Free The Locket by Elise Koepke Page A

to him, stretched out her hand, and opened the door.
    “You did not have to do that you know,” Lance complained. “I could have gotten it.”
    Savannah smirked. “Could have, but didn’t.”
    Lance, now very near oozing with rage, made a face at her. “Just because I have to jump to get hold of something, does not mean that I am too short and that I would not get it eventually.”
    “Oh yeah? In which lifetime, small fry?” She laughed.
    Lance shot her a vicious scowl, and then asked as they entered the hallway, “Is it just me, or do you and your family seem to have something against short people? Because I distinctly remember your mother poking fun at my expense.”
    “I think it’s just you,” she answered, astounded by the magnificence of her surroundings. A scarlet red carpet greeted them, starting at where they came into the building and ending all the way at the other side, which seemed to be miles away from where the two of them stood. There were windows lining the hall, ending where the carpet did. Each of them was at least as tall as seven people Savannah’s height and four of her across.
    Lance-a-lot led them down the hall, up a grand flight of stairs, down another slender hall, and then stopped at a crossroad and peered down each side of them as though he were not sure into which direction they were to head. “Where are we going?”
    “To see the king of course, I thought that I had already explained this to you?”
    He responded with his attention in a different direction, unbothered by the fact that she had asked him a question.
    “But where? You seem to be lost and—”
    He focused his attention toward her now, giving her a look that could kill. “Listen, missy, I have worked in this palace for over two decades, the king is about to have my head, and I really don’t need some little girl telling me that I am lost, got it?”
    “Got it,” Savannah agreed. “Somebody needs a hobby,” she added under her breath.
    “What was that?” he snarled.
    “Oh, nothing.” She paused for a while as he began strolling down one side of the hall, and then changed directions to the other. “Lance? I know that when I left my … dimension, it was nine o’clock, but it seems to be earlier here and I was wondering,”
    “If there is a time difference?” He glanced back at her. “Yes. It is about four hours until sundown and, as a matter of fact, you are just in time for dinner … just as soon as I find the king,” he finished as he began walking again.
    “You lost him?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “How on earth do you lose a king?”
    “I did not lose him,” Lance snapped. “I just simply do not know of his whereabouts at this precise moment.”
    “Oh right,” she began sarcastically, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you! He’s your responsibility and you lost him.”
    “He is not my responsibility! He is a human being for goodness’ sake! I am just his assistant,” he argued. Then added quietly, “Who is supposed to know where he is at all times.”
    She snorted. “So he is your responsibility.”
    “No he is not.”
    “Yes he is!” she barked back. “You said that you were his assistant, right? And that you are supposed to know where he is at all times?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, it’s the same thing,” she chuckled.
    “No, it isn’t!”
    “Ah, yes it is.”
    “No, it isn’t!” He stomped.
    “Yes, it is!”
    “No!”
    “Yes!”
    “No!”
    “Yes!”
    “N—”
    “Would you two stop bickering already? I was just taking a nap, and I would appreciate it if I could have some peace and quiet,” came a voice from down the hall of the opposite direction.
    The man before them was old and frail, carrying deep, dark circles under his eyes. He had long silver hair and a short white beard. He was dressed in a lengthy maroon robe with cuffs of white cotton on the end of each sleeve. Obviously freshly aroused from bed, his hair was a bit tousled, his robe and matching