Chapter Five: Between Four Hands

Xingyao sat. Moisture beaded beneath the raised lid and traced five staff lines through the grain. The upper part from the fragment behind the mirror appeared in water. Her shoulders tightened. The second movement must never be played alone. Without asking permission, Shen Yan sat beside her and set his hands over the lower register. "Four hands are not in the rules," Chongshan said. "A blank page isn't an assigned piece." The old man studied him, then smiled. "Qinghe also liked exploiting the wording." Xingyao began. The melody was a thin thread feeling its way through darkness. Instead of accompanying the printed part, Shen Yan used the bass line of *The Returning Tide* to ask: *Whom do you trust?* She modulated into the dominant: