Chapter 2
The next day, Lily and her sister woke early so that they could get a good start on looking for their dad who they knew to be in Egypt. They just did not know where.
Once the two sisters were dressed, they made their way downstairs to where they could get something to eat before they went outside to go and look for their dad. They sat down at a table so that they could look through the menus and order their breakfast. Once she had decided what she wanted, Lily put down her menu and watched as her sister tried to find something to eat.
"Lily I can't find anything that I want. What have you picked?" asked Roxy as she laid down her menu to look at her sister.
Lily turned to look at her sister and sighed. She told her what she had chosen to get before getting up from her seat and going up to the counter to order. While at the counter placing their order Lily also grabbed them both a drink and returned to the table with them.
"Okay Roxy after we have something to eat we'll leave and go to where we stopped last night to continue looking for dad"
"Okay, Lily we will find dad won't we?" Roxy asked as she turned away from her sister so that she could look out the window and into the busy streets. She turned back to her sister just as their food was placed in front of both of them.
An hour later both Lily and Roxy had finished their food and drink and were about to make their way out of the restaurant and hotel so that they could start looking for their dad again and hopefully, have better luck than they did last night.
Just as the two sisters were about to leave the hotel someone called their names. Lily turned around keeping her sister behind her so that she could find out who was calling their names. As she looked around she spotted the one person she was hoping to never see while here in Egypt.
"Uncle, what may I ask are you doing here? Roxy and I were just on our way out," Lily said as she held Roxy close to her as they moved away from the one man that Lily hated.
"Well, I heard that your mother had died and that your father was still in Egypt working and that you and Roxy had been on your own, for the last few weeks. I thought I'd drop in to see how you both were coping with everything?."
"Everything is fine Uncle. I can look after the both of us just fine and dad knows that we're here in Egypt. We're about to go and meet up with him now. If you could excuse us, we really must be going. Come on Roxy". Lily said as she dragged her sister out of the hotel doors without looking back.
The two sisters were halfway through the town when they stopped. "Lily why is Uncle Brandon here in Egypt? And who told him about mum and dad?" Roxy asked as she tried to get her breath back.
"I don't know Roxy. Come on let's ask in the tavern here to see if they know anything about dad," Lily said. As they started towards the door, it suddenly opened as someone came out of it.
Lily and Roxy walked in as one of the patrons had just come out of the tavern, and as the two of them walked in. Lily went up to one of the waitresses that had just finished serving one of the tables to see if they knew of anyone that could help with finding their dad.
"Excuse me but do you know if anyone here knows this man? His name is Shaun Ross and, my sister and I are looking to find him," Lily said as she showed the waitresses a photo of her dad with both herself and her sister along with her stepmother.
"Sure do deary. Shaun is in here most of the time when he's not up at the old Egyptian Palace, which isn't too far from here."
"Really? Which way would we have to go to get there as we need to find him?"
"What did you say your names were again?" the young waitress said.
"We never told you our names but I'm Lily Ross and this is my younger sister Roxy Ross. Shaun Ross is our dad."
"Wait, you're the daughters of Lydia Night-dancer?" the waitress asked as she took a good look at the two girls that stood before her, and she could see Lydia in both of them.
"You both look like your mother and father. If Lydia was here she would be so proud of you both. Come I'll show which way you have to go to reach the old palace."
"Wait, my mother is Lydia, but she's not Roxy's. Isabella is Roxy's mum. nd that would be great, thank you." Lily said as she walked with the waitress out of the tavern so that she could show them which way they would have to go to reach the old Egyptian Palace.
"If you follow this path until you come to the end of the road, then take a left, walk for another 5 minutes then take a right. Carry on going straight. You can't miss the palace," the waitress said as she pointed out which way they had to go.
"Thank you, um? Sorry I didn't get your name."
"Oh, I'm sorry I never told you. My name is Lucinda," the waitress said as she stood in front of the girls before seeing them off. hey began to make their way towards where she had pointed, so that they could find the old palace and their dad.
Lily and Roxy were halfway down the road that Lucinda had pointed out to them when they stopped. They could hear someone calling their names. As they turned around they saw Lucinda running towards them.
"Lucinda, what are you doing here?" Roxy asked as she stood next to her sister looking at Lucinda.
"My boss Mary gave me the rest of the day off so that I could help you both get to the old palace where you can find your dad."
As the three girls made their way along the path to the old palace Lily started to have a bad feeling about what they were going to find when they got there.
It was another hour before Lucinda stopped them and pointed out the old palace to them. She then pointed out what looked like a man-made camp. "Lily that's dads tent. The one that he would put up for us during the summer. Dad's here, come on," Roxy said as she went running on ahead. "Roxy, wait not so fast. We don't know if dad's still here or not," Lily said as she grabbed her sister by the neck of her dress so that she wouldn't go running off and get hurt.
They slowly made their way down the hill that they had been standing at the top of. When they reached the bottom of the hill Lily let go of her sister. Roxy took off running towards the palace when she saw a man that looked like her dad.
"DAD, dad," Roxy yelled as she went running towards the man who had looked up when he heard the yelling. He looked towards the young girl who was running towards him before looking behind the young girl and saw Lily slowly walking behind her sister.
"Roxy, Lily. What you both doing here? Where is your mother and why are you both in Egypt on your own?" Shaun called back towards his two daughters.
"Dad," Lily said as she got a good look at the man that Roxy was running up to before she started to run down to her dad as well. "Dad," Lily said again as got nearer to her sister and dad.
"How did you even know where to find me?" Shaun said as he held Roxy close to him while also hugging Lily before pulling away and looking at Lucinda. "Lucinda, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back at the tavern?" "Mary gave me the rest of the day off so I decided to help Roxy and Lily find the palace so that they could find you."
"Well, thank you for helping them but I'm not sure why they would be looking for me," Shaun said as he stood up from where he was kneeling next to his daughters. "Lily where is Isabella? Does she know that your both here? Shaun asked again as he turned to look at his eldest daughter.
"Um, well, she's not here. It was during the first week of the summer holidays that happened. You know I was to stay over with Emmie and her family the day school finished. Well, I did and I texted Marissa to let her know where I would be that night.
I think it was about 4 pm when I texted her because I had to double back to the school to get something that I had left there. Anyway, the next day Emmie, Lucy and I walked round to our house but as we got to our street I noticed police cars and a ME van.
I ran towards home and went looking for Roxy straight away. When I did find her it was only for her to tell me that Isabella was dead and that the police thought that she had done it." Lily said as she looked down at Roxy who she held close before looking back up at her dad.
"The detective that I spoke to said that they had tried to get a hold of you, but they couldn't. Isabella had told me two weeks before school finished that she would be taking us to Egypt on the second week of the summer holidays, so I kept those plans and Roxy and I got the plane to Cairo airport where you were meant to meet us but you weren't there.
I got us a cab to our hotel, and we got our room key and put our things in our room before we went out looking for you. We didn't get very far as it had started to get dark, so we stopped at a restaurant for something to eat before making our way back to our hotel.
Then this morning we started looking for you again but before we could, Uncle Brandon stopped us. He was asking a lot of questions about you, Isabella and mother." Lily looked at her dad and saw him turn as white as a ghost.
Later that night after Shaun had taken in the news of his wife's death he stood in front of the old palace doors with his two daughters as they all watched as Lucinda made her way back to the tavern.
"Come on girls, it's getting late and I want to have a chance to have a look inside the palace tomorrow," Shaun said as he held the tent flap open for the two girls.
"Dad you never did tell us what you were doing out here or what you're looking for."
"Well, Lily do you remember the story that your mother would read to you before she left and then you would ask me to read it to you and Roxy when she was little?"
"Of course I do. The story of the girl who became the lost Egyptian Princess. She was born to a prophecy that says this young girl would one day be sent to ancient Egypt to help save it. But what does that have to do with anything that's going on now?" Lily said as she sat down across from her dad with her sister at her side.
"Well, the prophecy from the story is real and it's in the palace somewhere. Because of the possibility of it being real, the high priests and priestess hide the real one and then made a fake one with a story to go with it.
As time went on, most of the story and prophecy got lost over time, so I came here to try to find the real one, and your mother.
Lydia knew this and that's why she left when you were little. She wanted me to leave it alone, but something about the words of the prophecy didn't sit right with me." Shaun said as he looked at his eldest daughter who was beginning to look just like her mother.
Later that night Lily sat on her dad's sleeping bag watching as her sister and dad slept without a care in the world, but she couldn't sleep. She sat there on the sleeping bag most of the night thinking about what her dad had told her about the prophecy.
The story used to be told to her by her birth mother when she was little, and now she knew that her mother knew that the prophecy told in the story was fake and that she had left because her dad believed that the real one was here in the old palace somewhere hidden for praying eyes.
The next day the family of three set off in search of a way to get into the courtyard of the old palace. As they went to search, Lily told her dad that it would be better and quicker if she went one way around the palace and Roxy and he went the other way as they would be able to cover more ground.
Shaun looked thoughtful for 5 minutes before agreeing and told Lily that they would meet back at the campsite if they couldn't find a way in this morning and that they would try again later that night just before the sun went down.
It was about an hour later when Lily called over to her dad and sister on the walkie-talkie that she had found a way to get into the courtyard of the palace. She waited where she was for her dad and sister to come over to where she was since she was on the other side of the walls that hid the courtyard from outsiders.
Lily waited for her dad and sister to meet her on her side of the wall of the outer gates. Once they were close to her they could all work on a way to get inside the wall so that they could get to the courtyard to see what it looked like now after years and years that had gone by.
It took another half an hour before the three of them managed to get inside of the courtyard walls and when they did they were left speechless by what they had found. he courtyard looked like time had never touched it, but the palace looked to still be standing with only small bits now missing.
The three of them stood by the entrance that they had just come from with their eyes wide and mouths almost hanging open. Lily shook herself from her shook and turned to her dad,
"Okay dad, do you want to have a look around first before actually looking to see if we can find where this prophecy is hiding?" Lily said as she looked at her dad with a raised eyebrow. She turned back to the palace, so she didn't see her dad and sister shake off their shock over what they had found.
"We'll have a look around first. I want to see what the hieroglyphs say about what happened before the fall of the Pharaoh and his Queen," Shaun said as he walked and looked closer at some of the walls. He could still see most of the ancient writing the Egyptians had done, along with images which told a story of the times in ancient Egypt.
As they were looking around at most of the writing and images on the wall Lily found something very interesting, so she called over to her dad to come and have a look at it.
"Hey Dad, come and have a look at this. From what I can make out it tells of a young girl who was sent to Egypt to help protect and save the kingdom but it doesn't say what her name was, or if it does, I can't find any mention of it." Lily brushed her hand against the wall to see if she could find any mention of the young girl that was shown in some of the drawings.
"Lily, what does this say here?" Roxy asked as she pointed out some of this writing that she had found as she looked to her sister who had started to walk over to her. "Let's see what you found Roxy, oh wow this is a spell of some sort," Lily said as she looked at what her sister had found.
"Can you make out Lily?" Shaun asked as he began to walk over to his daughters.
"Some of it. Let's see, 'take us back, where we came, time and place that is the same past be present time regain." As soon as Lily had finished saying those last three words there was a huge bright light that had begun to shine from her necklace and wall. "What's going on?" Lily managed to say just before the light disappeared.