The Last Stradivari
A Musical Seduction
By
Kurt F. Kammeyer
Copyright 2012 Kurt F. Kammeyer
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Suggested listening material, while you are reading this book:
Paganini, 24 Caprices Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrchjeGmMH4&feature=related
Paganini, 24 Caprices Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67y1bkjpkqA&feature=watch_response_rev
Like this book? You can see more of Kurt's books at:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/207872
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The Last Stradivari
Manisha set down her flute and sighed.
"This music is so difficult... and so cold and uninteresting," she said as she studied her score to the Raga on the Fifth Tone. It was one of her teachers' most famous compositions, and she was determined to master it. The complex rhythms and racing pentatonic scales constantly tripped up her fingers as she struggled with her five-hole flute.
"There are only five little notes in the scale - how hard can it be?" she muttered to herself. "Five sacred tones, five vowels in the alphabet, five gods in the heavens... a lot of help they all are..."
As a student, Manisha had just two passions in life: music, and archaeology. That left very little time for relationships with men. Still, she practically worshipped her mentor, Master Devak, the chief archaeologist on the massive Aksaphortha dig.
Manisha was a generation younger than Devak and had nearly completed her apprenticeship to him. She was slender, dark-haired and considered herself quite attractive, as if that really mattered to a confirmed bachelor like Devak - but she knew that it didn't, and that was perfectly fine with her.
She glanced out the window of her loft and estimated that it was almost noon. She put her flute away and headed out the door.
Time to change hats, she thought. In the morning, music - in the afternoon, archaeology.
As Manisha reached the outskirts of Aksaphortha, she gazed at the vast archaeological dig before her. Recently she and Devak had begun working on their most important dig yet - the ruins of a museum situated near the center of the ancient town. Like most of the ancient public buildings, the walls of the museum had collapsed in on themselves, as if an immense giant's foot had suddenly crushed them. Devak often told Manisha that he was at a loss as to what could have caused so much destruction so quickly, so long ago. However, he was hopeful that within the rubble, treasures still awaited them.
Devak noticed her approaching.
"Ah, Manisha, come! We have made great progress!" he said, as he led her down a dirt ramp to the basement level of the museum. "I am hopeful that at this level, the walls and floors will not have collapsed entirely and destroyed whatever artifacts may still be entombed here. So far, the evidence is in our favor."
A large section of the foundation wall of the museum had been uncovered, and near one end of the trench a small doorway was now exposed. The door consisted of a solid iron frame crisscrossed with heavy bars. Devak looked at the solid door and remarked,
"It would appear that the Ancients did not want thieves coming through here and stealing their treasures... What would you suggest, my apprentice?"
