At a time like this, all you had to do was shout, "Loyalty!"

"We're a little late. Sorry about that, but we made it in time after all."

Hogg's operation hadn't gone as smoothly as planned.

Disguised as a soldier from the Broken Fang Clan, he'd raced toward the holy site and clashed with the warriors guarding it. But Hogg had been lucky: just as he was about to be surrounded and wiped out, his long-awaited reinforcements finally arrived.

A massive pair of blood-red wings unfurled in the bleak, eerie night. Then, at Murphy's gentle voice, Lady Triss, goddess-like, swept a dazzling storm of lightning across the barren wilderness beneath the ridge.

That had been so cool.

Especially when handsome Murphy landed at just the right moment, against the backdrop of the thunderstorm Triss had raised. His entrance had all the grim, imposing flair of Batman's.

Triss had held back, knocking out the fierce gnoll guards nearby without taking their lives. After all, once Hogg opened the holy site, the Broken Fang Clan, descendants of the "Keepers of Secrets," would become potential allies of the Direwolf Army. It would hardly be very tactful to sour relations with them now.

Hogg excitedly jumped off his dire wolf and hurried forward. Nanaak watched him with faint disdain, gripping a bone knife and keeping a wary eye on what lay ahead. Hogg knelt before Murphy, who had descended from the sky, in a textbook pose of fealty.

The lord nodded and kindly helped his servant to his feet. Then he glanced at Nanaak, who was guarded by several elite members of the Blackeye Clan, and asked softly:

"Is this her?"

"Yes. Nanaak Blackeye, my lord. Hugsun's lover and the mother of his child."

Hogg lowered his voice:

"As long as she's in your hands, the Chosen Warlord will always be distracted when making decisions. I brought