The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

Pull it back!

- Winch it back?

- It's too dense. Bring it back!

Don't move!

'Griffin!

'Griffin! Griffin!'

Griffin, here! Wake up!

What did I do?

We called you and splashed you,

and still you didn't wake.

Griffin!

That's the fourth time this week!

- Will you get out of the water?

- A cathedral...

...people...

- ...digging in the earth.

- Aw, Griffin!

No, it's true!

It's true, it's true, it's true!

Our Griffin gets out of bed

with angels in his head! Ha-ha!

No, no. It were the omens first.

Where did they start?

I'm talking about the peddler

who was here on Monday last.

"Find a lump under your arm at breakfast

and you're dead by noon," he said.

It's Connor I'm worried about.

If something is abroad,

why isn't he back yet?

It's been too long.

I'll find him.

Tomorrow I'll go.

The thought of him out there...

not knowing.

Griffin... the sun's on the west wall.

You're going to be late!

Dreamers will be clothed in rags, Griffin.

Oh, leave the bairn alone.

Wasn't the one you had up there

big enough?

There's been enough ill fortune come

down on this house for ten families.

If sickness gets this far,

we'll need something to protect us.

You're lagging!

Come on, bog food!

You be bellwether boy, Griffin.

Go on, hurry,

we'll catch you up.

Go on, off you go now, boy!

It's come out of the east,

killing people, drawing closer.

Do you remember the peddler

who brought the faggots?

"By the hundreds," he said.

"They were falling dead without warning."

Aye, I don't like it.

Chrissie!

Come on, Griffin. If Connor arrives,

Old Chrissie will let you know.

Count on it, Griffin.

Connor's sharp,

he knows the ways of the world.

He'll be fine.

Are you right there, lad?

Down you go.

Down to hell.

For the mining of it.

So, how many days has he gone now?

Thirty-six.

Well, bear up, lad,

it's work that drives away worry.

And with witches' spikes on our roofs,

we'll all be protected.

There's talk of places

that Death just skips right over.

An offering to God would make us safe.

An offering would mean a journey,

wouldn't it, Searle?

We'd take an offering to the big cities.

- You?

- They'd draw back the curtain.

They'd show us the holy relics.

Saint Augustine's finger bone...

...and the feathers

from Archangel Gabriel.

Ulf, you've never been outside

of the village before.

But none of us have.

And I wouldn't want to, neither.

Look at Connor, God spare him.

He's still not back.

I tell you fair,

I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

Griffin! It's Connor!

- Go on.

- It's Connor!

- Connor!

- Connor's come!

Connor... Connor!

Wait! Wait, Chrissie!

Hold it, we're coming up.

Easy! Hold on, Griffin.

Connor!

- Hold on.

- Easy!

Connor!

Come on, Chrissie! Faster!

Back again, is he,

your wandering brother?

Oh, come on, Chrissie!

- Griffin!

- Connor!

Connor, you're back! It's a miracle!

Look at them,

you'd think they were married.

Tomorrow I was going to go out

and find you.

How would you have done that?

Flown like a bird,

I'd have borrowed Black Jacob's horse!

You would, eh?

You won't go away like that

no more, Con, will you?

No, never. Never.

Look.

It is a new method

for counting your devotions.

They make them of oak for great lords,

rosewood for liege ladies.

This one's made from hawthorn, Griffin.

It's a scraggy tree, small and tough.

Reminded me of someone.

It's the same tree

they make axes from, Griffin.

Axlewood.

If I am a big wheel on the move,

still it's you at my heart.

You and Linnet.

- Connor!

- Look, here she comes.

Connor!

If you had not come back...

I can feel it growing, Connor.

It's over eight month gone now.

God, I don't know what

I would've done if you'd not...

Oh, the dog's nose started to bleed

and wouldn't stop.

We took it for a bad sign.

I thought for sure you were lost.

Con!

Searle! Martin!

Connor! Oh, you're back!

So strange to see people smiling.

What's happening out there, Con?

We've heard the stories.

We've got to do something, yes?

We could meet tonight.

Alright, alright, alright!

There's a powerful evil on the move.

Connor has seen it.

A pestilence which hops forward

on the full moon, he says.

Do we panic it or do we plan?

Tell them, Arno!

A week back, I ferried a monk

across the lake.

He spoke of a great church

being built in the West.

He says it's highest in Christendom.

There's pilgrims come from everywhere

with timber for its construction.

You make an offering,

you stop Death.

No, the church is too far!

It's beyond further reaches

of Earth, I heard.

Across mountains, across seas,

past horrors there aren't even

names for.

We've got to go, Searle,

there's pilgrims on every road.

With Connor to lead the party,

we'd do it.

Yes, we can do it.

He knows the outside world

better than anyone of us.

- What do you say, Connor?

- Aye, Connor?

I've seen pilgrims, Martin.

I've seen so many bodies, there weren't

enough living to bury the dead.

I've seen mobs chasing monks

from their abbeys

for refusing last rites to dying.

It's these same monks that head West

as pilgrims might.

They're people no more than animals.

You can trust no one.

Children...

...begged me for food.

I didn't dare go near them.

They had black boils

under their armpits ready to burst,

and they denied plague

was upon them.

All the churches are empty.

And still not satisfied, the evil keeps

striding forward with each full moon.

We've got a month, maybe two,

with a scrap of God's grace.

We could do it.

Reach the church and raise

a spike of Cumbrian copper.

- Aye!

- With you or Searle to lead our party.

Aye, 'tis our best chance.

Show the faith.

Here's to taking it!

To our journey!

Then Searle must do it.

Connor must do it!

I am sick of all the death.

Looters on the lake!

Con! Come on!

I never thought I'd see the day

when you'd stay put.

You're amongst friends now, Connor.

Looters!

From across the cliffs!

The Stonecutters' village!

On the lake! Pillagers!

It's the far village!

- Are they armed?

- Aye, look!

- Not pillagers.

- No, there's women and children onboard.

Refugees from the East.

They're scared, scared of the Death.

Somebody fetch spears.

We'd best keep guard ourselves.

I heard a story once,

about them old pits up behind the mine.

They reckon there's a hole up there

so deep...

...if you'd dropped a stone down it,

sooner or later it'd fall out

the far side of the Earth.

The copper... an offering.

We've got to take the offering, Con!

To the great church,

to the far side of the Earth.

Look.

There is no time

for your journey, Martin. It's plague.

And if they have the Death,

then it's too late.

It'll have hopped 20 mile on

from Gosford by morning.

Its full moon bears contagion for it

like a sack.

At sunrise, she lets it fall... on us.

Help!

Griffin! Griffin! What is it?

- Are you alright?

- Griffin! What's wrong?

- Wake up, Griffin!

- Griffin, wake up!

Griffin! What's wrong, Griffin?

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