[sand brushing]
[breathing heavily]
[sighs]
[approaching footsteps]
[metal clangs]
[theme music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[drumming stops]
On this day we gather
all princes of the blood and chieftains of the hordes,
and all descendants of Lord Genghis Khan.
We pray to the Blue Sky and seek blessings for the decision
that will be made this day.
Bless the sacred spirit banner of Lord Genghis
that stands before the white banners of peace.
-The white banners of peace? -[man] Watch over us, Tengri...
You've taken a piss on peace.
Bring out the black banners, I say. The war banners. Finish what you started.
You're disrespecting the proceedings.
You've disgraced these proceedings with your acts of war.
[man] ...Khan of all Khans.
Thus we begin the Kurultai.
It's a shame Nayan couldn't be here.
I'm very sorry about your brother.
It was you who snatched your father from our camp.
Why sneak off to the hills?
Why not take your father back to the Khan?
I'd be delivering him to death.
The most significant day in the Khan's life...
and the only son by his side is the pale flower.
Where could the others be?
Archers are stationed at every parapet.
No one in and no one out.
-As ordered. -[Ahmad] Excellent, Sukh.
Kneel before me.
In light of your dedication to service in these times of great unrest,
and by the powers bestowed upon me by the Khan of Khans,
as Vice Regent and Left Chancellor,
I confer upon you the title of Orlok.
You will command the Khan's generals and their armies.
[all] Hurrah!
Dismiss your men.
Return to your posts.
Vice Regent...
You were given an order, General.
This is highly unusual.
Hold your tongue.
A non-Mongol installing a non-Mongol as Orlok...
it's so unusual.
It's unprecedented.
-[grunts] -[Ahmad] Sukh...
sheathe your blade.
General...
what is your name?
Kasar.
General Kasar is clearly unnerved
at these highly unusual times we find ourselves living in.
I am not unnerved.
I am skeptical.
Sukh is correct to draw his weapon.
Under typical circumstances, such skepticism would lose you your head.
As you pointed out,
these aren't typical circumstances, Vice Regent.
So you can appreciate my concern.
Of course.
What can I do to alleviate your misgivings?
Show us the Khan's orders.
Return to your post, defend your position, and I will produce the orders promptly.
Will that appease you, Kasar?
[grunts]
[door opens]
[clamoring]
-Move back. -I request to petition the Vice Regent.
Move back.
Open the gates. Now!
[guard] Stay back! Move back!
[people cheering]
Drink.
What is it?
Water.
Thank you.
There's honor in seeing it through.
And when they count the votes, and none have been cast for me...
where is the honor in that?
If all the votes were for you, Father,
what then?
Would that bring Orus back?
[sighs]
[Marco] May I be of service, Sire?
[sniffs]
Inclusivity.
That's their assault against me.
Number one in their complaints.
If you wish to be of service to me, Latin...
make yourself disappear.
[people cheering]
[Kublai laughing]
He's rubbing my son's defeat in his face.
His defeat?
I thought this was your house.
This is your defeat, your fault.
You're to blame for all of it.
I'm fully to blame, and wear it proudly.
Did the sky of the wolf ever speak to you,
or was it always Ahmad whispering in your ear?
If it weren't for the Arab,
I never would've forced your father to challenge Kublai in the first place.
You were never going to fight fair.
From the beginning.
Why start a fight you can't win?
Because Orus is dead...
and father, destroyed.
Because of you.
[people cheering]
[people laughing]
-[Chabi] Your body will settle in time. -[infant crying]
It will relax, and then the milk will flow.
Too late for that.
Every woman is different.
We're beyond lies, Mother.
My body speaks.
It says I am not a mother.
It says for all to hear.
Any swollen sow can feed your children.
You must raise them.
You must nurture their minds to grow into a Khan and a Queen
of unassailable character.
Go, Mother.
To your Khan.
He needs you now more than I.
It will be entirely for nothing if he doesn't win.
[infant continues crying]
They need you.
They are yours, Kokachin. Your flesh and blood.
It could never be for nothing.
[infant continues crying]
[Kublai] I am here.
Do you see me?
I was challenged to this Kurultai, and I have come.
I have traveled far, in good honor and faith...
but I was met by rebellion and war.
"An action committed in anger is an action doomed to failure."
So said our grandfather, Genghis Khan.
[all cheering]
[clears throat]
We are nomads.
Have we not gall in our livers? Fire in our blood?
When our people, and our land...
and our way of life are threatened...
we are not afraid to incite war.
"If my body dies, let my body die.
But do not let Mongolia die."
I wondered whether we should speak again.
And the Blue Sky has not grown thick with ice.
-[Kaidu] So said Genghis Khan. -As last you predicted.
[all cheering]
"Victory does not come to he who lives by the rules.
It comes to he who makes the rules...
he who imposes the rules on his enemies."
So said the one born with a blood clot in his fist,
one with fire in his eyes, light on his face!
He, born of the blue wolf and red deer.
Ancestors of the nomads.
[all cheering]
Kaidu speaks of a way of life.
He speaks of nomads as if I've surrendered my blood.
Did I not ride here on a horse?
[people laughing]
"Conquering the world on horseback is easy.
It's dismounting and governing that is hard."
So said Genghis Khan in the Year of the Ram.
[all cheering]
Your son does not seem to know when he has lost.
-[Kaidu] ...is less an art... -A family trait.
-...than conquering a man. -And your husband is fat.
Also a family trait.
Conquering a man is no match to conquering oneself.
Did not Genghis say, "Find me a man who abstains from drink,
and that is the man who will lead my armies"?
So said Genghis.
[all cheering]
But did not Genghis also say,
"Be of one mind and one faith"?
I have seen with my own eyes
that every faith has a temple in the city of the Khan.
Down there, in China, the word is "capitulation."
No, Kaidu, the word is "jealousy."
From our own relations.
From inside our golden family.
We were destined. We were chosen.
You were pushed aside, forgotten.
And you are common. Your blood is not royal.
A thousand stolen elections cannot change that.
[Kublai] ...by the fangs of a black snake, let us not be bitten.
And yet, my son will be Khan, and his son after him.
Let us always trust one another.
My bloodline is certain, and yours will end this night.
[Kublai] I say this, not just as Mongols,
but as people under the Mongol Empire!
-[all cheering] -[drumming]
Open the gates to outsiders, secrets will spill!
[cheering continues]
Brother.
[sighs]
I should've left you there to bleed out in that cave.
Probably...
but you didn't.
Where are they?
Which of the Khan's toys have come for me?
Marco?
Byamba?
Hundred Eyes?
Any? All?
Send search parties into the slums.
Find his co-conspirators and bring them to me.
You want me to leave you alone...
with him?
He's not going to kill me.
He's going to try and compel me to surrender.
[man yelling commands]
[door opening]
[man yelling commands]
[people clamoring]
Spread out! Find them!
They're looking for us.
[Sukh shouting] Let's go!
Your turn, monk.
[Sukh shouting] Search the village!
Look at their faces!
[clamoring]
[both grunt]
[grunting]
[people clamoring]
[infant crying]
Stand aside.
I said stand aside.
Do not chide them for following my orders.
You should not be here.
Not if you care for her as she does for you.
It's true... what she told me?
Don't lie.
Why?
Because this is some youthful moment of portent for you?
This is my life.
You did a terrible thing.
And now let me welcome you into the fellowship of almost all of us.
[infant crying continues]
I betrayed my father for the Khan.
And Kublai is ignorant... at best...
when it comes to acknowledging the sacrifices of those in his service.
But I am not.
Go home.
Home?
You forget, my Empress, I cannot leave.
-My Khan would not let me. -You cannot help who you are.
He will hold you close until he realizes that who you are can only hurt him.
You do not want to be here when that day comes.
In the morning, when the Khan is looking for you,
I will ensure our scouts report you rode east.
I will protect your secret... so long as you protect mine.
[sighs]
[infant whimpers]
Will you tell her I said goodbye?
[people cheering]
[Kublai in distance] While your father is alive...
make as many friends as you can...
see as many lands as you can.
Do you remember these words? Do you remember?
[people cheering]
[Arban] The games are done.
The drink and dinner consumed.
There are no prayers left to pray.
I have been given the honor of asking one question of each of you
on behalf of these noble chieftains.
Lord Kaidu...
you claim to want no allegiances with outside forces,
yet you mustered an army with the Christians
and conspired with the Vice Regent to overthrow your Khan.
And now this same Vice Regent occupies and locks down
the capital city of our great empire.
I did.
Has anyone heard a question?
These are facts. Undisputed.
This is the question.
Amongst this treachery, did you hide behind the banner of Kublai Khan
and slaughter my people beneath it?
[Kaidu] Everything I've done...
was to secure the Khanate,
in order to protect ourselves from his wayward vision.
Answer the question.
One that you know in your hearts to be blurred.
Answer.
The Vice Regent has not taken over our capital... our home.
The birthright we leave our children is not out there as Kublai claims.
It is here on this soil.
Beneath the Blue Sky, where we stand together this day!
Answer... the question.
I did.
[murmuring]
[Arban sighs]
Lord Kublai...
you will remain the Khan of Khans.
When elected, what will you do with him?
[Kublai] I will take Kaidu...
and all of his kin...
and every sympathizer who remains in the House of Ögödei...
and I will bury them here...
in his beloved dirt.
[speaking Mongolian]
[all chanting]
[grunts]
So this is how the blind monk passed through walls?
[both panting]
Every legend must come to an end.
Put your weapons down.
[breathing heavily]
We don't want to hurt you or your men.
Put them down or I take them from you.
You are serving a traitor.
I am serving the Vice Regent, monk, at my Khan's orders.
And my father sent us to stop him.
Neither of you holds any authority.
Put your weapons down, and I'll bring you to the Prince and the Vice Regent.
We traveled with the Prince.
He gave himself up so that we could gain entry unseen.
He's a prisoner.
You think it's coincidence we're here?
He's my brother. Does that mean nothing?
Kaidu or the Khan.
I don't know who you serve, bastard.
And the monk? Do you question his loyalty to our Khan?
You know it, in your heart.
My heart knows nothing but duty to the empire.
[sighs]
Take their weapons.
[eagle screeching]
I have in my hand a letter that could save this family.
A missive from Ahmad.
No doubt intended for you.
Well...
you certainly have my attention now.
If father reads this to the chieftains, it may be just enough.
Enough to what?
To destroy the Khan.
The Arab saved us again.
He does...
or he doesn't.
You wish to burn our salvation?
I wish the lying and deceit to end.
Which will not happen.
If Kublai's reign of terror is allowed to continue,
there'll be more lies and more deceit,
until we drown in a melting pot
of backbiting outsiders and malfeasance of all kinds.
No good can come from so much pain and anguish.
I made him do it, you know?
What?
Your father.
I made him cut you out of her, cut you from your mother.
And your father never wanted you to know he killed her to save you.
Will you be a good thing for him?
Or was all that pain and anguish for nothing?
The future of the House of Ögödei, of our family...
is yours.
Burn it...
or don't.
It's entirely up to you.
[sighs]
Do you expect the army to defend you when faced with their Khan's return?
[Ahmad] If he returns, he will no longer be the Khan.
Did your scouts not report our victory at the twin rivers?
They did.
And how do you reconcile that reality with your fantasy?
How do you reconcile I was able to maneuver undetected
all these years?
Do you truly believe I don't have a plan in place should Kublai win?
Look where I sit and where you stand.
Ahmad...
there is time for you to stop this.
Come with me, tell father you were manipulated--
I was manipulated by no one.
Ever.
But that can be the truth.
It is the word of traitors over the word of his son.
I don't want that to be the truth.
Don't you understand?
I want the record to state, unequivocally...
that a boy ripped from his parents...
from his miserly birthright, rose up...
and quietly laid waste to the most powerful man in all of history.
Which would make me the most powerful man in all of history.
And do not fool yourself.
This... This is not a parley.
There are no terms for my surrender.
And you, my brother...
will not be leaving here alive.
[Kublai] You summon me, hmm?
Before I lay them down to sleep at night,
I tell my children stories of our ancestors.
Stories of war...
of treason...
of honor.
These stories were lessons to be imparted, warnings heeded.
A map of how to live and how to lead.
The story of Börte was a favorite.
The first wife and first mother of Khans.
How she married Temüjin,
the man who would one day reign as Genghis Khan.
How she was abducted by the three Merkits in the middle of the night.
How she watched as her husband appeared to abandon her
as he fled into the woods.
How that husband hunted her down, fought for her freedom
and slaughtered to win her back eight months later.
Eight months.
And she returned to Temüjin's house, pregnant with their first child.
Is the point of these stories to put me to sleep?
The whispers began.
Whispers that not even the mighty Genghis could silence.
Whispers that the child could not possibly be their own.
Whispers that would destroy that boy's chances
of rising to the throne in his own right.
For all the blood spilling...
all the backstabbing...
all the deal-making...
[exhales deeply] Whispers can subvert it all.
My daughter received this dispatch from your Vice Regent
concerning Princess Kokachin and your heirs to the House of Tolui.
Should I read it to you?
Better I let the Empress explain it to you.
You have until the sound of the horn for the start of the vote.
If the people of Mongolia have not received your abdication of the throne,
I will walk into the pavilion... and whisper it for all to hear.
What fucking madness has infected your head?
You can protect your throne...
or you can protect your family.
It's your choice.
[softly] Kokachin.
[inhales deeply] You've come to say goodbye.
Why did you tell me?
-It should have been you. -No.
Babies with eyes color of the sea.
No. [breathing heavily]
The Prince...
Jingim has real affection in his heart for you.
Tell me you love me, Marco.
Tell me you love Nergüi.
[Marco breathes deeply]
Kokachin...
-[Marco sighs] -[breathes deeply]
Go now.
[breathes deeply]
-I won. -[fire crackling]
I did it.
How you wanted me to.
Begged, bartered...
I played by the rules.
And now I must go out there, give it all away.
Give it to him. All because of you!
[panting] We deny it.
Four wives. Nothing to show for it until just the right time!
Tell me, whose son is it that would ascend to my throne?
Who?
[breath trembling] No one.
[gasps]
It... was no one.
[snorts]
[inhales deeply] I have destroyed our family.
[exhales]
[Chabi sobbing]
[continues sobbing]
You did what was necessary.
-No. -Yes. Yes.
You did the hard thing.
For our family.
And our kingdom.
-I deserve your anger. -No.
-I deserve your blows. -No, Chabi.
-No. -[sobbing]
[sighs]
-[sniffling] -You did it for me.
I was wrong, my wife...
to think I could be without you.
And now...
it's over.
[sniffling]
[both breathing heavily]
Who else knows?
-Who else-- -Knows?
-Kokachin... -Uh-huh.
Marco.
Who?
I sent him away to Venice, where he belongs.
With the secret that could destroy us all?
It doesn't matter.
Who will he tell? Who will care in the West?
No one else, hmm?
[Chabi sighs]
Well...
now Khutulun...
Kaidu.
Hmm.
[bell chiming]
Wine from the silver tree.
I hate that thing.
It does stand out, doesn't it?
Möngke always had... flair.
[Kaidu] That's one way of describing your brother.
Where's Khutulun?
This is between you and me.
-Oh, well. -[clattering]
[Kublai clears throat]
I've always known, or hoped to know,
if I'm being forthright...
that a price existed I could not pay
to satisfy my attainment and influence.
That price, it seems, is my son.
He will not be bought and sold here today.
So...
how do I inform the public?
You walk out there...
and tell them that I am to be the next Khan of Khans.
And you make them believe it.
Hmm.
-Leave. Do not return. -[infant crying]
[crying continues]
To a peaceful transition.
I didn't wanna win this way.
Really?
I was prepared to destroy you right from the start.
But I was led off that course by those around me.
Advice, I realize now...
was warped and craven...
and working for the other side. [sighs]
Your side.
You won, Kaidu...
the old-fashioned way.
By any means necessary.
-[horn blowing] -[people clamoring]
Kokachin!
I'm coming to you.
Kokachin...
[Chabi inhales deeply]
[voice trembling] I am sorry.
[sniffling]
-It's all right... -[inhales deeply]
Mother.
[exhales deeply]
[exhales]
[distant marching]
Prisoners for you, Vice Regent.
Well done, General.
You will be richly rewarded
for your dedication to the Khan and his cause.
Sukh, take our prisoners to a cell.
[Kaidu] I can do it differently from now on.
I can do it differently, can't I?
Tomorrow, the Khanate is yours.
You can do it any way you please.
Drink with me.
You were prepared to destroy me...
right from the start.
Poison from the Goyo plant.
[grunts]
[grunting]
[straining]
[groans]
[Kublai choking]
[gasping]
[Sukh groans]
[Kublai choking]
[screams]
[straining]
[gasping]
[panting]
[Marco grunts]
[continues panting]
We have to go.
We have to go right now.
[breathing heavily]
[Mei Lin] You may want to hold on to that.
I thought I'd never see you again.
Thought or hoped?
Thought.
I hoped you'd return.
[breathes deeply]
[sighs]
I need you.
You need me?
[inhales deeply]
[chair creaking]
[Mei Lin] Do you know how concubines are trained?
[Ahmad] Tell me.
Mirrors.
Mirrors?
They put you in a room of mirrors.
For days...
weeks.
After a while, time stops making sense.
[sighs]
Why mirrors?
To practice emotions.
Cheerful.
Coy.
Heartbroken.
Lonesome.
But there was one... emotion...
we were taught never to display.
Anger.
Because no man... wants a woman who threatens him.
For survival...
we learn to suppress it...
to bide our time.
I never would have loved you.
But I would have supported you.
Fought for you.
Maybe even died in your service.
[thuds]
It was a momentary lapse in judgment.
Selling my daughter was always part of your plan.
Had I known it would end this way...
I would've eviscerated her in front of you, instead.
Then I am glad it ends this way.
[groaning]
[breathing heavily]
[Ahmad groans]
[body thudding]
[door clatters]
I could have continued to run with my daughter.
You never would have found me.
Where is she?
Headed south... with a protector.
Never return.
I'll escort the concubine to her daughter and ensure she stays there.
Once I've confirmed my father's victory,
we meet here.
At home.
[sighing]
[horse neighs]
[dramatic music playing]