BETRAYAL
Urghor and the few Malapiccas managed to escape, leaving Tancredi to his fate.
They obeyed Tancredi's last order with a heavy heart, running towards the harbor with a guilty conscience. Luckily, the Triumphant Boar was still docked there, despite being surrounded by Bluecoats. Urghor led the Malapiccas to the charge, managing to open a bloody passage between the ranks of the Second Government soldiers. The Orc and his fellow comrades succeeded in taking back the legendary galleon and, defying the barrage that rained down on them from the dock, set sail to get away from Pamplona.
Once offshore, the Malapiccas looked back at the island, now covered in smoke and fire. There, they abandoned their commander.
PUBLIC EXECUTION
Pursued by the Bluecoat Navy, the Malapiccas fled for days before finding a safe harbor to dock in. The arrest warrant on their heads, and probably a rich reward promised to any bounty hunter in the Central Sea, contributed to making life extremely dangerous for the group now temporarily led by the Orc.
The Malapiccas escaped from many ambushes and attacks, they couldn't stay in the same place for long before having to fight for their own lives.
Ducón and the Second Government put the blame on Tancredi and his soldiers, concerning the massacre at Pamplona and, basically, the whole world wanted them to die.
Three months after their escape from Pamplona, all the newspapers announced shocking news: the public Execution of Tancredi Malapicca, in New Rome.
It was clearly a trap organized to gather all the remaining Malapiccas in one place, but Urghor couldn't help but smile.
So their commander was still alive!
RETURN TO GRANADA
New Rome is the heart of the Second Government. One of the biggest and most populated islands of the Open Sea, the capital of the most ambitious nation of Inneath is not an easy target to aim to. Just imagine landing on its shores and trying to free the most wanted living being in the whole Inneath from a public execution was pure madness but Urghor and the few Malapiccas who survived would prefer to die in the attempt than abandon their commander to his fate. Again.
Despite their almost suicidal purposes, the last Malapiccas were not fools: they knew that the Second Government not only was prepared for their raid, in fact the whole execution was made to flush them out. In order to have at least an infinitesimal drop of hope, they had to carefully plan their moves, and sail the Open Sea aboard the Triumphant Boar would have been the best way to end their quest before it even had begun.
There was a single place in Inneath in which to hide their galleon, an island that Urghor knew well: Granada.
Urghor came back to Granada not how he always imagined: he thought he would have returned to that land as a triumphant commander, but instead, he was the same desperate Orc that left Granada years before.
Granada was a kind of outlawed free port, and there Urghor had still a big number of old friends and allies. Urghor was surprised to see that, after all that time, the Jackals of Granada were not only still a thing, but they also gained a lot of influence over the island: the Orc was hailed as a legend by the outcasts of Granada.
The Malapiccas managed to hide the Triumphant Boar and, after having bought a new ship, sailed once again towards the Open Sea. Destination: New Rome.
MALAPICCAS HEIRS
On the day of execution, Piazza Borghese was crowded like never before. Thousands of citizens abandoned their daily life to see Tancredi Malapicca's doom.
Among the audience there were, in disguise, Urghor and the last Malapiccas. Their plan was simple: once Tancredi was escorted to the gallows, they would have exploded smoke bombs to generate panic in the crowd. With a bit of luck, they would have taken advantage of the following confusion to get close to Tancredi.
The scaffold was placed at the center of Piazza Borghese, fully surrounded by armed soldiers, the execution was scheduled for noon.
At the scheduled time, the drums started to roar, the crowd fell into silence: the execution had begun.
The Malapiccas prepared the fuses, waiting for the moment when Tancredi would appear. But nobody came out to cross Piazza Borghese.
Instead, at noon sharp, a small group of soldiers looked out of the nearby Tower of Miracles. Among them, there was an enchained Tancredi.
Immediately after, all the ways of entrance to the square had been locked by garrisons of Redcoats, quickly gathered in a few moments.
The trap was revealed and the Malapiccas had been fooled once again.
Powerless, Urghor and his comrades couldn't help but watch in silence, from the distance, the execution of their commander. Once again, they failed him.
What Urghor couldn't know, that day, was that among the crowd there was another viewer brought there not because of morbid curiosity: a young girl looked silently at the execution of Tancredi.
Galatea Malapicca.
