The Kingdom of Heaven Page #14

BALIAN:

This house is yours.

SIBYLLA:

(staring into the light)

Why am I here?

BALIAN sits down beside her.

BALIAN:

I know that Ibelin is not on the

way to Cana.

Sibylla smiles. Her eyes luminous.

SIBYLLA:

What else do you know, my lord?

(CONTINUED)

67.

CONTINUED:

BALIAN:

I know that your are a princess and

that I am no lord. Nor do I wish to

be.

SIBYLLA:

You are a knight.

BALIAN:

Not proved.

Sibylla looks up at Balian.

SIBYLLA:

I do not stay on here with you

because I am bored, or wicked. I am

here because... in the East... one

may decide...

(a beat)

...because in the East between one

person and another there is only

light.

BALIAN raises her face and kisses her. He carries her back

against a pillar.

INT. THE ROOFTOP “BEDROOM” AT IBELIN. NIGHT

SIBYLLA, sitting in the bed, takes one by one the rings from

her hennaed hands.

SIBYLLA:

This is from France, which I have

not seen...I have never been to

France...This for my brother...This

to remind us of death...This I

bought the day I saw you...

BALIAN:

You lie.

SIBYLLA laughs, admitting it, gets up on her knees, puts a

ring on a chain she has take from around her neck and puts it

around his neck and kisses him. Leaving Balian staring after

her she goes to the window, wrapped in silk, and takes up a

broken pomegranate from the table. With a silver in she eats

the seeds. BALIAN goes and takes the in from her, and sets

the POMERGRANATE down.

Sibylla looks up at him.

SIBYLLA:

But I’m hungry.

(CONTINUED)

68.

CONTINUED:

He kisses her. Balian’s been out of the game for a while. He

carries her back to the bed.

EXT. THE DESERT. DAWN

CAMELS laden with dyed goods move along, bells tinkling.

Three of the merchant’s daughters ride in camel howdahs.

A MUSLIM TRADING CARAVAN moves across the wide desert. Two

hundred camels. it has with it a small force of calvary,

riding in a file.

A HILLTOP. TWO RIDERS CREST IT.

GUY and REYNALD sit their horses and stare towards the

Muslims. They are at the head of a little over 50 knights,

including fanatical TEMPLARS. Destriers restless. Ready as

the men are to fight.

REYNALD:

(near-sighted)

Do you see them?

GUY:

(smoothly)

How could I? I am not here.

(a beat)

This caravan is armed, Reynald.

A CRY FROM BELOW as they are spotted. The MUSLIM FORCE

spreads out, arches on horseback, forming a line between the

Crusaders and the now hastening caravan. The TEMPLAR MASTER

rides up beside them.

Bloodthirsty.

TEMPLAR MASTER:

God wills it.

REYNALD draws his sword. A ride detaches and streaks away

across the desert. GUY notices.

GUY:

A rider got away.

REYNALD:

(unconcerned)

It’s a broad desert. Nothing will

of it. Nothing...

(laughs)

or the apocalypse.

(CONTINUED)

69.

CONTINUED:

GUY:

I prefer to not be hanged before my

wife is queen.

REYNALD:

Does that make you king? I have

never been sure.

GUY:

Close enough.

REYNALD:

(riding along the ridge)

Don’t worry. Who but Reynald? they

will say. It’s always me!

(belches)

They will believe it at Jerusalem,

I assure you. And Damascus. You

were at Nazareth, praying.

GUY:

(drawing sword)

You’re a clever man.

REYNALD:

On the other hand, how long can the

leper last? Not long. If the war is

to be now or later I would have it

now.

GUY nods. He’s thinking that as well.

GUY:

Now.

The KNIGHTS charge. Reverse it. The CAMELS and people are

running. Men grabbing weapons of every kind. The heavy

knights smash through the defenders, killing everyone they

come near. People trying to surrender are killed. We see the

TEMPLARS killing with particular savagery. Leave the fight in

the dust, the knights murdering, the camels running, silks

and silver spilling...It’s over almost at once. GUY, covered

with blood, wheels his horse.

REYNALD rides up to: The MUSLIM GRANDEE. The man he paid off

at the palace.

REYNALD:

You.

He splits him in half.

70.

EXT. THE ROOFTOP BEDROOM AT IBELIN. DAWN

Wind is rising. BALIAN covers Sibylla with more blankets. She

stares hauntedly, hollowly. She has been crying. Stares off.

BALIAN:

Why do you cry?

SIBYLLA:

Because I go in the morning.

BALIAN:

Stay.

SIBYLLA:

I have a dying brother, and a child

who will be king.

CLOSE ON BALIAN, CONSIDERING THIS ENORMOUS FACT.

SIBYLLA (CONT'D)

As for us, the world will decide.

The world always decides.

EXT. COURTYARD AT IBELIN. DAY

A dust storm rising. Wind in the palms. Sibylla’s lancers are

mounted.

BALIAN helps Sibylla into the saddle. They are awkward,

observed, infinitely sad. As she bitterly turns her horse,

there is a commotion OS. People pointing. BALIAN leaves

Sibylla and moves through the crowd to see:

BALIAN’S POV:

A MUSLIM in a blood-stained gown is stumbling through the

palms, crying for water, for help

BALIAN stares as his people rush forward and we go to:

INT. THE THRONE ROOM. JERUSALEM. DAY

An assembly of the powers of the land. Set up like the House

of Commons, with Templars and Guy’s party on one side,

Hospitalers and loyalists on the other. The king wearing a

mask of silver, looking at GUY and TIBERIAS, who stand before

him.

GUY:

Maybe Reynald did attack a caravan.

But what of it? War is inevitable.

Peace...unnatural.

(CONTINUED)

71.

CONTINUED:

TEMPLAR MASTER:

(like a man speaking in

tongues)

It was no caravan. It was an army

headed for Bethlehem to desecrate

the birthplace of Our Lord.

TIBERIAS:

(exasperated)

Reynald, with the Templars, I am

sure-

TEMPLARS:

Lie! Lie!

TIBERIAS:

...have broken the king’s pledge of

peace. Saladin will come into this

kingdom...

GUY:

Tiberias knows more than a

Christian should about Saladin’s

intentions.

Uproar among the BARONS. TIBERIAS goes close to GUY.

TIBERIAS:

What do you say?

GUY:

That you love the Saracens.

A close moment. TIBERAIS very close to Guy.

TIBERIAS:

That I would rather live with

people than kill them is certainly

why you are alive.

GUY:

That sort of Christianity has its

uses. I suppose.

TIBERIAS:

(to court)

We cannot have war with Saladin. We

will not win it. And, yes, we do

not want it.

TEMPLARS:

Blashpemy, blasphemy.

(CONTINUED)

72.

CONTINUED:
(2)

TEMPLAR MASTER:

Blasphemy. An army of Jesus Christ

which bears his holy cross cannot

be beaten. Does the Count of

Tiberias suggest that it could be?

An uproar among the divided parties.

TEMPLAR MASTER (CONT'D)

There must be war. God wills it.

TEMPLARS:

God wills it. God wills it. God

wills it.

TIBERIAS:

(roaring at the whole

court)

Then pray Jerusalem that God will

win it, for in the end we shall

not.

The hall falls silent. A MESSENGER has entered. He moves

forward, and speaks to the King. The King raises his masked

face.

THE KING:

Saladin has crossed the Jordan.

With two hundred thousand men.

TIBERIAS:

He will go first for Kerak.

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