Appassionato [antikvár]

IN THE BEGINNINGHe was seven years old. His father had died. Confused by death's mysteries, he wandered off by himself to sort out the confusion in his mind. Standing at the edge of the broken clay floor at the Temple of Cats, above Montegatta, he stood gazing down at the scattering of villages strung together like broken and nmted rows of teeth, spilled along the limestone slopes of the majestic mountains.Flushed and elated at the new secret hiding place he had discovered earlier, he marveled at how an enormous stone between two pillars had moved easily for him, as if a power, not his, had induced it to budge and reveal an opening to an inner grotto. Inside the cool, mysteriously compelling cave, he had stared wondrously at the strange signs carved into the walls. And when voices, whispering and tunneled, rushed at him in a language he didn't understand, he had gazed about in awe, but he hadn't been frightened. He had made a vow to keep this place as his very own secret hiding place; not even to Vincenzo would he confide the discovery of such a place. He had left the grotto, replacing the stone with equal ease, still baffled that he could move such a stone. It was incredible.Now, as he glanced at the valley below, it seemed to change before his eyes. Windswept plains no longer contained villages as he knew them. Ancient temples and edifices of another century, with marketplaces and bazaars, replaced the former scene. There came a distant sound of trumpets, a call to arms. He searched everywhere for the source of the sounds. In the distance came a charge of horses; legions of men on horseback converged from all directions like a splendid pageant of antiquity. Chiefs and subchiefs in scant, colorful dress, with breastplates, armor, and shields that glittered in the blinding sunlight; gaily dressed horses with bright feathers and gleaming bridle regalia; standard-bearers, with vivid banners waving in the wind, rode swiftly alongside the vast armies of Greeks, Carthaginians, and Roman soldiers, coming together as one force. Just as quickly, the rattling of wheels, clatter of1