Chapter 13

           “You don’t know where they are!?” Acacia gasped. Lifea laughed, shaking her head. “Of course, I do, we captured you, obviously we do,” she teased smugly.

            Bloome squirmed uncomfortably. Acacia frowned, wishing she still had her Water Elemental Elmenability to splash Lifea. “What do you want with us?” she asked quietly. Lifea pretended to think for a while, then in a much louder voice, answered.

            “To play with! Obviously not,” Lifea scoffed at herself. Acacia raised an eyebrow. Bloome covered his snicker with a choke. Lifea continued unfazed. “You are interesting, and your chatty buddy has the abundant gift of making friends, and your quiet one has, umm. . . A nice voice to talk with,” Lifea noted.

            That sounded like Claris and Annice. Maybe these people could help them get back to. . . school. If they could even be trusted. Lifea tucked her hair behind her ears, and Acacia glimpsed the thin string that held the silky blue dress she was wearing from falling off.

            The same thin strings lay on her own shoulder. Maybe the dress she was wearing was Lifea’s? Then something else caught her eye. Lifea’s ears were had pointy tips. She was an elf.

            “You’re an elf,” Acacia breathed. Bloome nodded sheepishly and lifted some tufts of hair that had covered his pointed ears. That explained the gold décor and formal dressing. Elves were super into those.

            Elves were trusted by all the Dyian species, so maybe they could help? But this girl was weird. She acted like she was the chief of the elves. Was she? Lifea could be an Illusionist. This was confusing.

            “Where am I?” Acacia asked, trying to get her priorities straight. “See? She’s playing pretend,” Lifea cackled. Acacia’s eyes widened in panic.

            “I swear, I’m not!” She argued. Lifea crossed her arms over her chest. “Prove it. Prove to me that you aren’t a stupid spy come with her oh-so-innocent buddies to take over Shadow Isle and Sunhilde,” Lifea said smugly.

            Acacia fumbled for an answer. “I’m telling the truth! Can’t you just get an Aurafier to test my aura to prove I’m not lying?” She threw up her hands.

            Lifea twisted a strand of her hair, considering this. An awkward silence settled over them. “Why do you even think we’re spies?” Acacia pleaded. Lifea tossed her hair and stalked to the table, tapping her fingers on the varnished wood.

            “You seriously expect us not to? No one has ever survived any sort of encounters with shadows, unless the Shadow Queen’s dark magic runs through their veins. We found many traces of dark magic in your blood,” Lifea leaned forward, glaring at Acacia. “So, who are you, really?”

            “Are the shadows those creepy, gooey stuff on the beach that attacked me?” Acacia wondered. Bloome nodded. “And the Shadow Queen is their leader?” Right again.

            Meanwhile, Lifea’s glare seemed to be boring into Acacia’s brain. It took her a second to realise it was, and Lifea was reading her thoughts. “You’re a Mentalist?” Acacia gasped, stepping back.

            Lifea sighed and sat back down. “Yes, I am,” she relented. “And since my reading says you’re completely innocent, how about you attempt to explain why?” Acacia chewed her lip. She didn’t entirely trust Lifea yet.

            “Well . . . my school level was going on a field trip, then the dragon we were riding decided to transport us somewhere and dumped us into the ocean. We washed up on the beach here and escaped from the shadows—” was all Acacia got out before Lifea interrupted her.

            “That’s the part I don’t understand. The shadows should’ve sensed you hiding and killed you, but something confused them. Only those with dark magic can get past them, or at least with a plumefoil,” she snorted. Plumefoils were dangerous plants that hypnotized and numbed anyone who got near them. The person would then lose all thoughts of escaping, hunger, and thirst, left to die after a day or two. Thankfully, they were a rare sight.

            But apparently, elves were not vulnerable to the potent, hypnotic pollen the plant gave off, even though they still fell for the flower’s beauty. Some colonies of elves even used plumefoils as first line defences against other species.

            Acacia frowned. This might be the first time she ever faced an elf, much less a stingy elf like Lifea. Even so, she knew how to stand her ground. “How about you tell me where I am, and explain a little before I give you the information you clearly want?”

            Lifea growled. “Fine. You’re in Sunhilde, the elven colony in Shadow Isle. It’s called Shadow Isle because of the shadows that rule our beaches. No elf or person had ever survived an encounter with the shadows without a plumefoil. The plumefoils weaken shadows’ senses and deter them, so we line the flowers along the edge of our village. But today, you came tumbling into our island, so we thought you would die in the stone maze we set up to prevent shadows from entering Sunhilde,” Lifea spat. “But you made it past. Alive and uninjured even more. How is that possible?”

            Acacia had a theory about why the shadows didn’t get her, Annice and Claris. “I actually got bitten by a purple dragon—”

            “A purple dragon?” Bloome interrupted, exchanging a glance with Lifea. “Yeah, his name was Gullen, and he was green at first. But when he transported us to the middle of the ocean, he turned purple and grew long fangs, then he bit me,” Acacia explained, holding out her bandaged hand.

            “There isn’t such a thing as purple dragons,” Lifea said. Bloome turned pale as he turned to Acacia. “You weren’t bitten and poisoned by a dragon, Acacia,” he tried.

            “You were bitten by a Scaler.”