The Last Stradivari

By Kurt F. Kammeyer

In this short story, an archaeologist finds the greatest violin ever built - then she crosses paths with the greatest violinist of all time. Will she give her soul to him in exchange for his talent?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kurt F. Kammeyer
• Release date: Jul 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476230269

Kurt F. Kammeyer

Kurt's career has been in the aerospace software industry. He is the author of twenty-one books and short stories. Kurt speaks French and has studied Hebrew, Russian, Icelandic and Hindi as background for his series of otherworld books, "The Clan of the Stone". He has always had an interest in science fiction and space travel. Kurt lives with his wife and family, a cat and a dog in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Book preview

The Last Stradivari

A Musical Seduction

By

Kurt F. Kammeyer

Copyright 2015 Kurt F. Kammeyer

Smashwords Edition

License Notes

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Niccolò Paganini (1782—1840)

Suggested listening, 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

My thanks to Ammon Stotts, who helped me correct Paganini’s Italian accent.

This book is dedicated to my brother, Karl Kammeyer, who was a fine violin-maker in his own right.

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