No Other Gods Read Online Free Page A

We did not have long to wait, but I wondered, even so, what the gods were doing now. And what sort of a life this was to live: fighting, killing, dying. For sport or some other purpose?
                  I did not know, but fell asleep.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We are your overlords
     
     
    We come from the land of the ice and snow,
    From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
    How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore,
    Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.
     
                                - Led Zeppelin
     
     
    There was never any sensation of time in a pod, but waking seemed quicker than before. Different.
                  I got out, warmed, stretched, yawned. Something was odd. As I grabbed my clothes, I finally noticed the obvious: I was alone.
                  No one else was awake.
                  Wondering if this was some mistake, I looked at the other pods. Pulling on my shirt, I checked Livia’s pod. I could see her, dimly, inside. Everything looked fine, but having no idea what the slowly blinking lights on the pod meant, I could not tell whether she was OK or in danger. Working my way from pod to pod, the same was true: everyone looked fine, but no-one was waking up.
                  Fighting a rising panic, I calmed myself by taking a few deep breaths. This had never happened before. What on earth was going on? Wondering, I headed toward the feasting hall. Was I the only one?
                  In the hall, at the table my troop usually occupied, at my place in front of my seat, there was a full, steaming plate — obviously just placed there. So there was no glitch … this was expected and planned. But what it meant was beyond me.
                  However, the plate was full and my gut was empty, so I did what was natural and set about reversing conditions. Meanwhile, I scoured my brain for something, anything, that would give me a clue about what was going on. No answers presented themselves except a niggling feeling of deja vue … a sense that something like this had happened before. But nothing more, nothing concrete. Nothing that made any sense.
                  When the smoke formed, I almost grinned. All the show just for me? The mists formed and fell, the sphere appeared, turned transparent. And Hermes appeared.
                  “Geno. Come with me.”
                  Immediately, without transition, we were elsewhere. Maybe elsewhen, too. Somewhere in a place — or on a world — I had never seen.
                  We were on a wide, grassy plain. Trees grew here and there, but there were no hills or mountains — in fact no horizon. The plain stretched, it seemed for hundreds of kilometers in all directions, and clouds, far distant, encircled the plain. Just before the cloud, I saw silver gates — city gates. But any city, if indeed there was one, was lost in the mists. A narrow path wound through the plain to the gate. I saw all this in an instant, then turned to the side.
                  Beside me was Hermes, but not twice human size, nor glowing.
                  “My Lord,” I said, going to one knee.
                  He smiled, motioned me to get up, and started down the path.
                  “Walk with me, Geno. We’ll go to the gate.”
                  As we walked he looked over at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
                  “Gods can appear in many forms, G, and sizes. This one is appropriate for today. For now.”
                  So now I understood why he was not twelve feet tall, or gleaming with barely contained light. A million other questions buzzed in my brain, but I waited for Hermes to speak.
                  “You may ask.”
                  “Lord, why