Emily’s heart was hammering as she took off running along the walkway with her three friends. Behind them, Michiko picked up Miss Yama, watching their forms dissolve into the dimness beyond the radiance of Pink Dragon.

  The walkway was lit by thin strips of guide-lights, dull pink that barely pushed back the cavern’s vast darkness. More than ever, Emily felt like she was dreaming—that is, except for the cold metal of the walkway’s grating that bit through her socks, and the first stab of a side cramp forming across her ribs. Soon she was gasping for breath, a sound echoed by Lachlan’s wheezing, Ansel’s grunts, and Michelle’s steady huffs.

  Just when she thought she’d need to walk, the guide-lights grew more frequent, their glow tracing the metal railing into a circular platform that was suspended in the cavern’s center like the hub of a great wheel. Beyond the walkway they had arrived from, four other branching walkways branched outward from the platform, evenly spaced, vanishing into different quadrants of the cavern. At the distant end of each stood a dragon, the titanic mechs bathed in pools of colored light.

  They stood for a moment, catching their breath, staring down their respective paths.

  “So,” Lachlan managed at last, voice thinner than usual. “Guess this is where we split the party.”

  “Once we’re inside the dragons, we should be able to communicate again,” Emily said, glancing between Ansel and Michelle. “At least, that’s what the show was like, right?”

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  “True. But I suspect that not everything might be exactly like the show,” Ansel muttered.

  Emily laughed, the sound edged with nerves. “You’re not allowed to be pessimistic right now, Ansel.”

  They drifted closer, forming a loose circle at the platform’s center.

  Emily swallowed. “Just… don’t die, all right?”

  Michelle stepped in first, hugging her hard. “Hadn’t occurred to me until you said that, but now that you mention it, I’ll try hard not to,” she said, managing a lopsided grin.

  Ansel joined next, nearly knocking them off balance with his big, awkward hug, Lachlan wrapping in from the other side with his own nervous half-laugh.

  They stood there like that for several seconds, four silhouettes bound together above darkness, surrounded by distant dragon-light. Emily imagined that she could feel their heartbeats through the contact, fast and uneven, matching her own.

  Michelle pulled back first, scrubbing quickly at one eye. “Okay. We’re good.”

  “Yeah,” Lachlan said, sniffing once. He looked like a ghost in the dim light. “Group hug accomplished, morale boosted.”

  Ansel sighed. “Verdammter Wei?er Drache. Das wird ja heiter,” he muttered to himself. Then he nodded grimly. “See you all on the other side.”

  Emily took a last look at each of her friends. Then she stepped back, turning toward the green-lit walkway that stretched out into the cavern’s depths.

  Behind her, she heard the others do the same. Then four sets of footsteps began to run.