“The Green Alliance hasn’t agreed to this outrageous duel, but time presses and we need a resolution. Given your commitment to honor and fairness, perhaps you will let me examine the weapons before arrangements are finalized.”

Surprisingly, Mario smiled again. “Oh yes. These are extremely beautiful weapons, and you are wise to make them one of the last things you see in life. But if you want to take one to practice with, you will have to put down a deposit. They are valuable antiques, I’m afraid. If you’ll excuse me I’ll be back in a moment.”

He strode out of the room, leaving the other three looking at each other somewhat awkwardly. Perhaps Brandy felt being seated put her at a disadvantage, because she stood to match the others.

She said, “He’s strange, even stranger than the rest of us really.”

Emerald wasn’t quite sure if she was referring to hosts or elders. And which of them had been speaking?

Joey said inside his head, “I guess this is a funny time for me to remember this, but isn’t Firkin running for governor?”

For a moment Emerald wondered what a governor did, and what those who ran for him did. But the information was there in Joey’s brain. He decided it might even be useful.

He told Sapphire, “You seem to have filled an important role in the Embassy in my absence. While there is strife between our Alliances, I hope you’ve been filling it with the same impartial honesty that your host uses to govern the city of Babylon.”

From the expression on Firkin’s face he knew he’d scored a palpable hit. Inside his head, Joey told him a few things about Firkin’s rumored relationship with the criminal underworld. But before Emerald had a chance to try and use the information to discomfort Firkin further, they heard footsteps. Mario was back.

He carried two identical cases of polished wood with brass fittings. He rested them on a chair while he carefully cleared some space on the table and wiped it clean. Then he simultaneously unlatched them both, one with each hand.

As he pulled them open he said proudly, “Wogdon & Barton Flintlock Target Pistols.”

At first glance they looked like highly polished wooden sticks with a curve on the end and metal fittings. They were clearly not revolvers – they would be loaded for one shot at a time. Emerald had been familiar with many weapons eons ago when he had still had his body. He did not think he had ever fought with anything like these even then. He couldn’t even tell how to load them.

As if reading his mind Mario said, “I’m sure you can find someone to load it for you beforehand. We’ll only need one shot each. We’ll fight according to the code duello.”

Joey had vague memories in his brain of the code duello. Duels did not always end after one shot. Emerald was about to correct him when he recognized it as a boast and a threat. He said, “Perhaps I will fight you, but I will not engage in a wordy boasting match first.”

“Perhaps? Have you lost your nerve already?”

Emerald knew how seriously he had been weakened, and that he had been extremely fortunate to survive a duel so soon after the death of his first host and finding a new one. He also thought it had been a difficult hosting, wounded and hungry as he had been, though he could not remember all the details.

Fighting an avoidable duel would be reckless, almost suicidal. He had nothing to prove to anyone, especially Peridot as he attempted to bait Emerald. If his impatience and fiery temper had ever said differently, he must tame them now or be destroyed.

He was remembering a little more about himself when he least expected it. Emerald didn’t like everything he was learning.

But he was sure he was a survivor.

Mario closed both the cases. Emerald tried to take one, but Mario pulled it away at the last moment. “These are valuable antiques. I can’t risk them getting damaged or lost. Or stolen.”

“You said I’d have time to familiarize myself with it.”

“Sure thing. Sometime before we fight I’ll take you to a shooting range.”

For an instant Emerald considered fighting it out right there. He was unarmed though, because the mayor had kept his gun. He would be outnumbered at least three to two, and he wasn’t quite sure which side Serpentine would be on.

And who knew if the mayor was carrying the gun, or what other weapons he might have?

Emerald nodded silently to the absurd proposal, as if accepting it. He had some vague memory of unpleasantness with the River, but surely it could not ignore this level of double dealing.

He said aloud, “So when do we all get together and meet with the River?”

Once again Firkin looked amused. “Is tonight soon enough for you? Usually we do it Saturday and Sunday night, and again Wednesday or Thursday. It’s important, but I’m pretty busy the rest of the week. As mayor.”

Had that been Sapphire talking, or Firkin, or both? It occurred to Emerald that he wasn’t the only one to have come down with a touch of schizophrenia, though his seemed most obvious, to himself at least.

Emerald asked him, “What time?”

“Eight o’clock sharp.”

Would Sapphire and Firkin actually lie about the time, and then tell the River he hadn’t chosen to come? Probably, if they thought they would get away with it. He would double check with Diopside, and arrive early nonetheless.

“I’ll see you then.”

He turned to Serpentine. “Can you tell me where Diopside is?”

She looked surprised. “Can’t you tell? Have you lost that much of yourself?”

He replied, “Nah, I was just joking.”

Somehow the words rang false. He didn’t feel like elders with no bodies told many jokes. And yet again he had revealed a weakness before realizing it was a weakness.

He walked out of the room, determined to find Diopside without asking anybody else. Then it came to him. Elders were energy beings, with their senses and their movements little hindered by walls. He stood still and quieted his mind a moment. And he felt it. He knew where all the elders were at that instant, and which was which. Walls and floors were not in the universe of his senses, but somehow he translated the vision into directions in the normal universe, and went up the stairs towards Jake’s room.