ANDREA ARCHITECT ASTERION CARLO CAVE_VOICE CAVE_VOICES DA_VINCI LT_TALUS LUCREZIA RIARIO TALUS THE_ARCHITECT VANESSA ZOROASTER ZOROASTER He left me at the gates of the Vatican. Hell bent ZOROASTER on getting in bed with the Pope.   LUCREZIA Why would he conspire with that devil?   DA VINCI It had to be you. You were in league with them   DA VINCI I need you to help me bring   DA VINCI hell to the Turks.   RIARIO Clarice Orsini   RIARIO has been murdered   RIARIO her body found crucified in the Papal bath.   RIARIO You’re being hunted by Italy’s most ingenious   RIARIO mind. You have placed the future of the Labyrinth in jeopardy.   THE ARCHITECT If Da Vinci gets too close   THE ARCHITECT help him become one.   CARLO We are the shadow   CARLO at the centre of the Labyrinth.   CARLO You shall join us. We are one. LUCREZIA Andrea!   LUCREZIA Andrea! LUCREZIA What have I told you about playing away from the house?!   ANDREA Yes, I know, I know LUCREZIA Well why do you do it then?   ANDREA Father said I could.   LUCREZIA Did he now. And where is your father?   ANDREA In his workshop. He’s always in his workshop. LUCREZIA Stay closer to the house.   LUCREZIA Andrea!   ANDREA Yes mother.   LUCREZIA Good morning! DA VINCI Signora! You look ravishing!   LUCREZIA Oh why am I so suspicious of your intentions?   DA VINCI Because you’re brilliant.   LUCREZIA What are you trying to avoid?   DA VINCI A scolding from the wife.   DA VINCI I know, you’re going to chide me about Andrea’s models. I know, just, just   DA VINCI wait wait until you see this one!   LUCREZIA What does this one do?   DA VINCI Cuts through the air, it’s like a corkscrew. It hovers, floats. Actually, now that reminds me, I need to   DA VINCI perfect some form of breathing apparatus   DA VINCI so I can retrieve the Underboat from the pond-bottom.   LUCREZIA Leo   DA VINCI I know, I know. I let him play in the field again.   LUCREZIA We need to talk about Rome. DA VINCI After we see if she’ll fly! DA VINCI Andrea, look at this! ANDREA Can we make it go higher? Faster?   DA VINCI Try! LUCREZIA Oh look, he loves it.   DA VINCI I’m just surprised the damn thing   DA VINCI works. The weight-to-lift ratio could still use some calibrating   LUCREZIA You can’t take Andrea to Rome.   DA VINCI Lucrezia, we can’t hide him from the world forever.   LUCREZIA He gets enough of the world at school. Too much if you ask me.   DA VINCI I am being honoured in Rome by the Architect himself. If none of my family accompany me   LUCREZIA I will never go back to Rome.   DA VINCI Which is why, if I don’t take our son with me then it will be noticed.   LUCREZIA Let them notice! You did your part ten years ago. Why can’t they just leave us alone?   DA VINCI They have. And if we want them to continue DA VINCI Hey we can’t be noticed.   DA VINCI Andrea?   LUCREZIA Andrea!   DA VINCI Andrea! CAVE VOICE We are the horns of the Increate. We are the labyrinth. We are one we are the horns of the increate we are the labyrinth DA VINCI Stop!   DA VINCI Stop there I’ve told you, you stay away from there.   ANDREA But can’t you hear the voices?   DA VINCI Come on.   CAVE VOICES We are the horns of the Increate CARLO We are the horns of the Increate. We are the Labyrinth. We are one. RIARIO Thank you.   ARCHITECT Brother Girolamo. ASTERION You wanted to see me.   RIARIO I did.   ASTERION Walk with me.     ASTERION You know the legends. Of the monstrous Minotaur, of the Architect Daedalus. Of the Labyrinth he designed and built for King Minos of Crete.   RIARIO I do.   ASTERION It was so well crafted. So intricate, so complex that Daedalus himself could not find his way out.   RIARIO You’re telling me my situation is of my own making.   ASTERION You have taken Da Vinci. Brother Carlo is making him one of us.   RIARIO Not an easy task.   ASTERION Da Vinci is resisting, as did you.   RIARIO I   ASTERION Do not fret, my boy. Resistance takes many forms. All of which must be overcome. Some do not survive. Others are driven to madness. The training weeds out the many to find the few. We can only hope Da Vinci is among them.     RIARIO Is it wise to have Brother Carlo orchestrating the rebirth of such a valuable man?   ASTERION You do not trust Carlo?   RIARIO He was once an agent of the Sons of Mithras.   ASTERION So was Da Vinci. And so were you when you joined him on his quest.   RIARIO That was misguided.   ASTERION Even the great hero Theseus could not find his way out of the Labyrinth. Without the help of the King’s daughter, Ariadne. Who provided him a thread, a clue, a lifeline   ASTERION Who is your lifeline, brother?   RIARIO I hope and pray it is you.   DA VINCI Verrocchio Clarice I will see you hang for their murders   CARLO Your mentor was a necessary sacrifice, but I did not kill Clarice. I adored her.   DA VINCI Ah she was carrying your child.   CARLO I didn’t know.   DA VINCI What if you did? Would that have made a difference? Would you have spared her life?   CARLO I didn’t kill her! You will become one, Da Vinci. And then help me find her killer.   CARLO Open your eyes!   CARLO And see!   CARLO Open your eyes   DA VINCI No   CARLO and see   DA VINCI No!   CARLO Open your eyes!   DA VINCI No, no!   CARLO And see!   DA VINCI Noooooooo!   DA VINCI What do you think you’re doing?   LUCREZIA Sorry, did I wake you?   DA VINCI I asked you a question.   LUCREZIA I’m dressing.   DA VINCI Well don’t.   LUCREZIA And what would you have me do?   DA VINCI You can drop that towel for starters.   LUCREZIA It’s true what they say about you, you are decadent and perverse.   DA VINCI There is nothing decadent about admiring the beauty of the human body.   LUCREZIA Is that what you want to do? Admire my body?   DA VINCI In a host of perverse positions of course DA VINCI Oh come back to bed   LUCREZIA I can’t. It’s late and it’s a Sunday.   DA VINCI It’s my day of rest.   DA VINCI Come and rest with me.   LUCREZIA It’s your day to spend   LUCREZIA some time with your son.   DA VINCI Right right right right   LUCREZIA Vanessa! DA VINCI Art is about seeing. DA VINCI It’s about truly seeing.   DA VINCI The world around you, the things in it. People, places, the natural world. Take this ancient oak tree. It looks like an oak tree, but, but if you look into its heart, into its essence, we see a miracle. It’s the pinnacle of nature’s creation. But it all begins with seeing. So what do you see? DA VINCI You’re not listening to me, are you?   ANDREA What?   DA VINCI All these Sundays, you haven’t heard a word I’ve said.     ANDREA Art is about seeing it all begins with seeing nature is all around us, the pinnacle of creation     DA VINCI All right     DA VINCI Mmm   DA VINCI I don’t think that’s very funny.   ANDREA I didn’t mean it to be.   ANDREA Hey that’s mine! Give it back! It’s mine!   DA VINCI How could you do something like this?!   ANDREA Give me back my work!     DA VINCI How could you do this?!   ANDREA Give it back now!     ANDREA No! We do at school all the time!   DA VINCI I don’t care about school! I care about you!   DA VINCI I’m sorry. I’m not angry with you.   ANDREA You hate the Labyrinth, don’t you?   DA VINCI No no I just, at times I disagree with them.     DA VINCI When you come of age. Enter manhood   DA VINCI have a family. You’ll come to learn that you have to make up your own mind about things. You have to follow your own path. Choices are made that are complicated. To do what’s right, sometimes you have to rely on those that you think are wrong.   ANDREA Is that why you burned the book?   DA VINCI I destroyed the Book because the knowledge it contained could have destroyed everything. All of this. You, me, your mother too.   ANDREA So you didn’t burn the book for the Labyrinth?   DA VINCI Though we shared an agenda, our motives were at odds.   ANDREA But my teachers say, it   ANDREA is a sin to disagree   DA VINCI Mm, yes well, like I say, it’s complicated.     DA VINCI Come here come here.   LUCREZIA It’s just me. It’s Lucrezia.   LUCREZIA I saw you, from our bedroom window. I’ve bought medical supplies and food.     VANESSA What took you so long? We got here hours ago.   LUCREZIA Yes, and I promised you that I would always offer you a safe haven but I can’t be part of your resistance. Leo mustn’t know that I’m here.   ZOROASTER So, he still turns a blind eye to the holy hell he concocted for his dear old friends   LUCREZIA If he didn’t save my life then I couldn’t save yours.     LUCREZIA Vanessa sit down. Let me see your wounds.     LUCREZIA Please.     LUCREZIA Tell me what happened.   ZOROASTER I’ll give you a guess.   LUCREZIA The Labyrinth.   VANESSA They hit us just before dawn, outside Montecatini.     VANESSA We lost some good people     LUCREZIA Oh God, Nico? Oh Vanessa     LUCREZIA I’m so sorry.   LUCREZIA Listen, your husband, he loved you   LUCREZIA very much   ZOROASTER Sorry?   ZOROASTER You shouldn’t be sorry. You should be enraged. Nico’s blood is on his hands. Your beloved husband!   DA VINCI How the fuck do you figure that?       DA VINCI I want you gone, Zoroaster.     DA VINCI Take whatever food you can carry   DA VINCI and get off my land.   ZOROASTER Can’t do that.   DA VINCI You will. Or I will turn you over to the Labyrinth when the patrol that is obviously dogging you     DA VINCI manages to trace you here.     LUCREZIA Leo!   ZOROASTER You’d see me crucified?! Nailed to a horned cross like the thousands of “heretics” that line the road to Rome?   DA VINCI I have a family.   VANESSA So did I.     VANESSA I had a husband     VANESSA and our child. Because they were not   VANESSA at one with your Labyrinth.   DA VINCI It’s not my Labyrinth.   VANESSA They were not the horns of the   VANESSA fucking increate   DA VINCI Vanessa   VANESSA so they burned my baby     VANESSA my house, my life   VANESSA trying to destroy me and my husband and now they’ve murdered my Nico     VANESSA and undoubtedly nailed   VANESSA his corpse to the nearest tree       DA VINCI Vanessa, I’m sorry. You have to go too.   DA VINCI I’m sorry.   LUCREZIA No   LUCREZIA Leo!   ZOROASTER Not before we show you this.     ZOROASTER It’s the missing page. From the Book of Leaves.   ZOROASTER In three days, the Labyrinth leadership   ZOROASTER will all gather in Rome for the Decennial. Ten years since you burned the damned book.   DA VINCI You want me to read from that?     DA VINCI Use the weapon that I sought   DA VINCI to destroy to rain down more death     DA VINCI more destruction?   RIARIO Something like that.   ANDREA Father, come quickly!     LUCREZIA Andrea!       DA VINCI Andrea! I told you to wait by the tree.   ANDREA But there’s people coming.       LUCREZIA Andrea!   LUCREZIA Leo your eyes RIARIO As I became one, did my eyes bleed?   CARLO Resistance takes many forms.   RIARIO So I’ve been told. I fear your zealous efforts will kill this patient.     ASTERION If death is Da Vinci’s way, so he goes. We can offer him a lifeline, a light in the darkness, but the final choice is his. As it is for all of us.   RIARIO Da Vinci’s death would not serve the Labyrinth. Or our crusade.   ASTERION His sacrifice would not be in vain. At least the Sons of Mithras would not be able to use him against us.   RIARIO The Sons are already using his designs for the Turk war machines, what more do they require of him?   ASTERION He is one who can read the book.   RIARIO The book of Leaves? Can’t anyone read its pages?   ASTERION Only those who’ve been prepared for the task. From the moment of their birth. Da Vinci suffers the curse of destiny. You do not, my boy.     RIARIO Is it wise to expose yourself before him?   ASTERION He cannot hear us, his mind is far from here. Take him deeper, brother Carlo, let him know who we are.   CARLO We are the Horns of the Increate we are the shadows at the centre   CARLO of the Labyrinth. We are the Unity within the beast     CARLO we are one we are the Horns of the Increate we are the shadows at the centre of the Labyrinth       CARLO unity within the beast we are one       CARLO We are the shadows at the centre of the Labyrinth we are the Unity within the beast we are one   ANDREA We are the horns of the Increate we are the shadow at the centre of the Labyrinth   DA VINCI Noooooo!           ANDREA We are the unity within the beast we are     CARLO at one   ANDREA we are one with the Architect, who is at one with us all.     ANDREA I’m sorry sir   CARLO Don’t be. Sometimes I can’t   CARLO remember all the words either.       ANDREA Father always forgets to say grace.   CARLO Your father has much on his mind.   ANDREA But, when I remind him, he says we don’t have to   LUCREZIA Andrea   LUCREZIA you mustn’t disturb the major.   CARLO He’s no bother. He’s a wonderful boy.   CARLO Bright   CARLO like his father. So, what shall it be then?     CARLO The Church, or the Crusade?   DA VINCI Surely he’s a little bit young to be making such decisions?   CARLO Nonsense.     CARLO When I was his age, I knew precisely where I belonged   CARLO who I was to be. Perhaps you wish to make things, like your father.   CARLO Design glorious weapons of death and destruction.   DA VINCI I don’t do that anymore.   CARLO Pity.   LUCREZIA Andrea, eat.   CARLO Your father, Andrea. How much do you know of his achievements?   ANDREA He burned the Book of Leaves, saved us all from the Sons of Mithras   CARLO However, in some ways, the burning was not your father’s   CARLO greatest achievement.   DA VINCI Oh, you flatter me, major. But surely your exploits would make for a better tale?   CARLO Your father’s greatest triumph   CARLO He overcame his worst enemy.   DA VINCI Do you mean the bastard son of Florence?   LUCREZIA Leo.   CARLO He overcame his own soul.   CARLO There was a time your father despised the Labyrinth and its teachings.   CARLO He conspired against us. Refused to become one. Despised me too. Wanted my head on a platter.   CARLO But do not be cross with him. As I have said, he defeated his inner darkness.   CARLO And on that fateful day, your father   CARLO stood amidst the embers of a dying city   CARLO his beloved Florence aflame. He opened the Book of Leaves and read the words he knew would destroy that wretched work   CARLO forever.   ANDREA Father’s promised to take me to the Decennial.   ANDREA I’ll get to see Rome.   CARLO You shall sit by my side, as your father receives   CARLO tribute from the Architect himself.   LUCREZIA Andrea   LUCREZIA your father and I are yet   LUCREZIA to make that decision.   DA VINCI Yes we have.     DA VINCI You’re not coming to Rome.   ANDREA But you promised.   DA VINCI I know.   ANDREA You said I could meet the Architect. Maybe even walk the Labyrinth.     DA VINCI Your mother and I have discussed it   ANDREA She hates Rome! She never wanted   ANDREA me to go. Father, you don’t have to listen to her!   LUCREZIA Andrea. Go to your room. I shan’t have such talk at my table. Go to your room!   ANDREA I won’t go!   DA VINCI You heard your mother. Go!   CARLO This is for the best.   CARLO I was loath to speak before the boy. But, I didn’t   CARLO come all this way to simply sup with and old friend.   DA VINCI We assumed so.   CARLO The road to Rome has grown very dangerous.   CARLO Murderous bands of heretics litter the countryside. I killed one.   CARLO A young man   CARLO from your city of Florence, I believe. We cut out his tongue. So he shall no longer speak heresy.   CARLO Then his eyes   CARLO So he shall die in darkness CARLO and then we nailed him to the rotting branches of a CARLO dead tree.   LUCREZIA He cried himself to sleep again. He wouldn’t even speak to me. Oh God, I’m so sorry about all of this.   DA VINCI Don’t be. It’s the rest of the damned world that has a problem. It’s not you.   LUCREZIA Don’t go to Rome. Please don’t leave us.   DA VINCI Even if I stayed, you know they have to go.   LUCREZIA I know.   DA VINCI I’ll go to Rome with Carlo and his men. They won’t harm me. I’m their hero.   LUCREZIA If you take the page, could you If you read from it. Could you destroy them?   ZOROASTER You forgot to sign it.   ZOROASTER I’m no genius   ZOROASTER but I know when to use a decoy. I see your curiosity still gets the better of you   DA VINCI It’s been a problem, hasn’t it?   ZOROASTER If I’m remembering correctly, that particular trait of yours got us into our fair share of trouble.   DA VINCI The world was once a much simpler place.   ZOROASTER No argument there. Though I hated it at the time. What I wouldn’t give to be just your scrounger again.   DA VINCI My scrounger did help me construct a submersible machine   ZOROASTER Nearly got us killed.   DA VINCI But it worked it worked.   ZOROASTER You want to see it, don’t you?   DA VINCI Very much so.   ZOROASTER Vanessa.   ZOROASTER Time to show him the real thing.   DA VINCI The words are like quicksilver. Never the same twice.   CARLO Don’t!   CARLO Speak one word, and it will be your last. Put the page on the table, and step away.     CARLO Now!     CARLO Take these two heretics and give them the chance to become one.   DA VINCI No. No, they are my friends. If any harm comes to them, the Architect will hear of this.   CARLO We’re a long way from home, Da Vinci. Take them!   VANESSA You can fix this. It’s not too late, but you have to wake up!     DA VINCI No no no no       DA VINCI Arrrrrggghhhhh! No no   RIARIO May I ask   ASTERION That is why you are here.   RIARIO Da Vinci’s resistance. Have you ever seen anything like it before.   ASTERION Once. Me.   ASTERION As the Architect before me tried to guide my path through the Labyrinth, I resisted.   RIARIO What form did your resistance take?   ASTERION I found myself in a maze of my own making, a world unto itself. A past, present, future. Playing out on a stage trapped. I was adrift. A lost soul, lost within myself.   RIARIO How did you defeat this madness?   ASTERION Not madness   ASTERION An Inner life. Shadows on the cave wall. Who’s to say a lifetime cannot pass in an instant?   ASTERION Cradle to grave is but a drop in the water.   RIARIO How did your Architect guide you out?   ASTERION After hours of guidance   ASTERION he threw me a lifeline. A desperate, dangerous one. He poisoned me. With this.       RIARIO Poison?   ASTERION Choosing life is meaningless unless death is a choice as well.     ASTERION You fear for Leonardo?   RIARIO He is he is a unique mind.   ASTERION Which makes him a danger to us all.   RIARIO You believe we are better off without him?   ASTERION Until every child lives by his divine doctrine, God’s tether to this world remains precarious. Da Vinci and those like him, threaten his very existence.   RIARIO Something has happened.     ASTERION There are whispers amongst the blades. The sons of Mithras seek a lost page from the Book of Leaves. If they use it to achieve their enlightenment, it will be at the expense of all we hold dear.     ASTERION It will assure the death of faith   ASTERION Da Vinci will leave here as one of us, or he will not leave at all. Fear not, this elixir helped me make the right choice. I trust it shall do the same for him.   ZOROASTER I’m almost happy for her.   ZOROASTER The losses she’s suffered. The pain she woke up with every day. Maybe she’s at peace now. Maybe they’re all at peace now   ZOROASTER If you believe that sort of thing.   DA VINCI I’m not sure what I believe. I’m not sure of anything anymore.   ZOROASTER You’re a far cry from the man I sailed the ocean with to wherever-the-fuck-that-was. The Da Vinci I knew then, tempted fate with his own purpose. He knew what he wanted from the world and he made it happen. I would have done anything for that man.     ASTERION We’ve nothing to do but wait until the dawn.     ASTERION If he survives, he will be with us.   RIARIO And if he does not?   ASTERION He will not be against us. Either way, we prevail.   CARLO We are the horns of the In     ZOROASTER This is for my friend Nico, the one you killed on the road.     ZOROASTER And this is for Vanessa. The one you killed     ZOROASTER last night.   ZOROASTER This is because I feel like it   ZOROASTER you bastard!   DA VINCI Zo!     DA VINCI We need him alive.     ZOROASTER I won’t kill him.     ZOROASTER Just     ZOROASTER making him bleed.   DA VINCI There’s someone coming. It’s the Lieutenant.     DA VINCI Stop there!   DA VINCI We have your major, he is alive, and our captive.   TALUS Prove to me he is alive.   ZOROASTER Say something.   CARLO I’m alive, Lieutenant!   ZOROASTER Good boy.     DA VINCI We’re coming out to talk terms.   LT TALUS Understood.   DA VINCI I will go with you to Rome     DA VINCI for the ceremony, the Decennial. But I will leave behind Major De’ Medici. Under our guard.   DA VINCI There, I will get assurances personally, from the Architect, that our bargain is intact. That my family   DA VINCI is safe. Upon my return with these assurances, your Major will be released.   LT TALUS What of the heretic?     DA VINCI He will be free to live whatever life he chooses. DA VINCI And if I hear that any harm has come to him or my family, your major will die. CARLO You are a dutiful son are you not? Your parents have been deceived by these heretics. They wish to harm your mother and father and turn them against the Labyrinth. Do you understand?   ANDREA Yes.   CARLO You are a good son of the Labyrinth. Find a knife.   LUCREZIA Andrea?   CARLO cut my bonds, so I may free your parents   CARLO and we can become one   LUCREZIA Don’t you ever speak to him again. Don’t even look at him. He will poison you with his vile ways and his evil faith. Do you hear me? Andrea, he is a killer, he and his kind have brought nothing but pain and suffering to this world. They teach hate and lies. And I will die before I see you become a good son of the Labyrinth, do you hear me? Andrea, are you listening to me?   ANDREA Yes mother.   LUCREZIA Good. Why don’t you go to your room, get some rest.   ZOROASTER They’re coming!       ZOROASTER No no no!   LUCREZIA Andrea! CARLO We are the unity within the beast, we are one   ANDREA We are one.   CARLO We are one.   ANDREA We are one.   CARLO We are the unity within the beast we are one   LUCREZIA No!   VANESSA Wake up Leo, wake up Leo   DA VINCI Nooooo!   LUCREZIA Wake up Leo, wake up Leo   VANESSA Wake up, Leo. Wake up.   ANDREA Father!     DA VINCI Andrea! I’m sorry I love you, but you’re not real. You’re not real, none of this is real none of this is real you’re not real none of this is real I have to wake up.   DA VINCI I have to wake up wake up     DA VINCI I have to wake up and fight   ZOROASTER What the hell is this about?   ZOROASTER Your men said bring to bring a cart and enough food and water for a long journey. ZOROASTER Shit!     LUCREZIA What happened?   RIARIO We were tracking Carlo de’ Medici when we were ambushed. Da Vinci was captured, I was left for dead.   ZOROASTER Where’s Carlo now?   RIARIO Gone. It’s as though he knew we were coming.   RIARIO You must take him back to Florence. He’ll be safe there.     ZOROASTER Give me a hand!     LUCREZIA What have they done to you?     LUCREZIA When he wakes up he will only see you.   ZOROASTER You’re not coming with us?   LUCREZIA I will see you again, but not before I’ve proved my worth to Leo and to myself.       DA VINCI You look like shit.   ZOROASTER I was worried the Labyrinth had turned you, but no   ZOROASTER You are still an ass.   DA VINCI Riario, he saved me.   RIARIO I couldn’t believe it either.   DA VINCI It would have been easier if he didn’t. If they’d just made me into one of them. Not having to think for myself.   ZOROASTER What the hell are you on about?   DA VINCI I had a vision. Of what might have been. Of what still could be. I was married. I had a family. But the cost   ZOROASTER Hey, you sure you’re ok?     DA VINCI What’s this?   ZOROASTER Ah, a souvenir, pulled it off a dead Turk. Could be worth a few florins!   DA VINCI Where are we?   ZOROASTER We shall be in Florence by morning. At least I think we will. You don’t happen to have a map in that journal of yours by any chance do you?   ZOROASTER Not that I doubt my obvious superior navigation skills, it’s just that dirt roads tend to look the same when you haven’t slept.