They each gripped Judah for what he had done, finding Iron Council, and Cutter and Elsie for finding Judah and bringing him back. They greeted Drogon. Judah told them Qurabin was with them, described the monk as a renegade from Tesh, and they looked in unease and waved at the air.

And then the Remade. The Iron Councillors.

One by one, the Caucusers of New Crobuzon’s Collective gripped the hands or tail-like limb of the Councillors, awed, abject, let out murmurs of solidarity. "Decades," one whispered, holding Rahul, who reciprocated with unexpected gentleness in his lower, reptile arms. "You came back. Chaver, where you been? Gods. We been waiting. "

There were too many things to ask. What has it been? Where have you been? How do you live? Do you miss us? These questions and others filled the room in ghost unspoken form. When at last someone spoke, it was to say, "Why have you come back?"

Cutter knew some of the delegates. An old cactus-woman called Swelled Eyelid, a Proscribed, he remembered; a man Terrimer, whose affiliation he did not know; and Curdin.

Curdin, a leader of the Runagates Rampant, had been Remade.

There were fashions in Remaking. Cutter had seen this shape before. Pantomime horses, people called them. Curdin had been made quadruped. Behind his own, another pair of legs shuffled uncertainly, bent at their waist, their human torso horizontal and submerging into the flesh above Curdin’s arse as if he were opaque water. Another man had been embedded in him.

"They broke me out," he said to Cutter quietly. "When it started. When the Collective took over. They emptied the punishment factories. Too late for me."

"Curdin," Judah said. "Curdin, what is this? What’s happening? Is this the Collective?"

"It was," Curdin said. "It was. "

"Why’s the Council coming back?"

"We’re being targeted," Judah said. "New Crobuzon fought its way through the Firewater Straits for us. They found out where we are. They’ve wanted us for years. Curdin, they’re chasing us through the cacotopic stain. The Council’s a way off yet, but it’s coming. We came to tell you, and to see-"

"You sure you’re still being followed? Through the stain? How did you come through the damn stain?"

"We’ve not shaken them off. They may be depleted, but they’re still coming. Even if Parliament doesn’t believe that the Council’s returning, their assassins are after us."

"But why are you here?"

"Because of you, of course. Gods damn, Curdin. I knew something was happening when I left. I knew, and when the Council heard about it, they knew it was time to come home. To be part of this."

But you wanted to stay away, Judah. Cutter looked at him, with a strange sense.

"We’re coming back. We’re going to join the Collective."