Disclaimer: This story and its characters belong to me. Steal it and I’ll eat you.

Title: Veiled Annex

Rating/Warning(s): 18+ This story may/will contain explicit content, non-consensual situations, abuse, blood/gore – fighting, etc.

Summary: Kovia hated planet Laste, but when Korve soldiers invade, her only home ends up a memory... along with her grandfather who stood by their family code: "To preserve the family in death" by hiding away upon his 300th day of creation and refusing to leave even with the circumstances. Left with a necklace she cannot remove, and sent for the slave trade, Kovia never imagined her paths would cross with the youngest son of the Rykorve family - the ones who destroyed the only life she knew.

Sivausk never expected to live past the adult age of 11, let alone make it away from the Vacant System and his psychotic brother who had taken over the family crown. Leaving the birthplace of his haunted memories, he finds himself searching for something only rumors have deemed real. Alongside his comrade, Lestion Mortore, they soon discover it is not where they need to find, but a key… a key no appears to have heard of.

AUTHOR NOTES: THIS IS A NANOWRIMO 2008 NOVEL. Which means this novel is completely unedited and WILL contain spelling/grammar errors. Although I try to limit them while writing, just try and not be too aggravated when reading. Since this IS a Nano fic, updates will happen extremely frequently! ENJOY!!!

Veiled Annex

Chapter One

“Get out of my way!” A short man’s bald top skimmed under the young girls gaze as he pushed past. His head turned back and he looked at the child from toe to head. “No heired brat.”

Kovia narrowed her silver orbs as they grew warm with tears. An unpleasant jolt of depression washed over her at the familiar words. I wont cry.

“Come. We’ve no time to linger.” Foleby interjected. His tall frame towered his child companion, whose sea-green hair looked blue in his shadow. The men from the market were still following them he was certain. There were advantages to being a full-blooded Gorse – even if he was the last. If only he could see where the men were at.

The entrance to sector twelve was packed and Kovia gave a look to her guard. A handful of fruit stayed securely in her hand and she ignored the purple stain forming on her dusty vest.

“Wait.” Foleby spared a look through the eyes on the back of his skull, and through the gold strands he saw three of the market men running for them. They had been spotted. Quickly, he nodded to the child.

Kovia clenched her jaw and bolted towards the crowd. Carelessly, she pushed the bald man out of her way and weaved through the many sallow faces – few even looked her way. A gust of wind brushed her face and then muggy air crept through her nostrils. She’d made it into sector twelve, but her feet continued to move.

Shouts and yells pierced through the bustling noise and the child gasped. They’re going to catch me! Kovia looked to the ladder ahead and then to the Cliffside that dropped only thrice her height. She had no time to wait for the others to move out of the way and gripped the fruit tighter.

Kovia shivered and looked back once more. The men couldn’t see her, but the crowd was beginning to thin. Soon they’d have a clear shot of her. Let me make it again. The Cliffside neared and she leapt. No matter how many times she had jumped it worried her.

Thump!

The ground came beneath Kovia and she took a sharp breath and darted forward. No time to waste. Home is just ahead. I have to get there. Around a corner to a street of shops on either side, she came to a halt. It’s that man again! Her fingers dug into a soft piece of purple fruit. She’d never forget that crimson haired man and never his amber eyes that promised only pain. Not after he tried to sell her to the slave platforms weeks before.

Kovia shivered as he turned and she darted to the back of a booth. Her feet tore through the opening to the other side and she entered the next wooden booth the same.

As the man with broad shoulders became nearer, she swept behind a curtain and watched through the slit. He looked too wealthy to be wandering around the sectors – especially sector twelve. Only criminals and the most poor lived in this mold infested area. Why does he keep coming back here? I have to tell Foleby or Grandfather…

“Fykt ollo, ees ees!” A odd looking man shouted from behind Kovia.

The child turned and yelled as an electric shock coursed through her. The six legged man in a white apron yelled the same at her again and the stick in his hand glowed orange.

“Ees ees!”

Kovia lifted her lips in a snarl and pushed out of the curtain. Her feet bolted into a run and she barely had time to notice the crimson haired man was gone before her home came into view. Ow! Ow! My sides…! Tears pricked her eyes and she hurriedly wiped them away from her pale flesh. Grandfather would be angry if he saw her crying again.

Reaching the structure with large metal sheets as walls, Kovia lifted her hand to knock in repetition on the yellow door. She looked behind her quickly and hoped no one spotted her. The door made a clicking sound and Kovia felt relief as she pushed open the heavy entrance. Loudly, the door closed behind her and she gave a loud escape of breath. I’m safe.

“Kovia!”

Loud and deep, the voice made the child turn to the left. The young looking man, with many scars, stood with crossed arms. Kovia was not fooled by his blasé expression. No matter how young her grandfather looked… he followed the old ways and stealing was forbidden. “G-grandfather…”

“Where did you get those?” Tall and broad shouldered, the man looked less than threatening with his sea green hair cut neatly at his chin. It was his copper eyes that appeared amused, even with his lips curled in a frown. “Stealing again?” He stated and snatched a squished piece of fruit from beneath her arm. The small portion melted in his mouth. “I gave you gimmets to spend.”

A frown settled over Kovia’s countenance, much similar to the man before her. “You know they won’t let me buy any Grandfather. …If you’d just—“

“You know I cannot.” He snapped. The continued argument was irritating. When would she understand? “To preserve the family in death, I cannot leave this abode.”

“That’s what you always say!” Kovia yelled and stomped her foot. A piece of fruit fell to the floor and a few tears slipped down her cheeks. The floor was dirtier than the garbage heap she’d pulled that from. Kneeling down, she plucked it from the ground and wiped at her face. Crying was not allowed in this home.

“You must understand Kovia,” her grandfather continued. “It is a family responsibility to hide once we reach the age of three hundred. If anyone were to see us after that…”

The child filled her mouth with the dirty fruit and tensed as the backdoor opened and shut. A lecture was starting again, she was certain. “Foleby, you’re back!” Kovia glanced at the blood splatters on his bare chest and frowned. “You’re messy again.”

“Hn.”

“Any news?” Grandfather interjected.

Foleby nodded and answered promptly. “The Rykorve is back. He entered the Shellgore household when I reached the sector.”

“Rykorve?” Kovia scrunched her nose up. They were talking about that man she saw today again? “Isn’t that the ruler of the Vacant system?”

Both the men looked her way and Kovia bit her lip. Why were they looking at her like that? Grandfathers hand grabbed her upper arm and he suddenly looked scary. “G-grandfather?”

“How do you know of him?”

Foleby’s neck stretched several inches forward and he shifted his narrow head to look at the girl. He was very interested in knowing how she knew that. They had never mentioned specifics on the vile Rykorves before.

“I…”

“Now!” Grandfather snapped. “Tell me.”

Kovia dropped her eyes, she could hear the urgency in his voice. One she dared not disobey… bad things happened when his voice became like that. “That crimson haired guy… he – I mean, I, ran into him a few weeks ago.” She heard the intake of breath from her older relative and continued quieter. “He… he tried to sell me to the Zone traders.”

“Slave traders are back to Laste?” Grandfather let go and turned with a wave of his arm. “Again! I could have sworn King Gostenore swore to rid them of entry to planet Laste? Naïve I was to think he’d be better than his bastard brother!”

“I don’t like King Gosten,” Kovia added with a pout.

“Gostenore,” Foleby corrected.

Grandfather shifted his gaze back to his daughter’s child. “Do not speak that aloud.”

“Sorry Grandfather.”

A series of shouts permanented through the walls and Foleby leapt into action. He was to the door before either of the others had heard the following screams. “It’s begun,” he stated after opening a slate in the door. “Korve soldiers.”

The older man’s nostrils flared. “Look again.”

Foleby pursed his near invisible lips, the two gel like portions looking odd against his fuchsia complexion. “…As you wish.”

Grandfather moved to Kovia and kneeled down. He knew the answer, Foleby was never wrong. “Do you understand what is happening, Kovia? What this means?”

“No…” Kovia’s lip quivered. A loud scream echoed particularly close and she screamed. The sound muffled into the large hand that covered her mouth. Tears pricked her eyes again. She knew this was a bad day. “No; I won’t go without you!”

“Enough!” Grandfather took a sharp breath and searched her eyes. She had to understand this. “None of that. You have been through war before, Kovia. You must leave with Foleby. Do not look back!”

“No!” Tears swept her cheeks and the young girl clamped her eyes shut. She did not care if he hated her for crying. “I don’t want to leave you!”

“You will take this,” Grandfather declared and reached for the skin at his neck. He looked to the child’s guard – who had once been his own – and exchanged a look. “Promise me you will always keep this safe. Pass it on to your child when you are at the time for seclusion. Understood?”

A hiccup left the girl and she furrowed her eyebrows. Her grandfather was touching the bare skin around his neck, but nothing was there. “W-what are you talking about Grandfather?”

The old man pressed his forehead against hers and gripped at his neck. “Forgive me, Kovia.”

Kovia let out a yell and reached for her neck. “I’m choking!” Her fingers darted up and she clawed at the skin. What’s happening? “I can’t breathe!”

“Calm down child!” Grandfather shouted, much louder than he should have. His eyes were frantic for a moment and then settled. “Take a deep breath.” The girl kept shaking and clawing and he watched the guard grab her by the shoulders.

“Calm.”

Kovia went still. The touch of suctioned fingers always felt strange – the rare time that her guard ever did come in contact with her. “Fo-foleby?”

“Do as Chyvore instructed.”

The girl blinked and took a breath. In the moment of her startled response, the calmness that washed over her gave way for her to notice the easy breathing she had. “I… I can breathe!”

Grandfather took in a sharp breath and turned. His chest felt hot and he could see a scar begin to form on his palm. “Foleby, now!”

Kovia’s eyes went wide. Her eyesight had to be damaged! Something about her relative looked different. “Grandfather?”

“Take her off the planet. The Korve soldiers are too ruthless for a child.”

“What? No!”

“Do not argue and go! This is an order!”

Kovia’s lip quivered and she could barely see straight as Foleby grabbed her arm and pulled. The door scrapped against her arm as they left and a cloud of dirt mucked the view. People were screaming and the ground appeared bathed in puddles of blood. The smell was foul as they ran along an odd path, one even she had only found by accident a few years before. Why does Foleby always know where to go?

“Keep up.” Foleby ordered. As usual, his voice was not even near a yell or a commanding tone – just firm, as though he knew you had no choice but to do as he suggested. “There is a small vessel hidden in the woods. We will go there and leave. Do not fall behind.”

The girl felt uneasy as the man looked through the clear eye on the back of his head. Some day’s she wished she had more than two eyes too. Absently, she scratched at her neck. Grandfather… why couldn’t you come with?

“Two; through the fog!”

Kovia cursed. “They know we’re here!”

“That place you fond, near the lake… do you remember where it is?” Foleby interrupted.

Kovia swallowed hard. “Y-yeah. Yes, I remember!”

The guard pulled her farther up and shoved her through the small gape in the baracading wall they had been climbing a hill towards. “Go there now and take the ship! Do you remember how to fly?”

“I—but…”

Foleby kicked dirt towards the child and spun around to send an elbow into a Korve soldier. The man went down, but sprang up as another drew his sword. A small bead pegged Foleby in the shoulder and he lashed out with his leg towards the newcomer. He could feel the sickening crunch as the mans armor sliced right through him – cracking his ribs in the process as well.

“It’s a… a… Gorse!” A man from the first swing yelled.

Three Korve soldiers can from all directions.

“Severe his limbs! Their poisoned…” The Korve, bloody and dying on the ground forced out. An odd fume was lingering from where the Gorse had touched him.

The girl stood still. Her eyes were locked on the scene just several feet away and through the dust. A man sent the sword forward and an odd ooze burst in the air. Foleby’s blood… Kovia’s shiver took her from her trance and she turned and bolted. She had to get to that ship! If she got it in the air, she could save Grandfather and Foleby, couldn’t she? There were weapons on the ship, she bet!

“Not so fast, little no heired.”

Kovia didn’t even have a chance to scream. An electrocuting rod pressed to her back and every muscle in her small body tensed. Pain rippled through every nerve and she could feel blood dripping from her nose.

That silky voice came again and Kovia again was reminded of whom that voice belonged too.

“So good to see you again,” the crimson haired man chuckled humorlessly. His hand released the child’s hair and he removed the rod from her back.

Kovia gasped for breath as his boot pressed to the middle of her back. When did I get on the ground?

“You three!” The man yelled furiously. “Take this to the Zone traders.”

“I can do so, sir Blysk!” One of the three answered.

Blysk narrowed his eyes. “Do not question my orders. All of you, take her there now! Do not leave her there without chains, understood?” At their nods, he looked down at the child once more and snorted. “A waste of time to bother with you. I’ll assume my brother has some reason to this foolishness.” With a quick turn, he swept away.

Kovia’s gaze went black.

To Be Continued…

Author’s Note(s): Hope you enjoyed chapter one. It has been a while since I have had a chance to write much, so I hope it is not too terrible. ^__^