Mystic

Chapter 12

Andre fidgeted with his fingers. "Are you excited for tonight?"

Taryn nodded. "I am. And you?"

"I am too."

Taryn slid her bow over her shoulder, sitting down next to Andre. "Why haven't you left yet?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"I'm just curious, that's all."

He leaned back on his hands, thinking to himself. "There wasn't anywhere else for us to go, and you and Neve seemed pretty nice."

Taryn leaned closer to him, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Anything else?" She asked.

He gave her a sly smile. "I think you know,"

He leaned forward, as did Taryn. He grabbed her hand in his and she rubbed her fingers through his dark curls, their faces inches apart.

"There you guys are!" Neve said, bursting through the trees.

Taryn immediately dropped her hand and stood up, adjusting the bow on her back. She glanced back towards Andre, who simply stood up as well. Zeph ran out of the woods behind Neve.

"Are you ready?" He asked excitedly.

"Yeah," Andre sighed, glancing towards Taryn. She walked up to him, patting his shoulder.

"We'll talk later, alright?" She said, smiling at him.

He nodded and the four headed back through the woods.

Once they had packed up camp, they took their horses to the edge of the city. The four crept forward, getting a better look.

"Neve, are you sure this is the place?" Taryn asked.

"It has to be," Neve said, glancing down at her map.

"This is a lot bigger than you said it would be,"

"I guess they've expanded?"

"It's fine," Andre interjected. "We're freeing prisoners, it will be easy enough, despite the size of the city,"

Taryn wasn't convinced, but they were already here, and these people were waiting for their Northern Savior, as Mattias had called her and Neve, and now Andre. She could only hope that Andre was right about this one.

"Alright," Taryn said. "Andre, you, Zeph, and Neve will head in. I'll be watch out. This place is bigger than we planned, so if you can't get everyone out, we're just going to have to leave them,"

Neve tilted her head. "Taryn, that doesn't sound--"

"Do as I say," Taryn ordered. "I'm not letting anyone get hurt tonight, alright? Especially with--" She paused for a moment, trying to keep herself from looking at Andre. "Especially with... with Zeph joining us. I don't want anything to happen to him, or to either of you."

The other three nodded, agreeing in silence.

"Once I'm out of sight, I want you three to go in, okay?"

They nodded again.

Taryn turned and ran further down the city wall. She stopped at a tree just beyond the field of a view of the guards. She climbed as fast as she could, reaching the top in no time at all. As quickly as she could, she hopped from one tree to the next, getting increasingly closer to the city wall. She finally landed on a large pine, it's long branches stretching into the city, the perfect place to cause her distraction.

Once she was perched in place, she saw Neve and Zeph walk in, Andre behind them, dressed in his Southern armor. Taryn grabbed one of her explosions and tied it to an arrow. She slid the arrow into her bow and pulled it tight as she waited for the right moment. She scanned the crowd, looking for the perfect place to strike. There was a surprising amount of Southern soldiers, even more so than usual. The differing shades of black and red scattered the streets. There were hardly any Northerners in sight. Taryn's confidence in their ability to pull this off suddenly plummeted, her heart sinking in her chest.