‘Oh! You mean lunfast,’ said Shimlara. ‘I always ask the Telepathy Chef for a scrambled egg sandwich.’

‘Stop talking about food,’ groaned Sean.

‘Hamburgers,’ said Tyler conversationally. ‘Hot dogs. Pizza. Ice-cream.’

‘Aaaaggggh!’ Sean clutched his stomach. ‘Starving . . . dying . . . need food.’

‘Come on,’ said Nicola. ‘The sooner we get going, the sooner we eat.’

‘Do you think the ground is going to stay steep?’ asked Greta.

‘It is a valley,’ pointed out Shimlara. ‘It will go down and then up again.’

‘Just lean back in your saddle,’ advised Nicola.

‘Hmmmph.’ Greta looked unconvinced.

Nicola gave Quicksilver a gentle pat and led the way under the arch.

It was like entering a different world. The light from the rainbows was now filtered through a canopy of trees. Instead of dramatic shafts of colour, Nicola could see quivering patches of red, blue and green light, as if someone had gone crazy with a paintbrush. It was very quiet and peaceful, except for the occasional soft ‘thud’ as a pile of snow slipped from a tree branch. The clean mossy smell of forests and rivers filled their nostrils.

As Shimlara had pointed out, they were heading down towards the bottom of the valley, but there was a wide paved path to follow, so riding was easy.

The weight of worry vanished from Nicola’s shoulders. She felt as light and bouncy as a balloon. Anything seemed possible. They would find Topaz and work out a way to overthrow Enrico and rescue Katie. Nicola would win first prize in the Inter-School Story Competition (even though she’d never actually got around to entering), and she would be picked out by a talent scout for a starring role in a television series (even though she was a pretty hopeless actress) and she would most definitely be picked for the next Olympic Games (even though she wasn’t especially sporty). Yes! She couldn’t wait to see how many medals she would win!

‘Guess what, Nic!’ Shimlara called out from behind her. ‘I just realised I’m going to win every single race at the Intergalactic Athletics Carnival next week! It’s true I haven’t been training much but I’ve got so much natural ability!’

Sean came trotting up to ride alongside Nicola. ‘Just thought you should know I’m going to be a black belt by Christmas, so don’t mess with me.’

Mmmmm, thought Nicola. Sean had only just got his blue belt in karate. It seemed like there might be something in the air in the Valley of High Hopes.

She could hear Tyler and Greta talking behind her.

‘I’m expecting a letter from NASA waiting for me when I get back to Earth,’ said Tyler cheerfully. ‘They’ll be offering me a part-time job after school as an astronaut. So I’ll be able to give up that boring paper run.’