Lord of Lightning Read Online Free

time of the evening. Warm carmine light glowed through the darkening woods, and the rock quarry, though some distance away, was partially visible through the trees.
    It was just as Lise had thought. The children had seen something out here, perhaps Stephen Gage ministering to a wounded bird, but their imaginations had taken over from there. Relief washed over her, bringing with it the realization that she had been nervous. She would give Mr. Gage his copper wire, warn him of the rumors, and have a good laugh about them. Then she would leave.
    No one answered her knock. Lise tested the door and found it locked and bolted. A glance in the window convinced her that no one was inside. One lamp glowed in the corner of a sparsely furnished living area, illuminating the uninhabited room.
    The tightness in her chest was disappointment, she realized. She had wanted to see him again, even just a glimpse, to see if he would have the same crazy effect on her nervous system. She was more than a little curious about the electric shocks, and she remembered vividly that odd, grasping sensation deep in her stomach. Staring at the package in her hand, she considered leaving it on his doorstep. Instead, she carried it with her back to the Cordoba.
    The car radio blared on as she keyed the ignition. The static was deafening, and as she reached to switch the radio off, she saw something that astonished her. A greenish vapor was seeping from the rock quarry. Faintly iridescent, it drifted and plumed like smoke from a huge bonfire. Lise switched off the ignition, her fingers curling around the keys. A pulse beat near her thumb where the metal ridge pressed into her flesh. What in the world? A forest fire just starting?
    She got out of the car, at war with her instincts, which told her not to go one step farther. They also told her quite emphatically to get the heck out of there, to find someone who could help her check it out. Preferably someone large and powerful. Nevertheless, she started for the overgrown path that led to the quarry. Just to get a closer look, she told herself. The weather had been extremely dry recently, and there’d been a rash of summer lightning storms. If it was a fire, she should notify the authorities immediately.
    The quarry was surrounded by a rocky border a dozen feet high and raised like the cone of a small volcano, which made it impossible for Lise to see the interior from her vantage point on the path. It looked uncannily like a moon crater, she thought, names flashing through her mind as she remembered a science class she’d taught for Harlan Meek ... the Apennines, the lunar Alps and the great Carpathians, all mountains of the moon.
    The mist began to look more like light than vapor as she neared. It took on luminous tones as the sky darkened, shimmering and dancing, the green deepening to emerald before it fanned out in plumes. A faint smell of ether hung in the air.
    By this time Lise’s curiosity had all but silenced the warning messages in her head. She wasn’t going to be able to stop until she’d seen for herself what was going on. Accepting that fact, she proceeded cautiously, but steadily, toward the quarry.
    Gravel crunched beneath the soles of her leather sandals as the path fanned out into glacial streams of rock that cascaded from the quarry walls. She’d changed from her high heels, but she was still wearing the shirtwaist dress she’d chosen for school that day. Now she wished she’d worn something more suitable, and warmer.
    The night sky was darkening rapidly as Lise began to climb the gradual rise. The rocks gave way under her weight, making her ascent as laborious as trudging in sand. Sharp pebbles worked their way into her sandals, forcing her to stop and shake them out. She was digging a fragment from the ball of her foot when she heard the sound. Crackling like static on a telephone line, it came from the quarry.
    Lise was practically on all fours by the time she reached the crest and