Thalonn Tayn

3 - About Gaylodho and His Kin

There was a boy called Gaydeno. He was Gaylodho's nephew, being the son of his sister, Gaydea. Gaydeno was born in a town called Errendenn in Syamlavol, where Gaydea had been forced to set aside the fight against the Mawks and see her pregnancy through. Shortly after Gaydeno was born, the king besieged the town, for Kolveno Seymaronnan, the Earl of Syamlavol, had taken up residence there. This was in the final stretch of the war, when all seemed most hopeless (because, by and large, it was). Gaydea's friends urged her to flee with her son before the king trapped them in the town, but she refused to go.

'I will not abandon my cause,' she said. 'I would prefer this boy's mother to be among the glorious dead, than to live long in cowardice.'

This was misguided, but Gaydea was of headstrong stock. She was not easily parted from her intentions. She thusly said, if her alleged friends were so concerned for Gaydeno, they should take him themselves, and thereby forsake their own honour, rather than seeking to damage hers. This they did. A handful of her companions fled Errendenn, Gaydeno among them, and survived the attack. That was how many babies were raised in Norlonn at that time. They brought Gaydeno to Bealnew, where he was raised in the household of his grandmother, Gaydola. Gaydea, meanwhile, stood fast at Errendenn alongside her dear friend Oyllovo, Gaydeno's father. They both died in the fighting, as did Kolveno the earl.

Gaydeno spent most of his childhood at Bealnew. While he was there, Gaylodho came up to make himself the earl. This was after the Norlans were firmly—if unwillingly—subject to the king's tribute. He bought himself a strapping pack of followers and toured the earldom to gather support among the magnates by slandering the kingship and making lofty promises and the like. Together they summoned an assembly at Bealnew, and there Gaylodho challenged the incumbent earl, Yolfredha Rollayvonnan, to stand with him before their peers and contest the earldom. They each stated their cases, and after some discussion and many threats, the magnates elected Gaylodho, and he took the earldom.

During his time as the earl, Gaylodho married his second wife, Meola Ravonnan, who also happened to be his second cousin. Gaylodho's first wife was a woman called Balkena Olvelonnan, who was once known in Klagenn as Balkena the Eloquent, for she was an eager and impassioned poet. This is one of her most famous verses:

This blackest cave is dank and dark, yet even so does this man hark. He'll row his boat along the stream, e'er guided blind by but his dream into the gloom, to find that chest where, deep within, his wants all rest. And then at last, with sated sighs, he'll find his prize when waters rise, and out he rows into the light, to leave behind the cave's long night. Yet never will he turn his face to see again that plundered place.

Gaylodho had only one child by Balkena, and she died shortly after the birth. He was a son called Gaymono, and he was thirteen when Gaylodho became the earl. Gaylodho had his second son, named Kolbeo, with Meola at Bealnew. He was born some twenty years after Gaymono, and he would become just as capable as his brother, albeit much more deceitful and violent.

Otherwise, Gaylodho's time in the earldom was not of particular note. While he was by no means a poor earl, his brash and unmoving manner did little to inspire long-standing confidence. Several potential rivals presented themselves. Foremost among them was a certain fellow called Enmodo Enswelannan. He was broadly in favour of appeasing the king for—the war now lost—he thought the Eylans would get more out of his friendship than his wrath, and he quickly accrued rather stauncher backing than Gaylodho would like. Then, after some eight years as the earl, Gaylodho thought a challenge for the earldom was imminent. He had fended off three before, but Enmodo posed a far greater threat, and one that required intervention.

So did Gaylodho arrange to settle his rivalry with Enmodo by offering a mutually beneficial resolution. They agreed to meet one evening on a hill called Fnoytovl, which was in the countryside near Bealnew, where the woodland spirits would bear witness to any arrangement they might agree. But when Gaylodho came to the meeting spot, he did not put up his hand in friendship. Instead, that treacherous man offered his welcome in the shape of a rock, thrown with deadly intent, and it struck Enmodo's head with such force that it knocked him out cold. But this did not kill him, and so Gaylodho took up the rock and finalised their deal by bludgeoning Enmodo's head until the poor fellow was thoroughly snuffed.

To disguise the killing, Gaylodho turned the body over so Enmodo was lying prone, placed the rock beneath his head and a stick at his feet, and then laughed, so chuffed by his cunning. Yet he soon found he had not considered every eventuality, for Gaydeno, Gaylodho's young nephew, happened to have followed him to Fnoytovl and witnessed every detail of the murder. While there were to be no witnesses, Gaylodho was unwilling to murder his little kinsman. He marched him straight back to Bealnew and sent him off to Klagenn the same day, before he could say anything to anyone.

Despite these efforts, Gaylodho was accused of murdering Enmodo the moment the body was discovered. Enmodo's relatives tried to bring a lawsuit against him, but this came to nothing. They could not find sufficient evidence to indict the sitting earl, and when they consulted the trees of Fnoytovl for their testimony, the tricky things had nothing much to say. Thus, Gaylodho faced no formal penalty for the killing of Enmodo, even though everyone agreed he had performed it.

The damage was already done, however, and things still went poorly thereafter. The murder of Enmodo earnt Gaylodho far more distrust than he had anticipated, and another of his prominent rivals, a woman called Beyla, came forth seeking the earldom in the following year. Beyla loathed the king as much as Gaylodho did, but she was ever more pragmatic about things. When the matter was brought before the magnates, they backed Beyla, and she took the earldom. Many said she would be in every way the better earl, and Gaylodho did not forget it. He stayed at Bealnew for a fair while longer, trying to reclaim both his honour and the favour of his former friends, but neither was forthcoming.