Two Winters Past

INT. LOGAN’S ROOM. EVENING

FADE IN:

The last of the daylight  casts the room in dim greys.

LOGAN is sleeping in the bed.

TIFF is sitting in a chair by the window.

RICHARDS bursts in holding a candle.

LOGAN wakes up.

RICHARDS: Rider!

LOGAN dresses quickly, notices TIFF.

LOGAN: You’re still here.

TIFF: I’m sorry. You haven’t slept long.

LOGAN: Don’t be. (To RICHARDS) Where is Villoff?

RICHARDS: His men will have warned him by now.

LOGAN: Keep him off the wall.

LOGAN pushes past RICHARDS.

EXT. DEPOSIT. EVENING.

LOGAN enters from the school.

Barabas are forming ranks.

LOGAN: Form up! Form up! Every available man in the yard!

The Barabas force is pitifully small in the empty yard.

LOGAN continues to the wall, climbs a ladder, looks over the edge.

MEHEMET is before the sealed gate. He wears full battle dress with a pounded steel breastplate. In one hand he holds a torch. His other hand is extended and empty.

LOGAN: (shouting) Declare yourself.

CLOSEUP: MEHEMET smiles.

MEHEMET: You are a king?

LOGAN: I am first among the Barabas.

MEHEMET: I am Mehemet, called Mehemet the Great! I am called the Deliverer! I am called the Slaughterer!

LOGAN: I know none of those names.

MEHEMET: But you may still survive to do so. I am so impressed by your defense that placate myself here in easy range of your arrows and bullets. Why is it your men do not shoot? You shot my son from a greater distance. Why now do you hold your fire?

LOGAN: If you come to surrender, we accept only when your army has returned to Damascus.

RICHARDS is wrestling to keep VILLOFF from climbing the ladder.

MEHEMET laughs.

MEHEMET: One is not called ‘the Great’ for backing down. One is not called, ‘the Slaughterer’ for his surrenders.

VILLOFF gets to the top of the ladder. RICHARDS follows, but there is no room for him on the catwalk to stand.

MEHEMET: I beg of you to let me collect these men so their bones may return to their families. I permit you to leave to do the same. While they work, you may consider one final offer of peace, as you have earned the generosity of the Deliverer.

CLOSEUP: Camera circles MEHEMET as he talks.

MEHEMET: Peace remains my goal for Deposit. You may still open your gates to me, and I will grant forgiveness to every man who accepts the grace of Allah. All may choose between truth and the sword, even you, first among the Barabas!

Slow zoom in to LOGAN.

LOGAN: We need no time to answer.

MEHEMET: (laughs) I suggest you ask your soldiers first. Your walls will not survive our next assault. This is my promise. If you allow my soldiers to gather our dead, and you open your gates in peace, there will be mercy to every man but the man who shot my son. That man will learn his fate when I decide it.

MEHEMET rides slowly away, signalling.

Torches ignite, and a team of Damascans with stretchers and wagons rush into the field and begin the collection of bodies.

Continued tomorrow