need this map." "You know I do." "Not this time, my friend." "I have silks to deliver and monies to collect." "It's a mythic land." "There's no proof it actually exists." "But if it does, it is the last place I should go and the last place I would be welcome." "Yes, but I have to go." "It's the Land of the Dead, Sinbad." "The living don't go." "No wonder they seek the company of witches." "Fine, go." "Enjoy yourself." "Go and help Brother Angelico." "Be gentle with him." "Did I not promise you honeyed ale?" "It's not exactly tracking when there's a great tavern sign above the door." "If Gunnar won't look for this map, then what does that say?" "Sinbad needs us more than ever." "Can I help you?" "This is the house of the tailor?" "My husband." "Well, the silk merchant of Serif, when he heard we were heading in this direction, he asked us to make a delivery." "He said the tailor would be expecting me." "If I'd known you were coming, I would have cancelled the order." "My husband is dead." "I cannot afford to pay for your silk." "I'm sorry your journey has been wasted." "Please." "Take it with the merchant's compliments." "His mark-ups are nothing short of theft." "Well, have you eaten?" "Out!" " He's not here." "We should go." " He'll be here." "Is it usual for a monk to reside in a tavern?" "Shouldn't we just go direct to the monastery?" " This map's not monastery business." " Um..." "Philippe, landlord of the Golden Star." "Sinbad." "Four honeyed ales." "Actually no, make that five." "If the good Lord permits your friend to drink." "The Tavern is for Islanders only." "Actually, it's an Islander we're looking for." "Brother Angelico." "Poor, dear man." "Though his mind was beginning to wander and he made little sense," "I do miss his company." " What are you saying?" " Not dead." " Please no." " Terribly close, I fear." "But he's still at the monastery?" "Unless the Lord has intervened, he's not left there in weeks." "The brightest of minds, like a flame blown out." "If he speaks at all, it is in riddles." "That you should come in our time of need, we have the Lord to thank." "If there's anything left, even a spark, I will bring it out." "It's my gift." "Father, there's been another." "Hurt... it's the harbourmaster." "Come here." "I have someone who would like to meet you." "Say hello." "Watch him very carefully." " You'll watch him?" " Mm-hmm." "Now blow on him." "What's he doing in there?" "Think he wants to be with you." "Very smart." "Go show your mom." "Tiger." "We can still speak to him even if he's weak." "Angelico's dying." "You think our last conversation's going to be about your map?" "Do you think I don't understand how you're feeling?" "I'm sorry about your friend, but is there someone else who might know where it is, someone we can talk to?" "There's no one else." "Great." "Early closing." "And the only tavern is run by a neurotic." "I don't think this is early closing." "You have ash on your face." "Hold on." "Keep it, please, to remember this day when you made my home again." "I will remember today." "What do you have in your hand, Tiar?" "Oh." "Where did you get this?" "From the stranger with your mother?" "If we should pass this way again, if there is anything that you need, anything that I can bring for you?" "The short wind is coming." "Stay until it's gone." "That could be till nightfall." "How would that look?" "I shouldn't have asked you to come in." " I should've sent you away." " Then tell me to go." "Please." "Zylok, it is only superstition." "It's just a wind." "It wasn't a storm that tore the house apart." "It was the beast, the Zylok fiend brought by the wind." "Take my horses to the well, Tiar." "Bring water if they have none." "It came and tore my husband from our bed and it will come again because I've spoken of it." "Oh, forgive me." "You'd be safe on your ship by now." "I don't want to be safe." "Find my friends." "Find Sinbad." "This isn't right." "We should leave." "No, I'm not leaving, not without that map." "So, you find the map to this terrible place." "And then what?" "Everything's right again?" "Get inside, hurry!" "Hurry!" "Oh my heavens, it's happened again, again." "Boots off, please." " What's going on out there?" " What exactly did you see?" "Don't play games with me." "That was the symbol of a Passover." "Mess, have it cleaned up as soon as possible." "What is passing over?" "What?" "The Zylok fiend." "Terrible, terrible, a beast, a monster, a killer, all these things." "What is it?" "What is the Zylok fiend?" "The wind!" "It carries the Zylok spirit, which finds the beast within a man, and emerges at night to kill again." "Gunnar's out there." "We Islanders are strong to resist the spirit." "But blow-ins, you are vulnerable, dear friends." " Who is Sinbad?" " I am." "Gunnar is in terrible danger." "He's accused as the fiend." "Father La Stessa has him at the monastery." "Hurry, please!" "I'll take you to him." "Call the divine dungeons!" "I will reveal the face of darkness." "If I take you any further, I will be accused of collusion." " Thank you, Lara." " Just save him." "Malta was once a friend to strangers." "I pray it will be again." "We'll go for Gunnar." "And you, you find your friend." " You mean the map." " In a perfect world, yes." "Well, it's not." "Come on." "Good luck." "Angelico." "It's me, Tiger... your pupil." "You promised me always a way there and always a way back." "You were right." "I've seen the world, and still I find you again." "You can't leave me now." "Ah... the wind has blown my Tiger to me." "My friend, Sinbad, is in great need." "Great danger." "There is a map, one of the charts of fable to Land of the Dead." "Sinbad must go there to heal the wound that will not heal." "We can see it only for a moment." "No map, no chart could hold that land." "It exists." "The Order of the Eastern Watch, they spoke of it." "No map." "None but you will see." "How?" "Where is it?" "By moonlight and starlight." "What do you mean?" "The stars all gather for another's birth." "The Zylok fiend will come in human guise." "He will take of the weak and defile the pure." "The lamb shall quake at his coming and the hawk shall see him from the air." "The wind has found the wolf within." "Finally we have the beast in his human form." "The man you have is no beast." "He is Gunnar Halflidarson." "loyal and trusted member of the Providence." " Release him." " Step back before you are removed." "To give this likeness of his inner self to the son of his victim?" "Arrogance." " The horror!" " But you have no evidence." "Bring forward Lara Assuage." "This is your handkerchief?" "It is." "As if this woman would give such innocence to a stranger with her husband lost only months before." "The fiend stole it to suggest an impossible affection." " I ga..." " She gave me nothing." "I stole it from her." "That is the only thing you have, correct?" "Darkness ends, put the fiend to death." "Those in agreement, rise." "We arrived only today." "How can he possibly be responsible for these deaths?" "This... creature is a host for the Zylok spirit." "To destroy the spirit, one must destroy the host." "No, you are condemning an innocent man!" "He will change as night falls." "Then give me until nightfall to prove otherwise." "I stake my life upon it." "If you're so sure that you have the fiend, what have you to lose?" "My search will end in failure, humiliation, my death." "And you will have proved yourself as merciful as the God that you worship." "To challenge a holy law, a man must be deranged with his belief." "For this, I pity you." "For this..." "I give you till nightfall to bring me your monster or, as God is my witness, I will slay mine." "Angelico, so much sleep, so many dreams." "Tell me again about the map." "So dark..." "And your dreams are at their deepest." "Tell me again." "What more is there to tell, my child?" "Where I will find it?" "You will never find it, you demon." "You were not meant to travel there." "The honeyed ale is off." "A problem with the cask." " I do have a very good..." " Damn the ale!" "How do we find the Zylok fiend?" "Philippe, where do we find the fiend?" "!" " It finds you." " What does?" "Just the monster terrorizing the island." "And Sinbad has decided we should be the ones to catch it," " on pain of death." " There's nothing I'd rather do." "Oh, because you're all so experienced at finding Zylok fiends?" "There is only one." "Yes, I know." "I'm making a point." "Am I the only one that favours logic?" "We find a pattern to the deaths, we find where the fiend strikes next," " we clear Gunnar." " You have to think like a beast," " instinct over logic." " It's an animal thing." "You believe that man in there is the Zylok fiend?" "No, Father." "No, I don't." "Then his motive, the theft of your handkerchief, is even more disturbing, wouldn't you agree?" "And if he is not the fiend, then the fiend is still out there and you are not safe." "You and your boy will stay in my protection until this is over." "Either the harbourmaster had a problem with body hair, or a fiend was here." "This way." "Come on." "Thank you." "Are you in prison because of me?" "This isn't a prison." "This is where my friends, the mice, tell me stories." "Mice?" "You never heard a mouse tell a story?" "Ah." "Of course, you have to listen very carefully." "Tiny voices, and nearly always about cheese and happy endings." "Go to your room." "Go, Tiar." "Why did you defend me?" "Why did you not save yourself?" "Gunnar, I need to know." "Tell you what I have never told a living soul?" "Tell me anything that will show me what you feel." "Six years ago those I loved were taken in the night, revenge for my own crimes." "Every day a new pain... except today, except with you." "That is what I feel." "Do what you must for yourself." "It will soon be night." "I wanted a fiend by nightfall." "Careful what you wish for." "And I could have been out bounty hunting." "And here I am going down a big hole with you." "Sinbad." "Yeah?" "The map, it doesn't exist." "It does, we know..." "Then we'd need a map to Angelico's scrambled mind to find it." "Sinbad..." "Come on!" "Can you unlock it or not?" "After all this time, you still don't trust me." "There was never a thing I couldn't find before." "Sinbad, I'm sorry." "Maybe it's time I focused on the living." "Gunnar needs us." "It's all contraband he's marked in here:" "dangerous weapons, insects, herbs." "Why does he draw attention to the herb..." "Aconitum?" "I know that name." "He went missing last night, when according to this, he should have been at his post." "This man is meticulous, ordered." "What could be so urgent that he'd leave his desk?" "Bless you." "Maybe he ran out of paper." "The fiend's scent, it's getting stronger." "It's coming from above." "These are the names of the victims and the dates they died." "And here, the day before each death, a shipment of aconitum arrives." "I think we found he pattern, Rina." " But what does it mean?" " He knew who was next." "La Stessa." "He was trying to warn him." "Good." "That solves one problem." "It's getting dark." "We need to get to the monastery." "Let's go." " Philippe." " Anwar, we have to get to Gunnar!" "Oh, these clumsy hands." "No matter how I try," "I still break things, spoil everything." "Everything is ruined in the end." " Where did..." " Shh!" " Sinbad, what's going on?" " Shh!" " Where did you..." " Quiet." "It's here." "The scent is at its strongest." "Something else." "Wolfsbane." "Aconitum." "Its common name is wolfsbane." "It's what the harbourmaster was pulling out of the shipments." "Mages believed that wolfsbane is irresistible to beasts, it draws out their hunger." "These aren't random attacks." "Someone is bringing in the herb to orchestrate the beast." "Someone's directing these attacks." " It has Gunnar's scent!" " Come on!" "On my signal, bring him through." "Undo my chains or I'll kill you where you stand." "You are the monster!" "No, no." "No, Tiar." "No." "You have no chance against the fiend." "Come with me now." " My horses are waiting..." " I'll never go with you!" "When will you see me?" "You dismiss me." "For years you gave your name, your word to a lowly tailor." "And now you give this stranger your heart?" "I would have done anything for you!" "Anything!" "Oh God." "It's you, isn't it?" "The fiend, it kills for you." "No!" "Night has come, and have you seen the beast?" "No!" "Because you control the fiend!" " This man did not steal my handkerchief." " Lara, no." "I gave it to him willingly." "She's mad with devilish lust!" "Continue!" " You're not the monster!" " You know that, don't you?" " Continue!" " But the real one's coming!" "Free me!" "Now go, go." "Hide yourself!" "Go!" "Gunnar!" "Run!" "I don't run!" "Run, run!" "Hurry!" "Hurry!" "Your coat, it's covered in wolfsbane." " Get rid of it!" " Hurry!" "Nice doggy." "Here, boy." " Where's Tiar?" " Safe." "I don't feel quite myself." "Oh, whoa!" "Don't get up." "Really." "This is a monastery." "Somebody get a robe." "Goodbye, my dearest friend." "We shall travel together again someday." "Father discovered me one night." "It was only goats at that point." "He promised he would cure me, said it would be our secret." "But he used you as a weapon against his enemies, his rivals." "It's a part of you, Philippe." "You have to find a way to live with it." "I would suggest some sort of cage for your difficult days." "Anwar, what a wondrous notion." "Oh, I could hug you!" "I'm away to fashion my bars!" "You." "How did you find me?" "We find everything, Tiger, if we want it enough." "Tiger." "The map." "I've seen it." "I've seen the way to the Land of the Dead." "Anwar!" "She's seen the map, but it's done something to her." "It's weakened her." "Get her to the ship." "What she's seen had greater impact than she could've known." "She needs rest." "We're going then?" "To Land of the Dead?" "Not without me." "That place can hold no fear for us, if we stay together." "Come." "Leave Tiger to restore." "She'll need all her strength." "Couldn't be the Land of Gold or A Thousand Wishes." "No, we get the Land of the Dead." "To see my brother again..." "I'll never be able to thank you." "Rest."