On the last night, Nathan left the others at the barge and went back up to the tower with his summons, because he wanted to be inside it long before the window reached zero.
He had spent most of the last two days in the city, carrying the sick out of the palace courtyard and into the halls, where the Emperor's physicians had set up beds. In the kitchens, he had stood and watched while forty cooks and bakers worked out, slowly and with a great deal of arguing, how to cook a meal for themselves instead of for the Steward. Once or twice he had even slept a little, on the sacks of Agnes's barge, with Momo against his chest. But every time he looked up, the grey tower was there behind the palace, and the window at the edge of his sight was still counting down.
[Time until displacement: 09:14:52]
