No Other Gods Read Online Free Page B

am I here? Why did I wake alone? What would you have me do?” There was more, but I figured those were the three most important questions. Though the answer was probably the same for each.
                  Hermes smiled. He walked down the center of the narrow path while I pushed through thigh-high grasses at the edge. He was in no hurry to answer or to arrive.
                  “You have many questions, including those few. But they are the key ones,” Hermes said slowly. “I have chosen you, Geno. In the beginning, when we created all the warriors you know and fight with and against, I chose you.”
                  He paused, and was silent for a few minutes as we slowly strolled down the path. Insects buzzed at our feet, and birdsong echoed from the trees. The sun was warm on our backs. I remained silent, patient outwardly if not inwardly, knowing that Hermes would continue when he was ready.
                  “Many things are not what they seem. You are not in the afterlife, Geno, as much as you are getting an education.”
                  Silence filled the space between us again. I was in a school? I knew of course what that was — there was a great deal that filled my brain without me knowing precisely how I knew — but only a dim image of a room, of lessons, a teacher came to mind. Everything I thought I knew about school was not what filled my everyday existence.
                  “School is perhaps not the term that you would recognize best. Call it boot camp, then. Boot camp for the warriors of the gods. It is already almost over.”
                  “When it is complete, you will be given tasks. You, and a few others, perhaps. But first, there will be a final test.”
                  Hermes said no more. As we neared the silver gates, suddenly close to what had seemed impossibly distant only a few short minutes ago, I knew that he had given me all the information he was going to … and that I’d been given some time to prepare. That was all I would get — it would have to be enough.
                  Now the city was visible through the bars of the gates. I glimpsed towers and spires, fantastical structures, half-visible in the blowing mist and cloud, appearing and disappearing as if by magic. They were impossible shapes, curved and smooth, graceful and beautiful. I wanted to go through the gates and explore this city which I knew instinctively was the city of the gods. But just as surely I knew without asking that I would not be permitted.
                  As Hermes dismissed me he spoke again, more to himself than to me, and hardly to be heard over the soft whisper of the gentle wind.
                  “The wars of the future are now the wars of the past.”
                  This time the transition back to the hall seemed to take a moment or two. As I felt myself going I looked one more time to the city. Something struck me, some chord rang inside, and I knew there was more. I had seen this before. I had never been there … but I had walked those streets.
                  Then I was back in the main feasting hall and other warriors were streaming to join me.
     
     

 
    I shook my head, shocked and confused. Muttering greetings to friends and acquaintances who noticed me, I headed for the freshers, needing some time to think, to try to grasp what Hermes had told me. Sluicing my face with water, I thought of the city I had never been in, but seemed familiar. Why?
                  I dried myself, looking into the mirror and seeing olive skin and dark hair atop a harsh, almost brutal face, and my confused, wondering grey eyes. My attempts to piece it all together were meeting with complete failure.
                  “There he is!”
                  I only half heard the harsh whisper and turned slowly to the source. A