King Rodrigo of Spain

King Rodrigo of Spain, enticed by the prospect of immense treasures, disregards the sorcerers' cautions and sends his knights to hack down the door to the magical tower.

Spain's King Rodrigo was sceptical. He'd never heard anything as ludicrous as the narrative told to him by the two odd old men.

They stood out in their long white robes, which were embroidered with stars and moons. They appeared to be magicians or sorcerers. Many rusty old keys hung from their girdles. These, they claimed, were the keys to padlocks that previous Spanish kings had installed on the door of the Enchanted Tower.

According to the two old men, each king had a charm woven into his padlocks to keep Islam from attacking Christian Spain. The two old men now demanded that King Rodrigo do the same.

'Magic spells, padlocks, enchanted tower...' King Rodrigo pondered. 'I don't believe anything!'

The Tower, on the other hand, sounded intriguing. It was composed of marble and the precious stone Jasper. Who knew what treasure lurked inside with all that wealth outside?

"Pretty nicely," Rodrigo said. "Bring me to the Tower. But I won't fix a padlock until I've broken it and seen what's inside."

The two old guys began crying and wringing their hands at this point. "Oh, no, Your Majesty!" they exclaimed, terrified. "No one is permitted to enter the Tower! That is not permitted. The Muslims will undoubtedly attack Spain if you enter the Tower. We implore you, Your Majesty, do not walk inside the Tower!"

"Wisdom, spouting nonsense!" Rodrigo responded. He rose from his throne and approached the two ancient men. He poked one of them in the ribs roughly.

"I see what you're doing!" Rodrigo hissed at him. "You've concealed treasure in the Tower, and you want me to add another lock to make it even more secure than it is currently."

In terror, the old men lifted their hands.

"No, no! It's not true! We have never entered the Tower. We warned you - tragedy awaits anyone who enters the Tower, even you, Your Majesty."

Rodrigo appeared enraged. "You're telling the truth!" I'm not going to hear any more of this drivel. You will accompany me to the Tower and unlock it.

I'll check what's inside, and if I discover you've been hiding treasure from me, both of you will perish!"

Rodrigo immediately ordered horses to be saddled and sped out of his palace with the old men and two of his knights to the Tower.

It was stunning. Tall and straight, with walls covered in red, yellow, and brown jasper. Rodrigo was transfixed by it. He rode around the Tower numerous times, marvelling at its grandeur and certain that he would find tremendous wealth in gold, silver, and diamonds hidden within.

Rodrigo ordered the old men to dismount their horses. They were both trembling with fright.

"Open the Tower!" Rodrigo requested them. "Stop that noise!" he said as the two elderly men burst into weeping tears.

Rodrigo ordered them to remain quiet once more, but they continued to wail, lament, and wring their hands.

Rodrigo was becoming antsy. Because these two elderly fools were afraid, it might take them a month to undo all those padlocks. There must have been a dozen of them.

Rodrigo addressed his two knights. "Tear it open!" he yelled. "Those padlocks should be broken by your axes and swords."

It was an exhausting job. It took half an hour for one of the knights to eventually break the last chain across the Tower's entryway. Rodrigo rushed forward, turning the handle and opening the door.

The door slowly creaked inwards. Inside the Tower, it was pitch black, and Rodrigo was terrified for a moment. With the notion of the treasure inside, his dread vanished, and he marched through the doorway and into the Tower's entry hall.

Rodrigo couldn't see anything for a little moment. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he noticed gold and silver flashing on a large marble table in the centre of the hall. He exclaimed. The table was completely covered in gold and silver coins.

Rodrigo and his two knights dashed towards the table. The two elderly men stood outside, trembling with apprehension and fear. Rodrigo took two handfuls of coins and slid them between his fingers. It was a lovely sensation.

A marble urn stood in the centre of the table. Rodrigo was certain that there was more wealth inside.

He quickly threw away the urn's cover and dipped his hand inside. Rodrigo could only feel a piece of parchment rather than gems or additional cash. He brought it out and, perplexed, unrolled it.

It was a brilliantly coloured painting. The illustration depicted a line of riders wielding long spears. The riders were brown-skinned, like the Moroccans over the Strait of Gibraltar. They had long, thick, shaggy hair like them and oddly curved swords like the Muslims used in battle hung from their belts.

"See, Your Majesty!" one of the knights exclaimed. "There's something written beneath the image." He began to read, and his voice began to shake as he did so.

"See, when the entrance of this Tower is violently torn open and the enchantment contained in this urn is broken, the people shown in this painting will conquer Spain..." The knight stumbled, unable to continue reading for a minute. Then he went on, "...then the people drawn on this image will invade Spain, overthrow her King's throne, and conquer the entire country!"

King Rodrigo had turned a light colour. He expected to find treasure, not this terrifying forecast of doom and calamity. He returned his gaze to the painting and its brown-skinned horsemen. He started to shiver.

Then, as Rodrigo watched, the image sprang to life. The brown-skinned warriors were galloping, their spears flailing in the air... Rodrigo noticed a flag with a star and a crescent on it behind them: the flag of the Muslims! In the image, a bloody conflict was taking place. Rodrigo recognised the Christian knights of Spain, who were fighting off the horsemen and falling from their saddles one by one.

Rodrigo's attention was drawn to one horse in particular. It was snow-white in colour and belonged to the Christian army. A gorgeous jewel-encrusted saddle sat above its back. The jewels glistened in the sunlight. Where has the rider gone? He wasn't to be found.

Rodrigo screamed in terror. He was familiar with the lovely snow-white horse. He was familiar with the encrusted saddle. Rodrigo frantically studied the image of the rider of the snow-white horse, but he couldn't see him.

Rodrigo became terrified when he realised what that meant. He spun around and dashed out of the Tower. He nearly tripped over two people lying outside the entryway as he ran through it. Those were the two elderly men's bodies. They were no longer alive.

Rodrigo did not pause. He jumped upon his horse and rode away from the Tower at breakneck speed, his knights close behind. They were racing down the hill when they heard a thunderous explosion. They turned to see the Tower enveloped in blood-red flames and black smoke clouds. The Tower was gone when the smoke cleared. It was replaced with a mass of molten ruins.

For years following, King Rodrigo worked hard to forget the Tower and the horrifying events depicted in the film. Rodrigo attempted to forget the snow-white horse without a rider. To distract himself, Rodrigo went hunting or hosted lavish banquets in his palace in Toledo. He travelled around his kingdom and hosted magnificent tournaments in which his knights fought mock battles against each other.

Nothing worked. Rodrigo will never forget the Tower and the terrifying prophecy he witnessed there. In any case, Rodrigo couldn't forget that every year brought horrible news from North Africa, across the Mediterranean Sea.

Every year, hordes of Muslim fighters marched westward along North Africa's coast. Rodrigo first learned that they were in Libya. They then passed across the Atlas Mountains and into Morocco. Finally, Rodrigo received the news he had been dreading. The Muslim armada was making its way across the Strait of Gibraltar to the shore of Spain.

King Rodrigo immediately gathered his army of knights, nobles, and thousands of footmen. This massive army set out to confront the Muslims on a battleground near the Guadalupe River.

Rodrigo knew the war was doomed the moment he saw the massive Muslim troops.

"Dark skins... long, shaggy hair... those long spears and curved swords," he whispered as he glanced at the Muslims. "They're all like the riders in the painting... the painting was a foreshadowing."

He was correct. The battle was as hard-fought as it seems in the picture. Despite their efforts, the Spanish knights were unable to defeat the Muslims.

They were slain one by one and thrown from their saddles to the ground. Tarik, the Muslim commander, went in pursuit of King Rodrigo. He swiftly tracked him down, for no one had a snow-white horse like the King of Spain. Nobody had a jewelled saddle like the one Rodrigo sat in.

Tarik pushed through the crowd of struggling soldiers and rearing, whinnying horses.

"Rodrigo, fight to the death!" Tarik sobbed. He galloped towards the Spanish King, his sword thrust in front of him.

"Then to the death!" Rodrigo yelled back. Tarik's sword slashed through his neck almost as soon as the words left his mouth.

Rodrigo died instantly, and his body fell off his jewelled saddle. His horse was startled to see Rodrigo's weight had suddenly vanished off her back. The light sparkled off her snow-white coat as she rode away, and the jewels of her empty saddle glittered in the beams of the sun.