PUTTA WAS STRUGGLING FOR his life. The two young creatures – for they surely couldn’t be Earth children – had fastened themselves around him like iron and were dragging him far out into the deep point of the lake. Although Yakts have a greater lung capacity than humans, his whole chest was aching and burning with a need to breathe. The water was freezing here and dark, and his clothes were weighing him down. It was hard to tell which direction led to the surface any more and Putta was losing hope. He decided that he would like his last thought to be of Bryony – the Earth woman he had completely failed, while also failing to save her whole planet from certain doom…and then the back of his head – and this meant the back of his head was being forced along the bottom of the lake – hit something which hurt a great deal and also moved slightly and clanked against what must be some kind of rock. It sounded like metal – a metal container – a partially empty metal container.

Putta’s heart flipped like a particularly happy dolphin – he didn’t know this, he was completely unfamiliar with dolphins – and he decided to hope that this partially empty metal container was the flask of psy fluid.

At the same time, he managed to twist and wriggle out of his ill-fitting jacket, leaving Honor holding it, rather than his shoulders. This meant he was a little disorientated for a second, but then he reached out blindly with his numbed fingers and – not there, not there, not there, it has to be here somewhere, my lungs are going to burst – THERE IT IS – found what absolutely felt like the cylindrical flask he was after.

Putta clung to the phial while Xavier dragged savagely at his ankles. Putta knew he wasn’t going to make it to the surface…he was beyond his last gasp…he had no idea what to do.