The Jewels of Cyttorak by Unknown Author Read Free Book Online Page A

his credit, didn’t budge.
    “Are we lucky? Has the old man gone to meet the devil yet?” Robert asked.
    Gary shook his head. “Keep your voice down,” he said. “He’ll hear you.”
    Robert laughed even harder at that. “And you think
    I care?” Robert asked. Then he glared down at Gary. “You just keep sniveling around Father like you’ve been doing and leave me alone. Fve got a few trips to make and I may be gone for a few days. Call me if the old man croaks.”
    Gary said nothing, but simply turned and left, slarn-ming the door as he went.
    Robert laughed, long and hard. He knew his laughs were echoing through the big, old mansion. He just hoped they were driving his brother and father crazy. It would be an added benefit to this wonderful new strength and size.
    Too bad he couldn’t stay around longer and have even more fun with them. Maybe after he found the other parts of the emerald and returned, there would be time.
    “Oh, that would be fun,” he said, and laughed again.
    Gary let the booming, echoing laughs of his brother follow him down the gloomy halls of the mansion. Robert’s size was incredible. During the night Gary had almost convinced himself that he’d imagined what had happened with the emerald and Robert. But now, in the light of day, it was clear that Robert’s new size and power were very real.
    That made his plans even harder. Robert was just crazy enough that he’d kill his own brother when he found out how he had been tricked out of control of the Service businesses. And now Robert had the power to do it.
    There had to be a way to get Robert back to normal, or at least a way to control him.
    Gary headed toward his father’s room. Maybe the old man knew a way. After all, he’d been the one to find the emerald in the first place.
    Last night, after Robert had touched the emerald, their father had had a very mild heart attack. The nurse had kept him sedated for the remainder of the night, and a doctor had checked him over this morning. No change. He was going to die shortly of cancer, if his heart didn’t take him first. And there wasn’t a thing medical science could do to stop it.
    And for that Gary was glad.
    As Gary got to his father’s room, the old man was starting to come around again.
    The machines near his bed were all active and the heart monitor beeped continuously. The morning nurse, a middle-aged, brown-haired woman with hard gray eyes sat on a chair near the machines, reading a Stephen King novel.
    Gary let the smell of the cancer envelop him as he entered the room. Even after being so close to his father over the last month as the cancer got worse, the smell still turned his stomach. He doubted if he’d ever clear that smell out of his memory.
    “Father,” Gary said, moving over beside the blinking old man and sitting down in his normal chair beside the bed. “Go slow. I’m right here.”
    But the old man seemed upset. He grabbed Gary’s arm with a surprisingly strong grip, pulled himself up slightly, and looked Gary right in the eye.
    “Did I dream it?” he asked, his voice hard and raspy. “Did Robert touch the emerald?”
    “I’m afraid he did,” Gary said.
    The old man let go of Gary’s arm and sank back, closing his eyes with a sigh.
    The beeping of the machine increased and the nurse looked up at it, then went back to reading.
    “Nurse,” Gary said, “Could we possibly have a moment alone, please?”
    The woman glanced at the machines, nodded, then stood and left the room without a word, closing the door behind her as she went.
    “Father,” Gary said, lightly touching the back of the old man’s hand. “Tell me more about the emerald. Is there any way to return Robert to normal?”
    The old man shook his head, flopping it back and forth as if he were having a nightmare. Then he stopped and opened his eyes again. ‘ ‘All I know is what that monk told us,” he said. “And I told you all he said last night.” “Oh,” Gary said, sitting