Mario said, “Since you’re the challenger, I get choice of weapons.”

That was insane. Emerald didn’t know where to start. “I haven’t challenged anyone. I’m the representative from Green Sword Honor, and I’ve proven it. Peridot shouldn’t even be here.”

“Last night the Green Alliance took a vote and determined that you were an unsuitable representative. Are you challenging that or not?”

They wanted him to fight for his life again, after he had just proved whatever needed to be proven? “That’s outrageous. I am the Green Sword Honor representative, you are demanding the position, and you want to call me the challenger?”

Firkin said, “The Green Alliance took a vote last night. If you have any doubt, ask them.”

Could they even do that? Well, they could vote anything they wanted, but they didn’t have the right to veto a representative of Blue Sword Honor. Or did they? He couldn’t quite remember. And the last two elders who had tried to kill him, including Peridot, had both been Blue Sword Honor. Did he have any supporters at all?

Brandy said, “There was a vote, all right, but I think we were railroaded. There’s no reason we should have been listening to you anyway. So now you say we can’t change it, but we don’t need your opinion on that either. I want to find Diopside, and then the four of us can talk to the River. Or even five if you want.”

That last had to be an offer to include Peridot. Emerald wanted to object, but he did like the idea of having Diopside present. Diopside was the only elder he was even halfway towards trusting. He would rather trust Diopside’s human host Jake than the rest of them. And his own host Joey.

But this whole idea of talking to the River had been Serpentines. She said she wanted to find Diopside, but did she really? Emerald didn’t know what the schedule of Diopside’s human host was, but he was pretty sure most of them would leave the house to do … human things during the week, or else things they didn’t want Emerald to know about.

Firkin said, “By all means let us talk to the River. Perhaps all nine of us should do so at once, so there is no doubt about what was said.”

His voice sounded arch and amused.

Within Emerald’s head Joey said, “He sounds amused, not the way he sounded when we were headed straight into his trap before. Maybe Brandy isn’t on his side, but he thinks he knows something that will make everything work out for him.”

Joey would be better at reading human voices and faces than he was, although each of these humans would be doing Eightfold bidding. In theory at least. All of them were hungry and weakened from the difficult transit without a receiving portal, and perhaps more influenced by their human hosts than they should be.

Within him Joey said, “Or perhaps the problem is the opposite. All are blinded by arrogance, and fail to learn from the people they purport to help.”

That idea was rather profound, especially for Joey. But Emerald had no time to think about it now. They were at a crossroads, and his life was on the line. He still didn’t trust the River, but what choice did he have? He seemed to recall that all of them had participated in the River’s game. Would they even have bothered if they had the capability of building a portal themselves? A receiving portal would make it possible for Emerald to get medical care, and all the rewards of opening a world to the Eightfold. Once again he would be able to feed properly, to sense independently, to move freely through the universe.

“Very well,” he answered Emerald.

Then he turned to Peridot. “What was your plan? To try and find a strange human weapon to duel me with, that I might not know? Is that your idea of honor?”

Mario smiled. His voice was soft as he said, “Oh no. I will bring you a matched pair of weapons. You will choose one for yourself. Then you will have time to familiarize yourself with it, and find a teacher if you choose.”

Doubtless that meant he would choose a weapon that his human host had been practicing with for years.