“No.” Simon had to turn his head to keep water from going down his throat or up his nose.
“This is one of the demon worlds. Not where they’re from. They haven’t shown me one of those yet. But this is one of those they’ve captured. This world has been Burned and remade.”
The tentacle dragged Simon across the lake bed. For the first time he realized chunks and pieces of buildings lay at the bottom.
“This is what’s going to happen to your world,” Miriam taunted.
Simon spat water and tried to find room to breathe in the filling helmet. “It used to be your world, too.”
“Not anymore.”
“What happened to you?”
“I…became someone else. Someone that could survive in this world.”
“How?”
“You ask too many questions.”
Simon’s focus returned immediately to his own survival when he saw what the tentacle was attached to. The silt-filled water proved hard to see through, but he saw the massive, bloated body seated in the middle of the lake.
The dark green creature possessed six tentacles. A single, malevolent eye measuring nearly three feet across stared at Simon from the center of its body.
“Identify demon,” Simon whispered. He couldn’t remember anything like the creature in the material the Templar library had held.
“Command failed,” the suit AI replied.
“Can you identify the demon?”
“Query failed.”
Simon bumped across the muddy lake bottom. The lake water that half filled his helmet smelled foul and tasted worse. “What kind of demon has hold of me?”
“Parameters for question invalid.”
“Why are the parameters invalid?”
“No creature holds you.”
“The creature ahead of me.”
“Nothing is there.”
“Scan for demons.”
“Scanning.” A handful of seconds passed. “No demons.”
Simon concentrated on the demon. However it blocked the suit AI’s sensors, the demon did a complete job.
Something splashed into the water next to him. Holding his breath, he turned his face into the rising water inside his helmet.
A shimmering figure stood there. She was so transparent that she looked like she was made of glass. The shape told him at once that she was female. Her hair floated freely in the lake. A one-piece uniform covered her body. Then he recognized her profile.
“Leah,” Simon spluttered.
She turned to face him. Her expression showed doubt and fear. “Simon?” He didn’t know how she talked underwater.
The water inside his helmet made it impossible for him to keep watching her. He had to breathe. He turned his head, took a breath, and looked back for Leah. He was surprised to find her at his side.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
Simon shook his head, unable to speak because of the water in his helmet. He wasn’t going to be able to breathe inside the helmet much longer, either.
“This isn’t real,” Leah said. “None of it.”
Simon thought that might have been interesting to debate if he hadn’t been drowning.
“For all I know,” Leah said, “you’re not real.”
The tentacle dragged Simon toward the demon. A gaping maw opened in the creature’s body. A pink gullet lined with foot-long fangs took shape.
“Are you real?” Leah asked.
Simon turned his head and tried to answer, but it was too late. The water had risen so far inside his helmet he could no longer breathe or speak. He stared at her through the cracked faceplate.
Leah extended a large knife. She sawed at the tentacle. Black blood flooded the water in a spreading cloud. The tentacle writhed, then released Simon.
He knew it was too late. The water inside his helmet was drowning him. He struggled against the net. Leah dragged her knife along the armor. The net strands parted liked string. That wasn’t supposed to happen, either.
Planting his feet against the muddy bottom of the lake, Simon propelled himself toward the surface. His hands worked at the helmet locks because he couldn’t verbalize the order for the suit AI to disengage the armor. He managed to get the helmet off just before he reached the surface.
When his head broke the surface, he breathed in great draughts of air. He held the helmet in one hand. Treading water in the armor was almost impossible. If it hadn’t been for the automatic flotation feature to ensure neutral buoyancy, he’d never have managed.
“You’re still alive?” Miriam called from a small hill overlooking the lake.
Simon didn’t answer. He spun around in the water and looked for Leah. Despite her unexplained ability to breathe and talk underwater, he still didn’t know how much danger she was in.
“Simon.”
He turned to Leah’s voice and found her standing in the water just below the surface. She made no effort to swim, merely stood there as if she were on level ground.
Then she lifted his sword toward him. Somehow it had fallen loose during the underwater struggle. For a moment the image of her handing him the sword out of the water mesmerized him.
“Take it,” she said.
Simon closed his fist around the sword’s hilt an instant before a tentacle wrapped his leg and pulled him under. He managed to finish one last breath of air, then slid once more beneath the water.
Submerged, he manually blew the air from the buoyancy bladders the armor had automatically filled from his air supply. Bubbles erupted around him and boiled to the surface. Taking his sword in both hands, he reversed it and took a firm grip on the hilt. He sank like a stone to the bottom, then managed four quick strides to the demon nestled in the crater.
The demon’s tentacles lashed at Simon and took hold of him. He didn’t know where Leah had gone until she was suddenly beside him. Somehow, she managed to bat some of the tentacles aside.
As if sensing what Simon planned, the demon hoisted itself from its nest and tried to scuttle away. Simon leaped forward and put both boots on top of the demon’s center body mass. He fired the boot anchors and felt them bite into the creature’s flesh. Then he rammed the sword through the awful eye staring helplessly up at him.
Blood and green-tinted fluid flooded the water. Either the blood or the fluid—or, possibly, both—burned
