Chapter 23. Awakening

Shawn felt the world spinning around him. Spinning, spinning, until he thought the ocean of blackness was going to swallow him whole, like a whirlpool into oblivion. There was pain in his eyes, pain in his cheeks. His teeth ached and his forehead throbbed. His lungs burned like he’d inhaled liquid fire. He tried to move his arms, but he couldn’t manage it. No matter how hard he pulled, his arms stayed right where they were. He realized something was holding them down, some kind of device, or rope, or lock. And then he flashed awake.

Shawn opened his eyes and saw a dark room around him. He was laying back on some kind of wooden rack, arms tied together by rope and white cloth to the frame behind his head, and feet restrained at the other end. His back felt as stiff as the boards. Shawn jerked his wrists but the only thing that moved was his own body–the ropes were solid as steel.

“Where am I,” Shawn asked the darkness, his voice more a mumble than speech. He looked around, but the only light came from a small, white candle set on a brass pan on the table at his bedside. There was almost no melted wax at the candle’s base. It looked freshly lit. “Is anyone there?”

“Yes,” Shawn heard a girl’s voice say.

“Valery?” he asked, searching the darkness for her eyes. For a long quiet moment, he heard nothing, and then she said, “No…”

Shawn was sure it was her. But then he remembered what Dylan called Valery in the cave. Dylan called her by Manie’s sister’s name. The sister who’d been killed in a fight for Mikhail’s Crystal. “Veronica?”

Burning green eyes flashed open in the darkness. The Turquoise Crystal floated up in a pale, bony hand. “Yes,” Valery whispered.

“Where are we?” Shawn asked.

“A place in the lower levels of the mansion where we won’t be disturbed. A mutual friend helped me get you down here.”

A mutual friend? Shawn thought. Could she mean Gale, or Silvan?

“You can’t be Veronica,” Shawn said with a loud voice. “Manie’s sister died seventy years ago. She fell from the tower!”

“I didn’t fall, I was dropped,” Valery snapped back, slowly coming closer to let Shawn see her face in the candlelight. She looked the same as before, though now he noticed the incredible resemblance to Manie. The sight was enough to make Shawn’s stomach drop like he’d leapt from a thousand-foot cliff.

Valery grabbed the edge of the rack and flipped Shawn up, making him hang upright from the wooden frame before her. Shawn groaned in pain as all his weight went into his arms and shoulders.

He couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed the resemblance before. It was torture to believe it might actually be true, that he’d been so sufficiently tricked, that he was so foolish to fall for such a trick. “Veronica is dead,” Shawn said again, the words like thousand pound boulders in his throat. He looked at the floor, his breathing ragged just from the fight to stay awake.

“Do I look dead to you, Shawn?” Valery replied. She grabbed Shawn’s hair and raised up his face until they met eyes.

Shawn could see the green flame burning in her pupils like a toxic cloud. Her brow was bent in anger.

“No, you don’t,” Shawn relented, shivering as he tried to squeeze a few drops of strength from his bones. His mind was slipping over his own thoughts trying to explain it all away.

“Well, at least we know your eyes still work,” Valery said, letting his hair slip between her fingers as she leaned back. She held up the Turquoise Crystal and the green fire burned across her face. “I was dead, once. But now I’m not.” She spoke as if reversing her death had been as simple as changing an outfit.

“How can that be possible?” Shawn asked. “No one comes back from the other side.”

“I woke up,” she whispered, turning her eyes from the Crystal to Shawn. “I was trapped in a world where people are forced to relive their deaths, their memories, again and again until there is nothing left of who they once were. But the Black Crystal freed me. It unshackled my bonds of shadow.”

“A Crystal brought you back to life?” Shawn asked, still groggy, the world faded by the fog in his eyes. The lump on his head from where the rock had hit him in the staircase was still throbbing “They can do that?” He knew it was better to play ignorant.

“That’s right. A tiny, magic rock ended decades of torture with a flash.” Veronica snapped her fingers.

Shawn couldn’t understand what she was talking about. It was like a scrambled reflection of memories playing out before him. “That doesn’t make sense. You’re acting crazy, Valery. If reversing death was that easy, what's to stop the person who saved you from using the Black Crystal to bring everyone back to life?”

Veronica looked into Shawn’s eyes and leaned close, until the green fire was right in the middle of his vision. “Now you’re asking the right questions, Shawn.” Her eyes were as wide as she could open them.

Shawn looked away from the green flame to give himself space to think about what that meant. He snapped back to Veronica’s burning green eyes as if he’d been slapped with the idea. “Is that how you plan to stop the Gray Death?”

“It took you this long to figure it out? That actually kind of worries me.” She put a hand on Shawn’s chest and pushed away from him. “It doesn’t matter now. As long as you’ve opened the correct book.”

“You want to resurrect the dead?” Shawn asked, stunned to hear the words coming out of his mouth. “This can’t be real.”

“It’s very real, Shawn.” Veronica’s eyes searched for emotion in his face. “Is that going to be a problem?”

“Is it going to be a problem?” Shawn repeated, trying to think about what that meant. If a Crystal could reverse death, then a cure to the Gray Death would become worthless. All the dead in Copper Lanes and Market Town could be given a second chance. The damage Agatha–Shaleah–had done could actually be reversed. And then he and Manie could go back to the safety of the North, back to his new home. All the Protectors could. “I guess not…” Shawn said back. “But…don’t you think it might be dangerous to bring people back to life? We have no idea what might happen.”

“Why would you think that? I was dead before and now I’m not. I’m not different. Is there something wrong with me to your eyes? Am I tainted? Do I look different, talk different, act different to you?”

Shawn shook his head. “No,” he said, careful with his words. “It’s just that people have been dying for a long time, Vee. Who knows what could happen if someone changes that.”

“The world would become a better place, that’s what would happen,” Valery replied, sounding bittered by the question. “If people didn’t have to fear death, fear disease, fear loneliness–just imagine how much farther humanity could reach; if we no longer had to grapple with our own mortality. It could be beautiful.”

“I don’t know, Vee,” Shawn said. “A lot of horrible people would still be living now if that was true.”

“So would lots of good people. Grandparents. People we love, people history can’t afford to lose. Those who have been reborn don’t age,” Veronica said, putting a hand on her chest. “We don’t get sick. We don’t waste away. We could live forever and guide the world in the direction it was meant to go–not in the direction people like my mother chose for it to go.” Veronica shook her head. “I know that’s why you came south. You want to reverse the damage she caused before she disappeared. And so do I.” Veronica smiled. “This is how we do it, Shawn.”

“If the Black Crystal can resurrect the dead, then why did we go into the Forest of Forgotten Dreams to find that one? Two of your friends died to get that Crystal. Why is that one so important?”

Veronica brought up the Turquoise Crystal and looked at the green flame, as if it represented something evil in her eyes. “Because they have to see the truth to believe in it. Once the people of Copper Lanes learn that the ones they love are still out there, lost, being tortured by their own memories, their own deaths…and that I know of a way to save them–they’ll follow us anywhere…” She looked at Shawn, her eyes sparkling in the green light. “This is my destiny, Shawn,” she whispered. “To turn back time and make everything right. To do that, I need power. That’s why Molly and Dylan’s sacrifice was worth it. Why everything I’ve been through was worth it. Because this is worth it. We can save everyone, even the ones who are dead, and make Talmoria bright and beautiful like it was once before.”

Shawn couldn’t help but be convinced. A cure to the Gray Death couldn’t resurrect the dead. A cure couldn’t even give most people their families back. Some were already too far gone to be helped. But this–this was something different. Still, Shawn had his own mission to accomplish. He couldn’t let himself get distracted. “Even if I agreed that what you’re doing is the right thing to do, it doesn't matter anymore. Now that you have your Crystal, you don’t need me,” Shawn said, his heart pounding. “It’s only you, Vee. I don’t have anything left to give you. So why am I still here?”

Veronica turned her neck to look at him over her shoulder, eyes flashing and changing as if a battle was raging inside her mind. “What you think–matters to me, Shawn,” she whispered, as if it was a stab in the heart to admit.

Veronica closed her eyes tight and bared her teeth, then pulled out the black dagger on her hip and stabbed the wood beside Shawn’s face with a deep thunk, twisting the blade and smiling as Shawn flinched. “I need the power you’ve got in your blood,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “I can smell it flowing through your veins.”

Shawn showed his teeth and peeked out of one eye at Veronica. His left ear was ringing. “My blood?” he asked.

“Yes, Mikhail’s power is in your veins,” she said, sounding hungry. She ripped the dagger’s point out of the wood. “That’s why you could use his Blue Crystal. That’s why you’ve got his power.”

The room was hot and stank of rotten flesh and ash. Shawn could feel sweat bleeding down his face as he hung there. “It’s not as simple as that, Veronica. Something happened in the North when I met your mom. I never got Mikhail’s full power. See the scar on my palm? Manie did that to me. That’s how she awakened my power. It’s how Jango trained his students.”

Veronica’s eyes flashed up to the scar in the middle of Shawn’s palm as if she knew exactly what that meant. Her eyelids clamped shut and she slapped her fists against her forehead, groaning in fury as she twisted away. “It doesn’t matter,” she burst out. “I can’t get my Crystal to work!” Veronica stared at Shawn, her eyes as wide as spotlights, shaking her head. “No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, I can’t make the power awaken like it did that night in the temple. The only difference,” Veronica said, tilting her head to the side, “is you.” She raised her eyebrows, then leaned forwards and put her fingers on Shawn’s chest. “We held hands, remember? Mikhail could use any Crystal he touched. The power to awaken the dead came from you, Shawn, not me. It must have. Even if your powers were blunted by my sister.” She drew up the black blade and raised her arm, pushing the sharpened edge against Shawn’s wrist. “And when your blood mixes with mine, and our energies become one, I’ll be able to do the same…”

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“Veronica, stop!” Shawn shouted. “That isn’t how it works. I can’t use any Crystal, only Mikhail’s Crystal. You’ll kill me!”

She smiled at Shawn. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” She dragged the blade across his wrist and the flesh parted, spilling out a curtain of blood, webbing down Shawn’s pale arms like red streams on an icy mountain.

“What the fuck!” Shawn screamed as warm blood fell over his elbows and forehead, splashing into his eyes.

Veronica grabbed the candle off the table and lifted its flame to a torch in an iron holder on the brick pillar beside her. The oiled cloth burst to life, drawing orange light across a table covered in glass devices and long tubes. There were knives and hammers and thick needles with glass chambers. The walls of the room were carved, red stone and seemed to be sweating as much as Shawn.

“What is this place? What are you doing to me?!” Shawn shouted as he tried to catch his breath, spitting his own blood off his lips. The pain seemed to have shocked him back to life. “Have you gone crazy?” He looked up at his hands and watched blood glint in the torchlight, spilling down his arms like a red river, soaking his shirt at the end of the sleeves. He shook his arms, trying to loosen the ropes, but it was useless.

“I’m saving you,” Veronica said, sounding cut by his words. “I’m saving everyone.”

Shawn gritted his teeth. His head was throbbing. The cut in his arm felt cold yet burned at the same time. He watched his own blood gush out with the rate of his heartbeat, and every second that passed made him drift a little farther out of reality. He almost wished he was back in the forest with the Renjin.

Something caught Shawn’s eye, sparkling in the darkness like sunlight. He looked at Veronica and saw her face shining with golden light. He turned his eyes on his wrists and saw golden blood shedding across his skin like magma, sparkling and burning in the firelight.

Veronica reached out and rubbed her fingers through Shawn’s blood, spreading the gold color across her palm with her thumb. She looked up into Shawn’s eyes and nodded. “It’s ready.”

“Ready for what?” Shawn asked. “What torture do you have planned for me next?”

“It’s nothing compared to the torture I was forced to endure because of my little sister,” she said with a weak voice.

Veronica grabbed a thick needle off the table that was attached to a tube and flicked it, blowing dust out of the end. She went to Shawn and grabbed his arm. “This is going to hurt.”

Shawn had only a moment to digest that warning before Veronica jabbed the needle deep into his arm below the cut. He screamed as the pain brought him back to life once again. The tip of the needle was like the hollow point of a spear: huge and bent in the middle. Blood spilled down the metal teeth and swirled into the hollow tube, filling it with glowing golden liquid like water from the sun. The blood followed the tube to its end where it filled a glass beaker.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Shawn said as he watched, his face going pale.

Veronica touched Shawn’s cheek with the back of her cold fingers as she guided his blood into the glass container with the others. “We’re almost done,” she promised in a soft voice. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I’m bleeding to death because of you,” Shawn said, trying to stop his head from spinning off his shoulders.

“No you’re not,” Veronica said back. She tugged the needle out of Shawn’s arm and shook the rest of the golden blood out of the tube and into the beaker. It was nearly half full. Veronica dropped the needle onto the table and pushed a wad of cotton against the hole in Shawn’s wrist. She then tied a cloth around his arm to cover the bleeding slice. “You’ll be fine,” she said, slapping his cheek. “Just try to stay awake.”

Veronica went back to the table and held up the glass beaker. “Should be enough,” she said, swirling the blood in the glass. She set the container in the grasp of a metal clawed tower and uncorked the bottom, feeding the end of the needle’s tube into the hole.

“Shit!” Steaming, gold blood splashed across Veronica’s hands and over the table before she was able to seal the end. She then took the needle she stuck into Shawn with her other hand and jabbed it in the crook of her own forearm, eyes squeezing shut from the pain as a laugh escaped her lips. “This is the price for power,” she whispered.

Shawn watched as his own blood swirled down the tube and into Veronica’s arm, making shining tendrils race up her veins to her shoulder. Within seconds the golden color in her arm disappeared. Veronica flexed and took a deep breath with her eyes closed. There was almost no indication anything about her had changed.

“It’s working,” Veronica said, her voice heavy with ecstacy. “Soon I’ll be like you. I’ll be like Mikhail.” The flame in her eyes was flickering brighter and brighter each time it flashed, visible even through her eyelids as a toxic glow. She opened her eyes and the green fire overwhelmed the light from the torch. She brought up her Turquoise Crystal and the flame inside was raging a green firestorm along with her eyes, coiling and twisting up the inner chamber of the Crystal like a tornado of emerald fire.

“Look.” Veronica’s eyes twinkled like glass in the green light. “The Crystal is finally mine. The future is mine.”

Her words somehow felt evil. Shawn remembered the warning in the forest, carved into the stones of the temple a thousand years ago. Did I make a mistake in helping her? he wondered as he watched Veronica’s eyes burn with a growing, green inferno. The entire room had turned green in the light of her eyes. Shawn could see all the walls, now, where there were rotting corpses and blood stains, arms in iron shackles and rusted chains.

Veronica put the Turquoise Crystal in her hip pouch and grabbed the black dagger from her hip. She went to Shawn and reached up, severing the bindings on his wrists, letting him fall to the ground. Shawn caught himself with his hands against the damp stones of the chamber floor. Veronica reached down and cut the ropes around his legs. “I want you to see this with me.” she put her hand out in front of Shawn’s face. “We’re about to witness the birth of a new world.”

Shawn looked up into Valery’s burning green eyes from the floor and blew air from his lips. Maybe there was still a chance to get the cure afterall. Then he wondered if he’d gone insane to think a thing like that right now, knowing the answer was probably yes, he had gone insane. He gritted his teeth and reached up, grabbing her fingers in his own. “What kind of world is that?”

Veronica hauled Shawn back to his feet and held his shoulders as he stumbled. “A better one. You’ll see.”

Shawn could feel his heart beating in his chest, slamming against his ribs like a baseball bat. “When do I get the cure?”

Veronica laughed, then leaned down to Shawn’s ear and whispered, “You’ve already found it.”

The words made Shawn’s stomach explode with fear. He turned his head and looked at her. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Veronica smiled, biting her lip to stop the laugh. “You’ll have it soon. I won’t betray you, Shawn. I promise.”

Shawn felt his face grow hot and pulse with adrenaline. She’s not my enemy, he reminded himself. She saved my life. She’s my friend. “Okay,” he said, letting out a breath. “I think this city is making me paranoid.” He rubbed his wrists where the bandages were wrapped around his arm. The cut stung when he touched it.

“It should–this isn’t a nice place.” Veronica turned her eyes on the corner, lighting the walls where there were skeletons and caskets in square holes in the walls. “Wait here. I’m going to perform a little test.” She grabbed the legs of a dead person and dragged their bones out onto the floor. She went to the next hole and grabbed another skeleton, bringing it out to rest on the stones with the other. This one was held together by scraps of shredded cloth.

“Veronica,” Shawn attempted to shout over the clattering bones. He covered his ears to block the noise. “What are you doing?”

“Gathering…an audience,” Veronica said back. She grabbed a coffin and pulled it out with three stern yanks, making the wood crack and burst open when it hit the stones below. The rotten and fleshy legs of a corpse slid out of the hole at the end, releasing a putrid odor. Shawn gagged when he smelled it.

“This is the price for power,” Veronica said again, covering her nose. She coughed and turned away. “Okay, that should be enough...”

Veronica grabbed the Turquoise Crystal from her hip pouch and raised it up above her head. “Here goes nothing!” She squeezed the Crystal between her fingers, making the fire roar up and explode into a burst of green light and sparks, blinding Shawn for an instant.

When he lowered his arm, the dark chamber was flooded with green smoke and sparks, twirling and racing around the walls like a whirlwind of poison light. The sparks streamed down into the skeletons, melting into bones and rotten flesh like the corpses were drinking them in. Dark shapes grew over the bones and caskets until they turned into outlines and decayed faces glowing in green miasmas. The faces in the smoke rose up and stood, coming out of their dead shells like they'd been reborn. “We did it, Shawn,” Veronica said with hesitance, as if her eyes couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Spirits of the dead were crawling out of coffins and rising from their bones. The dead were slowly creeping in from every corner of the room to form a growing crowd of dozens around Veronica. They stood silently, watching her like willow trees blowing in soft wind. Shawn could see the ribs and lungs of one man expand and shrink beneath a hole in his ghostly flesh. His lips were gone from decay. Another woman had empty sockets where her eyes would have been.

“Hello,” Veronica said, her voice like a whispering blizzard. She looked at their faces, hovering over each set of eyes. “My name is Veronica. I’ve come to free you from death.” A tear fell from Veronica’s eye, sparkling in the green light before it struck the floor and wet the stones.

The ghosts’ seemed hollow, drained of all hope, all indication that something inside them had once been alive. But they seemed to understand what Veronica said to them. A man dropped to his knees and reached up at her, his fingers hovering just before the Turquoise flame in the Crystal. Another of the ghosts dropped to her knees and did the same, putting misty hands out to feel the heat. Soon all the ghosts were trying to feel the warmth, each dropping and reaching up with their hands, but Shawn soon realized they weren’t reaching out to the Crystal’s flame, they were reaching out to Veronica.

“Tell the others that rescue is coming,” Veronica said down to the ghosts in a strong voice. “Awaken those who are still suffering in the Shadowland. Go to the Canyon of Whispers and shout my name into their ears if you must. Break their veils of suffering and make our brothers and sisters know there is still hope. I’m coming for you. I’m coming for all of you.”

The ghosts looked up at Veronica, their eyes and faces twisting with dark disbelief.

“On the Day of Rebirth I will make everyone whole again. But first we have to prepare. Bring as many of the lost souls as you can awaken and gather yourselves in the church above Mikhail’s crypt. That’s where we’ll have our next meeting, and where we’ll begin my plan.” Veronica paused and let the ghosts digest what she said. The ghosts exchanged looks, then turned their gazes back to Veronica’s. One man nodded, and that seemed to be all she would get as a response.

Veronica smiled and rose the Turquoise Crystal above her head. “The future begins tonight,” she whispered, looking from eye to eye around the crowd as hope grew across their faces. “And it begins with us.” She snapped the green stone and a great suction of air whirled across the room, roaring as it swallowed the smoke and broke the light of the sparks. All the glass instruments on her table slid across to the edge and fell, shattering against the stones when they hit the floor, and the flame of the torch was put out by the whirling air. The ghosts bursted into glowing particles and green smoke before they shot back into the Turquoise Crystal, rushing away like a river rising up to pour into the stone. The roaring stopped and the images of the dead disappeared as quickly as they had come. The room was left dark and full of silent corpses. It was like the crowd had never been there at all, like it was all just some fragment of a dream.

“It worked,” Veronica said, collapsing to her knees.

Shawn went to her side and held Veronica’s shoulder to keep her from falling any farther. “I guess it did,” he said, as shocked as she was. “Does this mean you have Mikhail’s power, now?”

“I don’t know,” Veronica said. “But this is close enough. Can you believe that just happened? I hardly knew what to say. I was so nervous. I didn’t think it would really work. I thought it would fail just like everything else I’ve tried…but it didn’t.” She looked up at Shawn, eyes glimmering with pride, then down to the Turquoise Crystal. She broke her stare from the Crystal to look at Shawn. “And it’s all because of you. Without your help, I never would have made it this far. You made my dreams come true.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Shawn said, afraid to take credit. “I just did what’s right for the island.”

“Then tonight you’ve succeeded,” Veronica said back, smiling.

“If you say so,” Shawn responded.

“Those people looked at me like I was their queen, Shawn. Not with all the gold and jewels in the world could I buy that kind of love.” Veronica twisted back, smiling. She held up her arm and raised the sleeve, showing goosebumps across her skin. “I’m getting chills.” She looked at Shawn like he was worth more than the world in her eyes.

“You’re doing this to help them, right?” Shawn asked. “That’s what this is about?”

“Of course,” Veronica said, confusion swirling in her eyes. “What else would this be about?"

“Nothing,” Shawn said. “I just wanted to make sure… and I wanted to make sure that you don’t forget, either.”

“How could I forget?” Veronica whispered, her smile fading away like mist in the wind. “I was one of them, once. I can’t leave them in that place.”

Shawn didn’t know if those words made him feel happy or sad. Either emotion felt confusing. This is for the cure, he told himself. It’s all for the cure. But another part of him was beginning to wonder how long that would remain true.

“Good,” Shawn said, smiling. “I can help you with that.”

Veronica smiled back at him. “I know you can.” She grabbed Shawn’s hands and squeezed his fingers. “Now follow me. We have to find Molly and Dylan.”