Sapphire IV

The Hecate kids were more upset about their work being destroyed than they were worried about the falling rocks. That was kind of understandable. The portal had taken years for them to get working.

Chiron sighed. "Lou Ellen, take your siblings and make sure no one else gets hurt."

It took a few moments before Lou Ellen visibly processed what Chiron said. Then she herded her siblings together and they teleported away.

"Any jobs for us, Chiron?" Connor asked.

Chiron turned away from the wreckage of the portal to face them. He looked more exhausted than Sapphire had ever seen him.

"Sapphire, can you shadow travel to Camp Jupiter?" Chiron asked. "I've been unable to contact them."

It was around four in the morning at Camp Jupiter, but even ridiculously early they were usually good at answering IMs. If no one was picking up, that was worrying.

Sapphire had to force herself to stop and take stock of her energy levels before she answered. It was practically a conditioned response for every kid at Camp Half-Blood to do what Chiron told them to. Listening to their millennia old teacher was the kind of thing that kept them alive. But Chiron wasn't telling, he was asking and he was trusting her to know her limits.

"I think so," Sapphire said. "I'll need a break before I come back but I can get there. I could bring one person with."

Chiron nodded. "Both of you go to Camp Jupiter and find out if anything's happened there. Tell the praetors that our portal has been destroyed. Come back as soon as you can."

"Will do," Connor said.

Sapphire nodded.

Without the stone arch there weren't enough shadows to travel by. She and Conner each kept an eye on the sky as they made their way towards the long shadow cast by Half-Blood Hill and Thalia's tree, but apparently the explosion had launched all the debris far from the blast site. There wasn't even dust in the air.

The shadows were a different story.

Usually there wasn't anything solid in the path someone took while shadow travelling. The Underworld magic that bent distances also made sure that there weren't any collisions, even between Sapphire and the monsters Melinoe kept throwing at her. This time though, Sapphire barely made it into the shadows before the rushing wind started pelting things at them. She yelped and shielded her eyes with the hand that wasn't gripping Connor's arm like he might disappear. It felt like they were being hit with shards of stone. Several of them stuck in Sapphire's arm. She was going to have to apologize to Will after she took care of that. She really did get injured a lot.

They landed on their feet on a stone path surrounded by plants that shaded them from the faint moonlight. Sapphire looked over at Connor and saw blood shining on his cheek.

"Was that normal?" Connor asked.

"Absolutely not." Sapphire released her vice grip around Connor's wrist and plucked one of the sharp objects out of her arm. It wasn't stone. "Bone shards? What? And we're definitely not by Pluto's temple."

"It kind of looks like the Garden of Bacchus." Conner looked at the plants above them. "Yeah, those are grape vines."

The Garden of Bacchus was not where Sapphire had aimed for but it was a good place to get an idea of what they'd be walking into once they got out from under the plant cover. The hill that the garden was on overlooked most of the valley containing New Rome and Camp Jupiter. From there they could see the darkened city, the fires from the temples and the barracks that were lit up much more brightly than they should have been that time of the morning. Sapphire could see people and glowing lares running around.

"It doesn't look like there are monsters," Sapphire said.

"So let's go see what is happening," Connor said.

They made it to the bottom of the hill before they had the requisite run-in with Terminus. His statue appeared right in Sapphire's face and the god glared at her.

"In my defence, I didn't mean to cross the Pomeranian Line," Sapphire said.

Terminus glared even more.

"Shadow travel is kind of screwed up right now and I'm sorry?" Sapphire tried.

"Excuses," Terminus hissed. "You brought weapons over the Pomeranian Line."

Sapphire inched back. "It was an accident."

"We have a message from Chiron," Connor said.

Terminus looked at him. Messengers were allowed to go anywhere and Connor was the son of the messenger god, but would that be enough to stop Terminus from forcing them to pay a fine or worse, fill out an incident report?

"Don't draw your weapons," Terminus said at last. "And don't let this happen again, daughter of the Underworld."

"Yes, sir. No, sir," Sapphire said.

Terminus gave them one last glare before disappearing.

Connor let out a rush of air that managed to be both a sigh and a gasp. "I didn't expect that to work," he muttered.

Sapphire nodded. "Let's go before he comes back."

They headed for the barracks as quickly as they could. The drops of sunlight beginning to creep over the horizon was enough to allow both of them to avoid stumbling over uneven cobblestones, though it wasn't as bright as it would have been if Apollo had been driving the sun chariot. No one had heard from the god since Zeus had turned him into a mortal, which was a worry for another time.

Halfway between the city of New Rome and the Twelfth Legion's camp, Hannibal the elephant and Frank in the form of an elephant were spraying water on a fire. When Sapphire and Connor got within elephant eyesight, Frank flapped an ear in a wave.

"Hi, Frank." Sapphire squinted at the fire that didn't seem to be dying despite the liters of water being poured on it. "Did that use to be your portal?"

Frank nodded.

None of the Hecate kids had mentioned anything about their portal burning in a magic fire. Then again, they'd probably moved on from that by the time Sapphire and Connor arrived.

"Ours got blown up," Connor said. "Chiron's been trying to get in touch with you. You see any rainbows today?"

Frank shook his head.

"Well, that's a problem." Sapphire yawned. "Do you want me to try to put that fire out? It probably won't explode."