‘That false vision you put up to pretend you weren’t here,’ I said. ‘How many times have you done that?’
Helikaon poked at the fire with a stick, held a leathery hand near the water to test the heat.
‘I’ll be more specific,’ I said. ‘The times I’ve been in trouble and I’ve come looking for you for help. How many times did you see me coming and avoid me?’
‘Couple.’
‘A couple?’
‘What d’you want, an apology? I’m not your mother.’
‘What I want is for you to teach me the trick.’
Helikaon didn’t answer. He checked the water temperature again, then put some more sticks on the fire. Then he checked the water a third time. Only then did he sit back.
‘Both how to do it and how to counter it,’ I added.
Helikaon nodded, then looked me right in the eyes. ‘You want to kill Drakh.’
I was silent.
‘You can stop pretending, boy,’ Helikaon said. ‘That spell’s damn near useless. Only thing it’s good for – the only thing – is against another diviner. Well, you’re not after me, or you wouldn’t be sitting there. Who’s that leave?’
‘Killing Richard is not my primary objective,’ I told him.
Helikaon snorted.
‘Believe me or don’t,’ I said. ‘Are you going to help?’
‘And if I say no?’
‘I would prefer that you didn’t.’
‘Prefer,’ Helikaon said cynically. ‘What happened to that nice mild-mannered apprentice I used to have?’
‘Turns out he was never all that nice.’
Helikaon grunted. ‘Took you long enough to figure that out.’
‘Look,’ I said. ‘I know you don’t like getting involved in these things. But right now, if you want me to go away and leave you in peace, the easiest way to do it is to teach me what I need to know.’
Helikaon waved a hand. ‘All right, all right. Shut up and I’ll tell you what you want to hear. But I’m warning you, you won’t like it.’
I nodded and settled back onto the stone.
‘All right,’ Helikaon said again. ‘You’ll need a channelling focus. Doesn’t matter much what kind, long as it’s material-effective. Anything that’s not divination or sensory.’
I thought of the fateweaver replacing my hand. ‘I’ve got something that’ll work.’
‘Next step. Look at the futures you’re going to be replacing. Pick a set. Once you’re ready, channel through that focus, but do it in your future sight.’
I tried doing as Helikaon said. It was difficult. I’ve spent my life seeing the futures ahead of me as a passive thing, something to watch, not something to change. But my use of the fateweaver had already shifted my ways of thinking. I tried again . . .
Huh. Blurry light, connected to my thoughts, spread over the glowing lines of the futures. I studied it with interest.
‘Not over the futures,’ Helikaon said. ‘If you’re sculpting an optasia, do it over a null area, then transpose it.’
I switched my view to null futures. That was better. Now anything I did stood out clearly against the void.
I’d already decided what I’d try. For a first attempt, I’d project a future of a man arriving here on the mountaintop. I channelled through the fateweaver and light spread through the void, like sparkling paint squeezed from tubes. I tried to sculpt it.
It was harder than I’d expected. Actually, much harder. The threads of magic responded to my thoughts, and I could make them take the form of a ghost-future, shadowy and ethereal, with no more effort than it took to think. But what I was trying to create wasn’t a two-dimensional image, or even a three-dimensional one. It was four-dimensional, sight and sound shifting through time, and as I tried to adjust some parts others would fuzz and fade. Over and over again I’d try to perfect the image, and each time my own clumsy efforts would disrupt it. At last I gave up on my original plan and cut out most of the movement and branching futures, leaving only the image of a man standing there. Even then, actually transposing it caused its own problems – when I tried to layer it over the existing futures they didn’t mesh, and I had to make more corrections. At last I decided it was as good as it was going to get. I looked up at Helikaon. ‘Like that?’
Helikaon had sat patiently the whole time. ‘You’ve got the idea,’ he said.
‘Is it good enough to pass muster?’ I said. ‘Not much point me putting up a false vision if you can tell it’s fake.’
Helikaon nodded agreeably.
‘So what does it look like?’
‘Well, let’s see,’ Helikaon said. ‘Hard to really describe these things, you know?’
‘Just tell me.’
‘I know,’ Helikaon said as if the idea had just struck him. ‘How about a visual aid?’ He poked around on the ground before picking out a flat-sided rock. ‘Optasia is like art, you know? A really good one, that’s like the work of an Old Master. Every detail perfect.’ He took a sharp-edged pebble and began to scratch at the rock in his hand. ‘One-of-a-kind. Won’t even be seen most times, but that doesn’t matter. All about the craft.’
‘Richard Drakh’s one of your Old Masters, then.’
Helikaon nodded. ‘Been a while since I saw his work. That image you were going for, man coming up behind me? Drakh was doing it, you could pick out the hairs on his head. Man’d look so familiar, it’d be like you’d seen him before.’
‘So what does mine look like?’
In answer, Helikaon turned the rock around. Scratched onto the flat surface was a crude stick figure with a circle for the head. He raised his eyebrows at me.
‘So I’m guessing it’s not going to fool anyone.’
‘Oh, I dunno, let’s ask him.’ Helikaon waggled the rock in his hand, talking at me out of the side of his mouth in a high-pitched squeaky voice. ‘“Sure thing, Master Helikaon, sir! I’m a real boy! Just look at me!”’
‘Going to take that as a “no”.’
Helikaon waved the rock. ‘“Why howdy, Mister Verus! You sure are a big shot to make something like me! Why, I bet no one’s gonna notice a thing!”’
‘Okay, how do I improve it?’
‘“Improve? Why gosh darnit, there’s nothing to improve! Just look at how—” ’
‘Please stop.’
Helikaon tossed the rock to the ground with a clatter. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘It sucks. How do I make it not suck?’
‘Six months’ practice,’ Helikaon said, thankfully going back to his normal voice. ‘Year if you want to get good.’
‘That’s a little more time than I have.’
‘How long do you have?’
‘About half a day.’
‘Then you’re going to suck,’ Helikaon said with finality.
I grimaced.
‘Told you you weren’t going to like it.’
The realistic part of me wasn’t surprised. Learning new spells is a slow business. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘How do I spot fake futures?’
‘Same way you spot a forgery,’ Helikaon said. ‘Know what to look for and practise a lot.’
‘And is that also going to take months?’
Helikaon grinned at me with a certain sadism. ‘Few weeks.’
I sighed, then rubbed the bridge of my nose.
‘And that’s why doing this shit is dumb,’ Helikaon said. ‘How many years you think Drakh’s been doing this? Hm? How many other mages he’s gone up against? ’Course he’s going to be better than you. Yeah, you can dance around, look for an angle. Wait for him to make a mistake. And maybe he will. Or maybe it’ll be you.’ Helikaon spread his hands. ‘Why risk it?’
I started to answer, then paused. ‘Why did you take me on?’