CARLO CATERINA CRONE DA_VINCI GUARD LAURA_CERETA LORENZO LUCREZIA NICO RIARIO SIXTUS SOPHIA VANESSA VLAD ZOROASTER LAURA CERETA Lorenzo de’ Medici has returned     LORENZO From this day forth, Florence   LORENZO stands alone.   DA VINCI You have to support the Crusade.   DA VINCI An alliance with Rome is the only way we win.   LORENZO We cannot win. We can only survive.   ZOROASTER I know of one man powerful enough to turn the tide in our favourVlad   ZOROASTER The Ottomans     ZOROASTER stole his armour. You get the armours secrets and the Crusade gets the man   ZOROASTER made it.   LAURA CERETA We can forgive Lorenzo, as I have forgiven you   LUCREZIA There is a girl. She’s your sister. She’s in danger.     LUCREZIA You need to find her, before it’s too late.     CATERINA Your brother will protect you   SOPHIA My brother? Leonardo?   CATERINA You must   DA VINCI Sophia! Sophia!   CARLO I wouldn’t.   LAURA CERETA Girolamo?   LAURA CERETA Have you seen Count Riario?   GUARD No, I think he left camp before sunrise.   LAURA CERETA Girolamo? Girolamo?   LAURA CERETA Your Holiness. Apologies for disturbing you from your prayers.   SIXTUS Signora Cereta, if only by the grace of God do I believe you.   LAURA CERETA The guards say Count Riario left camp before sunrise.   SIXTUS Left?     SIXTUS To go where?   LAURA CERETA I was hoping you would know.     LORENZO When you were alive, I took you for granted. Now that you are gone   LORENZO I can’t stop thinking about you. You always managed to critique my decisions   LORENZO while at the same time buoying my spirits.   LORENZO I wish you were here to do that now. For I’ve made choices, my dear   LORENZO that at best are radical, and at worst   LORENZO lethal. RIARIO Lorenzo de’ Medici.   LORENZO Count Riario. Have you come here to kill me?   LORENZO Do you really believe that that will rekindle   LORENZO the momentum of your doomed Crusade?   RIARIO I am not here to kill but to confess. To repent for my sins. Your wife was not murdered by a Turk assassin     RIARIO I did it. I took her life.     LORENZO You?   ZOROASTER Shhhhhh!     ZOROASTER Come here     NICO Some of them are still alive.   ZOROASTER Huh?   ZOROASTER Stop trying to frighten me, Nico.   NICO I’ve heard it can takes three days for an impaled man to die.   ZOROASTER Well, let’s hope we don’t have that to look forward to.   NICO I wish Leo were here.   ZOROASTER Leo trusted me to get Vlad on our side. I’m not gonna let him down. Here     ZOROASTER Slide this under the gate.   NICO Me? What about you?   ZOROASTER I’m gonna stay here and keep watch for any Draconian Guards, or large bats     NICO Dear Vlad, most honourable Impaler, please don’t kill us, we   NICO Please don’t kill us?! This is your fucking plan? Pass Vlad a fucking note? Fuck you Zo!   ZOROASTER Shhhhh! We can’t just bang on his front door, can we?! Leo set him on fire! Remember? We rammed him out of a window on the end of a fucking crucifix!   NICO I should never have come.   ZOROASTER Don’t be afraid, I will keep you safe.   NICO Zo!     VLAD’S GUARD Grab him! Stay where you are! Don’t move!     VLAD’S GUARD Drop your sword! Drop it!     VLAD You trespass at the gates of hell.   VLAD Yet are ill prepared for confrontation.   NICO Vlad   VLAD I regret killing your friend so quickly. But for you, I will save time for cruelty.   ZOROASTER Arrrrghhh   VLAD Ah! The mongrel lives.   ZOROASTER Recognise the armour, Vlad?     VLAD The armour of the Dragon. It is defiled by your musk. You will suffer for its theft.   NICO No, no! We didn’t steal it. We brought it back!   VLAD Pathetic excuse, boy.   ZOROASTER It’s true. It’s true! We took it off the invaders at Otranto. Every Turk in the Sultan’s army wears your armour! We can’t defeat them without your help.     VLAD Take them inside.     VLAD Have them prepared   VLAD for dinner.   CARLO It’s fitting we’re on ground so holy to your order.   DA VINCI This ground is not hallowed.   CARLO The Sons of Mithras would disagree.   DA VINCI I’m not with the Sons of Mithras.   CARLO You would have done well to join the Labyrinth.   CARLO To walk with us. Brothers in arms.   DA VINCI Is that? That’s why   DA VINCI you’re here? To complete my conversion?     CARLO You shall join or you shall die. You’ve made your choice, Da Vinci.   CARLO Go! Prepare the Calvariae Locus.     DA VINCI The place of the Skull?   CARLO The Bible called it Golgotha. Jesus of Nazareth had one.     CARLO Now you will get yours.     CARLO You’re thinking of escape?   DA VINCI Of course.   DA VINCI And once I’m free, I’ll kill you.     CARLO Perhaps. CARLO But not before we finish what we started in Florence.     DA VINCI Arrrgggghhhh..!     DA VINCI Arrrrrggghhh..!   LAURA CERETA What is happening here?   CRONE They caught him! The true Monster of Italy!   LAURA CERETA Let me through! Stop this! Stop this! Stop this at once!   LAURA CERETA Count Riario is not innocent..   LAURA CERETA but he is not guilty either.   VANESSA He confessed.   LAURA CERETA Illness took away his right mind. I beg for your mercy, my Lord.   LORENZO He is not worthy of mercy.   LAURA CERETA Your Da Vinci cured him. Leonardo swore that he would never again return to madness.     LORENZO My Da Vinci?! Leonardo now serves Rome.     LORENZO He’s turned his back on Florence   LORENZO and hid a bloody assassin in our midst. If Leonardo returns to Florence, he will be executed for treason.     VANESSA She uses Leo’s name to sell her lie. Without him here to disagree. You’d say anything to save Riario.     VANESSA I can see it in your eyes. Innocence or guilt be damned, you are in love with him.     LAURA CERETA Only a tyrant would condemn a man without a trial. Is Florence no longer a free thinking republic?     LORENZO There is no need for a trial! There is no doubt   LORENZO of his guilt. Count Riario has confessed.   LORENZO now, get back to your craven master, Sixtus. Before we put you on trial for abetting the killer of the Mother of Florence.   VANESSA There may be value in a trail.   LORENZO Why delay the inevitable? I would make a speech and the people would condemn him to a formal execution. No, he deserves to die in the streets, like the rabid dog he is!   VANESSA Then have the trial. Let all of Italy know what he did and prove to them that you are not a tyrant, but an enlightened Medici.     LORENZO I appreciate your counsel, Vanessa.   VLAD Come. Join me for a repast, please.     ZOROASTER That’s quite the spread.   VLAD Mmm     ZOROASTER You look well, Vlad.   VLAD Are you surprised?   ZOROASTER Well, last time we saw you, you were on fire.   VLAD My flesh does not burn.   NICO You fell   VLAD My bones do not break.   NICO The loss of blood?   VLAD I have all the blood I require.     VLAD Mmmm! It’s just delicious! Would you?   ZOROASTER You know what they say, eat rotten meat, you’ll pay for it later in your bed pan.   VLAD No, no, no.     VLAD He’s not rotten. Are you?     VLAD Noooo!   NICO For the love of God!   VLAD God has no seat at my table.     ZOROASTER Steady Nico, avoid the wine.     VLAD Now, please try some of my tasty broth.   ZOROASTER Looks good.   VLAD Well naturally.     ZOROASTER Vlad. We come on   ZOROASTER official business.     ZOROASTER Italy prepares a Crusade to wipe out your old favourites, the Ottoman Turks.   ZOROASTER We need your help. And we want you to join up.   VLAD Count Vlad Draculea Tepes the Third,     VLAD Lucifer’s disciple, on a Holy Roman Crusade?   VLAD Ha!   ZOROASTER We’re marching to Otranto. To throw those fuckers into the sea. Isn’t that right, Nico?     NICO Zothe broth ZOROASTER Drugged us?   VLAD Can you blame me?     VLAD When last you visited Wallachia   VLAD you rewarded my hospitality with poison, and theft.     VLAD Now, you eat at my table. I don’t know if you’re a hero or a fool.   ZOROASTER Vlad. Please. I’m sorry.   VLAD I’ve no interest in apologies. Only in a game of penance.   LAURA CERETA Girolamo?   RIARIO You should not have come.   LAURA CERETA Your return has put our Crusade in jeopardy! Not to mention your own life.     RIARIO A life for a life.   LAURA CERETA You were not yourself when you did those things.     RIARIO What if I was? What if the murderer is the real me?   LAURA CERETA Impossible.   RIARIO How can you be so sure?   LAURA CERETA Because I cannot love a murderer.     RIARIO You gave me strength.     RIARIO And now I must use it to keep you     RIARIO as far away from the monster within as I can.   DA VINCI Arrgggghhh     DA VINCI Free me!     DA VINCI Free me!     DA VINCI Free me.   SOPHIA My brother   DA VINCI Free me.   SOPHIA Oh my God!   SOPHIA Oh my God. I know a salve to heal such wounds. Valerian root, chrysanthus, a salt water compressNone that I have     DA VINCI SophiaSophiaSophiaSophia   SOPHIA Yes.   DA VINCI I see our mother in your eyes. We have much to talk about. But now is not the time.     DA VINCI Wait wait   SOPHIA Leonardo     SOPHIA Leonardo     SOPHIA Leonardo! Leonardo! Leonardo!   DA VINCI What?   SOPHIA Our mothershe’s dead.     DA VINCI How did it happen?   SOPHIA As she was warning me about our fate.   SOPHIA Someone took a knife to her throat. I couldn’t see who.   DA VINCI Sophia     DA VINCI Our mother, she wanted for us to find one another. To survive. I will not let anything happen to you.   CARLO Bring him.   CARLO Riario saved you in Rome.     CARLO Now it’s a girl to the rescue.     DA VINCI Arrggggghhhh!     NICO Zo! Wake up!     NICO Zo, please! Zo! Zo! Help!     ZOROASTER Nico!   ZOROASTER Get him out of there now! Get him out!   VLAD I will.   VLAD If you play the game. And win. Naturally, if you lose, these blades will lacerate your young friend’s body.   VLAD Often the key to victory, is choosing the right piece to sacrifice.   VLAD Gestures for ZOROASTER to sit with him at the table where a game has been set up.   ZOROASTER Hey, I’m sorry.     ZOROASTER My grandfather was a grand master. You may as well forfeit. Save yourself the humiliation.   VLAD You can’t bluff a man without a soul.   VLAD Today we play by Wallachian rules.   VLAD During the time it takes you to decide your move, my men will adjust the blades.     NICO Arrggghhhh!   ZOROASTER Stop, stop! I get it. I get it. Stop!   VLAD In the time it takes me to move, the men will not spin the wheel. Understood?   ZOROASTER If I win, you set him free     ZOROASTER and you join us   ZOROASTER in our fight against the Turks.     VLAD Only if you make the right sacrifice. Sit.   VLAD The first move   VLAD is the most important.     ZOROASTER Game on, Vlad.   ZOROASTER That was quick. Care to reconsider?   VLAD No   VLAD I really like my move.   NICO Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckfucking move Zo!   VLAD His language is very informal.   ZOROASTER It’s only when he’s nervous.     NICO Arrrrgghhh!   VLAD Ah, so you do know how to play.   ZOROASTER Yeah. I wasn’t bluffing.     ZOROASTER Shit!   VLAD Is your champion a brilliant swindler or just a dim-witted pickpocket?     NICO Arrrggghh!     VLAD After I’ve exsanguinated the boy, I will   VLAD drain you too.   VLAD Your blood will fill my bathtub.   NICO Don’t let him distract you, Zo. Arrrrrggghhh!   ZOROASTER Oh fuck.   VLAD You know   VLAD You could always abandon your friend. The castle gate is really not very far.   ZOROASTER Shut up! Shut up!   VLAD So what is it to be?     VLAD Loyalty to your friend, or to your   VLAD own skin. Mmm?   VLAD Would he do the same for you?     NICO Arrrgghhhh!   ZOROASTER It’s check! It’s check! It’s check!   VLAD You see he wishes his real   VLAD master, Da Vinci were here to hold his hand.   ZOROASTER Check and mate! Stop!     ZOROASTER Stop the blades! Stop the blades!     VLAD Have you made the right sacrifice?   ZOROASTER The coin. Is this what you want? Yeah? Your fucking gold sultani?   VLAD Yes.   SOPHIA How does it feel?   DA VINCI It stings.   SOPHIA I meant having your vengeance. Against the man that killed that teacher of yours.   DA VINCI Verocchio was much more than a teacher. More like a father, a friend.   SOPHIA The sisters at the convent told us vengeance was a sin.   SOPHIA Yet I thought of little else on my way here. Who were they, Leo?   DA VINCI Who?   SOPHIA The men that took Lucrezia prisoner?   DA VINCI Tell me of them again.   SOPHIA Well, one was old and grey. She seemed to know him   DA VINCI Her father.   SOPHIA The other was the Commander of the Voynucks. An elite, Slavic auxiliary force within the Ottoman infantry.   DA VINCI You know, I think I know that man. We fought against him in Otranto. Sophia, I um, I don’t want to fuel your desire for vengeance, but I think he might be the man who executed our father.   SOPHIA We can find them. Together we can find them, and we can rescue Lucrezia, and we can   DA VINCI No, Sophia, look at me, look at me. Shhh, hey, one step at a time. Now, Lucrezia said you had a page. From the Book of Leaves.   SOPHIA Yes.   DA VINCI Where is it?   SOPHIA I hid it here, when I first arrived.     SOPHIA That man, Lupo, hoped I could read it. Lucky for me, he was right.   DA VINCI The Labyrinth thought I could read it too. That’s why they wanted me dead, one of many reasons.   DA VINCI It’s looks exactly the same. It’s the same. It’s the same as when I saw it in the Vatican Secret Archives. Nothing’s changed.   SOPHIA This is not what I saw.   DA VINCI What?   SOPHIA There were words, designs. That was under moonlight.   DA VINCI Moonlight? Why moonlight?   SOPHIA Lupo insisted. He said the page must be read by lunar light.     VLAD As a child I played that game with my brother. Even when we were imprisoned by the Turks, our games continued. Until he betrayed me. He joined our enemies. Abandoned me to my cell. With only Lucifer to keep me company.     NICO Is he saying he shared a cell with the devil?   ZOROASTER Just don’t antagonise him, please.     VLAD Follow me. Come.     NICO Fucking Zo. He’s crazier than Da Vinci.   VLAD My brother took with him the secret of my father’s steel and gave it to the Turks. You see, I had to be certain you were loyal men     VLAD before I could trust you to join me on my quest for vengeance.   ZOROASTER Join you? You were always going to Otranto.   VLAD Of course, but I had to be certain you could not betray me. Again. I can’t abide the company of traitors. For after all     VLAD I’m running out of room.     VLAD Perhaps there is a better use for all this armour?   SOPHIA Something about this place does not feel natural.     DA VINCI That’s precisely why we’re here. When I was a boy, I wandered down here. In there. Something inexplicable happened. Then when I came out, there was blood on my hands. I couldn’t explain it. Haunted me for years.   SOPHIA Spirits? Shadows of the dead?   DA VINCI No. No, no. Everything I saw then, it happened today. It wasn’t precisely the same, but more or less. What if, what if, everything I saw then was a glimpse of some possible future?     SOPHIA All over the world, there are rumours of places where the laws of nature don’t apply. Points of strange attraction for both time and memory.     SOPHIA Many civilisations have mapped these locations.   DA VINCI You’re making a compass?   SOPHIA Drawing lines between them, tracing what they call a River of Time.   DA VINCI There’s no true north.     DA VINCI You are a curious girl.   SOPHIA It gets me into trouble sometimes.   DA VINCI I know the feeling.   SOPHIA Do you think the strange energies in this place will help us to read?     DA VINCI Well, we’ll know soon enough.   LAURA CERETA All is not lost, your Holiness.     LAURA CERETA Lorenzo will put Riario on trial and we can defend him.     SIXTUS It will not be Riario who is on trial. It’ll be me! De’ Medici takes my Crusaders, my General. He mocks me at every turn! If any of my troops survive Otranto, they will march on Florence! To eradicate Lorenzo’s cesspool, once and for all.   LAURA CERETA A defence from your Holiness may weaken their case. Riario will only hang, if they find him guilty.   SIXTUS He is guilty.     DA VINCI There DA VINCI The plansDesigns   DA VINCI some sort of machine..   SOPHIA Machine?   DA VINCI Yes.   SOPHIA I see storm clouds.   DA VINCI What? You’re not seeing some kind of   DA VINCI mechanised device?   SOPHIA No!   SOPHIA It looks like gathering gloom, in miniature.     SOPHIA I see a bird, but without a head!   DA VINCI What we’re seeing must be, they must be related. Though, what my machine could have to do with your strange bird is beyond me.     SOPHIA Tiny lightning!     DA VINCI Sparks of heaven.   DA VINCI Ha! Ha! Right! Come with me!     DA VINCI I need to build a wooden frame. I wish Zo were here.   SOPHIA What?   DA VINCI Oh, and um, cannibalise the ironworks off the old well. Gears   DA VINCI from the music box back at the house and   DA VINCI rope and pulley from the old vineyard.   SOPHIA What about my headless bird?   DA VINCI I know of such a flying creature.   SOPHIA How?   DA VINCI Because I built one!   VANESSA We’ve all leaned on you so much since your return. Never truly considering your ordeal. You need rest. You need to heal.     VANESSA You’re not alone, Lorenzo. You’re not alone.     DA VINCI Sophia! Come on! What are we waiting for?   SOPHIA Coming!   DA VINCI It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s simple but it’s intricately complex. It’s ancient but it’s also modern.   SOPHIA What happens when the crystals align?   DA VINCI I assume it acts as a lens and focuses the light.     DA VINCI Ah, the winglet, acts as a vertical projection near the tail end. It’s a tricky to manage. Be careful how you attach it.   SOPHIA But will it fly?   DA VINCI Yes.   SOPHIA You seem very confident.   DA VINCI Well, I devised something very similar for an old apprentice of mine. It bore him aloft without harm, so you’re headless bird, it will hug the clouds, Sophia.   SOPHIA But for what purpose?   DA VINCI Let’s find out.   DA VINCI You ready?   SOPHIA Yeah!   DA VINCI Alright. Right, I’ll take that     SOPHIA Ok.   DA VINCI Both hands, both hands. This way, this waythat’s it. Good. It’s quite a distance. OK. Right. You set?   SOPHIA OK!     DA VINCI Hold it there. You got it?   SOPHIA Yeah, OK.   DA VINCI Now keep still! Just hold it still.   DA VINCI Got it?   SOPHIA Yeah.     DA VINCI Rightright, ready?   SOPHIA Yeah!     DA VINCI Now!   DA VINCI Ha! That’s it, that’s it!   DA VINCI That’s what you saw?   SOPHIA Yes.   DA VINCI Well that’s certainly what I saw. The specifications were clear. It was a series of pulleys and gears, yes, attached by a metal permeated cable to your headless bird.     DA VINCI I thought the wind would activate it.   SOPHIA The crystal mechanism. Does it rotate?   DA VINCI Shit! Can you feel that?     SOPHIA The hairs on my arms are standing up!     SOPHIA What’s happening?