Read Online The Locket by Elise Koepke - Free Book Online

“Revalia.”
    Savannah brought her attention back to him. “What did you just say?”
    “Revalia,” he repeated without a beat. He only had so much time before they were behind schedule, and so much patience before he lost his temper. “This is the world of Revalia, though our kingdom, the one upon that hill over there, is the Kingdom of Reverice. Now if you don’t mind—”
    “Everything is so beautiful,” she interrupted, not paying any remote attention to him. Her eyes widened, hoping to take in as much as possible without appearing over-eager. Land of Oz, indeed. “What is this place, some kind of fairytale land?
    “I suppose you could consider it that, yes.” Lance stared at her for a minute, and when she did not move or speak, he tugged on her arm in the direction he came from. “Come on, the king has requested an audience with you.”
    “I … ” Looking down at the little man who was pulling her arm out of its socket, Savannah reminded herself that she was not at her aunt and uncle’s. She did not know where she was, and even though she wanted answers, she knew she could not stay.
    “I have to go.” She heard the cries of Lance behind her as she began to run in the opposite direction, but stopped abruptly when she remembered that she did not know the first place to look in order to go back home. She did not even know precisely how she got here.
    “Wait! I need living proof that someone came through the portal, or else the king will have my head!”
    Savannah turned around, but kept searching for a way out. “What are you talking about?”
    Rapidly, he tried to explain. “What I mean to say is that I can sense when people travel through the locket. Due to my position as the only advisor and assistant to the king, I am given certain responsibilities, and certain gifts like this one. So, feeling the portal open, I ran all around the palace to find him and, ruining his royal nap, I told him that there was a visitor to the kingdom. Unfortunately, that got the king’s hopes up so much that if I come back with nothing, then he might have me hung or, even worse, put into the guillotine!”
    Savannah watched, almost in amusement, as Lance caught up with his breath from speaking too much too quickly. “But you wouldn’t be wrong; someone did come through the portal.”
    “True,” he looked fiercely up at her. “However, it is not as though you are going to help us, so whether or not someone did come through is probably irrelevant to the royals. Besides, you are not whom we were expecting, meaning that no one in town would be concerned with you if you were here or not.”
    Savannah stopped searching and brought her attention back to the little dwarf. She was not, or would not admit to being, easily affected by some of Lance’s comments. Something stirred inside her, though, and she hated not being able to pinpoint what exact emotion it was. Anger? Or curiosity? “Who were you expecting then?”
    Lance did not hide that he was a bit shocked. She really didn’t know, did she? Of all the scenarios he expected, this was not one of them. She may have been new to this world, yet it was interesting to see that she wasn’t told anything. “Well, in point of fact, we were waiting for your mother.”
    Even if she wanted to, Savannah could not hide her shock either, for it came too quickly. In one whoosh all her defenses fell. “My mother?” she whispered.
    “Yes,” Lance rolled his eyes. “Your mother. Now if you do not mind, I would really like to see the king about this situation. He will be wondering where I am, and I want to get my punishment done with quickly.”
    As he turned to head back to the kingdom, Savannah grabbed his shoulder. “Hold up a minute. Are you saying that, one, my mother can but I can’t help you with your problem even though I don’t have a clue what it is, and two, that my mother has been here before?”
    “Yes and yes. Your mother left us seventeen years ago, and that is