No Other Gods Read Online Free PDF Page B

had taken Lord Hermes’ words as referring to me, and I was willing to bet just about anything that their desire to kill me in the forthcoming battle has just gone up more than a few notches.
                  “But no more! You have been in school — you have been learning, and you have been growing. You are now the most dangerous warriors in existence with the weapons of any time or place.”
                  “This last test — your final examination — will determine what roles we give you … what work will fall to each of you. Be ready. Be strong.”
                  Customarily, without farewell, Hermes began to depart. Before he fully disappeared, however, I could swear he inclined his head in my direction, caught my eye, and pointing to his head, whispered, be smart .
                  I shook my own head, trying to make all the recent revelations and surprises fit into a coherent pattern, as the excited murmur of men and women about to embark on a new adventure rose around us. Before we could drift off and lose each other, however, I caught the eyes of all my tablemates. Helo looked up, and Tonia smiled.
                  “Together,” I whispered.
                  We found each others’ hands under the table and held on as the fog took us and twisted us away.
     

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Never have so few
     
     
    Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
     
                  - Winston Churchill
     
     
    I had always been one of the first to wake. Today it would save my life, and the lives of my friends.
                  I opened my eyes, fighting the drowsiness that we always felt at the start of a fight day. The first thing I saw was my own arm, pillowing my head on short grass. Blue, again. The second thing I saw — more felt than saw — was the short stock of a semiautomatic rifle. So: early modern era weapons.
                  Raising my head, I pulled myself to my knees, glanced around blearily, and began blinking rapidly in shock. There were only nine other soldiers dressed in blue around me, all from my table in the hall, all from my cohort. This had never happened before: either so few, or all from my table.
                  But that was only the first shock.
                  Rising to my feet I scanned farther. What I saw chilled my bones. We were, the ten of us, in the middle of the red army … an army that was starting to wake up. Surrounding us were hundreds of reds, even now starting to shift, starting to move.
                  Physically wrenching myself out of the dual drugs of sleep and surprise, I went from friend to friend among my cohort, quietly slapping the faces of my comrades. Our only chance was rapid flight. Kin grabbed Jaca, who was still drowsy, and slung him over his shoulder, and I helped Livia, supporting her until she fully woke. We gathered ourselves and whatever gear we could and quietly picked our way through the still-sleeping reds. As we went, I whispered to the cohort to grab any loose weapons — late 20 th century submachine guns littered the ground — and extra clips of ammunition.
                  Only when we were several hundred meters (and increasing) from the red army did we start to talk, still in low voices.
                  “I don’t understand,” Jaca said slowly. “It makes no sense. We have never before woken in sight of an opposing army. No army has ever before been so outnumbered. And to wake up surrounded ...”
                  His voice trailed off in disbelief and it was plain that all of us shared his thoughts and none of us had any better idea what might be happening.
                  “Ten against four hundreds! What kind of chance do we have? This is not a fair fight!” Livia said, upset and