Mercy Seat

INT. PALACE CHAPEL. DAY

CLEMENT: I wish I could be there with you.

MOLAY: I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

CLEMENT: I dream about it every night. I sit atop a great black steed, sword over my head, my body wet with the blood of the infidels.

MOLAY: Too many of my days have ended like that.

CLEMENT: All the men returning home tell stories about you. You’re a great hero, Sir Molay!

MOLAY: I dread the stories you’ve heard.

CLEMENT: Great armies clashing in the sands. Men screaming their last screams, heads and limbs falling away under your blade, three men with each strike. Is it true?

MOLAY: (bitterly) Every word.

CLEMENT: A knight came this way that even said he met you once. He was a grizzled old monster, seven feet tall and as wide as a house. He looked more like some German barbarian than a Frenchman.

MOLAY: I’ve met a thousand men that fit that description.

CLEMENT: He said the Knights Templar were trying to kill him.

MOLAY: Why would we want to do that?

CLEMENT: Because he knows where you hid the Ark of the Covenant.

MOLAY forces a chuckle.

MOLAY: There is no Ark anywhere in the Holy Land, trust me.

CLEMENT: He said it was in Ethiopia.

MOLAY: It’s a children’s story.

CLEMENT: He told of a little village in the mountains, where a Heathen temple housed God's Holy Ark, guarded by warriors in Templar crosses.

MOLAY attempts to leave. CLEMENT steps in front of him.

MOLAY: Get out of my way.

CLEMENT draws his sword.

CLEMENT: I’ll cut you down where you stand.

MOLAY: Do what you must.

MOLAY moves to exit. CLEMENT puts the tip of his sword to Molay’s breast.

CLEMENT: I’ll do it!

MOLAY: Then stop talking.

MOLAY pushes the blade away.

Continued tomorrow.