Double Agent: Part Two

      King Skarl read the note that one of the Eyrie guards had passed to him. "A gift for King Skarl from the Lord and Master of the Kass Citadel, in hopes the peace between our peoples can be maintained...yeah right..." he muttered. He folded the note and gave it to one of the Draiks, and turned his attention to the dancing Spellcaster mage. All eyes were fixed on the Aisha.

      Chantel cleared her throat and gave a sly smile. "I am at your service, your Majesty," she said softly and sweetly, her voice slightly cracking.

      Keep it simple, amateur, Double Agent thought, since she knew how to speak of truth and lies. Make it too fancy and King Skarl will notice who you really are.

      But the Blue Skeith rubbed his chin in approval. "A dancer, eh?" he said. "State your name, young Aisha."

      "Chantel."

      "Alright then, Chantel, let's see what you can do." King Skarl snapped his fingers. "Music!"

      Chantel stepped back and steadily tapped her foot. Spreading her arms, she began shaking and tapping her tambourine. She began twirling and swaying to the rhythm of the music, laughing and freely leaping in the air.

      The audience clapped, winked and whistled. She dances nice, Double Agent thought to herself, although no feeling was directed in the comment. The Zafara though cocked her head in confusion. But wasn't Chantel ordered to hypnotize them?

      Neither Double Agent nor Chantel suddenly noticed the golden circlet around the Aisha's head glowing steadily. Strange dark patterns of the sun and the moon became a bright yellow light. Chantel faltered a step, stumbling and hopping on one foot. The crowd slowly muttered, but another sly smile crossed her face. She swayed her arms in the air repeatedly, twirling more often. An Acara suddenly dawned its attention on Chantel, extending an arm, as though she was a precious cut diamond. Chantel smirked and a green glow that seemed to represent a Wadjet coiled around his arm, swirling up until it seeped into the Acara's mind. His eyes suddenly turned into swirls of green and orange, and a goofy grin spread across his face.

      Chantel's eyes shifted to a Blue Shoyru. He too, seemed entranced by her sweet looks and soft voice. She laughed, and the Shoyru's eyes went into swirls. She continued doing this to many like a yellow Zafara, an electric Gelert and Skarl's suspicious guards until she spotted King Skarl. She stumbled again, finally reaching for the Skeith. The energy once again flowed into the King of Meridell's brain, and he grinned like a jester.

      "Incredible!" he breathed. Like the whole court he was under the spell of hypnosis. "You MUST dance for me EVERY DAY!"

      And Chantel accepted, turning to wink at a few bystanders. Double Agent turned and followed the Court Dancer out of the court, unnoticed by anyone because of the hypnotized watchers.

      * * * * * * * *

     Next day Chantel had danced once again. This time wore another silk blouse with a red vest. The sleeves were puffed up with some green elastic. A green cloth with orange-gold trimming was wrapped around the waist of a maroon skirt with more golden trimming. Afterwards, Double Agent saw her muttering, disappearing into her assigned room. Double Agent shook her head and carried on.

      "How goes the news, dear Agent?" a green Draik Guard named Aron greeted her in the Main Hall, who polished his spear.

      "Let's see," Double Agent murmured, laying a finger to her lips. "So far Kass has assembled an army of soldiers, but I don't think they'll launch an attack on us yet."

      The blue Draik next to Aron snorted. "As if!" he spat, waving his spear viciously. "With Kass, every move he does is unpredictable. Even with the truce he promised, you can NEVER tell. His minions should be careful; he is probably just using them and using words of false pride and truth. I think we should be prepared. We need to report this to Sir Borodere and Sir Hencall!"

      With the Draik Guards gone off to tell the blue Lupe knight and the yellow Lupe strategist about Kass, Double Agent turned around to see Chantel walk out her door. The Zafara began to ponder about Chantel. Usually she was always kind and friendly, the normal Neopet that Morguss and Kass loathed. These days she seemed more vain, flirtatious and greedy.

      Today she wore a Meridellian dress that was full of ruffles, lace and puffy sleeves, not to mention plenty of red and blue, two of the symbolic colors of Meridell. Some of Meridell's emblems were around her outfit. She still wore the circlet, which was very well hidden underneath a style of hair that slowly curved at the tip. Her resemblance from yesterday to today was a bit harder to recognize that she was the Court Dancer.

      "I hate these Meridell dresses," she muttered, then spotted Double Agent. "How do I look?" she smiled.

      The Zafara Agent simply stated, "Quite pretty." As Chantel began wandering the halls and peeked into a room, Double Agent decided to wander around the castle, though she knew well of where every room was, from the dungeons and cells to the spacious banquet hall where King Skarl and his guests, friends, servants and maids would dine.

      She stopped at Great Hall. It was full of paintings and tapestries of great Meridell heroes. As expected there was Sir Jeran Borodere, along with a picture of a young yellow Aisha child, brother of Jeran, Mistress Borodere, Lisha the Lioness. There were some pictures of red Zafara wizard Kayla, the Spellcaster-in-training and Potion Maker, Boris the blue Blumaroo and Morris the green Quiggle, who called themselves knights while they weren't even fit to be pages, and many other heroes like a blue and green Skeith, possibly both of them a young King Skarl and Hagan, and a White Gypsy Lupess, bangles and bracelets about her. Great Hall was also known as the around famous Hall of Paintings.

      There was also a familiar female blue Zafara. She seemed to resemble that of a skilled wizardess, garbed in a sky blue and carmine detailed cloak of an advanced mage, holding a staff of beautiful polished golden wood with a blue velvet ribbon tied around it, and a sapphire orb floating at the tiptop. In the other hand was a blue fireball. Straight and silky locks of silky indigo blue hair with natural highlights flowed beyond her waist, which was amazingly long. Curious, Double Agent pulled off her hood.

      Her light blue hair flowed down in straight locks all the way beyond her waist.

      It surprised her, causing the minion of Kass to raise her eyebrows in slight shock. She shook her head. "Don't be ridiculous," she murmured to herself. "Now think about what Chantel said, what was it? Zephyrne. That name...is this Zafara Zephyrne?"

      She stared at the painting again. It wasn't Zephyrne, she could feel it. But the name, and, and this Zafara, they fit together perfectly. Why couldn't, no matter what, that Zafara Mage be Zephyrne if the two stuck together like King Skarl and his enormous supper?

      * * * * * * * *

     Sometime around midnight Double Agent and Chantel sneaked out of the castle. "Ow! My dress, and my hair!" Chantel whined, pulling her paw back sharply as it collected a splinter from a dilapidated house. Double Agent gave her a stone cold glare to shut up. Chantel obeyed.

      "Now watch," Double Agent said. "We need to see if my Lord launched the attack yet."

      There was an earsplitting scream, followed by a thump. Chantel gawked at the previous Kass minion as arrows whizzed past, followed by battle cries, zombified moans and the sounds of footsteps pounding on the dirt.

      The mysterious circlet around Chantel's head glowed dimly. Chantel peeked around the house, and saw Jeran and his fellow troops running from a few peasants. This amused her greatly. She gave a soft cackle. "Run far and run fast, Jeran. No matter where you go, my Lord Kass will find you."

      Double Agent stiffened suddenly. Something, no, someone was following them. Double Agent turned quickly at the sound of a soft laugh. She definitely had heard it; a playful giggle. It echoed through her mind, and the voice and the presence itself...

      "We'd best get out of here," Chantel interrupted abruptly, tugging at Double Agent's arm. The Zafara gave a nod, and the duo of maids headed back into the castle, to the Hall of Paintings.

      They were surprised to find Lord Kass there, staring at pictures of the many heroes, his arms folded and a scowl decorated on his face. He turned and gave an evil grin at Double Agent and Chantel, who seemed to give a sly grin. "Chantel, come."

      The Aisha obeyed. "Yes, my Lord?" she drawled in a singsong voice. Double Agent continued to puzzle at the Zafara wizardess.

      The new Citadel lord was surprised that the brat who had always devoted her loyalty to Darigan as the "true" lord had called him "my Lord". He smiled in satisfaction. Morguss' plan was working with that circlet. "Tell me, Chantel," he asked, waving a hand at the framed paintings. "So far, my fellow messengers, thanks to Double Agent and yourself, have brought back with me very much information about King Skarl and the castle's mood."

      "Yes, my Lord," Chantel replied, and grinned, clasping her paws behind her back. "Thanks to me, they are taking much information we need to know about that gluttonous oaf of a king and his pathetic army. Thanks to mother Morguss, the knights are afraid of those hypnotized peasants. Soon Meridell will be under your control."

      Kass turned back to the pictures, quite pleased with the news and how it was addressed. "And they have no idea they are being watched?" he added.

      Chantel sauntered back to her room, opening the door lightly. "None whatsoever, my Lord," she responded smoothly, and slipped in.

      Lord Kass began to daydream, and gave a snigger as he saw the child of Morguss leading the zombified peasants of Meridell against their own country. Reinforcements would not be low, he thought with glee.

      The Eyrie turned his attention on Double Agent, and glanced the painting of the wizardess. He gave a nervous chuckle. "A Meridell mage, Double Agent?" he coughed, sweat beginning to drip from his face. "How does that interest you at all?"

      Dead silence. "My Lord...I don't know how..." Double Agent sighed, then disappeared down the hall, her mind mixed in a world of confusion.

      Kass chuckled, and before leaving the castle, gave a triumphant grin to the painting. "So, Zora, she still doesn't recognize you after all those forgotten years, eh?" he jeered, and flew out the window.

      The aura Double Agent had sensed earlier wandered near the Zafara's painting, staring at Kass with hatred and sorrow burning in her blue eyes, until the warlord was no more than a speck, then wept silently in front of the picture.

      * * * * * * * *

     Instead of jokes, dances were held in Skarl's court for days. Chantel wore the simple dress she had worn for the first dance. Once again she repeated her dance steps, smiling innocently at everyone as they fell for her spell.

      Double Agent was also in the Court crowd, watching Chantel dance. It wasn't very surprising that Double Agent wasn't hypnotized; the Zafara's eyes were empty as a moonless black midnight. The blue Zafara Double Agent just stared at the Court Dancer as she twirled in circles. Some sixth sense told her as if...the familiar presence was waiting in the room, just waiting to surprise her.

      And then that "familiar presence" made her eyes flutter wide open and widen to the size of Weewoo eggs. Not only in the room was beautiful Brightvale stained glass in the court, but some gem-rimmed mirrors. And in the reflection of a nearby mirror she glimpsed...herself, but much more different. She became oblivious of the world around her as she stared into her reflection, but, that was not her. That wasn't at all and couldn't be her!

     This Zafara was very different. Her cheerful eyes held an innocent and forgotten childhood, and a smile that would cheer up a group of Tenna spread through her face. Double Agent gasped and slowly took a step back, hesitating. Instead of repeating the maneuver, the Zafara in the mirror giggled playfully and waved back.

      Double Agent felt faint and weak. Her legs felt like jelly, and for once full panic filled her body, causing her to shake with confused fear. She was so busy staring at the "other" agent she didn't notice Mistress Lisha Borodere finishing a very powerful spell. Screams erupted from the dancing Aisha, and finally the gypsy look faded away, the locks uncurled and messed up once again. Kayla held a bottle of her new potion, and Lisha and the Zafara dressed as a wizard slapped their palms high.

      Chantel's Darigan eyes of blazing red and cold green pupils showed hatred as she lifted her head to glare at Lisha, then gasped and turned to the King, who rubbed his eyes in confusion. No longer the breathtaking face of a gypsy Aisha, but the ashamed look of a Darigan Dancer. The dress seemed to tear, the red vest, torn crimson skirt, and wide-sleeved blouse, ribbons untied. The court echoed gasps and boos. "Guards, seize her!" King Skarl furiously roared, pointing a finger at the cursed Neopet. The mirror Zafara gasped and turned to Chantel's direction, slowly fading away as she ran to help her. This time the real Double Agent was staring at her real reflection.

      Draik Guards and an angry crowd began scattering all over the place. Realizing what just happened, Double Agent pushed and shoved the crowd away. She ran up to Chantel and yanked her arm. "Let's go," she told her "friend", and kicked open the doors.

      "Get the Zafara!" she heard King Skarl splutter. "She works for Kass as well!"

      The Double Agent turned around, dragging Chantel, who was shedding tears. Like a battering ram she knocked Meridellians and guests out of the way, running out of the court. The doors to Meridell were wide open. She ran out and slammed the doors right into two flying guard's faces. "Oww, my nose!" she heard one complain before she took off.

      * * * * * * * *

     Lord Kass stared in disbelief as he spotted Double Agent and that blasted child of Morguss' running. "Those cowardly idiots!" he ranted and raved angrily.

      Morguss scoffed as though it meant nothing to her. "My daughter is of no further use in this war," she said. "We still need that Double Agent, though."

      "Their fathers were great warriors in the Battle with Darigan," Lord Kass mused to himself.

      "Don't remind me-" Morguss snarled viciously at Lord Kass, her eyes flecked with vengeance as she lifted her hoof. The Eyrie, trying not to show his own cowardliness, pressed his beak against the Moehog's snout, caught her hoof and bared his teeth, growling.

      "I referred to Double Agent's, " he exclaimed with a growl. He continued to watch as the two maidens ran. "She was a half Meridellian, a half Darigan citizen. Her mother one of the many Meridell Magi, Zora, her father an excellent front Darigan Warrior, Darrell. And yet," -he chuckled evilly as he watched Double Agent run- "after all these years of endless pondering she still doesn't realize anything..."

      - TO BE CONTINUED... -