You shouldn't be here, Cadi. You've been warned to keep away.
(WATER GUSHING)
-Are you daft? -Let go.
Let go of me.
(GROANING)
Dear child, what in heaven's name could be so terrible
as to make you want to do such a thing to yourself?
Dear Lord.
What secrets these mountains must possess!
I saw you with that stranger.
Going again' me, are you? Going again' your Pa.
-I didn't... -Liar.
Vile, deceitful child, is you who brought that outsider upon us,
you and your sin.
(SCREAMING)
You go out there again, it will be the end of you.
I swear it on my own soul, and the same if you speak a word of this.
Better one should die than all suffer.
Cadi. Cadi. Is your pa. Are you okay?
Cadi.
Is your pa. Is all right. Breathe. Is okay. I'm here.
Is okay. Is all right. Is okay.
All right. Come here. Come here. All right. Come here. Is okay.
(CRYING)
Is your papa. Is okay. Who did this to you, Cadi?
Who did this to you? It was the stranger, wasn't it?
No, Pa, it wasn't him.
Is okay. You'll be fine.
All right, I'll take you home now. I'll take you home.
(OWL HOOTING)
I swear on my own soul, better one should die than all suffer.
(GASPING)
CADl: Hello, sir.
Well, child.
I hope you're feeling better than you did yesterday.
I just came to warn you. There's a powerful fear of you in our cove.
I know there is, lass.
Powerful fear of the truth, wherever it travels.
Now, where is your young friend who enjoys hiding in the bushes with you?
He was here eavesdropping on me again evening last.
I don't know. His pa's the one so hard set against you.
That would be Brogan Kai, would it?
Yes sir.
He paid me a visit when I first come.
A man acquainted with anger.
Those who despise the word of the Lord will not stand in the day of judgment,
for the breath of the Lord will blow them away like chaff.
Well, anyway, I just came to warn you. I got to be getting back.
At least do me the honor of knowing your name.
Cadi. Cadi Forbes.
Well, Miss Cadi Forbes.
My earthly name is not important.
All that matters is I'm a humble servant of God,
come to redeem these wicked mountains.
Will you sit and hear the word of the Lord?
I best not. Is not safe for...
(CLEARS THROAT)
"It is the Lord who giveth wisdom.
"Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding
"and he who dwells in the shelter of the most high
"will abide in the shadow of the almighty."
"The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servant,
"and none who trust in Him shall be desolate."
None of this makes any sense to you, does it?
No, sir.
Why are you so heavy-burdened, child?
If you tell me what ails you, perhaps I can help.
I don't think so.
If the Sin Eater can't cure me, then no one can.
Sin Eater? And who might that be?
He's the one chosen from among us
who lives all by himself on Dead Man's Mountain.
After a person has passed, he takes our sins upon himself,
so that they can rest in peace.
And you believe this?
Doesn't everybody?
I went to him and asked to take my sins away.
But he can't help me until I pass on.
Child, what could you have done to merit such shame?
I cannot say.
Nothing you could have done can make the Lord love you any more or any less.
If I tell you, will you promise not to hate me?
As the Lord has loved me, so will I love you.
I killed my sister, Elen. My baby sister.
Now I'm doomed to live all my life
knowing that she's not here because of me.
Knowing that my ma's heart is broken and is all my fault.
Tell me how it happened, child.
It was a cursed day from the very beginning.
Granny made me a rag doll and Elen wanted it.
-CADl: Let go. Is mine. -Let go. I was playing with it first.
I said let go, you little brat. Is mine. Granny made it for me.
(GRUNTS )
-Cadi, how dare you hit your little sister? -But mama...
You are being selfish and you know it. You don't deserve this doll.
You always let her have everything she wants.
I hate her and I hate you.
ELEN: Cadi, wait.
You can have the doll back.
Cadi!
Elen! Elen!
I screamed but it was too late.
There was nothing I could do.
I went down below to look for her.
I kept screaming her name, hoping she'd come up.
But she never did.
Oh, Cadi.
There are some sorrows so deep, only God can touch them.
No mere man can take away your sins, child.
You see, there's already been a sin eater,
the original sin eater that the Lord God sent long, long ago
to take away all of our sins once and for all,
and this book... This book tells all about him.
Will you tell the sin eater how sorry I am? Will you ask him to forgive me?
You just did. Beautiful girl, you just did.
And now your heart is washed clean of all the black marks
this world has ever given it or you could ever give it.
Does he have a name?
Yes. His name is Jesus.
Jesus.
It doesn't hurt anymore, Lilybet! It doesn't hurt!
I know, Katrina Anice. Well done.
Cadi, where have you been? We've been fretting over you.
Is done, Miz Elda. Is done.
Whas done, child?
I'm forgiven.
If this man of God is speaking the truth, we've all been believing a lie.
Especially the Sin Eater.
-How was he chosen, Miz Elda? -That was a long time ago.
Twenty winters back,
when your granddaddy Laochailand was in his final hours.
But I can't tell it without speaking ill of the dead.
I ain't blind to the deeds of my kin, Miz Elda.
Well...
I suppose the fear of God comes upon all men, even the cruelest,
and Laochailand had more than his share of sins.
He begged your father to get him a sin eater.
So Brogan demanded that each man past 13
put his mark on a chicken bone,
and they gathered the bones together in a mazer
and, from the mazer, one bone was chosen,
and it fell to the man who now lives on Dead Man's Mountain.
I'll never forget the look on the face of the man chosen,
nor the tears of his young lady.
-Was that Bletsung MacLeod? -Aye, lass.
The new sin eater come and done his duty,
and its been that way ever since.
Child, I'm afraid these old bones will never make it.
Do you think this man of God will come to me?
I'm in desperate need of forgiveness myself.
CADl: Hello again.
Well, if it isn't my young disciple.
Pardon us, sir, but my friend Fagan here no longer wants to listen from the bushes.
Well, have you ever heard the name of Jesus Christ, son?
Only when my pa hits his thumb with a hammer.
Well.
Have a seat, because the truth will set you free,
and we are going to start from the very beginning.
(OWL HOOTING)
Is my father.
You've got to run, sir.
-Fagan. -You've got to hide.
Fear no man, son.
No. My father rules this cove. He'll kill you.
-He cannot kill the truth, Fagan. -No, no. Please. Please, run. Hide.
I walk in this valley of death. I fear no evil.
Fagan?
The Lord is with me and I will dwell in his house forever.
Fagan, we've got to run. Please. We've got to run right now.
No, Cadi. No. I have to stand fast for this man.
BROGAN: Fagan!
I told you to stay away from here, didn't I, boy?
Leave him be, Pa. He's done nothing wrong.
Who are you going to believe?
(CHOKING)
Some madman from across the mountains or your own pa?
-Let the boy go. -Sniveling little rat. Betrayer.
The kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as he, Brogan Kai.
I told you to stay off my mountain or I kill you.
I should have done you in that first day. Instead I showed you kindness
and you turn my own kin against me?
God made you upright, Kai, but you have sought out many devices.
These are my people.
The ways of men are before the eyes of the Lord and he watches all his paths.
Repent and be saved.
(GRUNTING)
No, please. Please don't.
Please don't, please. Please, Pa, don't. Don't, don't. Please.
No.
(GROANING)
I warned you, didn't I?
You had it coming.
So much for the power of his god.
I hate you. I hate that I'm your son.
How dare you stand against me? Your own flesh and blood.
No.
Who's out there?
This has got nothing to do with you, you hear me?
You want me to go look, Pa?
No. Les go.
What about the outsider? He ain't dead yet.
He will be by morning.
-You want I should carry Fagan? -Leave him.
He'll come home with his tail between his legs soon enough.
-He's bad hurt, Pa. -I said leave him.
-Fagan. -Is he dead, Cadi?
(GROANS )
I'm so sorry, sir. I'm so sorry they done this to you.
Cadi.
(COUGHING)
My pouch.
Take it.
Whas in it?
Truth.
Pass it on.
Is no use, Fagan. He's gone.
(SOBBING)
Oh, no. Please.
LILYBET: Katrina Anice! You've got to get Fagan help.
Where? I can't bring him home. Pa will just take him back to the Kai.
Bletsung Macleod. Bring him back to Bletsung.
(BANGING ON DOOR)
I didn't know where else to take him.
Oh, my goodness.
-Is this the work of Brogan Kai? -Yes, ma'am.
Help me get him inside.
(GROANING)
Is okay. Is okay. Is okay.
BLETSUNG: Cadi brought him here. I don't know what made her do it.
Given what most people in that cove think of me.
She's the only child who's come near this cabin.
SIN EATER: I'm glad you'll have company.
I...
I'll do what I can for them.
The boy is a brave one, going up against his pa, trying to save that stranger.
SIN EATER: Is he badly hurt?
If you could but see what Brogan done to his own son.
Broke the poor chilïs ribs.
SIN EATER: You would make a good mother.
If I am not allowed to be your wife, and to bear your children,
then I will bear no other man's.
SIN EATER: Well, I best go. That stranger will need a proper burial.
Can't you stay a while longer? You don't have to say nothing.
It just does my soul good, having you close.
SIN EATER: I'm always close.
She loves him, Fagan. She loves the Sin Eater.
It ain't our business.
Maybe not.
But you should have heard the way he spoke to her.
So soft and sweet.
Pa used to talk to my ma that way when I was little.
My pa ain't never talked to my ma that way.
But I've seen her look at him, sometimes,
like the sun wouldn't rise without him.
I don't know how that she can feel that way.
It ain't hard.
You can love somebody without them loving you back.
IONA: Hello!
Is my mother.
Get down. Hurry! Hurry.
I'm leaving the door open or she'll think something amiss.
-Katrina Anice, do you trust me? -Yes. Now hush up. We have to be quiet.
Iona Kai. You're a long way from home.
What would you be wanting in my part of the cove?
Believe me, this is the last place I'd wanna be.
But I'm looking for my boy, Fagan.
He's been talking about Dead Man's Mountain.
Have you seen him?
And if I have, why would I be telling the likes of you?
He's my son, not yours.
You'd understand if you'd ever had children of your own.
You and the rest made sure that would never happen, didn't you?
Goïs doing, not mine.
But what was your doing was turning the cove against me.
Spreading lies, calling me a spell-caster,
so your precious Brogan would stop pining for me and marry you.
Well, you got what you wanted, didn't you?
Where is my son, you witch? Where is he?
You don't deserve a boy like Fagan, Iona. A mother ought to protect her own son.
I'd stand against Hell itself to protect Fagan and he ain't even mine.
So you do have him in there. Fagan? Son, come out to your mama.
Please!
(GROANS )
You don't have to go, Fagan.
Yes, I do. Let go, Cadi.
He's mending from the beating Brogan gave him
because he stood up for the man by the river.
A man of God. Didn't you know that?
Why do you think I come here?
His pa's been looking for him since dawn, and I can't let him find him here.
Do you think I want my boy hurt again?
Hello, Ma.
Oh, Fagan. Oh, no.
Come, son, come.
How could your pa do this to you?
Is all right, Mama.
Katrina Anice, do you trust me?
Yes, I told you already.
Then you have to run, right now. You and Fagan.
-He cannot come home. -He can stay as long as he likes, Iona.
Fagan, we've got to run. Please, we've got to run. Right now.
-Why? -BROGAN: Fagan!
Run, Fagan. Go. Run.
Kai.
Kai, please let them go.
This is none of your affair, Bletsung MacLeod.
Please, Brogan. He's your son. Don't do this.
He's flesh of your flesh!
No! No!
(SOBBING)
(GASPING)
No! Come on, Fagan. I'm not going without you.
BROGAN: Where are you, boy? You best show yourself. You hear me?
Fagan!
CADl: Fagan? Fagan, wake up. Wake up.
Oh, God. Oh, God, help me. Please help us.
(BIRD CALLING)
If you don't show yourself, you are no longer my son.
I will never look upon you again.
You are dead to me. You hear me, boy?
I searched the entire cove for her.
And no one has seen hide nor hair of her.
Is been a night and a day.
God help me.
I even went to the Narrows.
(CRYING)
(BIRD CALLING)
Fagan?
Fagan!
Sin Eater, wait. Where are you taking Fagan?
You and the boy need to be out of the cold.
Follow me.
You two caused a lot of trouble, Cadi Forbes.
Thank you for coming for us.
You lie down, now.
Try to get some more sleep.
FAGAN: (WHISPERING) Where are we?
The Sin Eater's cave.
-This is where he lives? -Aye.
He grooms himself.
Where is he?
Gone before I woke up.
Bletsung's.
Is freezing.
SIN EATER: What you doing?
-Fagan's cold, sir. -You're not to touch my things.
If anyone were to find out you touched my things, you'd be tainted like me.
No one's touched me in 20 years and thas how it has to stay.
Step aside. Let me pass.
Is blankets from Bletsung. Put one over him. I've not touched them.
Stranger's pouch is in there, as well. She thought you might want to have it.
What about my father?
He won't come looking for you here.
But when you are well enough to travel, the two of you must leave.
-Where will we go? -Anywhere but here.
This cave holds dark sins.
Why did God cause the lot to fall to you all those years ago?
It was Goïs will that it fell to me.
-Maybe it wasn't Goïs will. -What you talking about?
-Can you read? -Aye.
What is it?
Is the book the man of God gave to us before he died.
Tells the story of another sin eater that God sent long ago.
It says that only he can forgive us of our sins.
-I will never read that book. -Why not?
Because it would mean I had wasted my life in this cave.
And never saved a single soul from damnation.
(WATER PLASHING)
(BAT SCREECHING)
(GASPS )
(WATER PLASHING)
(GASPS )
(CADI SCREAMING)
FAGAN: Cadi! CADl: Hurry! Oh, please hurry!
Cadi, where are you?
I'm in the back of the cave. Hurry, please hurry!
-Hurry! -I'm coming.
Don't worry, I'm almost there.
What took you so long?
You ought to be thanking me instead of hitting me.
I was so scared. I ain't never been in darkness like that. Never.
Well, it ain't dark anymore.
How about letting go of my arm?
Sorry.
-Is all right. -I found something, Fagan. Over here. See.
What are they?
I wonder if the Sin Eater painted them.
What are those mounds supposed to be? Are they hills?
Indian hogans, I think.
In this one, there's a man in a hat and it looks like they're dancing.
Shaking hands with somebody. Maybe the chief.
Aye.
These are more white men and women with them.
Whas this?
-Is it fire? -Aye.
The hogans are burning.
FAGAN: I think I understand.
These figures on the ground are the men from the Indian village.
All killed by the men in the hats. The white men.
Look.
-This is the Narrows, ain't it? -Aye.
-Looks like they fell off the tree bridge. -Aye, it does. But...
They didn't fall. They were pushed.
The man in the hat shoots the first one. The rest tumble in after.
One of the men must have escaped the killings.
He's the one who painted these drawings.
-What do you think happened to him? -I don't know.
(CRUMBLING)
(SHRIEKS )
(GASPS )
You just found him, Cadi.
(GROANS )
He must have been wounded and died.
How do you know?
Because he didn't use clay or soot to paint these.
He used his own blood.
The Sin Eater was right. This cave does hold dark sins.
I have to know what these drawings mean.
I think I know someone who can tell us. Come on.
It ain't safe to leave in the daylight, Fagan.
I'm afraid of what your pa will do.
Is all right. You don't have to come with me.
I can take care of myself.
Remember the night by the river, Katrina Anice?
Yes.
Who threw the stone at Brogan Kai?
God has not given you a heart of fear.
MIZ ELDA: Now, about these paintings in the Sin Eater's cave...
We want to know about the Indians who lived here before our people.
We want to know about the Indians who were murdered.
The man of God told us that if we knew the truth,
then the truth would set us free.
Well, perhaps the time has come for the whole truth to be told.
(BELL TOLLING)
-Pa ! -Cadi, girl. Dear, you're all right.
I am fine, Pa. Where is Ma?
She's at home.
When we couldn't find you, we thought...
Where were you?
I promise to explain everything to you, very soon:
But there's something we must do first.
Okay.
-I want to know who here rang the bell. -I did.
Whas the meaning of this, Miz Elda? Whose grave has been dug?
Neighbors, the time has come to put the past to rest,
to bring old secrets and lies out into the open
and then bury them once and for all, in that there grave.
I have heard enough of this.
For once in your life, Brogan Kai, pipe down.
(PEOPLE MURMURING)
A generation ago, when we come from Wales to this cove,
I had never seen nothing more beautiful.
It was truly the God-green of spring.
Like Heaven on Earth, it was.
With cool streams and rich, brown soil.
More wondrous than any place I had seen back home.
We come up the trail with Laochailand Kai leading the way.
A dozen families in all. And when we reached the Indian village,
the little children all come running to greet us.
With one hand, the Kai offered the chief a peace offering.
But with his other hand...
The rest was Hell on Earth.
(WOMEN SCREAMING)
(GUNS FIRING)
(WOMEN WAILING)
(SCREAMING)
I'm grieved to say my own Donal was among the men
who done so much evil that day.
Aye, as were many of your daddies and granddaddies.
My father had no choice. They were savages.
They would have scalped us in our sleep.
If that were true, Brogan,
why did Laochailand have such a desperate need
for a sin eater at the end of his days?
It was the way of our people. It always has been.
We had no need of a sin eater in this new country.
It was a tradition we should have left dead and buried
with our forefathers back in Wales.
But the Kai was a man with innocent blood on his hands
and the fear of Hell-fire in his heart,
and thas how this whole wretched business started.
He needed a scapegoat.
So do we all,
and that facs not going to change anything anytime soon.
IONA: No.
Brogan, is time to tell the truth.
No more lies.
There never was a proper lottery.
It was fixed from the beginning.
She's mad. She doesn't know what she's saying!
I know all about what you done when I found the lots you hid beneath the house.
When Fagan was just a wee one,
he went to hide after you give him a beating
and I found him under there fiddling with some chicken bones.
They all had markings on them, all of them the same.
Every last one of them marked with Sim Gillivry's mark.
-Lies! -I'll prove it.
Cleet, take your ma home, where she belongs.
-She's not in her right mind. -No.
Look.
See?
They're all the same. Marked for Sim.
(PEOPLE MURMURING)
All these years, and it wasn't Goïs will.
Falsehoods. Why would I do such a thing?
Because you loved Bletsung MacLeod, not me,
and she loved Sim,
and if you couldn't have her, you made sure no man ever would.
I've had enough of this.
This gathering is over. Everyone go home.
SIN EATER: Not till I have had my say.
You're not wanted here, Sin Eater.
You've no business coming off the mountain unless you've been called.
SIN EATER: There is still time for someone to die here tonight.
Someone who has ruled this cove with deceit
and an iron fist.
Someone who beat a man of God to death.
Someone who kept me from the woman I love all these years.
Turn around and look me in the eye, Brogan.
Like I said, everyone go home!
I said turn around, Kai!
No, you turn around and go back to your hole,
or we'll be choosing another sin eater by sun-up.
No more killing and no more lies.
-This has nothing to do with you. -Oh, yes it does, and you know why.
SIN EATER: No.
Sir, the reason you could not eat my sins was because you were never meant to.
Don't come near me, child.
Is what the man of God came to tell us.
Please, child. I am not clean.
Is whas in this book.
Somebody already has eaten our sins.
SIN EATER: No.
(SOBBING) It can't be true.
You're not a beast, Sim Gillivry.
You are just a man whom God loves and wants to forgive.
Whom he wants to set free.
Who wants to set us all free.
Mama?
Mama, I am so sorry for what happened to Elen.
I was jealous of her.
I know.
I said terrible things to her and to you.
I remember.
And I know you have every reason to hate me,
but I didn't push her off that tree bridge. I swear on my life, I didn't push her.
Cadi.
I never thought for one minute that you pushed her into that river.
I never, ever thought that.
-You didn't? -No.
Then why have you been so angry with me?
Not with you, child.
With myself.
It should have been me.
No, Mama. Why?
I knew that I'd hurt you, favoring her like I did.
But she was so little, so sickly,
from wee-born to a pup,
and you, Cadi, you were so full of life and spunk.
But I never meant for you to blame yourself.
It was me.
I sent Elen to follow you.
You didn't know I'd gone to the Narrows, Mama.
But it should have been me, Cadi, not Elen.
It should have been me.
So that I could tell you how sorry I was.
It is my fault she fell into the Narrows and it is my fault she died, Cadi, not yours.
It was an accident, Mama.
It was an accident that never would have happened
if I'd been a proper ma.
Sometimes I...
I would see the terrible grief in your eyes
and I would see you suffering.
I'm so sorry, child.
I...
I didn't know how to ease it for you.
I...
I began to think I'd lost both my girls in the river that day.
You didn't lose me, Mama.
All I wanted was for you to open your arms
and tell me that you still wanted me to be your daughter.
I would have run into them.
You would? Truly, you would?
I love you, Cadi.
-I love you, Cadi. -Love you too, Ma.
You're still my little bit of heaven.
OLD CADI: Little bit of Heaven. Lilybet.
They do sound sort of alike, don't they?
Don't leave me, child. Don't leave me, Cadi.
I am so sorry. I am so sorry.
OLD CADI: And is raised questions over the years.
Whether Lilybet was an angel or not ain't for me to say.
Fact is, I don't rightly know what she was.
But I do know she was there that spring when I needed her most.
I never saw her again after that day of the New Covenant.
Thas what we came to call it. A new beginning, it was.
But the truth is, I suppose I didn't need her after that.
Because from that moment on I had the Lord.