The Locket (8 page)

As Savannah bent down and gazed at the incredible beast, she recognized something that she had seen before. It was not the lion’s surging mane, or his pointed sharp teeth, or even his intimidating anger that flowed so deep it made her hesitate in gripping its handle. Rather it was there, in his eyes. Much like in the heart of her mother’s locket, there was the picture of the Victorian key with its colorful glowing background. Savannah rushed to get out the necklace from under her shirt; she had to compare the two. But when she looked back, the image was gone, and the lion’s eyes were the same ordinary brass as they were at first look.

“What are you waiting for?” Lance inquired, the frustration growing inside of him already.

“Nothing,” she replied tentatively, her mind fixed elsewhere. As Savannah straightened herself back up, Lance put two hands to his hips and tapped his foot to show his impatience. Seeing that she was preoccupied with fastening her necklace back onto her neck, he decided that the only way to get something done, and done right, was to do it himself. Unfortunately, as he gaped up at the handles, he realized that his height would not match those of the knobs, so, hoping that Miss Morgan was still fixing her attention to the locket, he sprang up to try and reach it.

It only took Savannah five seconds to put her necklace back on and tuck it under her shirt, and when she looked up, she saw Lance hopping up and down like a child at a candy store. Rolling her eyes, she came over 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 slippers hurriedly put on.

“Your Highness!” Lance exclaimed, throwing himself onto the ground, bowing as the man started down the hall. A small silence followed as the king and Savannah held each other’s gaze. One’s eyes were full of calm question while the other’s were full of stupor.

Noticing that she had not moved, Lance tugged roughly on her pant leg. “Savannah!” Lance hissed. “Savannah, bow down!”

“It is all right Lance-a-lot,” the king raised his hand in protest. “She is not from around here.” As Lance stood up, he examined his newcomer for a moment. “So you must be the person who traveled through the portal, hmm?”

Savannah nodded. “Yes, that’s correct sir,” she said, and then bowed her head down to show her respect for royalty. To her surprise, the king placed two of his fingers under her chin and carefully lifted her head up.

As her attention was brought up to his face, she observed that his eyes were a little glossy, but still appeared warm and brown. They reminded her of two cheery cups of hot chocolate. They also held a certain level of wisdom that she guessed came with age. “You have beautiful eyes,” he told her.

“Thank you,” she answered, not quite sure if she should have. What did people say when a king gave them compliments? She wished she knew how to act the proper way before royalty, suddenly feeling inadequate and intimidated.

“What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t, but it is Savannah, Your Highness. Morgan.”

“Gwen’s daughter,” Lance cut-in, still in shock to see the king act so amiably toward an unfamiliar visitor.

The king seemed to mull over this while he scanned her for a second time. Savannah couldn’t quite tell if he was more intrigued or saddened by the way he looked at her; his eyes were too difficult to read. They bore through her as if she were a criminal on trial, even if his mouth did spread into a smile. “You look a lot like her.”

“Thank you, sir. That’s a compliment to me.”

Then, he switched his attention back over to his dumbfounded dwarf. “You may go now, Lance-a-lot. You are excused.”

“Yes, Sire,” he bowed, and then asked, “Shall I check on dinner?”

“That would be lovely, thank you.” With no hesitations, Lance left down the hallway behind them. “Now, I would like to talk to you about … where you come from.” The king announced, beginning to stride down the corridor.

“Whatever you wish, Your Majesty.”

“Oh do not be such a suck-up like Lance. You may call me Frederick, or even Fred if it fancies you, but please, when it comes to friends and family I despise formalities.” Savannah nodded, surprised to hear such talk coming from a king. Though the more she thought about it, the more she remembered that he was a regular person just like anybody else.

“Besides,” he added, leading her down another set of stairs, “people like Lance usually have no personality and spend most of their time trying to get ahead of the game by brown-nosing. The rest of their time is spent pushing around other people and figuring out new ways to suck up. It is a crime, really.” Again, she nodded her head and kept silent. “So, tell me about this world of yours. Is it interesting?”

“Umm, well.” She hesitated in her response. No one had ever asked a question like that before. How do you know if the place you live is interesting, especially if you come from a world like this? “I suppose that if you have lived there your whole life, doing the same things day after day, then no. But if you’ve lived somewhere like here your whole life and traveled there for the first time, then yeah, it would be. Then again, I didn’t know that there were any dimension-traveling devices up until now, which may make life where I come from a bit more interesting.”

The king laughed. At first she thought that he was laughing at her, but when he gave her a warm smile, she knew that he was simply agreeing with her. “Quiet right, Miss Morgan. I imagine that that is exactly what a person would think. I would much like to hear more about your—how did you put it—dimension?”

“Sure, but Your Majesty,”

“Fredrick.”

“Fredrick,” she corrected. “I have a question for you first.” When he nodded, she felt it safe to go on. “To be honest, I only agreed to come meet you because I thought you might be able to help me. You see I traveled through this locket, or portal as you call it, and when I tried opening it again it wouldn’t work. How do I get the portal to come back?”

The king turned toward her, glanced at the necklace around her neck, and held out a hand. “May I?” When she handed it to him, he studied it very carefully, inside and out. He had a very concentrated way of examining an object, Savannah noticed. His eyes squinted in focus, stretching out the lines on the side of them. None of the noise around them seemed to affect him, as if he could not be distracted when serving a task.

A minute later he gave it back to her, and she slipped it around her neck. “I’m sorry, my dear, I could not tell you. There haven’t been many portals in this kingdom, and the ones that have been are either lost or gone with their owners.” To her discouraged expression, he quickly tried thinking of a solution. When he remembered one, he went on. “But you know who could help is my magician. I am certain he could assist you with such a circumstance.”

Savannah’s eye lit up. For the first time since she arrived in this candy land nightmare, she felt optimistic. “Where is he? Can we go see him?”

She felt the sharp pain of hope fading when she saw his face fall. “Well …” He began, with that tone that said, “No, but if you try tomorrow maybe I’ll let you.” His frown seemed to say everything, but she knew she had to keep trying until he helped, even if she had to slay a dragon. “I’ll get to that in a little bit. First though, I’d like you to tell me about your world.”

Savannah’s hope, though not completely gone, faded. What was the big deal? Couldn’t he just bring her to him? He was definitely hiding something, and she was going to get to the bottom of it no matter what it took. For now, however, she would just move on and play nice.

“Well, to be honest with you, Fredrick,” she began, a little uneasily. Savannah even had to stop herself from making a face at the use of the king’s first name. “To learn about my world is probably a lot more complicated than you think it is.”

As they entered the garden, Savannah’s breath caught. Much like the town and fields outside, the garden was absolutely stunning. Hundreds upon hundreds of flowers of every kind flooded the small area outside the castle, with dozens of colors shouting out everywhere you looked. Limestone archways, which corresponded to the stone water fountains in the center, greeted people at every entranceway, encouraging them to match their mood to that of the garden—pure serenity. The air suddenly masked over with a sweet, light scent that made her think of her mother’s perfume. King Fredrick bent down to a group of lilacs. “Try me.”

Savannah couldn’t help but let her mouth twitch at his challenge. It was amusing to see a king at the center of a storybook, fairytale kingdom that wanted to learn about the details of the modern-day world she came from. She was, despite her longing to talk about New York, about to refuse his offer. Why waste your breath on a topic as complicated as modern technology when your audience probably either won’t really be listening or won’t understand anyway? But when Savannah thought about it again, she considered how the king seemed more like one of those people who actually did listen to what you said. More so, he seemed like the type of person who would deliberate on your thoughts and ideas and respond back with his own thought-out theories.

“Phew,” she sighed. “Where to start?”

“How about at the beginning?” he suggested.

“Right,” she sighed. This was going to be interesting. “Well, our world has just been undergoing some new changes in technology.”

“Technology?” She could see that this was going to take a while, and it did. It was about an hour later by the time she had finished trying to explain everything, leaving the king still a little puzzled. He had so many questions, so many thoughts on the matter; it was a wonder how anyone ever became bored around him.

Not to say that she got everything in, but by the end of a better part of two hours, Savannah had managed to explain most basics about cell phones, computers, technology in general, the government, a little on education, and a slight brush on movies and films. King Fredrick was especially interested in both how the government and politicians worked, as well as the various forms of modern entertainment.

After a while, Savannah realized that it was a lot for the king to take in at one time, so she suggested a topic change. In the end, the two of them started to talk about Savannah and how she came to be here. They talked of her visions, her life in New York, and what happened to her mother and father over the years.

“And what of your mother? How is it that you came through the portal and not her?”

When Savannah’s smile faded, King Fredrick understood that this was a sore topic. “My mother,” she began quietly. “My mother died the two days ago; she was diagnosed with a fast acting, and quite honestly, a very sudden Leukemia. She gave me the locket the day she died, telling me that it was a place I could escape to.” She wiped a tear away from her eye. “I see now that she was right. Sorry, I don’t mean to look like such an idiot or make you uncomfortable.”