You have done well, Eduardo, the guardian said. Do not bring anyone here again.
But Eduardo screamed, the barrier crushing down on him, and he fell forward in pain. The guardian rushed over to him, licked his hair over and over again. Get up, they said. You are on the wrong side.
Eduardo panted, his head throbbing. “The wrong side of what?”
The guardian nuzzled Eduardo, purring loudly. The barrier has closed behind you.
Eduardo bolted upright and thrust his hand out and—
He hit something solid.
He could not see it.
But it was there.
He watched as they descended into a gigantic, dark hole in the earth, one that had not been there moments before. “No, wait!” he cried out, and he followed them, down, down, into the darkness, where the air was cooler, and he stumbled, his head still pounding something fierce, and the noise rushed toward him, a terrible din of screams and growls and shrieks, and one of them stumbled out of a passage to his right. Their hands were up in a defensive posture, and then a guardian pinned them to the wall, ripped off their arm, and Eduardo had never seen so much blood, never heard so much violence and pain. The redness stained the white cloak the person wore.
There was so much red.
A horrific roar rumbled in the passageway. He looked up, farther into the tunnel, saw something monstrous charging toward him, its snout too long, horns protruding from its head, and he had never seen anything like it, never seen teeth that sharp, and he knew he should have run, knew he should have turned around and tried to escape, but the guardian that had torn apart one of the masked people leapt up, meeting the creature in the air, and then the leader was there, the large gato that had spoken to Eduardo so many times, and the two guardians tore into el sabueso, bone and muscle rent apart.
This is what they do to us, they said, their jaw covered in blood and entrails. They kidnap us, and when they force us to consume the blood of the humans we are supposed to protect, we are corrupted. Why do you think los sabuesos came after the children of La Reina Nueva? It is because los pálidos exhausted all their guardians; now, they have turned to us.
Eduardo slid down the wall, breathing heavily. “What is this place?”
They stole Solado from the original inhabitants many years ago, said the guardian, cleaning themselves off. They could not survive the world above after La Quema. The sun of Solís burned them terribly. They moved underground elsewhere, but failed to sustain themselves there. It was only when a messenger brought news back of Solado that they planned to take this place, to use their corrupted guardians for the purpose of control.
“But who would come here knowing this?” Eduardo sobbed, tears pouring down his face.
And when he said those words out loud, the guilt finally crushed him.
He swept viciously, falling to the floor. “I never told them the price,” he said.
You did once, the guardian said. And what happened?
Eduardo wiped at his face, spat on the ground. “They all left.”
You knew the truth then. And yet you continued. For your own gain.
“But I—”
He did not finish it. But what? he thought. He needed money? He needed to pay off his debt? So that made this acceptable?
The screams continued in the distance.
It was ending. He had to make this right.
And he needed to bear witness.
“Take me,” said Eduardo. “Take me to see Solado.”
You should stay, the guardian said, twisting its head as it stared upon him. This is not for you.
“But I did this!” he screamed. “I brought these people here, and I helped it continue! Shouldn’t I at least try to free those who have been held against their will?”
When we are done with the cleansing, you—
Eduardo did not want to hear any more excuses. He lifted himself up, plowed forward into the darkness, toward the sound of death and terror, and he pumped his legs, ignored the pain ripping through them, ignored the bodies strewn about the passageway, and he found the cavern, the light pouring in from the holes above and—
And—
No.
He watched a guardian bend down.
Open their jaw.
Rip into a body.
One without a mask.
Without a pale cloak.
Without pale skin.
He cried out, and he tried to run to them, to save them, to stop this horror, but the leader of the guardians hit him from behind, and he dropped to the earth, the breath knocked out of him, and they pinned him down.
This is not for you, they repeated.
“What have you done?” Eduardo choked out.
We have done as Solís would have wanted. They once scorched the earth. It is time for Solado to start over. We are cleansing it.
“But won’t this turn you into those things?”
It will not, for we have chosen this. It is for their own good.
And the screams continued. There, in the cavern where the people of Solado could grow food, Eduardo remained on the ground, listening to the horrible sound of death. It was not much longer before the screams faded away, before there were no more footsteps fleeing the inevitable, and he knew it was all over.
Eduardo cried into the soil and did not move, not even when the guardian lifted their paw from his back. When he finally rolled upright, he was not sure he could cry another tear.
“Take me, too,” he said. “Do it. Make it quick.”
The guardian hesitated, then rested on their haunches.
No.
“There is nothing I can do for this place anymore,” he said. “For these people. There is no penance to make up for what I have done. For what I have caused.”
The guardian paused and considered this.
There is one last thing you can do, they said. To ensure that this never happens again.
“Tell me,” Eduardo said, and he pushed himself up
