John Gielgud

What greets them is an astonishing world like no other place on earth-one that the West could never even conceive of. Here they discover something called time pieces, learn the advantages of paper currency and an imperial postal system for exchanging messages. They enjoy such strange delicacies as ice cream and pasta, and witness the awesome implications of the advanced weaponry of an empire under draconian rule.

After making a last stand at the embassy, Ash journeys home. There, he learns that Anjuli's husband is near death; she and her sister, Shushila, will have to commit suttee, immolating themselves on his funeral pyre. Ash concocts a desperate plan to save his lover.

13th century Venetian trader Marco Polo (Ian Somerhalder, Lost) is enlisted to accompany a pair of priests to the court of Kublai Khan (Golden Globe winner Brian Dennehy, Death of a Salesman), Mongol conqueror of the East. The mission is to convert the most populous and wealthiest nation in the world to Christianity. Yet the priests aren't even convinced that the sophisticated nation of China even exists. After all, God put Europe as the center of the world. How could there be anything but barbarism beyond? Not willing to risk their lives in the increasingly precipitous and treacherous Pamir Mountains, the priests retreat, leaving Marco, his father Niccolo (Mark Jax, Merlin), and his Uncle Maffeo (Alan Shearman, John Tucker Must Die) to push ahead through blinding blizzards and across the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. Set upon by murderous bandits, ravaged by hunger, thirst, and the blazing sun, they push forth toward the unknown of Khan's fabled heartland.

Ash returns to Mardan, where the Corps of Guides has been fighting across the border. British envoy Cavagnari signs a treaty with Afghanistan's emir and establishes an embassy in Kabul. Wally leads a force to secure the legation, while Ash accepts an assignment to spy among the natives.