Kayleigh

Kayleigh (d. 9 September, 1267) was one of the members of the Rats.^[2]

Biography

Early life

He was the adopted son of the castellan in Ebbing. When he was sixteen in 1265, the castle where he used to live, was besieged by the Nilfgaardian Army by order of Emhyr var Emreis, the emperor of Nilfgaard, in order to suppress a uprising in Ebbing. He woke up in the burning castle, among the bodies of his adopted parents and siblings. He then found Reef, a same-aged Nilfgaardian soldier of whose mates left him because of his injuries. Instead of finishing him off however, Kayleigh helped and healed him. The two recovered and joined forces, later killing and robbing a tax collector, only to scatter the stolen money around the village for its residents, meanwhile laughing their heads off. Together, they ran from the Nissir and Nilfgaardian patrols.^[3]

Likely around 1266,^[4] they met Giselher, Iskra, Asse and Mistle during the holiday of Lammas and formed a gang. Originally the law ignored the Rats, believing the group would soon fall victim to the usual methods that wiped out other gangs: be killed by a mob of peasants or fight each other over loot. However, the Rats were different in that they didn't kill for the goods, they killed for entertainment and thus handed out the goods to the poor citizens in the area, which also made it harder for troops to track them, as the citizens would give false information on the Rats' whereabouts and even shelter them on occasion. The Nilfgaardian prefects then tried to offer generous rewards on the Rats, but any informers had their cottage set on fire and were summarily killed by the gang when they tried to escape the burning building. Trying another route, the prefects tried to plant moles, but the group despised outsiders and refused to accept anyone else.^[3]

Meeting Ciri

This changed however, in July 1267, after a bounty was posted for the gang, Kayleigh was solely captured by the Nissir on the orders of Baron Lutz of Tyffi while he was away from the gang meeting his girlfriend in New Forge. While travelling to the city for Kayleigh's execution, they stopped at the inn in Glyswen, where they met the Trappers, a fellow gang who had captured Ciri. As the prefect of Amarillo had also offered a reward for the Rats, the leader of the Trappers Skomlik suggested they let the angry villagers execute Kayleigh, though Vercta reiterated the thirty floren reward for his head awaiting them in Tyffi.

After he convinced Ciri to get a knife off the innkeeper to free them from their restraints, the Rats attacked the inn, killing everyone save Kayleigh and Ciri. After a lot of back and forth amongst the members, where Mistle stood up for Ciri while others, like Iskra, only saw Ciri as a mere child, the group decided to welcome Ciri into their fold and lavished her with gifts and asked for her name, who hadn't revealed it yet. Ciri decided on the elder word "Gvalcha'ca", meaning "falcon" and thus the group called her "Falka" (another variation of the word). Later that night, he attempted to rape Ciri, but was chased away by Mistle who took over where he left off.^[3]

Death

On September 9th, he, along with the rest of the original gang, went to Jealousy to confront Leo Bonhart, a legendary bounty hunter that'd been asked to deal with the Rats. However, their overconfidence led to the gang's downfall and all of them were subsequently killed and beheaded by Bonhart, save for Ciri as Bonhart had a separate, special contract on her. Kayleigh's decapitated body was then buried in Jealousy with the rest.^[2]

Appearance and personality

He was slim and stiff, with long, tousled, straw-blond hair reaching to his shoulders. His face was angular, attractive but menacing, his eyes a mad green, and his mouth was usually twisted into a nasty grimace. He wore earrings and had a snake tattoo, dressing usually in a black calf skin with silver accents.^[3][5]

References