"Nobody marked an end," Andre replied. "These are the surveyed sections. Some join up, some stop where the surveyors stopped."
Celia looked down at the pages.
"That's why I brought so many supplies. If we have to search the branches, we might need to sleep down there."
Quinlan studied the lines descending beyond the last marked junction. Reaching the entrance had been the easy part. The missing expedition could have taken any of those routes, and they had yet to find a trail to follow.
"Could you keep close to me?" Sera asked Celia.
The girl nodded to her. Andre went down first with Marielle behind him, and Celia followed between Sera and Serika.
The stairway opened into a corridor whose walls had been cut square long before the hillside swallowed them. Water ran down one side, leaving the other dry enough for the old expedition's chalk marks to survive.
