"You look ravishing tonight."

Celeste gasped and looked up. "Aramis!" she whispered. "You all are already here?"

"Yes. And I have one more instruction for you."

"What?"

"If anything, anything at all, should go wrong…stay with D'Artagnan."

"But…"

"Stay with D'Artagnan!" said Aramis firmly. "You will be a much better help to us if you're with him instead of with us."

"How will I find you again?"

"If something goes wrong, we'll go to the chapel beneath the monastery."

"Alright."

Aramis twirled Celeste around and behind a pillar.

A large woman was standing there. She lifted her mask.

"Porthos!" exclaimed Celeste.

"Here." Aramis handed Porthos a replica of the mask that Phillippe had once wore.

"D'Artagnan watches everything. We have to be lucky," said Porthos.

"We will make our own luck tonight…if Phillippe holds up."

"Where is he?" asked Celeste.

Aramis and Celeste peered across the ballroom.

"There," said Aramis.

Celeste saw them instantly. Athos and Phillippe where mixing among those stand along the walls. They where using thin sticks to hold their masks over their faces.

"Stay calm," said Athos. "You're doing fine."

Phillippe stopped walking and he stared, for the first time in his life, at his twin brother, Louis. "My brother…"

"Is a pig."

Athos and Phillippe whirled.

"Celeste!" Phillippe gripped her hands. "I am so glad to see you."

"Come, let me so how well Athos taught you to dance." Celeste tugged Phillippe out onto the floor.

Louis was dancing the minuet, prancing about as if he were the center of the universe. Suddenly he turned and stopped stock still.

Aramis swirled by and lifted his outer mask and revealed his iron mask. Then he was gone in the swirl of the dancers.

Celeste and Phillippe swept by and saw him.

"He knew," said Phillippe softly. "He knew what they did to me."

The young girl Louis was dancing with looked at him. "Sire?"

Louis looked at her. "Continue." He continued dancing, but his eyes darted around the ballroom. His eyes drifted up the balcony and he stopped again.

Porthos was up there and he lifted his outer mask and showed his iron mask. Then he turned and was gone.

"There! do you see it?"

The girl looked at Louis. :"See what, your majesty?" She looked around but saw nothing strange. She turned her eyes back to the King but they where skeptical.

D'Artagnan saw Louis's reaction and looked around. He was just as baffled as the rest of the crowd when the King turned and staggered out of the ballroom. "Your majesty…?"

"Tired…" muttered Louis. "Must lie down."

The music stopped as Louis hurried away.

"Carry on, everyone," said D'Artagnan.

The music began again and the dancing went on.

Athos appeared by Celeste's side. "Go."

Celeste turned and hurried toward D'Artagnan.

Athos drew Phillippe away from the ballroom, into a side corridor. Porthos came waddleing down the stairs that led to the balcony and met Aramis.

"Quick, to the passages."

D'Artagnan caught up with Louis just as he was entering the doors to his apartments.

"Your majesty, is there anything…"

Louis shut the doors in D'Artagnan's face and D'Artagnan heard the sound of a lock turning.

"D'Artagnan?"

He turned.

Celeste was standing there. "What happened?"

Louis fell on his bed and pressed his hands to his head.

The three musketeers and Phillippe moved quietly up a stairway and to the door of a room.

Phillippe looked around and whispered, "The room of the King's favorite mistress?"

"She will be at the ball," said Aramis. He silently led the others through the room, to the secret passage and to the portal into the King's bedroom.

Louis was lying on the bed when suddenly his eyes popped open.

Aramis, Athos and Porthos where standing over him.

Louis started to sit up.

"It's Judgement Day," said Aramis and slammed his fist into Louis's face.

Instantly Louis lost consciousness.