"May Song dynasty endure 10,000 years." "Out of the way." "There were separate explosions." "Five rebels killed over 300 Mongols." "The injured number in the thousands." " How long ago?" " Three days." "And we have no idea if there have been any more attacks?" "I've augmented the number of scouts riding between the south and Cambulac, in the hopes of receiving word in a timelier fashion." "I will redirect our armies south." "Command them to attack hard and fast." "I'm not certain starting a war will ease tensions." "I said nothing of war." "I speak of complete annihilation." "Make a statement." "And I believe the last statement you made led us here." "The plan was for your army to accompany you to Xanadu as protection... and a show of force." "Realities change." "Plans change." "I stay." "To stamp out this insurrection." "As Vice Regent, you have entrusted me with your army." "Do so now." "I will not disappoint you." "Travel to Xanadu, Great Khan." "Make Kaidu regret his challenge to your throne." "Make them regret ever raising a hand in defiance to their Khan and Emperor." "You've overstepped your bounds." "If you seek power, find it elsewhere." "You have none here." "I do the bidding of the Khan, Ahmad." "My name is not Ahmad." "Not to you." "It is Vice Regent." "Attempt to undermine me or go behind my back..." "Well..." "You honor me, Great Khan." "And you dishonor me." "You want to be a tax collector." "This is your aspiration in life... when I offer you the Ministry of Finance?" "In order to one day be of true service to the Empire," "I must first learn the fundamentals of finance." "Nonsense." "Since you were small, your aptitude with numbers has outshone men 20 years your senior." "Mmm." "And consorting with commoners will not further you in that regard." "Nor will living below your expectations." "And throwing our rewards back in our face." "To rule well, one must know the people he rules." "This is my goal... given me by my wise and powerful parents." "You are stubborn." "Which is good." "And clearly care nothing of the comforts I have provided you." "Which is good as well." "I respect your determination." "Do as you wish... but return to us a better man." "Yes, Father." "And do not think only of work and duty." "Explore the riches of my Silk Road." "Savor the local flavors" " when so inclined." "I'll miss you, son." "And I, you, Mother." "Hmm." "Kublai was on our land, surrounded by our army, your blade to his throat, and you let him ride away." "What was I to do?" "Start an all-out war?" "Slaughter him." "Slaughter his children." "Burn his city to the ground." "Rip the Khanate from him." "There would not have been a war." "It's because of your advice and my dim-witted son the chieftains will pledge their support to Kublai." "Take their support back." "Stop concerning yourself with an honorable victory." "Stop scrambling to name heirs." "I don't want it." "Give it to Orus." "I agree." "It will never happen, ever!" "This is over." "Everyone but my daughter, out." "Get out." "I don't care what you want." "You will be the first female Khan of Mongolia." "I gave up everything for you." "My life... your mother." "That's not my burden." "Is this punishment?" "For Byamba?" "I think you wanted him to react the way he did." "You wanted him gone." "What purpose would that serve?" "His support serviced my needs." "Don't remind me!" "When I told you to get close to the Khan, you chose the path." "You chose Byamba, not me." "And you used it to your advantage." "Of course I did!" "That's one of many reasons I will not be your heir." "I don't want to do things like that to the people I love." "And I won't allow you to do them to me." "You were supposed to get their votes, not uproot me!" "Be careful with that!" "Promising me to others like a whore!" "Father" "Thanks to Genghis and his damned Kurultai, we travel hither and thither begging for approval." " But, Sire" " Judge me by my actions, and Kaidu by his." " What he did to my sons." " Father, if you just" "What's done is done." "We throw a banquet, have a hunt." "Smack the chieftains into line, return home, victory in hand." "Very wise, Father." "Don't." "Don't do that." "I want to be bitter." "I'm going to go." "Did you know about this?" "You're going to make me read it?" "It's Byamba's military assignment... as foot soldier." "You removed that from my desk." "I did." "You had no right." " "Greetings, Great Khan."" " Apologies." "Greetings, Great Khan." "You requested I find a suitable station for him." "The men in his tumen do not trust him." "I thought working his way through the ranks might earn their respect once again." "Shouldn't Byamba travel with us?" "Let the chieftains see he has abandoned Kaidu and stands with his father." "Having him by your side right now is not a good idea." "He's his son, Ahmad." "And they'll wonder whose side he'll cozy up to tomorrow." "Enough!" "Both of you." "I asked him to find a position for Byamba." "He did." "Give him back his paper!" "You'll be missed while we're in Xanadu." "Someone must watch over Cambulac." " The quiet will allow me to convalesce." " Hmm." "Find Nayan." "Send him to me." "You're concerned about his support?" "No." "Never." "He was in Karakorum with Kaidu." "He's honorable." "Believes all men deserve a chance to be heard." "But he hates Kaidu." "Fortunate for us." "Yeah, but the other chieftains must hear him say it." "Nayan arrives here in three weeks." "Hmm." "It is auspicious timing, with Kublai headed to Xanadu." "You and I both know Nayan won't swear his allegiance to Kaidu." "Not willingly." "But given enough incentive... every man's will becomes flexible." "Gimping around the palace must... be a prerequisite for the duties of this office." "Be grateful you're alive." "I was dying in that shit-infested cave... and I thought of you." "I know that look." "All too well." "It's of a man trying to win my affections after he's already bought me." "I haven't paid you a thing." "You've paid me in the one thing no man has been able to." "Hope... for a future with my daughter." "Did you enjoy seeing her?" "And... as your Empress." "I haven't chosen an Empress yet." "I will..." " ...be your Empress." "I thought we might hunt together in Xanadu." "I'm on a different kind of hunt." "Then may heaven help the south." "Form up!" "You should be leading this tumen." "My father knows best." "Ahmad demoted you." "He serves my father." "Same difference." "I attempted to change the Khan's mind, but" "It's fine, Marco." "I imagine it's comforting to follow for a little while." "March, sleep, fight, kill." "Simple." "Move out!" "This is where I can serve... what I do best, what I enjoy the most." "Oh, Bastard-Prince!" "Or something like this." "If I take an arrow in the back, interrogate him before the Song, will you?" "Take care of yourself, Byamba." "Take care of my father." "He has a report for you, my lord." "Get on with it." "My station is at the Princess' door." "We have many princesses." "Prince Jingim's recently seeded fourth wife." "And?" "I escorted a stable hand into her bedroom... at an inappropriate hour, and... at Empress Chabi's command." "May I offer you a drink?" "Mother." "Shh." "Auli Burkhan." "Apologies, Empress." "Auli Burkhan won't say the sex of the child." "Won't say?" "Make her say." "Auli Burkhan," "Auli Burkhan." "I'm sorry, Empress." "She sees nothing." "She sees nothing?" "What does it mean, Mother?" "It can take time to determine sex." "What if this baby isn't a boy?" "What will happen then?" "Nothing will happen." "It's a boy until proven otherwise." "Do you think she knows?" "Who?" "Knows what?" "The bariyachi." "About the baby..." "It isn't Jingim's." "Kokachin." "Sorry, Mother." "We'll speak of this baby only as a holy blessing and harbinger of joy." "Do you understand?" "Yes, Mother." "There you are." "Here I am." "There's been an attack in the south." "Many were killed." "I have to send my army." "They won't be accompanying us to Xanadu as I'd hoped." "I'm not going to Xanadu." "You're not?" "Kokachin shouldn't travel." "The pregnancy must not be risked." "My place is here with her." "And what of your husband?" "What of him?" "Have you no place by him?" "My husband has no further need of my advice." "He has no further need of me." "Hello, Nergüi." "It's been a long time." "Lady Kokachin." "I was certain it was a mortal wound." "I would imagine so." "How else could you have managed this?" "From peasant to princess overnight." "How did you survive?" "A group of villagers found me." "They brought me to a shaman, and he somehow stemmed the bleeding." "I looked and looked for you." "But you were gone." "Not a trace." "Not a whisper." "Then I heard the news." "Prince Jingim is to wed the Blue Princess, last survivor of the Bayaut tribe." "That's how I found you." "And look at you." "You have everything a princess could ever want." "I want my life back." "Jingim's married to me." "This is my baby." "You found a way to take it." "Now find a way... to give it back." "If it flowed still... airag, or boal, or wine, or mead... no warrior could stop me." "I'd chase the Khanate as rabidly as my daughter runs from it." "Some are either too simple or too weak-willed to take what is theirs." "It isn't worth it." "I set out to have it on my own terms, and if I cannot, the Khanate is not worth it." "I can concede it." "I cannot concede my family." "And if I can give you both?" "Just one more, son." "You bear the burden of a long line of weak and worthless men." "These demons must be drawn to the surface and expelled." "I'm not my father... nor his father..." "I'm not my father." "Nor his father, or his father before him." "I'm not my father... nor his father... or his father before him." "Yet still so far from greatness." "May the impotent forefathers of the House of Ögödei" " be expelled from this broken vessel." "May the deer of the past become the wolves of the present." "Through your suffering... may you rise to wear the black sable of Genghis Khan." "Chaos." "A most wonderful weapon." "Only takes a little push to upend the cart." "Hundreds of Kublai's men are dead." "I wouldn't call that... a little push." "With his troops waging war in the south, the Khan is vulnerable." "Our forces will strike Kublai dead at a time of our choosing." "I have another problem." "What's that?" "Marco." "He's in my affairs." "He's become a nuisance, and nuisances are the first to be swatted dead." "He seems beneath you, no?" "Are you protecting him?" "I'm lauding you." "Now... on your knees." "I can't." "Get up." "Look at me." "Perhaps you'll get rid of the Latin for me." "Perhaps I will." "But for now... let me take care of you." "You've got a funny face already!" "So... hands up." "And then like this." "Master Ahmad." "You honor us." "I honored you with time." "I trust it's allowed you to fill your coffers." "Bad news, Master A." "We find ourselves here again?" "Girls get sick." "Hazard of the occupation." "Patrons don't declare, and the girls are left to pay." "I'm all sympathy, Madame, but the debt won't hide itself in my ledgers." "Perhaps it could... if you were properly motivated." "You wish to spread disease as far as Cambulac?" "These three are 100% guaranteed well." "Very well." "Fresh... and nimble." "Very highly skilled." "Well, that leaves us with number three." "Look... you're a match." "Very lucky." "Oksana it is, then." "Six tumen descend on the south, and are on pace to arrive and support their brothers in a week's time." "Sixty thousand men?" "How many are left to escort me to Xanadu?" "Seven mingghans, Sire." "Seven thousand are traveling with me?" "That's not a show of force." "That's a party." "It is not a concern, Sire." "You will travel in safety." "Hmm." "When we have finished putting down the rebellion," "I will send everyone I can to Karakorum in time for the Kurultai." "That's when you'll need them." "Hmm." "Your mother has chosen to stay behind." "Pack up your whore." "She's coming to Xanadu with me." "My whore?" "Mei Lin?" "For all her faults as assassin and procreator of my enemies... she has an uncommon way of keeping my mind clear of late." "Sire." "Who's on your mind, Polo?" " Sanga." "Why would a long-dead taxman be vexing you now?" "He worked for Ahmad." "And we never discovered who arranged for the assassination of Kublai." "Yusuf confessed in his own hand." "You don't believe that." "Continue with your speculation." "Ahmad ordered the entire army south, while the Khan rides north with little protection." "He advised execution of the Boy Emperor." "He demoted Byamba for no apparent reason." "He threatened my life." "He threatened your life?" "Not in so many words, but... the implication was clear." "So you condemn Ahmad's innuendo, but pardon Yusuf's writing?" "He is the Khan's son, raised from boyhood." "You are a foreigner, raised by nobody." "It's a feeling, Sifu." "And you've trained me to trust in them." "Should I simply ignore it?" "Do nothing?" "The sage acts by doing nothing." "You... are not a sage." "You shouldn't be here." "Before we returned to Cambulac, you thought the Emperor might die." "I presented it as a possibility." "You knew Ahmad would advise the Khan to execute that boy." "I knew no such thing." "It was an educated guess." "He wanted the boy dead." "Was it to incite war?" "The Vice Regent doesn't share his political or military ruminations with the woman who tried to kill his mother." "You're lying." "You're too smart." "You've lived here too long not to have any insight." "When we returned from the south and stood before the Khan in the throne room... you spoke of my honor." "You defended me." "Now I wish to repay you." "Take your questions... take your suspicions... turn... and leave this place." "Dark days will soon be behind us." "The words of a fool." "Or of a man who has been filled with life by facing death." "Death faces us." "No matter how we try to look away." "Your optimism smooths the road ahead." "It's what makes us human... thinking we are administrators of the fates." "What's wrong?" "Perhaps, talk to your husband." "He's never been interested in talking to me about anything that hasn't concerned him." "And now, not even that." "So that's why he's taking the whore with him to Xanadu... in your stead." "She's a second-rate replacement." "The Khan needs you more than anyone else... especially in this moment." "Hmm?" "Remember that, Mother." " How long have I slept?" " An hour." "I must get back to work." "Just relax." "I'm glad you rested." "You needed it." "I like taking care of you." " You're from the kingdom of Bukhara, yes?" "I am." "What village?" "There's nothing left of them now." "Your family?" "Gone." "You mean dead?" "What's the difference in the end?" "My husband, my little boy... they're dead... at the hands of your master." "He put me here." "I wasn't good enough for his harem, so he sold me off to this place." "At the time I was scared... angry, alone." "And then I realized, I wasn't alone." "They're here with me." "Inside." "Always." "Surely, you have good memories, huh?" "That song... how do you know it?" "I wrote it... for my baby boy." "Did you fuck the Khan?" "Get your hands off me." "Did you fuck him?" "Remove them or I will." "What would you have had me do?" "Deny him?" "Why didn't you tell me?" "Is that what maddens you... lack of information?" "Not the fact that he stained my body with his sweat and seed?" "All of it maddens me!" "If we're taking this opportunity... to unburden ourselves of our lies of omission... well, I have one to share." "Your daughter will no longer reside in the House of Kublai." "For in the days ahead..." "I will use her as a bargaining chip." "Bargaining chip for whom?" " Who?" "For a man... with a predilection for unsoiled flesh." "For a man who can tip the scales of this Kurultai... in any direction I please." "Nayan." "My daughter is Nayan's incentive." "You attempt to wound me?" "Ahmad... this is everything we've ever wanted." "There is no worse man... for my daughter to be enslaved to than the Khan." "And if this is what it takes to ensure he falls... so be it." "I believed you." "I actually believed, for a second, that you would sell your most valuable possession." "You're talented, Mei Lin... but not that talented." "Hey, boy, give me some water." "You're headed west?" "That's right." "Coming from Quinsai?" "Yeah." "Enough!" "No time for bathing, Bastard-Prince." "We have a war to fight." "Move out!" "Yes, sir." "I want to water my horse." "That water belongs to the Khan, Kublai..." "Princess." "Are you ready to listen to your mother?" "Yes." " I've fulfilled my part of the bargain." "Time for you to do the same." "I need to adjust our agreement." "Is that so?" "My daughter resides within these walls... in the palace of the Empress." "Find her, spirit her away, and I will deliver the monk." "Give me the monk... or I kill you." "I will find your daughter... and I will kill her too." "Follow me." "It was here." "You shouldn't be here." "You must leave now." "What was here?" "Why did you bring me here?" "What do I need to know?" "Only that you shouldn't be here." "The bariyachi has declared Kokachin safe for travel." "We are all going to Xanadu... together." "Oh!" "That's wonderful news." "Never again." "Long live the Khan!" "Long live the Khan!" "Long live the Khan!" "Life harder on the road than you expected?" "On the contrary, Sire." "It proved eye-opening in ways I'd never dreamt." "Does this mean we'll lose you forever to the allure of my Silk Road?" "Actually, Sire, if you would still consider it..." "I would like to accept the position you offered previously in the Finance Ministry." "Ah!" "Your nose has been opened, huh?" "I learned much about the lives of your subjects." "I realize just how much more effective I can be... by your side." "You know what this means, son?" "You finally feel worthy of the power I offer you." "I believe I do."