The Mantis Variant - Book One - 13. Chapter 13 - Lahari, Part One

The mystic and his husband led Agrell a few blocks to where the land fell into the ocean. She turned her gaze out to the vast expanse of rolling blue beneath the grey sky, and she stared at the sea with wonder. A railing ran along the path above the water's edge, which was only a short drop below them. They stepped up and placed their hands on the rail.

"Her passage is just there," said the mystic, as he leaned over the railing. He pointed down and Agrell could see the lip of a pipe. It was easy to miss, even though he showed her right where to look. "The opening may have been a ventilation shaft. It's too small for most people to use," the mystic added.

"I'm sure I can fit," Agrell responded. Her voice sounded confident. She was keen to help.

Theolan informed her, "There's a chunk of stone that Lahari uses as a step to climb up and down from the rocks below," and he pointed at a small protrusion.

Agrell descended with ease and planted her feet on the rocks that stretched along the water line. She looked back up at the men who were just a little ways above her head, then she peered into the tunnel.

"This may take a while," she stated. "Are you going to wait or go back to your shop?"

"I was too discombobulated before," the mystic replied, "and I'm not sure if I bandaged your friend properly. I also need to make her another potion." Then another sob choked his words, and he said, "Thank you for doing this. All my treatments for her will be on the house."

Agrell did not consider that they would need to pay for his care of Ilya, and his offer felt like a generous bonus for her searching the underground. The men watched from above, as Agrell climbed into the small opening. She crouched and shuffled forward through the narrow concrete tunnel. The pipe was not large, and she made her way in a hunched position with her head down; its ceiling was right above her.

After a very short distance, she came to a panel that blocked her way. A hinge creaked as she pushed the wall in front of her, and it opened. Agrell stepped out into an underground chamber that was tall enough for her to stand upright. It led only a little ways ahead to a corner, and around it was a door. Agrell opened it and discovered a flight of stone stairs.

She descended, but only a short way down, she came to an impasse. It looked like there was a terrible collapse, and she wondered if it was from the explosion the previous night. The walls and ceiling were severely damaged, and the debris filled and blocked her progress down.

Agrell looked at one of the massive chunks of broken masonry in front of her with uncertainty, but she grabbed both sides of it with her hands and lifted. As if it were no more than a pebble, or made of foam, she raised the giant slab of cracked concrete above her head.

"No!" cried the voice of a woman from somewhere unseen. Then she added, "Put it back!

Agrell looked around but could not tell where her voice came from or who was speaking.

"What are you doing in my tunnel?"

Agrell stood there holding the huge stone, feeling surprised and unsure, and she replied, "I'm trying to find someone after the explosion."

"Humans aren't welcome in the underground," the voice declared. "Go back the way you came, and do not return. There's no one down here for you."

Agrell put the stone down and called out, "I need to find someone's daughter."

"We who dwell below no longer hold ties to those on the surface. In the light is no place for those such as we. Be gone!"

"I think her name's Lahari!" Agrell said over the woman's voice.

Then there was silence.

Agrell decided to speak up again. "Do you know anyone by that name, Lahari? Or maybe something close to that?"

She received no reply.

Agrell tried to explain. "There was an explosion last night in the underground. You must be aware of what happened. There's a mystic up here who says his daughter lives below, and he is so worried about her. I think she's just a child. He calls her his little moth."

The voice spoke again, but it was quiet. "Ada?" it said.

Agrell did not understand, and asked again, "Do you know someone named Lahari, or maybe Lahara, or Lahira?"

Scraping noises that sounded like stone against stone started coming from the debris in front of her. The pieces began shifting, and a moment later a monstrous young woman stepped out of the rubble, but it remained in place behind her.

"Ada?" she said again.

Agrell’s eyes opened very wide, and her jaw dropped. She took a step back from the woman and held up the necklace with its purple gemstone.

No descriptions from the mystic or his husband could have prepared Agrell for the inhuman person who stood before her. She was not a little girl.

Agrell did not even consider that the woman was naked, because her skin was an unnatural bluish color that was lighter on her face, and much darker over the rest of her body. Almost every inch of her bizarre epidermis was covered in thick plate scales that were each about the size of a small coin. Her skull was ridged with a trio of crests that rose from her bald scaly head. Coupled with her skin, she looked very reptilian. Black quills stuck out like countless tiny horns all around her face in a terrible halo. They also protruded out from the sides and back of her neck, and they got larger the farther down they grew. More spines stabbed out from her shoulders and upper arms, as well as from her hips and the sides of her thighs.

She stared at Agrell with sparkling golden eyes, took a step forward, and reached out to take the handmade piece of jewelry.

"Ada sent you?" the woman asked. "He's never told anyone about my secret passage."

"Ada?" Agrell repeated. "Is that your father? Are you Lahari?"

Lahari nodded. "I am."

"He's worried about you, both of your fathers are. They are helping someone that I know who got hurt, then there was the explosion last night, and they were so worried about you today, so I offered to come find you because I could fit through the tunnel that you use when you visit them."

Agrell could not determine what the expressions on Lahari's strange face meant.

"I just wanted to help," Agrell reiterated. "Why don't you come up with me and tell them you're okay? I know that would make them feel better."

"Why don't you just tell them I'm fine," Lahari countered. She looked up at the ceiling. "It's daytime, I can't go up there now anyways."

Agrell did not know how Lahari made that deduction from within the darkness of the basement chamber, but she was correct that the sun was up.

"Please," Agrell began, but Lahari interrupted her.

"It's not safe for my kind to go above ground during the day. We attract too much attention to ourselves, and that's a bad thing. Just tell my dads that you found me and I'm unharmed. They will understand. Now, go," she commanded. "You can't be found down here by the others." She turned her back on Agrell. The scales were even larger and darker along her spine and on her shoulder blades.

Agrell watched but did not comprehend how Lahari walked through the rubble. The boulders just seemed to move out of her way and reposition themselves behind her. Then Agrell was alone again. She climbed the stairs to the door and entered the chamber beyond, but when she arrived, she came face to face with a bare wall. There was no opening to the tunnel that led outside.

The wall kept its secrets hidden, and Agrell brought her hands to it. She felt all over the surface in front of her, but the walls were solid. She was perplexed; she knew that she came in through there, and Lahari told her to go back out the same way, but there was no exit.

Agrell considered that she probably possessed the ability to punch her way through, but she was still unfamiliar with her enhancements and was certain that destroying the wall would attract unwanted attention. She knew that she just needed to figure out its secret, and she stepped back for a better look at the entire wall. Then the door to the stairs opened and banged into her.

Lahari popped her head out to see why it did not open all the way, and she was startled by the sight of Agrell.

"What are you still doing here? I told you to leave."

"I can't find the exit."

Lahari looked at the wall as she came through the doorway.

"Oh, right, it's a secret," she stated and stepped up with Agrell behind her. She pointed towards the floor and used her toes to push against a tiny panel on the wall. The hidden door opened to reveal the tunnel.

Agrell stepped into it and shuffled through again in her crouched position. The glow at the end seemed bright to her, even with the gray cloud cover dimming in the already pale winter sun. She popped out, stepped onto the rocks at the water's edge, and put one foot onto the stone that jutted out from the wall. Agrell pulled herself up to the edge of the footpath and peered both directions. No one was coming, and she climbed all the way up.

"Coast is clear," she whispered down.

Lahari stuck her very unique head out of the tunnel and looked up at Agrell. "I can't go out there. I already told you that. Tell my fathers I'm here, and they will know what to do."

"Wait a second," Agrell said, "why did you come up the stairs? I mean, I know that I was stuck and couldn't find the exit in there, but why did you follow me?"

"The explosion," Lahari explained, "it didn't seem as bad in my area of the underground, but I was wrong. Those stairs lead deep under Teshon City, and they are my secret way up to the surface and back down again, but almost at the bottom, there's an extensive cave-in and the damage is extreme."

"You couldn't get through?" Agrell asked.

Lahari looked at her with another expression Agrell could not decipher. "Right," she answered.

She did not say anything else and Agrell replied, "I'll go get your dads."

Lahari's head disappeared back into the tunnel.

Agrell then realized that she was unsure how to get back to the apothecary. It was only a few blocks away from the coast, but she did not know which direction to go. Agrell did not remember walking along the path above the water, so she took the nearest street that led straight into the neighborhood. After a short distance, she came to a sign for an apothecary and headed toward it. She pulled open the door, but it looked very different inside, and a woman greeted her.

"Hello, what can I get you?"

"I'm just looking for someone!" Agrell blurted out in reply before closing the door.

She looked around at the nearby shops. There were two other mystics' storefronts in view, and Agrell was frustrated with herself that she did not know where she was going. She looked in through several windows, but none of the interiors seemed familiar, and she peered down a couple of side streets that revealed still more apothecaries and herb shops. She did not remember turning with the mystic and his husband, so she decided not to venture down any of them.

"Hey, skinny girl!"

Agrell was relieved to hear the voice of someone she knew, and she turned.

Dozi was standing in front of the entrance to the shop.

"I found her!" Agrell cried out, but her hand shot up to her mouth.

Dozi chuckled to herself and shook her head.

They entered the shop and Agrell repeated herself in a quieter voice.

"I found her. I found Lahari!"

The two men looked relieved as if a terrible weight were removed from their shoulders. The mystic started to cry again, and his husband's face broke into an enthusiastic smile.

"She is waiting for you at the tunnel," Agrell continued. "She said she can't come up in the light, but she also can't get back into the rest of the underground. Her passage is blocked."

"I am just so glad she's okay," blubbered Lahari's father.

His husband was beaming. "Thank you, thank you," he kept repeating.

"Nice work, skinny girl," Dozi added★