Free Lionheart's Scribe by Karleen Bradford

The king is beside himself with anger. I have never seen him in such a state. We are camped outside the walls and King Richard rages within his tent. His voice carries to every partof the camp—inside the city walls as well, I would wager—and the rest of us are cowering and trying to keep out of his way.
    Tomorrow we will sail southward down the coast to Acre. What will we find there?
    The seventh day of June
    What excitement today and what an odd outcome! We set sail from Tyre early in the morning. The king did not summon me to him, so I was free to hang over the rail to my heart’s content. I think I was born to be a sailor. Now that I am no longer seasick, I relish the motion of the ship when she is under sail and speeding through the waves so quickly, with no need of the oarsmen. The wind whistles through the rigging and fills my body with its freshness. Truly, when I am on deck I feel as if I were made entirely of air and sun and salt spray.
    While I was clinging to the rail, drinking in every drop of this wonderful day, I suddenly saw a silvery flash upon the water. Then another. And another. To my utter astonishment, small fish were hurling themselves out of the waves and
flying
through the air for incredible distances before flopping back in. In my excitement I cried aloud to the sailor nearest me.
    â€œLook!” I shouted. “Fish! Flying!”
    He didn’t even bother to raise his head from the frayed rope he was repairing.
    â€œSee them all the time,” he said, sounding bored. “Nothing special about them.”
    I was very embarrassed.
    Then I saw another fish, much bigger, leap out of the water in an arc and dive back in. I wasn’t about to display my ignorance again, so I kept quiet this time and just watched. There were about three of the huge creatures and I could swear they were following alongside us and playing! I did learn later by asking another sailor a few casual questions that these fish are called dolphins and they often follow ships at sea. They seem to enjoy human company, he said. Indeed, he swore that some of these fish once saved a shipwrecked man. The man was clinging to a piece of wreckage when he was encircled by a group of them. At first he screamed in terror, believing they were about to eat him, but then, to his amazement, the dolphins began to nose his plank toward shore. They pushed him all the way in, then gave a few joyous leaps and disappeared back out to sea. It is a marvelous tale. I am not certain I believe it, but I will be on the watch for these creatures and I hope I see more of them.
    As I was watching the flying fish I heard another sailor, high in the rigging, call out, “Sail, ho!”
    That brought men scurrying from all parts of the ship. I narrowed my eyes and tried my best to see the other ship, but it was several moments before I could make out the shape of sails against the horizon. The ship seemed to be changing its direction—tacking so that it would avoid us. At that moment the king himself appeared on deck.
    â€œBring us closer to that ship,” he ordered. “I would see what flag she carries.”
    Immediately more sails were raised and we spedto intercept the strange vessel. In minutes we were within hailing distance.
    â€œWhence come you?” our captain bellowed.
    â€œWe are Genoese, bound for Tyre,” came back the answer, fragmented by the wind.
    The king frowned. At that one of the sailors came forward. I thought him bold to approach the king without permission, but sailors are an independent lot.
    â€œHang me, Sire,” he said, “if that ship is not Turkish!”
    The king looked at the man keenly, then barked, “Have one of our galleys close with that ship!”
    The orders were trumpeted out. Oars sprang out from the galley beside us and the oarsmen made haste to close the distance between her and the unknown ship. No sooner did she close with it, however, than a rain of fiery