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They exchanged their version of events and made it back to the rowboats. They got in one, and Aurelius rowed since Jari’s arm hurt too much. One of the men on the ship was a healer, so he’d take care of that and the cut.
When the rowboat was hauled up, and they were on the ship, Aurelius couldn’t think of a good lie, but he could keep them quiet because they certainly hadn't missed the shiny, enormous dragon that had flown from the volcano. All of the crew was staring, and Este was sitting in a chair.
“Morian, you’re back. Er, are you staying?”
“Yes.”
“Erm-” She paused. “Are these idiots on turf or did I miss something? I took a nap and came back to them spouting stories. They’re all saying a dragon came from the volcano, it was entirely gold, and-”
Aurelius almost wanted to laugh. She’d napped through the sighting of a dragon, and everybody, too busy gawking, hadn’t thought to get her up. The men all looked at him like he’d gone insane, and Jari shifted uncomfortably.
Aurelius let his gaze roam over the men. “I don’t know what you’re all talking about. Now, which one of you can heal? Jari needs it.”
“You expect us to pretend that didn’t happen?” one shouted, and the other men all started babbling.
“Tenth got me off turf, and I haven’t touched the stuff or any drug in almost four years,” said another. “No one’s going to tell me I hallucinated that.”
Tenth pushed his way to the front of the group. “I thought you were sick with wasting disease.”
Aurelius tilted his head. “Why would you think that?”
“I thought you were going to end your pain before you grew too sickly, and you wanted to be away from court and-” Tenth waved a hand. “Why else would we come this way? What were you really doing?”
“We’re entirely safe, and there’s nothing to worry about. Say whatever you want among yourselves and others when we return to shore. Dragons aren’t real, and they never have been. I don’t know what you saw. I only went to look for a supposed relic that might have been lost here, but I didn't find it. Jari grew worried, and he fell in the cave where he found me.”
“Bullshit! I saw a dragon!”
“Me too!”
“Go ahead and tell everyone you saw a dragon when we go back to shore,” said Aurelius. “You sound like crazy people. The heat must have gotten to you.”
A few eyes slid to Jari who shrugged. “You all sound crazy to me too. Are you sure you didn’t see a chuckle chickie and the sunlight made it look odd or something?”
“Everybody knows what a dragon looks like,” said Tenth. “There are drawings in books. It wasn’t a damn chuckle chickie.”
“And what you saw happened to match some drawing from a fantasy book, even though dragons aren’t real?” Jari raised an eyebrow.
Este hesitated and glanced at Aurelius before she yelled at Tenth. “I knew there wasn’t a dragon. You’re all a bunch of idiots.”
“It was real. I swear!”
“Maybe you should put a cold rag on your face and go take a nap.”
“Este, you gotta believe me.”
“So where is it now?” She folded her arms.
Tenth paused. “He went down on the other side. We couldn’t see.”
“And then what? He’s just sitting over there where we can’t see? Doing nothing?”
“Uhh…”
“Get the healer to our cabin,” said Aurelius. “Unless he’s too bothered by the heat.”
***
Being entirely free in his head was foreign and the best thing that ever happened to him besides Jari being okay.
