"Wake up Quara, we have the adventure of a lifetime ahead of us and it isn't a short road to get there." Quara squeezed her eyes shut and attempted to pull her thickly woven blanket up over her shoulder as she rolled towards the wall. "I'm serious, let's go. I have everything ready. I've packed lunches. But we need to get out of here before everyone wakes up and starts asking questions and you spill the beans like we both know that you would have done last night if you'd opened your mouth. We were lucky that Iggy felt the need to tell Mom about their plans to join the guard last night, but if it had been a normal dinner where everyone was talking and asking questions about the day, it would have been all over."

Quara pulled the covers over her head to block out the sound of her sister's voice, her barely conscious mind already questioning the wisdom of her decision to agree to go along with Lina on this particular adventure. Why had she said yes to begin with? She rolled the question around in her head as her mind roused more completely from her short slumber.

"Quara Kalena, if you don't get out of bed right this instant I am going to dump this entire jar of water over your head." Quara likely wouldn't have moved quite as quickly if she hadn't heard the slosh of water near her ear that let her know that Lina was quite serious about the threat.

"Lina, no!" She whispered the words back angrily, but Lina was already pushing her outfit from the previous day into her hands. She had picked up the washing bowl that was kept in their bedroom, but had quickly put it back in its place once her sister started to move.

"We don't have time to argue Quara. We need to go. I want to make it down past the third level before anyone is up and about and it's almost five. The miners will be getting up soon and Father will be up with them. I packed last night before I went to sleep so that we would just be able to get up and go. Take this," she tossed her sister's bag onto the floor next to her and Quara noticed that it looked oddly misshapen as if it were carrying far more than her slate and papers, "and pull your boots on. We've got to get out of here." Quara shook her head and pulled on her soft leather boots, slinging the bag over her shoulder as she stood. "And be totally quiet Dad's sleeping in the common area on the pillows." Quara raised her eyebrows in alarm but Lina shook her head and put her finger to her mouth.

They were silent until they were halfway down the staircase and were able to see the silent Heart below them. Even so they continued to speak in whispers. "What was that all about?" Quara cast a hurried look back over her shoulder in the direction of their little home.

"Were you not there last night?" Quara frowned at the response as she continued. "You were even more distracted fretting about all of this than I thought. Mom was not happy that Dad didn't forbid the boys from joining the guard before they've come of age. And I don't think that Dad wanted to deal with the dark looks that Mom would have been giving him all night long. It was bad enough how she combined being totally silent with banging the dishes and pots around as she cleaned up after dinner. So he stayed out in the common room, reading I think, and scribbling away in some small book I'd never noticed before, and he finally fell asleep out there."

"Were you snooping?" Lina shook her head as her sister asked the question.

"Of course not. I don't need to snoop. I know everything that goes on in the house." Quara's expression let her sister know that she wasn't impressed with her answer, but Lina continued with her explanation as if she hadn't seen the disapproving glance. "I had to pack. And do you know how much harder that was with Dad in the common room? I finally had to tell him that I was packing a picnic for the two of us to eat," she held up her hand to hold off Quara's response, "and don't start with me and tell me that I shouldn't lie, because it isn't a lie. We are going to have a picnic today. Just not at any of the regular places that a person in the Caverns might picnic at."

Quara continued to shake her head, but she didn't turn back to seek the comfort of her safe, warm bed. In part she felt like she was being drawn along, and she couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly was attracting her so strongly to this city far below their feet. Was it the idea of a library many times larger than any she'd ever seen that had her ready to push aside her usually cautious nature and follow her sister into the depths of the earth? Or was it the fact that Lina rarely asked for anything from anyone and so, when she did, and especially when she mustered so many words to beg for something, Quara knew that it must be incredibly close to her heart? Quara couldn't answer her own question, and so she walked on silently beside her sister.

When they reached the Heart level it was entirely deserted. The stores were locked up tight and the Heart light itself was dim compared to it daytime brightness.

They descended through to the next level, their pace quickening as the hour grew later. A bell chimed five times, waking the miners, and the girls began to jog towards the entrance to the Lake corridor where Lina had first told her sister about her secret City.

Once they were inside the corridor, with the Training Field far behind them, both girls relaxed considerably. No one would be heading to the Lake this early in the morning. And walking down to the Lake, with only their bags slung over their shoulders was far easier than walking up the steps carrying buckets of water.

When they reached the Lake neither girl cared to speak. They walked along the edge, glancing occasionally at the dark water, and then glancing back over their shoulders towards the entrance that they'd come through, before gazing ahead at the doorway that led to the Guild Master's level, to make sure that no overzealous apprentice had come in early to set out water for those Masters whose work required bucket after bucket full of water. Their eyes and ears were met with complete silence. Only the sound of their own feet shuffling across the slick rocks broke the quiet. Quara had never realized that she could feel so excited and reluctant at the same time.

They were well past the part of the Lake that Quara was familiar with when they reached the stalactites that dripped down from the roof of the cavern, and the stalagmites that rose up from the floor. These rock formations had been made from lava, long, long ago and suddenly all of Quara's attention was focused on following her sister as she wove through the rocks, finally climbing over a large formation that appeared to continue up the wall of the cavern. Instead though, Lina climbed up a ways and dropped down into a narrow crevice that came up just above her head.

"I don't climb on the limestone formations." She whispered when her sister caught up with her. "But these are made of lava. They were done growing the moment that the lava stopped flowing. And these are particularly sturdy ones. You won't even break them with your clumsiness like some of the formations up by the meadow."

"How did you find this place Lina?" Quara had barely put her feet down in the bottom of the crevice when she asked her sister the question. "I mean, in the darkness of this cave you can't see the bottom at all. You didn't know that you weren't falling down into some deep pit when you first discovered this, did you?"

"I had rope the first time Quara. I'm not nearly as careless as you like to believe. And you've spent your entire life worrying far more about me than you need to. I'm not even a little girl anymore. I've discovered cities that no one has set foot in in thousands of years. And you're ready to scold me for doing a little exploring next to the Lake!" Lina shook her head to let her sister know exactly how ridiculous she found the entire situation. "Now. Let's stop arguing. We're starting our adventure and I don't want to start it by fighting with you." Standing on a rock Lina poked her head up above the lava rocks one more time before ducking back down and crouching even lower to move about two dozen medium sized rocks out of the way.

When they'd each been pushed to the side Lina saw that there was a tunnel that led straight down into the ground, into complete and total darkness.

"We could light a lantern," Lina said with a small sigh, as if she expected her sister to argue with her over the thing that she was about to propose. "It's how I did it the first time. But it takes much, much longer to do it that way. At least half the day would be given over to a slow descent down into the ground if we decide to do it that way."

"What's the alternative?" Quara knew that she was going to regret even saying the words almost as soon as they were out of her mouth.

"We slide. I can promise you that the slide is wide enough all the way to the bottom to fit both of us. It widens almost as soon as it goes under ground here. I'm not saying that it's huge, because really it's not, but if we ease our way down into the tunnel and then let go we'll just start sliding. We'll go on and on for a while. And when we finally stop we'll burst into a bright, beautiful city, and we'll be there. But you can't take a lantern on the slide. It would be far too dangerous. Which brings us to our choice. Would you like to climb down on our hands and knees for seven hours or slide for a short while and reach our destination?"

What Quara would have really liked to do was walk for a while in a perfectly lit tunnel. But that wasn't going to happen. And did she really want to climb all the way down into this city only to have to turn around and climb back out again almost immediately, so that they would get home before anyone started to worry. She would hardly have time to crack open a single book, much less really start to explore this great library that her sister had told her so much about.

"Let's go." Quara mustered her bravest answer and gestured towards the hole in the ground. "There's no point wasting all day climbing when we can get there faster if I just put my trust in you. You're absolutely certain that the tunnel is clear all the way through and that we'll be fine if we do this?"

"Without a doubt," Lina said the words with a smile.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Quara tried to sound braver than she felt and her sister reached over and squeezed her arm excitedly.

"Let's go. I can tell you're ready to see the library of your dreams and I'm ready to go down there to do some exploring without being entirely on my own."

Lina motioned for her sister to step in front of her, up to the edge of the dark opening. Quara took a deep breath. The hole was slightly wider, all the way around than one of her arms if she extended straight out, from the top of her shoulder just past her fingertips. It wasn't nearly as narrow as Lina had described when she'd first told her sister it was too small for any of the Squires to explore. Stepping forward she felt as though a strong hand was squeezing the air from her chest, crushing her lungs as a wave of panic steadily swept through her entire body. Forcing herself to take a slow breath, she glanced back over her shoulder at her sister who was close behind her.

"Hold your bag across your chest like this so you don't crush your lunch." Lina demonstrated, slipping her arms into the straps of her bag so that it hung in front of her and then crossing her arms over her chest. "It isn't steep in the beginning. And it's never so steep that you can't stop yourself if you need to. But try not to because I'm going to be right behind you and I'm going to slide into you if you do stop. I'm not sure if we'll be able to hear each other, since I've only ever done this by myself. So I guess if you need to stop, yell stop and I'll slow way, way down, until I reach you. But try not to do that if it isn't an emergency."

Quara nodded and stepped forward to the edge of the hole. She felt as though she were standing on the edge of a bottomless abyss. She sat down carefully and dangled her legs over the edge. Her toes disappeared into the darkness. Once she was inside she wouldn't be able to see her hand in front of her face.

"Wait." Up until that moment they had been speaking in normal voices, but suddenly Lina's voice was a whisper that Quara barely heard. "Someone's here." Both girls froze, completely hidden from anyone down by the lake. Quara strained to hear whatever it was that her sister had heard that caused her to put their descent momentarily on hold.

Lina put one finger to her lips and Quara moved backwards slightly, tucking her legs up under her so they no longer dangled down into the darkness.

"Hurry up. We don't have much time!" The voice was familiar and Quara saw Lina's eyes widen as she recognized it at almost exactly the same moment that her older sister had. Iggy was there, not far away, on the far edge of the lake. The rock formations must have for the most part muted the girls' voices, otherwise he would have already known that they were there and both girls had the distinct feeling that he hadn't realized that he and his companion weren't entirely alone.

Peering up over the edge of the rocks, hidden in shadows behind the enormous formations, they watched as Xav came into sight. Straining their ears to listen they waited, but the boys must have dropped their voices to a whisper, despite the privacy that they assumed they had, and neither girl could hear a single word that they said.

Later Quara would say that if she hadn't seen it happen with her own eyes, she never would have believed that Lina had slipped while standing perfectly still, balanced on two sturdy looking foot holds as she peered over the rocky outcropping. Quara was frozen in place. She raised her hand to her mouth to keep from crying out as her sister plummeted from her spy perch.

It wasn't a long fall. Lina stuck out her hand and, through pure luck, her flailing arm managed to catch a small ledge as she fell backwards. That was where her luck ended though.

Quara quickly realized that her sister had fallen because the small foothold that her left foot had been squeezed onto had crumbled beneath her weight and as she fell the spray of rocks that fell along with her struck the sides of the crevice, and the sound of rock striking rock echoed through the cavern. Any doubt that they had that their brothers had heard them was crushed when complete silence enveloped the Lake Cavern.

Thinking quickly Lina bent and picked up a rock and threw it as hard as she could out of the crevice, back towards the direction of the two entrances to the Lake. Then on swiftly silent feet she crossed the space to her sister and pointed down into the hole. There was no time left to hesitate. Taking one last breath Quara closed her eyes and slid forward into complete and total darkness as the earth dropped out from beneath her feet and she found herself hurtling deeper and deeper underground.