"More than once I tried, you know. With my men. We did what we could. Cut through the mountains, through creeping hills. Smokestone. All the landscapes. You know them. We tried, we died, we turned back. Eaten, killed. Taken by cold. Again and again, I tried. And then I was too old to try.

"All this"-he swept his arm up-"all this metal trail from New Crobuzon to the swamps, the split, to Cobsea, to Myrshock, it was something. But it wasn’t what I worked for. Not really. Not my dream. You know that.

"No: that other thought, of iron stretched from sea to sea, that was mine. The continent cut open. From New Crobuzon west. That was mine. That’s history. That’s what I been fighting for, wanting. You know it, don’t you, all of you? You know that.

"I won’t pretend you didn’t rile me. You did, of course you did, you riled me when you took my train. But then I saw what you were doing… Holy work. Much more than you’d been charged with. And while it weren’t the easiest for me to see, I’d not stand in the way of that." Weather Wrightby shone; his eyes were passionate and wet. "I had to come see you. I had to tell you this. What you’ve done, what you did. I salute you."

Cutter shook like an animal in a trap, debased by the susurrator’s techniques. He strived, moving and hearing again "Be still" deep in his ear. It seemed to resonate in the bone itself. Gods, fucking, damn. The air was utterly still. There was the snap of metal from below. It was cold.

"And then you were gone, off in the west and who knew where? It was over, but I knew I’d hear of you again and then, yes." Weather Wrightby smiled. "Even fallen and failed, I’ve my networks, I’ve my plans. I’ve my friends in Parliament who want me to succeed. I hear things. So when they found you-when one of their scouts or merchanteers went up through that sea, and heard of the train-town and sent word and sent scouts and found you-when that happened, I heard it. And when they sent their men to bring your heads, under cover of the war, I heard that too.

"What could I do? What could I do but come to you? You know the route. You know the way through the continent. Do you know? What that is? That’s holy knowledge. I’d not let them bury that. You went as fast as you can, there’s places I’d deviate, go souther near the Torque, but however it’s finessed its your way. I needed to know.