But the emir saw something in the knight’s eyes—not hatred, but exhaustion. "No," the emir said. "He is a man. Let him heal. Then he may leave or die by his own path."
"Kill him," whispered the vizier. "He is the enemy." andaroos
"Rodrigo de las Torres," the king said coldly. "Traitor." But the emir saw something in the knight’s
Rodrigo stood in the garden he had built. He touched a rose that had learned to bloom next to a pomegranate flower. Let him heal
That night, Rodrigo walked down to the king’s camp alone, without armor, with only a branch of rose and pomegranate tied together. The guards seized him and dragged him before the king.
And Layla would point to the garden—now overgrown, but still blooming—and say: "It is not a country. It is a choice. The choice to water what grows between us, not to burn the wall between us."
