[BIRDS TWEETING]
[BIRD SQUAWKS]
[SOFT METALLIC CHIMING]
[BIRDS TWEETING]
[RIVER RIPPLES]
[BIRDS SCREECHING]
[BABY BURBLING]
[RIVER RIPPLES]
[ROPE BRIDGE CREAKS]
[MAN] Chet-chet!
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
- [WINGS FLUTTER] - [HORSE NICKERS]
[MAN CHANTS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[CROWD] Chet-chet-chet!
[RHYTHMIC CHANTING]
[SNARLS]
[SILENCE]
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[SOFT RUSTLING]
[WOMAN GROANS IN PAIN]
[MOANS]
[WOMAN 2] Calm, calm.
- [WOMAN 1] Paris. [GROANS] - I'm here. The God Flame is rising.
A birth blessed by morning.
I feel water. Come.
Where have you been?
[PARIS] I was delayed.
My water broke.
Ah.
[MOANS]
Now I will sing your baby into the world.
♪ Find the way, child Way, child, way, child ♪
♪ Find the way, child Way to me ♪
♪ Prayer of the mother hand Prayer of the father hand ♪
♪ Find the way, child Way to me ♪
♪ Rise up ♪
Oh, the head is coming first.
That's good news.
♪ Rise up, child Rising up ♪
Oh, Maghra, I feel a little ear. It's like a slippery bud.
[MAGHRA GROANS]
- Okay, okay. Yeah. - Strong now.
- Just get it out. Mother of... - Yeah. Yeah.
Where's Baba Voss?
Baba Voss is busy.
Come. Sip. Sip.
We don't need the big lug.
This is women's work.
I want my husband to be the first to feel the baby.
He'll be here soon enough.
[HORN SOUNDS IN DISTANCE]
What's that sound?
Soon you will have a little one, a little life in your arms. Think of that.
Paris, I can hear killing ropes.
Why have they brought out the killing ropes?
Is the village under attack?
Our Scentiers reported a raiding party coming down the valley.
Men with horses and dogs. They're at the foot of the mountain.
Where is my husband?
Baba? Baba Voss is commanding the defense.
[CROWD YELLING IN DISTANCE]
Take up arms! Follow me!
[CHANTING]
- Chet! - Chet!
[CHANTING CONTINUES]
[YELLS]
[CROWD] Chi!
[BABA VOSS YELLS]
[CROWD] Chi!
To the wall.
[THUNDER RUMBLES]
[TAPPING, RUSTLING]
Chi!
Scentiers, dream the wind.
Dogs, horses and men. Cutting up mud and reeds.
They're crossing the river.
They burn beechwood smoke of Queen Kane's Witchfinders.
Maybe they're just following the river to another valley.
Matal, presage. What is their intention?
I feel savage intent in the air. Savage and soon.
Ayuras, how many?
Horses by the dozens and many men marching.
Two hundred, maybe more.
This isn't a raiding party. It's a whole army.
Alkenny. This is our home.
We are one and we fight as one.
Prepare for battle.
[GRUNTS]
[HORN BLAST]
[HORNS BLOWING]
[RHYTHMIC CHANTING]
[CHANTING IN ALKENNY]
[CHANTING CONTINUES]
I, Baba Voss, vow to defend against... the Great Flame of the Alkenny!
Glorious Flame!
Back to Queen Kane in the belly of their dogs.
Follow, brothers, into battle...
Follow me!
Up. Up we go.
- God. - Up. Come.
Who is attacking us?
[PARIS] It's probably just some nomads, hunting for slaves. Yeah?
Paris...
If you're lying, I will hear it.
Nothing escapes my ears.
I can hear doors closing in your voice.
Your job right now is to breathe.
Breathe and push.
I can hear secrets. What are you not telling me?
How would I know anything? I'm an old woman.
Yeah, who talks to birds and hears the future in her sleep.
For three nights, an owl has been calling out in the night.
Saying what?
Saying, "The Witchfinders are coming."
[MAGHRA] Witchfinders? Why would they come here?
[PARIS] Something tells me they come for you.
[DOGS BARKING]
[WHISTLES]
[SOLDIER YELLS]
[SOLDIERS YELL]
[MAN] I said untie this fucking rope.
Hey! I said untie this fucking rope right now!
- Ah. - [MAN] Untie this fucking rope!
A boy in need of education.
[MAN] Who's there?
I said who's there?
Hey!
Who is it?
Who's there?
I said untie this fucking rope right now!
[GRUNTS]
I am Tamacti Jun, the Witchfinder general.
In my presence, it is customary to kneel.
Forgive me, sir, but I'm Gether Bax.
It is me who sent you the message to come here.
Then it is I who should apologize.
A boy who would betray his own tribe to do God's work.
That I am, indeed.
Your message says that you have information
regarding the man we've been searching for.
A heretic who Queen Kane herself has condemned to death.
A devil who murdered the queen's own sister.
[TAMACTI JUN] Just tell me what you know about him.
I know from your heralds
that there is a reward for information leading to his capture.
Your reward will be your next breath if I find your information useful.
[STRAINED] To speak, I need my throat.
My Ayuras will hear any lie like a foot through ice.
[STRAINED] I promise, sir. No ice will I break.
Speak.
[EXHALES]
At the end of winter, a woman wandered into our village.
- A stranger to us. - [PARIS] Easy.
[GETHER] She was found among our berry bushes.
She said she got lost in a blizzard.
[NEWBORN BABY CRYING]
She asked to be taken in because she was three months pregnant.
The head of our village said he would take care of her.
He has not been able to have children of his own, so he married her.
She has been with him ever since.
Tell me something that I can use. And quickly.
She never said who the father of her baby was.
But when she came to the village...
she was wearing this necklace.
It's a love token. It has a name written in it.
Read.
Jer, la, ma, rel.
Jerlamarel.
That is the name of the heretic that you've been seeking, yes?
Well, even now, in the village on the mountain,
a woman is giving birth to that devil's child.
If you charge up to the village now,
the woman and Jerlamarel's child can be yours.
Gether Bax...
tell me how your village is defended.
If I find a woman giving birth to the devil,
I may let you live.
If not, you will burn too.
A boy or a girl?
It's a boy. A boy.
Ten toes. Ten fingers.
Two strong lungs.
Sinjay. Sinjay. Mama.
Ooh. Ooh.
[PARIS CHUCKLES] Ah.
Hello. Hi.
Hello, baby.
Yeah. Hello.
Good girl, Maghra.
Good girl.
[GROANS]
- [MAGHRA GROANS] - Ah!
A little foot!
- A foot? - There's two.
The second one's the wrong way. Sinjay, sharp knife.
- Maghra, I must bring him out quickly. - All right.
- Breathe in. Breathe out. - [MAGHRA GRUNTS, GROANS]
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Now!
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
[SPEAKING ALKENNY]
[DOG SNARLS, PANTS]
[GRUNTS]
[YELPING]
Chi!
[MAN] Chi!
[YELPS]
[GRUNTS]
[DOGS SNARLING, BARKING]
- Chet-chet! - Chet-chet-chet!
[GRUNTING]
Baba!
Ilun!
Clear the wall!
[MAN] Clear the wall!
- [MAN 2] Clear the wall! - [MAN 3] Clear the wall!
[MAN 1] Clear the wall!
Clear the wall!
Presage.
I feel strong hate.
But silent.
[ROCKS CRASHING]
Ayura?
Horses snorting, pawing at pebbles.
Many horses. They were hiding behind the river noise.
Their cavalry barely reduced.
[BABA VOSS] They only sacrificed a few.
They knew to hold back.
To the village!
This slope is the only way off this mountain, yes?
Ravines and sheer cliffs on all sides except this.
That's why this place was chosen by the ancestors.
We are the only Alkenny left.
And I will be the last.
- [BABY CRIES] - [PARIS] Oh. Oh.
Oh. Yes, yes. Oh, my God.
It's a girl this time.
Oh. [CHUCKLES]
Sinjay, Mama.
Oh, God, no more.
[GASPS]
[BABIES COOING, CRYING]
I heard the earth shaking.
Did I imagine it?
No, you did not imagine it.
Sinjay, fresh water.
[BABY CRIES]
Alkenny law says the first name they hear you speak
should be the name of their father.
That way they will know it in the soft parts of their soul.
Do not say Baba Voss.
It must be their true father, or harm will come.
[BABIES COOING]
Jerlamarel. Your father.
Are you ready yet to tell me about him?
About who he was?
[MAGHRA] I've told you.
He was a stranger.
I wandered from my village. I was lost in a blizzard.
That's not what the owls tell me.
So what do they tell you?
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
The warriors are back.
[WOMAN] Baba Voss, you sacrificed the rocks?
[BABA VOSS] We had no choice.
The Witchfinders and half of Queen Kane's army's in the valley.
Witchfinders?
- There are no witches here. - [BABA VOSS] Arca.
[HORN BLASTS]
- [SPEAKS IN ALKENNY] - Chi!
I declare the Alkenny parliament in session.
Hear this. Our wall is gone.
We had no choice. But the enemy remain in the valley.
God Flame has raised rain, so they won't attempt the slope in this weather.
So we have time.
Time for what? We're trapped.
We have men and bear traps on the perimeter.
We'll string ropes to stop their horses.
We must do it before the storm passes.
Time is short.
Prepare.
[CROWD MURMURS]
Baba Voss?
[BABA VOSS] No, a bear.
Maghra, are we three?
[PARIS] You are four, Baba Voss.
Go on, you big lump. Do not break them.
[MAGHRA] A boy and a girl.
[PARIS] I will leave you.
[BABA VOSS] No, no. Paris, stay.
Be with us.
Did the rocks take them all?
Double blessings. God Flame.
[PARIS] Baba, did the rocks kill them all?
No.
Then how will we survive the day?
I don't know.
They have horses and dogs.
And when the storm is over, they will come for us.
All my life I wanted to find peace...
to build a home, take a woman and make babies.
And now, at this last moment, I have two.
One, two.
And I would have loved them so much...
as I've come to love you, Maghra.
Yes. From the first moment...
[SINJAY] Baba Voss, you must come. They have voted without you.
[GRUNTS]
Did you string the ropes?
No, Baba Voss.
We continued the parliamentary session that you called.
It was pointed out that the Witchfinders don't come
unless they believe there are witches.
We've never been visited before...
Until that bitch in there came and dropped her litter among us.
Paris, we have to do something.
Stay. Stay. It is in hand.
The moment has come.
What moment?
The night the stranger delivered you to us...
he left this message on my altar.
From Jerlamarel.
Prepare the babies for a long journey.
[WOMAN] A motion was passed that,
perhaps, if we give the woman and the babies to the Witchfinders,
they might leave us alone.
Baba Voss, we have no time.
Those babies are not even yours.
Very well.
You must obey the vote.
But it will be very difficult for anyone to take a woman and two newborns
down a mountain without his arms or his legs.
[WOMAN] Now, Baba Voss, you're a big man, but we are many.
You can't kill us all.
No, but I can kill the first six or seven.
So those of you who wish to be among that number,
step forward.
I have my blade ready to count you to heaven.
Arca.
Quartermaster.
I stand with Baba Voss!
Ilun. Ayura.
Killing rope. I stand with Baba Voss.
Bow Lion. Kill Dancer.
I stand with Baba.
Belu. Kill Dancer.
I say, Baba Voss... stand aside.
[PARIS] Put down your weapons! Put down your weapons!
We are all Alkenny.
Listen.
Feel. The rain is stopping.
The Witchfinders are halfway up the mountain.
Once a village has been identified with witchcraft,
the whole village must burn.
That is their creed.
Those babies will not buy your lives.
And what would you suggest?
You believe we are trapped here. We are not.
There is another way off this mountain.
- [BELU] If you're a bird, yes. - [PARIS] No! There is a bridge.
- [MAN] What? - Over the ravine. Beyond the chimes.
The Alkenny have been on this mountain for generations.
There's never been a bridge.
There is now, Dreamer.
[DREAMER] Built by who?
Built by a man.
[BELU] No man could build a bridge that wide.
[PARIS] Then, since time is short, think of him as a god.
- [BELU] How do you know so much? - No time for how.
She knows because she's a witch, too.
If I am a witch, I am also your only hope.
Four hundred heartbeats away.
Those who stay will burn.
Women and children will be raped.
Even if there is no bridge,
the ravine is a kinder death.
Gather your belongings.
Do you know the way to this bridge?
Yes. Have faith.
Maghra. Do you think you can walk?
- Yes. - Yes?
- Yes. - Come, my love.
Gather your things. Bring only what you can carry or run with.
Paris.
Tell me, how will you find this bridge?
He left me instructions.
- Who's "he"? - The babies' true father.
Baba Voss, be the giant I know you are and step over the pain of that.
- Yah! - [CROWD CHANTS]
[METALLIC CHIMING]
Come! This way!
We should go no further than this.
Have faith, Mama.
[BABA VOSS] Keep moving. Don't be afraid.
Path here. The path to the bridge.
This is madness.
No man can build a bridge that can span this divide.
Horses 100 heartbeats away.
Hurry!
[RIVER GUSHES IN DISTANCE]
[RIVER GUSHING]
[SIGHS]
Salvation! Solid in the void!
Form up to cross.
[DOGS BARKING]
[MAN YELLS]
Bring me Gether Bax.
[YELPS]
I am in the air. Miracle.
I'm in the air!
[PARIS] Hurry!
[MAGHRA] I'll go.
[PARIS] Staffs across the ropes.
I'll be right behind you.
[BABIES CRYING]
I will stay and hold them off.
Yah!
You said there's no escape towards the Sun Grave.
There isn't.
Only into the abyss, which we know is certain death.
[MAN] I hear babies crying.
Two newborns. Toward the Sun Grave.
- [WOMAN SCREAMS] - Oh, my God!
[MAN SCREAMS]
Maghra!
I'm safe!
The bridge still holds!
Go. Hurry. Be safe. Hurry.
Ayuras!
Only the sound of fast water. And close.
[TAMACTI JUN] Release the dogs!
Go.
[DOGS BARKING IN DISTANCE]
Solid. Solid. Firm ground!
Firm ground. Come. Come.
[BARKING]
Stand sharp. Come.
Hurry. Hurry.
[DOGS BARKING]
[BARKING CONTINUES]
[TAMACTI JUN] Silence.
Okay.
- [BABY CRIES] - Shh, shh.
Quiet, quiet, quiet.
[BABIES CRYING IN DISTANCE]
No.
It's a bridge.
Gether Bax!
Cut him loose!
We have been on this mountain for years. There is no bridge.
Feel!
You first.
No. The ravine is death.
Staying is death. Walk!
[PANTING]
Men, follow.
[BABA VOSS] Clear the way!
[SCREAMING]
Wait!
Help me!
Who's there?
It's me, Gether Bax!
You bastards left me behind!
Gether.
Grab my hand.
[SCREAMING]
Herald.
Message for the queen.
[TURBINES WHIRRING]
[SPEAKERS: "PERFECT DAY" PLAYING]
[SONG CONTINUES]
Go. I wish to pray.
[EXHALES]
[MOANS]
Father...
hidden from us...
whose power we feel but cannot touch.
Your will resides in this holy place.
[EXHALES]
Give us this day your power given by God Flame
and taken from inside the holy river water. [MOANS]
Give guidance and clear paths.
Condemn those that trespass against us.
Give to us flame and smoke.
For thine is the darkness, the power...
and the glory.
[MOANS, EXHALES]
Forever and ever.
[MOANS, EXHALES]
Mm.
Amen.
[DOOR OPENS]
Yes?
[MAN] News from the Sun Grave, Your Majesty.
Come.
[BIRDS CAWING]
- [CHANTING] Ah... - [CROWD CHANTING] Ah...
- [METALLIC RATTLING] - [CHANTING STOPS]
He has planted his seed.
Hush. Feel. I will talk.
The devil who killed my sister...
who preaches the Vision heresy,
who was given the power of light, Jerlamarel,
not only lives.
He has passed on his life.
- Physician. - Yes, Your Majesty?
[QUEEN KANE] We've had this conversation in the abstract.
Keep still. It is no secret that we spoke.
And once I asked you the question...
"Do you believe the evil power of light can be passed into a child?"
No. I don't believe it can be passed into a child.
[QUEEN KANE] Don't lie to me.
I hear it.
It wastes so much time.
Caution, fear.
Fucking be honest!
I honestly do not know.
Your Majesty, Jerlamarel is one man.
He served us food in this very room.
He was born to a slave, and this power he told you he had...
perhaps he was a footman attempting to impress his queen
with stories he'd heard in the cradle.
We have trouble here in our capital.
The holy power from the river is failing.
The people say we are losing God's favor.
Perhaps it's time to bring our best soldiers home.
- Kneel. - [METALLIC RATTLING]
You are forgetting...
the evil of light once almost destroyed the world.
Men used it to control and twist and alter God's intentions.
Forests burned. The air filled with poison.
Lady Zee, send word to the land of the Sun Grave.
Their charge is no longer to just find Jerlamarel.
Their charge is to find his children...
and bring them to me.
[BABIES COOING]
This day...
we have crossed into a new world.
The man who built the bridge to deliver us into it
will show us the way forward.
Paris, who is this man?
His name is Jerlamarel.
I knew him well, once.
He's a heretic.
The Witchfinders came in search of him because he preaches a particular heresy.
He told me he has a power that we would call magical or evil...
but which he says almost every human being on earth once had.
He preaches that the God bone we use for weapons and tools
was not made by the gods, as we've been told.
Nor the eternal smooth that never rots.
Or the flat, straight mountains of Payan.
They were all made by humans.
Human beings like us, who all had the same lost ability as he has.
Jerlamarel said he could not explain it to me.
He only said he has the power to see.
And if we follow his instruction, we will find sanctuary.
There is nothing behind us.
If any object, argue now for a better way forward.
Then it is settled.
[PARIS] There is a river beyond.
Our Scentiers will dream its willows.
And for 30 days and 30 nights, we will follow its path.
When the path beside the river disappears,
we will walk in the water, so no dogs can follow.
Led by the music that Jerlamarel has left behind.
[METALLIC CHIMING]
[PARIS] Soon thereafter,
we will hear the rush of a waterfall 20 men high.
And through that waterfall, a sanctuary.
A place no one would dare wander.
A place where we can rebuild again
in peace and safety.
- Chu, chu, chu, chu. - Chu, chu, chu.
- Chi. - [ARCA] Chi!
[CHIMING]
Says there's a ladder here.
Arca.
I will go first.
If it can hold my weight, it can hold anything.
Baba, please.
[METALLIC CHIMING]
It's safe!
- [BABA VOSS] Ice, ice, ice... - Ice...
Scentier, what's ahead?
What has he left for us?
Everything.
[METALLIC CHIMING]
This is where we build our new home.
[SNIFFS, EXHALES]
- [EXHALES] - [PARIS] It feels like paradise.
But, Baba...
you must know...
you will be chief of a tribe
that must hide from the world and the Witchfinders forever.
Know this.
One day we could be found.
We must be vigilant.