No Other Gods Read Online Free PDF Page A

burly shape was entering. I could almost recognize him … searched my memory until I placed it: a huge warrior I had killed a couple of battles ago. Rast, someone had called him.
                  He was not alone.
                  Four or five joined him, filled the fresher, and formed a semicircle around me as I finished drying off and tossed the towel. I took my time, not sure what this what about, but taking care to show no alarm, no fear, and no worry. But I did mentally prepare for action.
                  “What’s this about?” I dragged it out, slow, calm.
                  “What’s it’s about, Geno, is you. You god’s pet! Think you’re always going to win? Think you’re always going to live?” Rast thrust his face in mine, belligerent, angry, crowding me.
                  I straightened to my full height, caught and held his eyes, and moved in on him until our noses were almost touching. If he really wanted to have it on right then and there he would not be disappointed. Friends or no friends, I had never backed down from a physical challenge and I wasn’t going to start now.
                  “Yes. Yes … in fact I do.” My tone made it very clear that this little confrontation was one which was very definitely included in the list that I intended and indeed expected to win.
                  Rast straightened, backed off fractionally. The direct response didn’t frighten him, exactly, but it was clear he had not expected me to be so calm and unworried, surrounded by him and his little gang.
                  “Just as I expected,” he half-smiled, working to regain lost momentum. “Things are going to be a little different next time, however.”
                  “As in, you’ll die sooner?” I couldn’t resist the little dig. Angry people were usually stupid people, and stupid people were easier to defeat than smart people.
                  He laughed harshly.
                  “See us, G? All five of us? None of us are going to fight with anyone, G, except you. We won’t even look at other fighters. We are coming for you, and we are coming together, and one of us will kill you.”
                  His words were menacing, delivered in a harsh whisper, but I had heard worse. Still, this was a formidable threat: an attack by five trained warriors, simultaneously, while in the heat of battle and potentially occupied with other threats. That said, I knew how to blunt his weapon.
                  “You won’t fight others, you say? You’ll run away from challenges? And how will this look when the gods review the battle? You want to sleep and not wake up?”
                  The others with Rast shifted restlessly. The obvious problem with their plan had, in fact, occurred to them, and they were not blind to the implications. But another, presumably, had not.
                  “And what if you happen to be on my team next time?” I smirked, looking at my increasingly nervous opponents. “What then, you’ll attack me anyways?”
                  “Nice try, Geno,” Rast cut in, trying to regain the offensive. “The gods know what’s up. They know about primary objectives. I’m thinking they’ll understand.”
                  “And even if not,” he continued, “We’re not letting this stand. You’re not going undefeated. You are not continuing undead. You will die , Geno, and I don’t think Hermes will care very much how.”
                  The last was delivered in a harsh whisper. A shiver ran down my back as he mentioned Hermes — Rast spoke as if he knew something that I did not. Just then the bell for dinner sounded, and Rast and his cohort melted away to the feast halls, one of them kicking down a servitor in passing.
                  I followed slowly, lifted the