Aquatica is sick.
The city beneath the waves is fading. Its lights never change. Its workers are losing their grip on tools they’ve held for thirty years. Its singing coral has gone silent. And the wealthy man on the surface who owns it — Mr. Tiberius Greenbrass — is waiting for it to fail so he can take it for himself.
When Mayor Tidepool sends an urgent letter to Cogsworth, Wart, Izzy, and Whistle climb into a bathysphere and descend into the dark.
What they find is a city that has forgotten how to be alive. A clockwork mollusk whose broken heart has poisoned a whole neighborhood. A guild of weavers who no longer make stories, only quotas. A geothermal drill that silenced an entire ocean’s song. And four warring guilds who may not cooperate fast enough to keep the city breathing.
But the most important thing they will find isn’t a problem to fix.
It’s a twelve-year-old boy in a perfectly tailored coat. A boy sent down by his father to find three things wrong with the city.
A boy who has been carrying a clipboard, and a question, for a very long time.
His name is Augustus Greenbrass.
Eight chapters of wonder, courage, and clever machines.
Book 3 of The New Steampunk Tales. For readers ages 7–10. Perfect for fans of The Wild Robot, Magic Tree House, and Geronimo Stilton.
