wrath of the Sea Queen

Wrath of the Sea Queen

Written By:

Cynthia Woods

Wrath of the Sea Queen
is a work of fiction.  Characters, names, places, and events are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places, or events is entirely coincidental.

Copyright ©
June
2012
Cynthia Woods. 

All rights reserved.

ISBN  978-0-9837798-
9-6

Printed in the United States of America

************

Other books in this
series

 
   The Book of Elements
-
August 2011

    
Wrath of the Sea Queen
-
June
2012

 
   Plague of Heritage
-
Coming soon

www.WoodsBookshelf.com

CHAPTER 1

It was
a few minutes
after nine
,
according to the big clock on the wall
. 
Ben
made his way to the
bottom of the escalator
with his
hands
deep
in
his jacket
pockets to warm
them
after
having just stepped inside from the chill of
the
morning
air
. 
The
l
ast
two days
had been
marked by
frequent
rain showers
.  The clouds o
utside
were beginning to let the sun
's rays
poke
their
way through, but
there was
very
little warmth
yet
to be found
yet
o
n the
cool,
s
pring
day
.

Ben
stood waiting patiently for the lady he was supposed to meet. 
Being
six f
ee
t
tall
made it relatively easy for
him
to see above the majority of people walking through the
airport
terminal. 
He
was
a
stand
in
for
C
a
eli
's husband, who
had been
called away an hour earlier by a panicky client
regarding an urgent computer issue
.  Although it irked
the
devoted husband
not to be able to pick
up
his wife
personally
,
his
client
had been
near hysterics
.  After
detecting
an edge of fear in the woman's
voice
,
Ben's
friend
finally agreed to
make
the trip out
to
the client's
house
to
help
her
. 
Therefore,
with regret,
h
e sent Ben to the airport
to pick up
his wife
. 
Ben watched for her now in the most recent crowd of arriving passengers.  According to the a
rrival
board, this group included her flight.

"
Uncle Ben!
"
 
A
delighted voice called from midway down the escalator.

When she reached the bottom,
a
thin, brown-haired lady, dressed in simple blue jeans and a jade blouse, rushed over and threw her arms around the older man, smil
ing
up at him.  Her demeanor was
most often
happy, even bubbly
, and Ben was
always
pleased
to see her
smiling face
. 
C
a
eli
look
ed
at the world through the eyes of an optimist. 
H
ow she
managed to do so
, after everything she had been through
in her life
, Ben did
n
o
t know
;
yet he
greatly
admired that quality
in
her
.

His new t
itle
was her idea
, too. 
She insisted on it. 
C
a
eli
had
routinely
call
ed
him Uncle for
the past
three months and seemed to take great
pleasure
in it.  Ben had to admit
that
he enjoyed being included in her family
,
even
though
they weren't related by blood
. 
Ben cared for her as he would
a member of
his own
family. 
He also
found the title endearing and
did
n
o
t discourage
its
use
.

"
Hello, C
a
eli. 
I'm so glad to see you! 
How was your trip?
"

"
It was fine
.  I'm definitely glad to be home though
.
"

"
Vin said you
've been
sick
, and I understand that you don't get sick very often.  So i
s
this
just a cold or should I be
worr
ied
?
  I couldn't tell from Vin's description.  It was a blurred mixture of his worry and missing you.  But, you do look a bit pale.
"

Ben followed her as she began walking toward the baggage carousel.
  He noted that, although she seemed happy, C
a
eli did look a bit
haggard
.  Perhaps she was still recovering.

"
I have missed
Vin
, too
.  I've been homesick more than you can imagine
.  But
,
this other sickness has
nothing
to do with that.  It's just
a bad case of allergies
from the climate change, I think
.  The trip
was
all right
.  I enjoyed the class
es,
and it was nice to visit with Lara again.  We almost never see each other
since she went back to nursing fulltime
.  We only
communicate
by email or the occasional phone call. 
Since she only does graphic work on a contract basis
now
, we don't really have much in common anymore.  She only attended th
is
conference in order to keep her
design
certification up to date.
"

"Well, people do change over the years.  She has to do what makes her happy.  How did you like the city?" Ben asked when
C
a
eli
paused.

"
Manhattan
i
s
incredibly
hectic.  It's very crowded and
entirely too
noisy
for my taste
.  I can't say that I
wi
ll miss
any of that
.  Besides, two weeks is a long time to be away from home.  Friday couldn't get here
fast
enough.  I got to the airport three and a half hours early this morning
. 
I was so
eager
to come home that I
simply
couldn't sleep.  Don't take this wrong,
Uncle
Ben
; i
t
i
s really good to see you, but I was expecting Vin. 
I ha
d
a
wonderful
surprise
planned
for him. 
Now I'll have to rethink it. 
Why
didn't he come to pick me up
?  Is everything all right?
"
  C
a
eli finally took a
nother
breath.  She was definitely excited
. 
Normally, she did
n
o
t have quite so much to say, at least, not all at once.  It was a trait Ben discovered that she and
her aunt
Salma shared.

"
Yes,
everything is
fine. 
Vin
got tied up with a client and most humbly begs
his wife's
forgiveness,
"
Ben smiled as he improvised, knowing Vin probably wouldn't use those exact words
, but the
sentiment
was valid
. 
C
a
eli laughed at Ben's jest.

"
Vin sent me as a poor substitute to welcome you
home
to civilization.  He did ask me to give you this.
"

Ben reached inside his jacket and pulled out a single, long stemmed rose.  It was
no
ordinary rose.  The sapphire blue color of the bud sparkled in the morning sunlight.  It was
from
a
uniquely
-
color
ed rosebush that
C
a
eli stumbled across
at a garden show a few years earlier
and
now
had
sev
eral bushes
of them
in front of
the
ir
house.  Ben handed her the rose and leaned over to give her a quick peck on the cheek.