I kept my mouth shut.
I kept the stories in.
I kept walking.
There was a point, more than halfway down, where we met the ashes. Whatever happened during La Quema had been so intense that a good third of la montaña was scorched, too. Each step sent ash up into the air. I briefly crouched and picked some up from the trail.
They crumbled, then wafted into the air. No smell. Only a thin dusting of blackness in my palm.
All that remained of those who had not gone underground, who had perished in La Quema.
I pushed myself onward, wondering if I would survive this, too.
Emilia led us down into el valle, but it was the guardians who led us into Solado.
By the time we reached the flat expanse beyond las bajadas, light was still pouring over us, but the heat had waned. Shadows stretched longer and longer. Emilia told me that we should not stop, that we should get below ground as soon as possible, but the guardians stopped in front of the two of us, blocking our path.
No, Amato said to me, the first they’d spoken in hours. You must tell her to follow us.
Emilia shook her head as I relayed their message. “I’m the one who grew up here,” she countered. “Mami taught me how to leave, remember?”
This place is not what she thinks it is.
I twisted to stare at Amato, unsure if I should share what they just told me. “What do you mean?”
You must trust me. The final piece is here.
“What final piece?”
Maybe I was too exhausted to entertain any politeness.
Maybe I didn’t care about whatever mystical journey these guardians had planned for me.
Maybe I wanted to find Simone and be done with this entire nightmare.
“Why can’t you just speak plainly?” I yelled. “Are you afraid if you tell me the truth, I won’t want to follow you?”
The guardian bristled, and its yellow eyes flashed red.
You have known the truth all along, and yet you yourself deny it.
“So why don’t you tell me the truth if I already know it?”
My head throbbed on the last word, and a darkness grew at the edge of my vision.
“Xochitl, what’s happening?” Emilia asked, her voice high and worried. “What are they saying?”
“For some reason, this one insists that you follow them.”
Emilia frowned. “Do they know about Simone? Maybe they mean to take you to her.”
I looked back at the guardian.
Please, Amato said, and for the first time, their voice in my head was soft, pleading. There is one last thing we need of you.
One last thing. I had come so far to free myself of this curse and escape my life of isolation. Could I really turn back now?
Your answers are here, Xochitl, Amato said. Please. Come.
It was the first time Amato had spoken my name, had not referred to me by a title I had not asked for.
“I think we should trust Amato,” I said, letting my breath out with the decision.
And so we did. The guardians took us through the ashes. My feet sank to their ankles in them, and I did my best not to think of what they were before.
How much farther was it?
Was I close to Simone?
What would the future be like?
She fidgeted next to me, kept biting her bottom lip.
“Emilia,” I said, as the guardians kept us moving forward.
Her piercing eyes focused on me.
“We can do this,” I said. “We have the guardians on our side. We will find Luz, we will find Simone, and then we’ll get out.”
“I’m not worried about that, really,” she said, and she twirled her hair around a finger. “I mean, I am. It terrifies me.”
The ashes crunched beneath our feet.
“Then what is it?”
“You should ask them about los pálidos,” she said. “The people in the white cloaks. How are we going to get past them?”
I took a step forward.
Another.
Another.
My skin prickled all over, as though something were passing over me, and it caused me to shiver from head to toe, and then it, too, was gone.
Emilia stepped up next to me. “You feel that?” she asked.
I nodded.
The guardians stilled in front of us.
We are here, Amato said, and he must have said it in both our minds, as I heard the air leave Emilia.
The guardians parted.
And I stared into a gaping hole in the ground.
It was about ten paces ahead, a terrible, dark thing, as if some huge being had reached down and tore the chasm out of the earth. The edges of it were jagged, and the maw opened to reveal …
… darkness.
Our fate is down there, Amato said. We will lead the way once more.
“Wait!” I cried out. “What about los pálidos?”
Amato’s reaction was brief. They swung their head, pawed at the ground. You will be safe. We promise.
“What did Amato say?” Emilia said, her voice high in terror. “Are we going to be okay?”
I nodded. “They said we will be safe.”
“Xochitl.”
My name dripped off her tongue, and Emilia shook next to me.
“I don’t know what we will find down there.”
Neither did I. And Solís, it terrified me.
The guardians—all of them, their muscles rippling—poured into the hole, one by one, until the leader was left.
Follow us.
Then Amato was gone.
I reached down, traced my fingertips over Emilia’s, and her hand opened. I took her fingers in mine, and we walked together into the darkness.
It enveloped us, closed in, held us tight, and panic gripped me when I realized I could not see more than a few paces ahead of us.
She gently tugged me forward, and our footsteps echoed within the passageway. My eyes began to adjust, and I could make out the edges of the tunnel. I ran my fingers along the cool rock, impressed at how smooth it was.
This is what the people of Solado had done to survive.
It filled me with awe.
We picked up the pace soon after that. “I know where I am,” Emilia said, breathless, excited. “We aren’t far.”
We passed
