I squinted, trying to make out details, but the lights were just clusters of specks to me. I followed the team along the docks, and my attention was quickly drawn by the water. Despite living in Newcago, I’d never actually been near a large body of water before. Steelheart had turned enough of Lake Michigan to steel that I’d never been to the coast. Something about those dark depths made me strangely uncomfortable.
Ahead of us at the end of the dock, a flashlight flicked on, illuminating a medium-sized motorboat with an enormous man seated at the back, wearing about five shirts’ worth of red flannel. Bearded and curly haired, he waved at us with a smile.
Sparks, this man was large. It was like one lumberjack had eaten another lumberjack, and their powers had combined to form one really fat lumberjack. He stood up in the boat as Val hopped on. He shook hands with Prof and Tia, then smiled at me.
“Exel,” the man said softly, introducing himself. He paused briefly between the syllables, as if he were saying it “X.L.” I wondered which position in the team he’d fulfill. “You’re Steelslayer?”
“Yeah,” I said, shaking his hand. The darkness, hopefully, covered my embarrassment. First Val, then this guy, referring to me that way. “But you don’t really need to call me that.”
“It’s an honor,” Exel said to me, stepping back.
They expected me to climb onto the boat. That shouldn’t be a problem, right? I realized I was sweating, but I forced myself to step onto the unsteady vehicle. It rocked a lot more than I’d have wanted—and then rocked even more as Mizzy climbed on. Were we really going to cross this enormous river in something so small? I sat down, discomforted. That was a lot of water.
“Is this it, sir?” Exel asked once we were all on.
“This is everyone,” Prof said, settling himself by the prow of the boat. “Let’s move.”
Val took the seat at the back next to the small outboard motor. She started it with a soft sputtering sound, and we pulled away from the dock onto the choppy black water.
I held on to the rail tightly, watching the water. All of that blackness beneath us. Who knew what was down there? The waves weren’t huge, but they did rock us. Again, I wondered if we shouldn’t have something larger. I scooted closer to the middle of the vessel.
“So,” Val said as she steered us along. “Have you prepped the new guy?”
“No,” Prof said.
“Now might be a good time, considering …,” Val said, nodding toward the distant lights.
Prof turned toward me, his form mostly hidden in shadows. The wind ruffled his dark lab coat. I hadn’t completely gotten over the awe I’d felt upon first meeting him. Yes, we were close now, but occasionally it still struck me—this was Jonathan Phaedrus, founder of the Reckoners. A man I’d practically worshipped for most of my life.
“The one who rules this city,” he said to me, “is a hydromancer.”
I nodded eagerly. “Rega—” I began.
“Don’t say her name,” Prof interrupted. “What do you know of her abilities?”
“Well,” I said, “supposedly she can send out a projection of herself, so when you see her, it might just be her duplicate. She also has the portfolio of a standard water Epic. She can raise and lower water, control it with her mind, that sort of thing.”
“She can also see out of any open surface of water,” Prof said. “And can hear anything spoken near the water. Do you have any idea of the ramifications of that?”
I glanced at the open water around us. “Right,” I said, shivering.
“At any time,” Exel said from nearby, “she could be watching us. We have to work under that assumption … and that fear.”
“How are you still alive?” I asked. “If she can see so widely …”
“She’s not omniscient,” Prof said to me, speaking firmly. “She can only see one place at a time, and it’s not particularly easy for her. She looks into a dish of water she’s holding, and can use it to see out of any surface of water that touches air.”
“Like a witch,” I said. “From the stories.”
“Sure, like that,” Exel said, chuckling. “I doubt she has a cauldron though.”
“Anyway,” Prof said, “her powers are extensive—but they don’t make it easy for her to scan and find things randomly. Something has to draw her attention.”
“It’s why we avoid saying her name,” Val added from the back of the boat. “Unless we’re whispering over the mobile network.”
Prof tapped his earpiece. I turned on my mobile, with voice amplification, and wirelessly connected it to my earpiece.
“Like this,” Prof whispered, but it came into my ear loud enough to be heard.
I nodded.
“Right now,” he continued, “we are in her power. We float across the open sea. If she knew we were here, she could summon tendrils of water and drag this ship into the depths. In this city, like most others, the Reckoners can exist because we are careful, quiet, and hidden. Don’t let the way we’ve been acting in Newcago make you sloppy here. Understood?”
“Yeah,” I said, whispering like he did, trusting that the sensors on my earpiece would pick up my voice and transmit it. “Good thing we’ll be out of open water soon, eh?”
Prof turned toward the city and fell silent. We passed something nearby in the water, a large, towering length of steel. I frowned. What was that, and why had it been built into the middle of the river like this? There was another in the distance.
The tops of a suspension bridge’s towers, I realized, spotting wires trailing down into the water. The entire bridge had been sunk.
Or … the water had risen.
“Sparks,” I whispered. “We’re never going to get off the open water, are we? She’s sunk the city.”
“Yes,” Prof said.
I was stunned. I’d heard that Regalia had raised the water level around Manhattan, but this was far beyond what I’d taken that to mean. That bridge had probably once loomed a hundred feet or more above the river; now it was beneath the surface, only its support towers visible.
I turned and looked at the water we’d crossed. Now I could see a subtle slope to the water. The water bulged here, and we had to move up at an incline to approach Babilar, as if we were climbing a hill of water. How bizarre. As we drew closer to the city itself, I saw that the entire city was indeed sunken. Skyscrapers rose like stone sentries from the waters, the streets having become waterways.